By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post
Kansas Supreme Court Justice Melissa Taylor Standridge was in Salina Saturday, speaking to the Salina League of Women Voters during the group's annual meeting.
The former Kansas Court of Appeals judge has served on the state supreme court since December 2020.
Standridge's route to the state high court was a bit different than most. A native of Lawrence, she studied business at the University of Kansas. Upon graduation, she went to work for Dillards, first in management, then as a buyer for 42 of the stores.
"I did that for seven years and then I decided I wanted to go to law school," she said. "I did not know a lawyer. So I'm 30 years old, have never met a lawyer in my life, and it's just one of those things that I thought I wanted to do."
Standridge said she met with some resistance from her father who was concerned that she would be giving up a well-paying job for something she may not even like nor be able to find a job in. She said she decided to give law school a year to see whether she liked it.
"I loved law school and did well in law school, and when I graduated from law school, which sometimes happens, generally for people that are at the top of their class, you become, and the common name for it is a 'law clerk,' to a judge. Where we are now, we call them 'research attorneys,' but it's a law clerk and you are a lawyer to the judge," she explained. "So you write proposed opinions, you do research, you kind of the behind-the-scenes person that nobody ever sees, but it's a highly sought-after position because when you go out and practice, you now know how judges think."
Standridge worked as a law clerk for two years and then went to work for a large Kansas City law firm, practicing employment law. She then was asked by a senior partner to cover foster care adoption hearings.
"I thought, 'I really like this.' I've always loved children, so I started doing more and more of those, and between the two of us, he started doing more and more," she said.
The two of them put the $1,800 fees that the state paid them to help parents with the adoption process into a fund at the Kansas City Community Foundation.
"So basically, we did it for free, and that money would go for anybody whose ever been in foster care in Kansas can get a scholarship to college," Standridge said.
Scholarships range from $2,000 to $10,000. So far, $1 million in scholarships have been given out, she said.
The experience of helping foster children prompted Standridge to want to be a foster parent.
One of her law partners became a federal judge and suggested that she take a leave of absence from the firm, work as a law clerk for him, and try out being a foster parent.
Since that time, Standridge has had 15 foster children and has adopted six. She also never went back to the law firm. During those 10 years, she met and married a man who was a judge in Missouri. Until he retired, the couple had to maintain two households, one in Missouri and one Kansas, as each had to reside in the state in which they worked.
"Up until a year and a half ago, we always had two houses, which is kind of an interesting way to raise six children," she said.
Her husband encouraged Standridge to apply to be a judge, as did the federal judge for whom she worked. She did so and served on the Kansas Court of Appeals from 2008 until she joined the Kansas Supreme Court in December 2020.
During her presentation, Standridge also discussed the three branches of government and judicial selection, and answered questions from the audience.