Teaching Peers, Mentoring Students

Hall mentors students in free time, teaches industry practices at Kansas Bar Association

From Washburn Law Alumni Newsletter - July 2018

Danielle Hall finds herself teaching peers in her position with the Kansas Bar Association. In her free time, she teaches Washburn Law students in many of the same ways faculty and alumni mentored her as a student.

Hall, BA ’06, JD ’09, returned to the KBA this summer as assistant executive director for law practice services. She worked there from 2010-16 before working for the State of Kansas Office of the Disciplinary Administrator from 2016-18. In her work, she has found a particular interest presenting on cybersecurity.

“I tell lawyers you need to have a basic understanding of the technology you are using in your law office, as well as security risks associated with the technology,” she said. “Our Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct outlines a duty for us to maintain adequate cybersecurity in our law offices.”

It’s all about protecting data.

“It’s an area that’s of big interest to me,” she said. “I have been studying it and advising other lawyers on how cybersecurity impacts their law office, as well as their ethical responsibility for maintaining some sort of knowledge of cybersecurity.”

Hall and her husband, Jay Hall, BA ’04, JD ’07, are trial advocacy coaches at the School of Law.

“When I was in law school, I competed on the trial advocacy team, and it made such an impact in my life, both personally and professionally that I felt it would be a good way for me to give back,” she said.

She’s been doing that since she graduated Washburn Law, and has been coaching Washburn’s undergraduate trial advocacy team since starting as a law student.

“Any opportunity that I get to speak with and meet with incoming students, I volunteer in that way,” she said. “I also try to stay involved with students who come from diverse backgrounds, because I come from a diverse background, too."