Professor Steve Leben

Steve Leben is a visiting professor at the University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law, where he is teaching courses on criminal law, legislation, and appellate advocacy. Leben was a judge on the Kansas Court of Appeals from 2007 to 2020 and a general-jurisdiction state trial judge from 1993 to 2007. He practiced law in the Kansas City area from 1982 to 1993.

He also serves as a lecturer at the University of Kansas School of Law. He taught legislation and statutory interpretation from 2007 to 2020 and has taught a summer evidence class since 2018. 

Leben is a past president of the American Judges Association and edited its national journal, Court Review, from 1998 through 2017. He received the National Center for State Courts' William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, the National Center's highest award for a judge, in 2014 in recognition of his national work to improve procedural fairness in America's courts. Leben is a cofounder of the website, ProceduralFairness.com, devoted to providing resources on procedural justice for courts and law-enforcement personnel.