Our first annual Emeritus and Honorary Membership awards were presented at our April 2021 Judge Hugh Means Inn of Court meeting. This meeting was held via Zoom and both recipients were present virtually to accept their awards and give acceptance remarks. Personalized plaques were mailed to the two recipients to commemorate their contributions and membership awards bestowed by our Inn.
The Inaugural Emeritus Membership Award was presented to the Honorable Judge Deanell Tacha “on the basis of her outstanding achievements, furtherance of American Inn of Court objectives, and long and distinguished service to the American Inns of Court.” Judge Tacha has a long list of impressive service and achievements and was also a founding member of the Judge Hugh Means Inn of Court.
“Deanell Reece Tacha was the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean of Pepperdine Caruso School of Law from 2011-2016. She was appointed by President Reagan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit where she served as a circuit judge from 1986-2011. She served as Chief Judge from January 2001 through 2007. Deanell Tacha earned her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Kansas in 1968 and her juris doctorate from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1971. She was a White House Fellow (1971-1972). She returned to the University of Kansas where she served as associate professor at its School of Law from 1974-1977 and as professor of law from 1977-1985. She served as associate dean from 1977-1979, as associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs from 1979-1981, and as vice chancellor for Academic Affairs between 1981-1985. In 1992, Tacha received the KU Alumni Association's Fred Ellsworth Medallion for extraordinary service to the university and received its most prestigious award, the Distinguished Service Citation, in 1996. In January of 2010, she was named "Kansan of the Year" by the Native Sons and Daughters of Kansas.
Prior to joining the University of Kansas, she practiced law in Washington, D.C. and Kansas, and was for three years Director of the Douglas County Legal Aid Clinic (1974-1977). During her distinguished career, Tacha served as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States and was named in 2006 by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to the Conference's Executive Committee. Previously, Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed her to serve two terms as Chair of the Conference's Committee on the Judicial Branch which oversees the federal judiciary's relationship with Congress and the executive branch. Tacha also was a member of the United States Sentencing Commission which is responsible for studying and making recommendations to Congress about federal sentencing policy.
She has represented the judiciary of the United States internationally on several occasions, including participating in the American College of Trial Lawyers Anglo-American Legal Exchange among members of the bench and bar in the United States and in the United Kingdom. In 1992, the American Bar Association selected Deanell Tacha as a member of a delegation of lawyers and judges who traveled to Albania to assist that nation in developing a new constitution and government, and in 2007, she represented American judges in the Canadian-American Legal Exchange.
As a spokesperson for enhanced ethics, professionalism, and civility in the legal profession, Deanell Tacha has been active in the American Inns of Court movement. She helped found the Judge Hugh Means American Inn of Court in Lawrence, served on the national Board of Trustees of the American Inns of Court, and was its national president from 2004-2008. Her contributions to the legal profession were recognized when she was named recipient of the Devitt Award in 2007, the highest honor given to a federal judge for distinguished lifetime service. In 2008, she was recipient of the John Marshall Award, which the American Bar Association bestows for positively impacting the justice system. In 2012 she received the Christensen Award for distinguished service from the American Inns of Court.
Deanell holds professional memberships in the American Bar Association, American Bar Foundation (Life Member), American Law Institute (Life Member), Kansas Bar Association, Phi Beta Kappa, and Order of Coif. She is admitted to the Bar in Kansas, Missouri, and the District of Columbia. Additionally, she is a past chair of the Appellate Judges Conference and a former member of the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession. Deanell Tacha currently serves on the California Bar Task Force on Admission to the Bar and the California Supreme Court Power of Democracy Steering Committee. She also serves on the National Board of Trustees of Equal Justice Works and the ABA's Rule of Law Initiative. She has held leadership positions in numerous civic and charitable organizations including chairing the Kansas Territorial Sesquicentennial Commission, the Lawrence/Douglas County Heritage Area Commission, and the Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area Board of Trustees. She is on the Board of Trustees of the Kansas University Endowment Association. She has served as a member of the board of directors or as a trustee at Kansas State Historical Society, Kansas Health Foundation, Baker University, Saint Paul School of Theology, Lawrence Arts Center, and First United Methodist Church, Lawrence, to name a few.”
The Inaugural Honorary Membership Award was presented to Dr. Diana Carlin Pierron “on the basis of her outstanding achievements, distinguished service to the community, and furtherance of American Inns of Court objectives.”
Diana Bartelli Carlin is professor emerita of communication and former associate provost at Saint Louis University and a retired professor of communication studies and former dean of the graduate school and international programs at KU. She holds bachelors and master's degrees in education from KU and a Ph.D. in speech communication from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her dissertation research was on communication skills development for lawyers. She has conducted seminars at bar association meetings on gendered communication in the law and most recently co-directed a session at the 2020 KBA virtual annual conference on the 15th and 19th amendments with her husband, retired Court of Appeals Judge Joe Pierron. She has presented programs for the Hugh Means and Earl O'Connor Inns. As KU dean, she worked on several projects with the law faculty to develop training programs for international experts to come to KU and provided guidance in developing the SJD.
Dr. Carlin's research over the last 30 years emphasized political communication with an emphasis on political debates, women in politics, first ladies, and civil society. She received Fulbright awards to France and Myanmar. In Myanmar she held a seminar for members of parliament on parliamentary debate strategies. She made five trips to Afghanistan to develop debate programs in Afghan universities as a way of preparing young Afghans for careers in law, politics, and civil society programs. Through IFES (International Foundation for Electoral Systems) she worked in the Republic of Georgia, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan to develop political debate traditions and to assist women political candidates. In 2020 she received a Fulbright to Kuwait to work with women candidates for parliament; due to the pandemic, it was conducted virtually. From 1987-2000 she served on the advisory board for the Commission on Presidential Debates and her research had a major influence on development of alternative formats to the panel of journalists.
She has published numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books on debates, political rhetoric, and women in politics. She currently teaches for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and the KU Honors program. She is an occasional opinion contributor to The Kansas Reflector. She is working on a textbook project with Laura Bush's former chief of staff and the former head of presidential papers for the National Archives on the lives and legacies of US first ladies which is due out in 2022. Her most recent publication is in the University Press of Kansas' Southern First Ladies on Martha Washington and her legacy in creating the position of presidential spouse.
