TOPEKA—Chief Justice Marla Luckert announced changes in job duties for four Supreme Court staff.
General counsel
Ashley Jarmer is named general counsel to the chief justice.
She has been a research attorney for the chief justice since August 2019. She previously was a research attorney for Supreme Court Justice Lee Johnson and Court of Appeals Chief Judge Richard Greene.
Jarmer is a native of Cimarron. She graduated summa cum laude from Kansas State University and received her law degree from William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, where she was president of the Honor Council.
Jarmer previously worked for the Kansas Department of Transportation Office of Chief Counsel as a personnel attorney.
Director of Supreme Court appeals
Sarah Reichert is named director of Supreme Court appeals.
She will report directly to and assist the chief justice in the management of the Supreme Court docket and processing of cases. She will supervise the court’s central research staff that is charged with researching and preparing memoranda for the court on death penalty appeals, original actions, petitions for review, motions, and special projects.
Reichert is a native of Mankato. She graduated cum laude from both Kansas State University and Washburn University School of Law.
Reichert clerked in the Kansas Court of Appeals for two years before joining the Supreme Court's staff in 2006. She has served in the court's central staff, as a research attorney for Justice Luckert, as the court's motions attorney, and as assistant general counsel to the chief justice. She chairs the Supreme Court Rules Committee.
The positions filled by Jarmer and Reichert have been vacant for several months.
Deputy special counsel
Sarah Hoskinson, deputy special counsel to the chief justice, will have expanded duties assisting with special projects and committees.
She has been deputy special counsel to the chief justice since 2017 and works to organize and develop the Kansas judicial branch's legislative program. She previously was a staff attorney for the Office of Judicial Administration.
Hoskinson is a native of Burrton. She graduated from the University of Kansas with highest distinction and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
Hoskinson also has worked as an attorney for the City of Manhattan, the U.S. Department of Labor, and the Bar Association of San Francisco's Homeless Advocacy Project. She completed three years of national service in AmeriCorps VISTA and Equal Justice Works programs.
Research attorney
Jonathan Ruhlen will fill the chief's staff as research attorney II.
He was a research attorney for Justice Johnson from 2016 to 2019, when he joined the chief justice's staff.
Ruhlen is a native of Valley Falls. He graduated from Emporia State University in 2005 and worked as a reporter for various daily newspapers in Kansas. He graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2012.
Ruhlen worked in bankruptcy law, including a clerkship with now-retired Judge Janice Miller Karlin, chief of the Bankruptcy Court of the District of Kansas and chief of the 10th Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel.