KU Law News
KU Law News
July 20, 2009
KU Law mourns loss of alumna Deanna Lieber
Deanna Lieber, L'98
The University of Kansas School of Law mourns the loss of Deanna Lieber, a 1998 law graduate whose devotion to public service began as early as her days in Green Hall.
Lieber died Friday night when she was struck by random gunfire while driving home from Starlight Theatre in Kansas City.
“The KU Law community is deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Deanna Lieber,” said Gail Agrawal, dean of the law school. “She dedicated her career to advocating for children: first as a student in the school’s Legal Aid Clinic and as a volunteer with CASA, then as a family law attorney at Stevens & Brand and, most recently, as general counsel at the Kansas Department of Education. We are proud of her commitment to public service, and our hearts go out to her family and friends during this difficult time.”
Services for Lieber will be at 1 p.m. Wednesday, July 22, at First Presbyterian Church in Lawrence. Burial will follow at Clinton Cemetery in Clinton.
The 45-year-old mother of two came to KU Law from a career in engineering, having received a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at the University of Missouri, Columbia. That background informed her legal work as a student at KU Law.
“With that engineering background, she was really very thorough,” said Shelley Hickman Clark, who supervised Lieber in the Legal Aid Clinic. “She wasn’t intimidated by anyone or anything, and that showed in how she approached cases and plea negotiations. She was very warm, but also very firm and always had a good grasp of the facts.”
“She could also be fierce when it came to a client. We represent a lot of children, and she was always fierce when it came to protecting a child.”
When Lieber graduated from KU Law in 1998, she received the school’s Walter Hiersteiner Outstanding Service Award. The honor came from the faculty, who deemed Lieber the graduate whose service to her fellow students or the KU community demonstrated the greatest promise for contribution to the legal profession and society.
She was featured in the fall 1997 edition of KU Laws magazine for her volunteer work with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates). She was working on behalf of two children whose volatile family circumstances resulted in their placement with foster parents. “Every day I think about what will be best for these kids,” Lieber said in the story. “They have become like adopted children to me.”
Before serving as general counsel for the Kansas State Department of Education in Topeka, Lieber was a research attorney for the Kansas Court of Appeals and the Kansas Supreme Court. She worked for Justices Gernon and Rosen. She was a member of the Clinton Presbyterian Church and the Kansas Bar Association.
Among her enduring legacies is the improvement of the student research area, known as “the bullpen,” in the Legal Aid Clinic.
“When she came through the clinic, the bullpen was just a conglomeration of metal tables and old bookcases,” Clark said. “She designed the bullpen as you see it now, with the cantilevered desk all the way around, and the small file cabinets and shelf above. She really did improve our ability to function and made it much more pleasant.”
Read an obituary for Deanna Lieber
Read a news story about Deanna Lieber