Elected Member

The Hon. Carol A. Beier

Topeka, KS
Kansas Supreme Court (Retired)
Education
University of Kansas, BS, Journalism
University of Virginia School of Law, LLM
University of Kansas School of Law, JD

Carol A. Beier has been Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court since September 5, 2003, having served as a judge on the Kansas Court of Appeals from February 18, 2000.

Before taking the bench, Justice Beier was a partner at Foulston Siefkin LLP in Wichita. While at the firm, she had a broad trial and appellate practice. Justice Beier also spent one year as a visiting professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, where she designed and taught a course on women and the law, taught an advanced torts class, and directed two student clinical programs -- a criminal law appeals clinic and what was then known as the Paul E. Wilson Defender Project.

Justice Beier began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge James K. Logan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. At the conclusion of her clerkship, she was awarded a Revson fellowship at the Georgetown Law Center Women's Rights and Public Policy Program. As a fellow, she worked on family income security, education, and employment issues at the National Women's Law Center. She then entered private practice at Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn.

Justice Beier received her J.D. in 1985 from the University of Kansas School of Law and her L.L.M. in 2004 from the University of Virginia School of Law. While a student at KU Law, she was a Rice Scholar, Articles Editor of the Kansas Law Review, and Student Director of the Defender Project. Upon graduation, she was named to the Order of the Coif law honorary society and selected by the law faculty to receive the Samuel Mellinger Award for Scholarship, Leadership, and Service.

Justice Beier is a member and former District 10 Director of the National Association of Women Judges, a longtime member of the Kansas Bar Association and a member of the Board of Editors for its Annual Survey of the Law, a fellow of the Kansas Bar Foundation, and a longtime member of the American Bar Association, the D.C. Bar, and the Wichita Bar Association. She is a founding member and was the first secretary of the Kansas Women Attorneys Association. In 2013, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Kansas School of Law, and, in 2015, she received the Betty M. Drees, M.D., Distinguished Alumna Award from Women in Medicine and Science. In 2012, Justice Beier was named to the University of Kansas Women's Hall of Fame. She also has served on many community and professional boards, including as president of the KU Law Alumni. She is the author of numerous legal publications and is a frequent presenter to legal and lay audiences.

The Hon. Carol A. Beier Image
Areas of Expertise
Women's Rights (Constitutional Law)
Trials (Litigation)
Appellate Practice & Procedure (Litigation)