Faculty/Staff Profile
"The outstanding national reputation of Washburn Law Clinic drew me to the law school. Washburn's collegial atmosphere, our institutional commitment to excellence in teaching, and our dedicated, engaged students make being part of this community a pleasure. Washburn prioritizes preparing our students for practice by helping them develop into the most effective and ethical attorneys they can be. Our graduates go on to make an important impact on the legal profession and our communities."
Professor Francis began his career as a trial attorney with The New York City Legal Aid Society, Criminal Defense Division. He continued his practice as a supervising attorney with the clinical programs at Hofstra University Law School, where he supervised students in the Criminal Justice Clinic and Housing Rights Clinic. Professor Francis came to Washburn to direct its nationally-renowned law clinic. He was Clinic Director from 1999 to 2011 and returned to an administrative role as Interim Co-Director of the Law Clinic from 2015 to 2019. Professor Francis served as Washburn Law's Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2021 to 2022.
Professor Francis is admitted to practice in New York, Kansas, the District of Columbia, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas and the Eastern District of New York, and Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. Professor Francis leads Washburn's pretrial advocacy curriculum, teaching the Pretrial Advocacy: Criminal course. He also teaches the doctrinal Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure courses.
Professor Francis' scholarly interests emerge from his practice and teaching experience. He has written on the intersection of criminal procedure and immigration law, jury selection, tribal court jurisdiction, due process in discovery, and law clinic administration. He held leadership roles in clinical legal education as a long-time administrator of the national Lawclinic Listserv and as a former member of the Executive Committee for the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education. On a state and local level, Professor Francis served on the Kansas Criminal Justice Reform Commission from 2019 to 2021, and is an active member of the Topeka Bar Association’s Criminal Law Committee.
Professor Francis' Justice Quotes:
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail
"But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" – Amos 5:24
Professor Francis' Recommended Reading on Racial Justice:
"When Things Go Wrong in the Clinic: How to Prevent and Respond to Serious Student Misconduct," 41 University of Baltimore Law Review 441 (2012) (co-authored with Robert L. Jones, Jr., and Gerard F. Glynn). [801 KB PDF]
"Reassessing Concurrent Tribal-State-Federal Criminal Jurisdiction in Kansas," 59 The Kansas Law Review 949 (co-author with Stacy L. Leeds, Aliza Organick & Jelani Jefferson Exum) (2011). [189 KB PDF]
"Peremptory Challenges, Grutter and Critical Mass: A Means of Reclaiming the Promise of Batson," 29 Vermont Law Review 297 (2005).
"Failure to Advise Non-Citizens of Immigration Consequences of Criminal Convictions: Should This Be Grounds to Withdraw a Guilty Plea," 36 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 691 (2003).
State v. Tyler: A Simulated Case File and Related Assignments Designed to Teach Pretrial Advocacy Skills. Prosecutor's File. National Institute for Trial Advocacy, 2008.
State v. Tyler: A Simulated Case File and Related Assignments Designed to Teach Pretrial Advocacy Skills. Defense Counsel's File. National Institute for Trial Advocacy, 2008.
State v. Tyler: A Simulated Case File and Related Assignments Designed to Teach Pretrial Advocacy Skills. Teacher's Manual. National Institute for Trial Advocacy, 2008.
"The Past, Present, and Future of Qualified Immunity" in Reimagined Policing in the Age of Reform (Michael Birzer, Lemuel Moore, eds.) (Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2023).
Quoted, "Kansas Ended Statutes of Limitation for Child Sex Crimes, But It Gets Complicated in Court," Topeka Capital Journal (April 23, 2024).
Quoted, "Kansas Criminal Justice Commission Reviews Cost-Effective Recommendations for State Lawmakers," Kansas Reflector (September 21, 2021).
Guest, "Kansas’ Unmatched Tracking of Ex-Convicts Attracts One Legal Challenge After Another," KCUR 89.3, August 31, 2018 (begins at 6:30).
Quoted, "After a 10-Year-Old's Waterslide Decapitation, Why Were the Ride Designers Charged With Murder?," People Magazine (April 4, 2018).
Quoted, "Jacob Ewing Trials not Likely to be Moved from Jackson County," Topeka Capital Journal (May 29, 2017).
"For wrongly convicted man, healing begins," Lawrence Journal-World (April 27, 2012) (Professor Francis comments on the statute of limitations in a 1985 rape case involving recent identification of a suspect via DNA).
"Qualified Immunity: Friend or Foe," Central States Law School Association, 2022 Annual Scholarship Conference, Washburn University School of Law Topeka, Kansas, September 10, 2022.
