About
Building a Strong Firm
Foulston actively seeks opportunities to develop the next generation of attorneys and staff in the communities where we practice and invests significant time and resources in its recruiting and retention efforts.
Foulston has high standards and seeks to recruit those who both meet those standards and who bring different backgrounds and perspectives to the firm. Foulston seeks people who have an entrepreneurial spirit, are community focused, team-oriented, hard-working, and highly engaged. But there is a common theme among those the firm recruits, hires, and promotes: they must be committed to providing our clients with excellent legal service.
Each year, Foulston participates in On-Campus Interviews (OCI) at both Washburn School of Law in Topeka, and the University of Kansas in Lawrence, among other schools, to seek out and recruit talented law students for its summer associate program. To reach law students the firm might not otherwise meet, Foulston has also cast a wide net beyond the excellent Kansas-based law schools, recruiting at schools across the country, including in Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., among others. Foulston also attends the annual Heartland and Sunbelt regional job fairs in Kansas City and Dallas respectively. At Washburn School of Law, Foulston also participates in the Third Year Anywhere® program, in which law students spend a semester working at the firm and receive class credit while also allowing the firm extended time to recruit and evaluate potential new associates. By expanding our recruiting pipeline, Foulston aims to hire and retain top legal talent, bringing unique perspectives to our legal teams. We believe that recruiting, hiring, and retaining attorneys and staff from many backgrounds and perspectives is fundamentally about merit — it ensures that we can attract and retain the most qualified candidates from the widest possible talent pool.
We start early by participating in the Wichita Bar Association’s “Grow Your Own Lawyer” program (high school freshmen, sophomores and juniors), which exposes a wide spectrum of students to the possibility of a legal career and the panoply of jobs available in the legal profession. Beyond recruiting efforts, Foulston aims to provide opportunities and access to students who might not otherwise consider or be able to pursue a legal profession. The firm also contributes to various law school scholarship programs to ensure that highly qualified students have opportunities to succeed and advance in the legal profession, and supports the WBA’s Judge Gregory L. Waller Public Interest Fellowship, which supports lawyers outside of our firm working within the justice system.
Foulston also supports the personal and professional growth of its staff members. The firm offers a tuition reimbursement program for eligible staff seeking a degree or certification. Once a staff member achieves a certification, the firm covers the costs of continuing education to maintain those competencies. The firm also encourages staff members’ participation in peer groups such as the Kansas Association of Legal Assistants and the Kansas Legal Professionals Association. Many of our staff members have been promoted while working at the firm, including some who have attended law school and returned to the firm as attorneys.