Attorney, Warrior: Reno County Chief Sarah Sweet McKinnon
Reno County Chief Public Defender, Sarah Sweet McKinnon with one of her beloved grandchildren.
by Corrine Gunning, Assistant Appellate Defender
It was not long after starting at the Appellate Defender Office that I heard of the legend of Sarah Sweet-McKinnon. A judge asked Sarah to reveal attorney-client confidences, and – in serious danger of being sent to jail – she refused.
When I sat down to talk to her, I shared her legendary status in our office. She laughed, saying, “I didn’t go to jail, but I was fined for every day I was in contempt. By the end I think I was up to a quarter of a million dollars.” She never had to pay, as she was vindicated by the Kansas Supreme Court. But her stance of standing up for what is right in defense of her clients has permeated Sarah’s career, and makes her a powerful role model for all Kansas defenders.
Sarah graduated from law school in 1991, but the beginning of her practice of law was delayed as her husband became gravely ill the month before her graduation and passed away on what would have been the first day of the Kansas bar exam. Despite this tragedy, Sarah passed the bar exam the following spring and began working for Kansas Legal Services.
Over the first years of her career, she moved to private practice and child support enforcement before ultimately landing in the Sedgwick County Public Defender Office in 1997. Looking back, she explained that her resume showed she didn’t quite know what she wanted to do, but she wished she had become a PD sooner because it “fills her up.”
Although she lived in Reno County, Sarah avoided practicing there because her husband, Steve Becker, was a district court judge in the county. But, in advance of his retirement, Sarah moved to the Reno County Public Defender Office in January 2006; by that fall, she was the chief.
Most woman in this profession have stories to tell about how they’ve been treated because of their sex, but Sarah readily proclaimed that she had never received unfair treatment from a client. “I don’t think I’ve ever been treated less fairly than a man because I take the time to get to know my clients and develop relationships with them.” Similarly, she has never experienced pushback from colleagues or those under her leadership, again crediting this to her time spent developing relationships with the attorneys and investing in their success. She recalled one event in particular from Sedgwick County, “There was one attorney who had gone around to numerous offices looking for help on an idea for his case with no success. When he came into my office, I told him to sit down and we would work together to make it happen.”
She’s carried this mentality into her role as chief in Reno County. “You don’t want new attorneys to struggle. You want to tell them not to bang their head against the wall.” But her advice to new attorneys is universal: “If you know what you are doing, you aren’t going to be pushed around. But knowledge comes with experience. You must be confident, kind to yourself, and be willing to laugh at yourself. And you can’t be afraid of screwing up. The worst possible thing that you think can happen, won’t happen.”
However, she recognized that her experience has not always been the same with courts, although she is not certain it is related to her being a woman. “I’ve definitely been ‘good ole boy-ed.’ That is alive and well in our courts. But I don’t let it get in my way. If my client tells me to fight, I’m sure as hell going to fight.”
Any barriers to Sarah’s career success have not been external, but come from her internal expectations. “My parents were Ward and June Cleaver, with very traditional gender roles. My dad always encouraged me to do anything I set my mind to. If I said I wanted to be a nurse, he said I could be a doctor. But I still find I hold myself to the expectation of those traditional roles I saw growing up. I have mommy guilt and wife guilt. And I expect myself to be the best at everything – both personal and professional.” When I echo that I have similar struggles balancing the role of public defender, wife, and mother, I ask if she has had a moment of clarity that has helped her cope with the pressure. She laughs, “No, I still struggle with it even though my children are grown and my husband is retired.” Then she pauses, “I think the closest moment of clarity I have had is in a conversation I had recently with my daughter about this very thing when she decided to stay home after having her child. That whatever choices you make, you can be a good mom.
In talking about the development of her career, Sarah muses, “I’m so glad I am not the attorney I was when I first started. I would never go back to being that person.” Notably, she describes the importance of confidence, “Being with the PD’s office has definitely boosted my confidence, and helped me put all the pieces together. Particularly, going to NCDC (the National Criminal Defense College) made a lightbulb go on over my head. It opened my eyes to what my role is and helped improve my presence and performance.” But she’s also recognized the importance of her faith in her work, a dichotomy that is not always easy for lawyers to balance. “I believe that God puts us here to do certain special things, and I have had experiences where I realize that what happened had to have been a God thing.”
I ask what advice she would give herself if she were to go back, and particularly what advice she would give new female attorneys. She reiterates the importance of finding a buddy to talk things through with and have hands-on mentoring. Her stories also echo the need to have supportive leadership and colleagues: “I’ve been in situations where a client put his hand on my leg inappropriately, and learned to remove myself from the situation ASAP and have a different colleague step in. But recently, I got a call from our jail telling me they suspected an inappropriate relationship between one of my attorneys and a client because the attorney met with the client after five *gasp* and came into the jail without a notebook *gasp*.” I see the fire in her eyes, “I went to the jail and raised hell.”
As we wrap up, Sarah again echoes the need for confidence. But then clarifies, “You need to have dimensions. I start nice in my cases until someone makes me change that. If you start by being a bitch, then your bitch side means nothing.” Sarah embodies client-centered advocacy, explaining that everything she does begins from the standpoint of getting up and fighting for her client. Within this role, she maintains, “I will harness my inner warrior, and I will release her when I need her.”