Co-presenter, "Update: Kansas Criminal Justice Reform Commission Findings and Recommendations," Topeka Bar Association Criminal Law Committee, CLE webinar, January 28, 2022.
"Recent Cases and Issues in Criminal Justice," 2020 Selected Topics and Miscellany CLE webinar, Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, Kansas, June 19, 2020.
"Should Criminal Courts Borrow Structures and Remedies Used by Civil Courts to Address Spoliation of Evidence?," Association of American Law Schools, 41st Annual Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Chicago, Illinois, May 2, 2018 (work-in-progress).
"Recognizing the Assets and Closing the Gaps in Underserved Communities Through Client-Centered Lawyering," Midwest Clinical Legal Education Conference, University of Kansas School of Law, Lawrence, Kansas, October 13, 2017 (with Janet Thompson Jackson).
"Work/Life Balance as a Lawyering Skill," Institute for Law Teaching and Learning Summer Conference," Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, Kansas, June 11, 2016 (with Janet Thompson Jackson).
"Transforming Our Teaching By Engaging with the Global Community," 37th Annual Conference on Clinical Legal Education, The Association of American Law Schools, Chicago, Illinois, April 28, 2014.
"Teaching Law Abroad: Bringing Home Interactive, Student-Centered Learning," Institute for Law Teaching and Learning, Hybrid Law Teaching, Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, Kansas, June 8, 2013 (with Tonya Kowalski).
"Beyond Angkor Wat and the Killing Fields: Law, Education, and Life in Cambodia," Washburn University Brown Bag International Lecture, Topeka, Kansas, February 8, 2012.
"From Muriithi to Padilla: A Lawyer’s Ethical Duty to Determine the Immigration Status of Clients in Criminal Cases," Continuing Legal Education Program, Washburn Law Clinic 40th Anniversary Celebration, Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, Kansas, October 23, 2010.
Panelist, "Why Specialty Clinics? – What do Specialty Clinics Add to Legal Education, Clinical Education and the Global Community? Autonomous or Integrated - Is There a Best Practice?," Fourth Annual Indian Law Clinics & Externship Programs Symposium, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, June 21, 2010 (with Meetali Jain, Practitioner-in-Residence, American University, Washington College of Law).
"Substantive Criminal Law in Tribal Court" and "Tribal Court Practice," multi-session panels at Introduction to Tribal Court Practice, Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Mayetta, Kansas, October 3, 2008 (with Tonya Kowalski and Aliza Organick).
Panelist, "The Worst-Case Scenario: Malpractice and Serious Ethical Breaches by Students," 2008 Association of American Law Schools Conference on Clinical Legal Education, Tucson, Arizona, May 5, 2008. (Also served as Planning Committee Member for the Conference.)
"Charting the Rocks and Shoals of Immigration Consequences When Representing Non-Citizen Clients in Criminal Cases," Third Judicial District of Kansas Criminal Defense Bar Meeting/CLE, Topeka, Kansas, November 15, 2005.
"A Step-by-Step Guide to Batson: Making Miller-El and Johnson Work," The Third Annual Building the Mitigation Case: Advocating for Life, Topeka, Kansas, November 11, 2005 (Co-presented with Christina Swarns).
"Avoiding Immigration Consequences When Representing Non-Citizen Clients in Criminal Cases," Washburn Law Clinic 35th Anniversary CLE, Topeka, Kansas, September 10, 2005.
"Lawyering Skills in the Digital Age," AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education, San Diego, California, May 4, 2004 (Co-presented with Professor Conrad Johnson, Columbia University School of Law).
"Whose Client is it Anyway?" AALS Workshop on Clinical Legal Education, Vancouver, British Columbia, May 2003 (Co-presented with Professor Douglas Colbert, University of Maryland School of Law and Professor Carol Turowski, Case Western Reserve School of Law).
"DNA Exonerations and the Death Penalty," Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Topeka, Kansas, November 2000.
"A Comparative Look at Criminal Practice in New York and Kansas," Third Judicial Criminal Defense Bar CLE, Topeka, Kansas, June 2000.
Member, Criminal Justice Reform Commission, 2019-.
Special Judge for the Tribal District Court of Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska, 2017-2019.
Member, Executive Committee, Association of American Law Schools Section on Clinical Legal Education, 2013-December 2016
Volunteer Teaching, Royal University of Law and Economics, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Fall Semester 2011 (five weeks while on sabbatical teaching lawyering and advocacy skills to an English speaking section of Cambodian law students).
Recipient, Warren W. Shaw Distinguished Service Award, Topeka Bar Association, 2019.