With a grandfather who was the Kansas attorney general and the chief justice of the Kansas Supreme Court, and a father who practiced law for 50 years, Sarah Barr comes from a family of experienced lawyers.
    Barr is solely responsible for providing free legal counsel to any of the 23,000 K-State students who request it. As the K-State student legal services attorney, Barr works in the offices of student activities and services and advises students on almost any legal issue.
    “My dad was a plaintiffs lawyer, and was always looking out for the underdog and trying to help the people that couldn’t help themselves,” she said. “That’s the sort of lawyer I’ve always tried to be.”
    After graduating from Fort Hays State University, Barr applied to Washburn Law School — the same law school all of her other practicing family members attended.
    But, the same day she found out she was accepted into law school, she also found out she was pregnant.
    “I did get divorced when I was in law school,” Barr said. “So I worked a couple of jobs, and raised my son, and sort of did it the hard way.”
    Barr became the K-State student attorney in September 2002, after working as the assistant county attorney in Pottawatomie County for seven years.
    “It blends my two favorite things: Working with young people and practicing law,” she said. “That’s what I love about this job.”
    Barr said most of the students she counsels are seeking legal guidance on counts like driving under the influence, disorderly conduct, battery and noise violations. More than anything else though, she said she advises students who have been ticketed for underage drinking.
    “If the drinking age was 18, I’d probably have no business at all,” she said. “There are so many [minor in possession of alcohol tickets] being written, and that is terrifying for a kid who has never been in trouble.”
    Many of the students who walk in her office have never been in trouble before, she said, and some appear distraught about their current situations, which is why she always keeps a box of tissues on her desk.
    “I spend a lot of my time doing damage control,” Barr said. “A lot of times, when a student comes in, the damage is done, and we just see if we can sort it out.”
    Often, she gets calls from parents of students she is advising who want information or to schedule a meeting, but she said she respects the students rights to privacy.
    “I don’t deal with parents,” Barr said. “My client is the student, and we have attorney-client confidentiality.”
    While she can legally represent clients in court, she does not represent students, except in extraneous situations. In major or criminal cases, she helps students get a lawyer or undergo the process to get a court-appointed lawyer.
    Her work, however, does not only involve students who have broken the law, she also represents students who are legally changing names or going through an uncontested divorce.
    Barr took 352 cases during the 2005-06 school year, but she said she knows there are more students who could have used legal counsel.
    “There’s probably a lot of people that don’t know about me,” she said.
    She has noticed however, when she advises a member of a group like a Greek house, a club or a residence hall floor, then she sees a lot of referral clients from those groups.