Max Kautsch

Max Kautsch focuses his practice on First Amendment rights and open government law. He helps news media and members of the public assert rights of access to court proceedings, court records and government agency documents. He serves as the legal hotline attorney for the press and broadcast associations in Kansas and Nebraska. He represented the prevailing plaintiff in Roe v. Phillips County Hospital, 317 Kan. 1 (2023), where the Kansas Supreme Court held that the plain language of the Kansas Open Records Act “requires a public agency, upon request, to provide a copy of a public record in the format in which it maintains that record.”

Kautsch, a Lawrence native, received his law degree from the Washburn University School of Law in 2003, after earning an undergraduate degree in 2000 with honors in English Literature from the University of Kansas. He has been licensed to practice law in Kansas since 2003 and in Nebraska since 2021.