Washburn Law School Association Honors Three at Annual Luncheon
Three individuals were honored at the Washburn Law School Association's annual awards luncheon on Friday, June 8, 2007. The awards luncheon was held in conjunction with the Kansas Bar Association Annual Meeting, June 7-9, at the Hyatt Regency Wichita.
Richard C. Hite, managing partner, Hite, Fanning & Honeyman LLP, Wichita, Kan., received the Distinguished Alumni Award. Washburn University School of Law Interim Dean Bill Rich is this year's recipient of the Honorary Life Member Award, and Bernard "Bernie" Bianchino, president and chief executive officer of Jaguar Telecom LLC, Overland Park, Kan., received the Distinguished Service Award.
Recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award are chosen for their exceptional professional accomplishments. Hite received his bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas in 1950. He earned his law degree from Washburn University School of Law in 1953. Hite has been active in the law school, the Kansas Bar Association, the Wichita Bar Association and numerous other organizations. He has served as a Washburn Endowment Association trustee since 1986 and on the Washburn Law School Association board of governors in various capacities including president.
Rich was chosen as Honorary Life Member for his dedication to the law school. Rich joined the law school faculty in 1977. He served as associate dean of Washburn Law for three years and was acting dean in the fall of 1985. For several years he worked with Washburn Law Clinic students representing inmates in constitutional challenges to Kansas prison conditions. He co-authored the second edition of Modern Constitutional Law, published in 1997. Rich was named interim dean in August 2006. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, he was a law clerk for Chief Justice Donald Wright of the California Supreme Court and served as a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Wichita. Rich was a Rockefeller Fellow at Yale Divinity School.
Bianchino received the Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding and exemplary service to the law school and to Washburn University. Before joining Jaguar Telecom LLC, Bianchino was chief executive officer of Pegaso PCS and a former chief business development officer of Sprint PCS. He earned two degrees from Washburn, a bachelor of arts in 1970 and a juris doctorate in 1974. He serves at Washburn as an Endowment Association trustee and is president of the Law School Association Board of Governors.
These awards are given annually by the Washburn University School of Law Alumni Association and are selected by the association's board of governors. The Distinguished Service Award and the Honorary Life Member Award have been awarded since 1963. The Distinguished Alumni Award was created in 2005.
