2018 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
Professor Linda Elrod, BA '69, JD '72
Linda Elrod is the Richard S. Righter Distinguished Professor of Law and director of the Washburn University School of Law Children and Family Law Center. She was chair of the American Bar Association Section of Family Law in 2000-2001 and on its council from 1988-2016. She was editor-in-chief of the Family Law Quarterly from 1992-2016, giving Washburn students an opportunity to work on the publication.
Elrod chaired the committee that drafted the ABA "Standards of Practice for Lawyers Who Represent Children in Abuse and Neglect Cases." She founded the family law section of the Kansas Bar Association and was its first chair. Elrod wrote Kansas Family Law Handbook, the original two volume treatise on Kansas family law, in 1983. She just finished the 2018 edition, which is regularly cited by Kansas appellate courts. She served on the Kansas Child Support Guidelines Advisory Committee from 1984-2016. Elrod wrote Child Custody Practice and Procedure and co-authored a textbook on family law. She has served on the United States Department of State Advisory Committee on Private International Law since 2009. In 2011, she was a Fulbright Senior Specialist to the Dublin Institute of Technology law department. Elrod has been on the Uniform Law Commission Joint Editorial Board for Uniform Family Law since 1998 and has been reporter since 2016. She was also the reporter for the Family Law Arbitration Act (2016) and the Child Abduction Prevention Act (2007). In 2000, she coordinated an international, interdisciplinary think tank on "High Conflict Custody Cases – Reforming the System for Children." Many of the suggestions from that conference have been implemented across the United States and Canada.
Jim Sloan, BA '50, JD '52, H '09
After law school, Jim Sloan joined the law firm of Sloan, Hamilton & Sloan (now Sloan, Eisenbarth, Glassman, McEntire & Jarboe, L.L.C.), where he was a partner from 1955 until his retirement in 2008. He served as assistant Shawnee County attorney from 1995-1961. He is a member of the American Bar Association, Kansas Bar Association, and the Topeka Bar Association, serving as honorary president of the Topeka Bar Association in 1996.
Sloan served on the board of directors of Topeka Civic Theatre and Academy and was elected to its Hall of Fame in 1991. He was chair of the Shawnee County Democratic Central Committee from 1961-1966 and was a presidential elector in 1964. He was a board member of the Friends of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and its foundation. Sloan was a member of the board of the Kansas Children's Service League, serving as chair of the Topeka Advisory Council in 1996, and as a member of the Kansas Children’s Service League Foundation. He has served as a member of the Topeka Salvation Army advisory board, treasurer of Alpha Phi Alumni Association, as a trustee of the Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation, and as a member of the board of directors of the Ichabod Club and Washburn University Alumni Association. Sloan was a founding member of the Friends of Mabee Library in 1996. In 1998, Sloan received the Distinguished Service Award from the Washburn University Alumni Association and the Person of the Year award from the Ichabod Club. He was named Alpha Delta Outstanding Alumnus in 1968. Sloanalso received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 2009.
Linda Graves, JD '78
Linda Richey Graves joined the law firm of Levy & Craig in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1978. She became the first female partner in the firm's history. In 1995, she took a leave of absence and became a full-time volunteer for eight years as the first lady of Kansas. Graves led the efforts to restore the Kansas governor's residence, Cedar Crest, and received numerous awards for her preservation efforts. She was the founding chair of the Johnson County Community Foundation and a board member of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. Graves was a member and eventually chair of the United States Department of Education Commission on Presidential Scholars, appointed by the president. She currently oversees the R.K. Richey Scholarship program in Erie, Kansas, which provides college scholarships to Erie High School graduates. She was recognized in 2000 with the Washburn University Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award.