HFH Bilingual Attorneys
Shaping the Next Generation

This fall, the firm welcomed D. Pamela Saenz and Peter Qiu as new associates following law school graduation.  Unique to this class of attorneys is that they are both bilingual.  Peter’s parents were both Chinese born moving to United States in the early 1990s, with Peter being the first generation in his family to be born and raised in the United States.  Born in New York City, Peter has lived in New York, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana before settling in Kansas during fourth grade.   Peter spent his final years of grade school and  middle school and high school in the Hutchinson, Kansas area.  Peter then attended Washburn University (BA 2017) and the University of Kansas School of Law (JD 2021).  Peter was able to study abroad in Beijing, China following his first year of law school at the University of Kansas School of Law where he studied Chinese corporate law, labor law, constitutional law, and many others. 

Peter is fluent in both Mandarin and English, with Mandarin being the primary language spoken in Peter’s home growing up.  His Mandarin fluency which makes him invaluable with international clients and cases.  But this trait is equally as attractive with local clients and cases, with Peter able to serve central Kansas’s noticeable Chinese population.  Through Peter’s life experiences (including working in a family-owned restaurant throughout his life), Peter believes that many Asian business owners that are not native English speaking tend to avoid retaining lawyers when prudent because of the cultural and linguistic differences.  Peter hopes his experiences can help better serve these populations.

Pam is a first generation Hispanic-American, with her father immigrating from Mexico and her mother immigrating from Honduras in the 1990s.  Her parents, having met in Wichita, have called Wichita home for Pam’s entire life.

Spanish is Pam’s first language since it was the only language her parents could speak at the time of her birth.  However, once in school, English overtook her communication both inside and outside her home as she and her family worked to assimilate.  As a result, while she always understood Spanish, she was not very comfortable speaking Spanish during a large part of her childhood.  Pam began taking formal Spanish classes in high school and majored In Spanish in college.  It was through these formal teachings that she learned to read, write, translate, and interpret Spanish, and gained confidence in her Spanish-speaking abilities.

Being the child of immigrants, Pam saw firsthand how difficult it was for her parents, relatives, and family friends to obtain services in Spanish—be it at doctor’s appointments, banks, county offices, or nearly anywhere else. This became a strong motivating factor for her to attend law school – the desire to provide competent representation for Spanish-speaking individuals in the language in which they felt most comfortable.  Pam felt the impact of her bilingualism when she worked as an office assistant for an immigration attorney, and in law school when she served as an intern for the Washburn Law Immigration & Family Justice Clinic. These opportunities allowed her to build trust with clients and avoided the complications of coordinating and communicating through an interpreter.  Now as a lawyer, there is a significant Hispanic population in Wichita that Pam looks forward to assisting.

Mackenzie Baxter Joins
Ronald McDonald Charities Board of Directors

 

Associate Mackenzie Baxter recently joined the Board of Directors for Ronald McDonald House Charities Wichita. The mission of RMHC is to create, find, and support programs that directly improve the health and well-being of children and their families. We know that Mackenzie will be an asset to the organization and we appreciate her making time to be a part of our community outside of work.

Jon Newman Elected Chairperson
Client Protection Fund Commission

Jon Newman was recently elected Chairperson of the Client Protection Fund Commission.  The Commission oversees the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, which is used to compensate people who suffer economic loss as a result of dishonest actions by a Kansas lawyer. The fund is financed by annual registration fees paid by lawyers to practice law in Kansas.  Members of the commission are appointed by the Kansas Supreme Court.

Federal Court Motion Deadline to Compel Discovery
May be Relaxed During Meet and Confer

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by F. James Robinson

By rule, federal courts in the District of Kansas require that a motion to compel discovery be “filed and served within 30 days of the default or service of the response, answer, or objection that is the subject of the motion, unless the court extends the time for filing such motion for good cause. Otherwise, the objection to the default, response, answer, or objection is deemed waived.” D. Kan. Rule 37.1(b). 

This rule may not be as mechanical as it seems.

The rule’s purpose is to “ensure the court can address discovery disputes while they are still fresh, and in turn expedite litigation.” Black & Veatch Corp. v. Aspen Ins. (UK) Ltd., No. 12-2350-SAC-KGS, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193782, 2015 WL 13047860 (D. Kan. Mar. 31, 2015). Black & Veatch and other decisions in the district confirm that the triggering event is the date of the challenged discovery response or the discovery default.  Black & Veatch interpreted the 30-day period as beginning when specific information first leading to a dispute is discovered. That deadline is not tolled “while the parties are engaged in efforts to resolve the discovery dispute without judicial intervention.” However, the parties may “request, prior to expiration, an extension of the deadline to file a motion to compel with respect to any discovery dispute upon which the parties are still conferring.” 

On April 11, 2019, in Lawson v. Spirit Aerosystems, Inc., No. 6:18-cv-01100-EFM-ADM (D. Kan.), a federal magistrate judge denied the defendant’s unopposed motion to extend the deadline. (ECF No. 77) The judge’s order acknowledged “that some judges in this District prefer that parties file such motions on or before the 30-day time period set forth in D. Kan. Rule 37.1(b) expires—e.g., when the parties are continuing to meet and confer to resolve discovery disputes.” Nonetheless, the judge wrote, “[t]he undersigned does not interpret D. Kan. Rule 37.1(b) to require parties to file a motion for extension of time if they are engaged in meeting and conferring.” The judge continued, “[c]ategorical motions for extensions . . . are generally hypothetical and unmeritorious in the abstract.” The judge concluded, “[i]f and when a party files a motion to compel after the 30-day deadline set forth in D. Kan. Rule 37.1(b), the undersigned will, however, expect the party to demonstrate good cause for the late filing by setting forth the parties' diligence in attempting to resolve the discovery dispute at issue.”

In a later, January 29, 2020, order in that case the judge found the plaintiff’s motion to compel was untimely because the defendant’s alleged failure over a period