17 Jul 2017
KTK Welcomes Summer Clerk, Chris Helt
KTK is excited to announce its 2017 Summer Law Clerk position for the second portion of the summer has been accepted by Chris Helt. Currently a student at Washburn University School of Law, Chris also completed his undergraduate at Washburn University (2015). He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and was a recipient of the Galle Scholarship, which is granted to the top political science student. During his time in undergrad, Chris was a constituent services intern for the office of Governor Sam Brownback from May – November 2014 and an intern for Senator Julia Lynn of the Kansas Senate from January 2014 – May 2015. Following his graduation in May 2015, Chris spent that summer as a communications intern for the Kansas Department for Children and Families in Topeka, Kansas.
Since beginning his law school career in the fall of 2015, Chris has been involved in a number of programs at Washburn School of Law. He is a staff writer for the Washburn Law Journal and a member of Washburn’s Moot Court Council, having earned awards for the Top Brief and Top Oralist. Chris has entered and placed in many writing competitions, including taking second place in the Adam A. Milani Disability Law National Writing Competition and first in the 1L Opening Statement Competition. His excellent writing skills have earned him CALI awards for Legal Writing I, II, and Constitutional Law. CALI Awards are granted to the student with the highest grade in the class, as determined by the professor, and over 100 law schools participate in the CALI Excellence for the Future Award Program. Most notably, Chris is also a recipient of the John E. Shamberg Scholarship, which selects three students from the top 10% of the class to receive full resident tuition for three years of law school and a stipend of $15,000 each year.
In addition to his involvement at Washburn, Chris has also steadily worked in the political and legal fields off-campus. In the summer of 2016, he was an intern with the Arizona Attorney General, Civil Litigation Division where he worked with issues involving fair housing, disability discrimination, and disparate treatment claims under federal law and the Arizona Civil Rights Act. In the fall of that same year he then took a judicial extern position with Judge Kathryn H. Vratil of the U.S. District Court, District of Kansas where he primarily focused on issues spanning service of process and review of social security administrative law judge determinations. After completing his time with Judge Vratil, Chris worked as a law clerk for Goodell, Stratton, Edmonds, & Palmer in Topeka, KS from January – May 2017. Then, before joining KTK in July, he was a summer associate for Lewis Rice, LLC for the first portion of the summer. KTK greatly looks forward to working with Chris for the remainder of the summer.