Jayhawk Judges: Hon. Mary Beck Briscoe, L’73

During her nearly five-decade legal career, Hon. Mary Beck Briscoe, L’73, has handled thousands of cases and held multiple groundbreaking appointments. And despite taking senior status this year, Judge Briscoe hasn’t slowed down.

In her roles as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, judge on the Kansas Court of Appeals and assistant United States attorney for the district of Kansas, Briscoe has approached each case as the most important work of the moment.

“I bury myself in that case and work through it until I understand it and am able to write an opinion on it. Each case, as I do it, is the important case,” Briscoe said.

Briscoe took senior status with the Tenth Circuit in March 2021. She was first appointed to the court in 1995, serving as its chief judge from 2010-2015. The court hears appeals from the federal district courts in six states: Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming, as well as appeals from rulings of administrative boards and commissions.

Even in senior status, when many judges shift to semi-retirement, Briscoe continues to immerse herself in cases one at a time.

A series of firsts

A Kansas native, Briscoe grew up on a farm near Council Grove. Educational opportunities were sparse — she attended a rural high school graduating in a class of only eight students. Needless to say, she was excited by the prospect of attending the University of Kansas, where she graduated with a double major in German and political science with a focus on international relations.

At KU Law, she was one of seven women in the 1970 entering class of more than 200, an experience that was not always welcoming. Many of her fellow male students resented that women were taking seats they felt their friends should have instead of going to Vietnam. After graduation, Briscoe broke multiple barriers in her career.

Following brief employment as an attorney advisor with the Interstate Commerce Commission in Washington, D.C., she joined the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, becoming the office’s first female attorney. She worked first on criminal cases, then moved into civil litigation with the added responsibility of serving as the supervising attorney for the Topeka office.

After 11 years with the U.S. Attorney’s office, colleagues encouraged Briscoe to apply for an open spot on the Kansas Court of Appeals. In 1985, Gov. John W. Carlin appointed Briscoe to the Kansas Court of Appeals, where she was the first woman to join that court. The seven-member court traveled the state to hear cases in the communities where they arose. The court carried a heavy caseload, issuing opinions in 98% of the state’s appellate cases. Briscoe found her fellow judges on the court to be ready mentors and welcoming colleagues.

“They treated me beautifully. I learned so much from them,” she said.

The Kansas Supreme Court appointed Briscoe as chief judge of the Kansas Court of Appeals in 1990 — the first woman to hold that position. She served in that role until she was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in 1995 by President Bill Clinton. She was not the first woman on that court — and it was a welcome relief.

“Anyone you know who’s been in the position to be the first to do anything — and I’ve been in that position twice, with the U.S. Attorney’s office and the Kansas Court of Appeals — there is a burden,” Briscoe said. “Only if you excel, can you pave the way for other women to follow.”

Briscoe heard “no” plenty of times along the way. There was the time in a job just out of college when she wanted to enroll in a corporate management training but was turned down because she was a woman. Or the time during an on-campus interview in law school when a recruiter for a private practice firm told her his colleagues wouldn’t be comfortable working with a woman. Or when, on one of her first assignments for the U.S. Attorney’s office, the warden of Leavenworth Penitentiary called her boss to ask “what are you doing sending this girl up here” to represent the prison in litigation. 

Briscoe worked through those obstacles, which became opportunities. She went to law school instead of staying in a dead-end corporate job. She found government roles — first with the Interstate Commerce Commission, then with the U.S. Attorney’s Office — when private firms were not hiring women. And she took special pleasure in winning cases in federal district court, especially when defending the warden.

Immersed in the work

Every case is important, with cases involving elections and voter rights as some of the most publicized cases Judge Briscoe has heard. 

“Handling them promptly, writing in a way that is understandable and that answers the issues that are raised and that states facts and law very clearly — all of these things are in our everyday diet, and they’re important,” Briscoe said. 

One of the cases that stands out with Briscoe is the Kansas redistricting case. This case fell to the courts to resolve when the Kansas Legislature could not. In 2012, Briscoe, then chief judge, assigned herself and two Kansas district court colleagues — Judge John Lungstrum, L’70, and Judge Kathryn Vratil, L’75 — to resolve the case of Essex, et al. v. Kobach, et al. Within a timeframe of about two weeks, they heard arguments and issued a lengthy opinion which redrew voting district lines based on the 2010 census. Completing that monumental task in the allotted time was a challenge, and it resulted in a “very public, very known” outcome, Briscoe said. 

“The real positive was the impact of our court doing this, and doing this quickly and doing this fairly. … It was such a wonderful thing to read good things about the court and the court system. I think we did well and did the courts proud in that work,” Briscoe said. 

During her time as chief judge on both Kansas Court of Appeals and the Tenth Circuit, Briscoe enjoyed being able to appoint colleagues to positions or suggesting that they apply. 

“That’s a very satisfying, happy side of the work, because in everything we do in litigation and in appellate work, there’s a winner and a loser. So, when someone is very deserving and really an obvious person for a position, it’s very gratifying to say, ‘You’re the one, you should do this,’” Briscoe said.

‘Still pushing it’ 

As a senior judge, Briscoe continues to hear cases. She’s “still pushing it” for an upcoming term of arguments, with a similar amount of casework as she took on as an active judge. The pace remains demanding, with long hours dedicated to reading and understanding the cases assigned. 

“Getting the information in your head and getting the information as straight as you possibly can in preparation for an oral argument, that’s the hardest part of the job,” Briscoe said. 

Briscoe encourages students and young lawyers preparing for any type of legal career to “do as much writing as you possibly can.” For those aspiring to a judicial career, Briscoe advises putting down roots and getting to work in the state they hope to serve. 

Reflecting on her 26-year tenure with the Tenth Circuit, Briscoe said working as part of a panel of three judges requires writing, rewriting and coordinating. She joked that when district court judges would visit and sit with the circuit court, “They all, to a person, have said, ‘I don’t know how you stand to do this’.” 

“They see this idea of working in a group of three as being intolerable,” Briscoe said. 

“But I’ve done it for so many years — it can be difficult, but at the end of the day, it’s been fun. I’ve been fortunate.”

This article appeared in print in the 2021 KU Law Magazine.