BARRISTER OF THE MONTH: KAY LOCKE

Kay Locke Managing Attorney, Juvenile Division at Montgomery County Public Defender

During his inaugural address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that, “[t]he test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” 1 This month’s feature for Barrister of the Month is a shining example of that progress as evidenced by her almost 25-year-long career serving the most vulnerable among us.

Kay Locke is the Managing Attorney for the Juvenile Division at the Montgomery County Public Defender’s Office (“P.D.’s Office”). Kay is a career public servant who has always had a desire to help others. She was raised in a Christian household where her mother instilled in her the importance of being compassionate and kind to others. Her mother exposed her at an early age to the work of individuals like Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Her faith has undoubtedly shaped her general approach to life but has also informed her approach to her career.

Kay began working at the P.D.s’ Office in 1996 in the Juvenile Division. The Division was still fairly new and evolving during this time, expanding from handling only delinquency matters to handling abuse, neglect, and dependency cases. She has witnessed first-hand the evolution of the juvenile legal system.

In the wake of the Columbine Massacre, many juveniles were facing harsher penalties as there was a growing concern to reduce high crimes involving youth. Although it has been a slow and oftentimes discouraging evolution, Kay noted that there has been, and is continuing to be, tremendous positive change in both Montgomery County’s Juvenile Court and in courts throughout the country that improve outcomes for youth. She recognized early on in her practice the need for a more holistic approach to dealing with the youth. She pestered her boss at the time that the office needed an in-house social worker. Public defenders are often among the first points of contact for indigent folks faced with criminal charges. Although the client may have a pressing, discrete legal matter, they often have a “bouquet” of issues that an attorney is not necessarily equipped to handle.

Kay has also seen an evolution in the office culture. As a compassionate person guided by faith, she treats every case with care and works hard to ensure that her clients know that she values them. She has worked to help secure funding for participatory defense programming. This is a community organizing model used by criminal defense agencies across the nation that relies on support from the community to improve outcomes for people facing charges. Kay has worked with members of the faith, educational and social service agencies to provide support and resources for her clients. She recognizes that there are several factors at play that contribute to children acting out in ways that lead them into the criminal justice system. Many of the clients she serves have a lack of basic resources, have high needs (e.g. mental health, substance abuse) that are not addressed, and untreated trauma. Kay and the team of attorneys in the juvenile division recognizes that “children are children,” and work to connect those children to assist in their release from detention and obtain the best possible outcomes.

Given the high demands of the job and the emotional toll this type of work can take, I was curious as to what has kept Kay coming back after all these years. Her commitment to show love, respect and compassion to each of her clients has been a lasting force along with the support of her husband who she affectionately nicknamed her “Little Buddha.” Due to her compassionate nature, Kay has never been able to fully compartmentalize her work life. She cares deeply about the work she does and the clients she serves that it can be emotionally taxing. Her husband, through many tearful discussions, has taught her that she can only do her best and advocate for her clients; the outcome is ultimately out of her hands. But, she says, “wine, friends and lots of laughter” help a lot, too.

Kay also practices yoga and meditation to allow her to cope and destress in healthy, constructive ways. She has practiced yoga since middle school and even teaches it at the juvenile detention center (pre-pandemic, of course), to her colleagues at the P.D.s’ Office and has even taught the staff at the Juvenile Court. Through her practice, she has learned that “stress is not accepting what is; I can still fight very hard for a client and accept what is.”

Acknowledging these limitations has not stopped her from going the extra mile for her clients. She shows compassion and love to all of her clients and regularly gives them her cell phone number so that she is accessible to them. Establishing relationships with her clients is both challenging and rewarding. Kay shared one of her most recent success stories involving a woman she represented years ago in a child custody case. The client had three children who were in temporary

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ENDNOTES: 1 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

PROJECT (Jan. 20, 1937), hhttp://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ ws/?pid=15349.

BARRISTER OF THE MONTH: KAY LOCKE continued from page 4

custody with Child Protective Services and faced an uphill battle to regain custody. Despite the odds, she successfully regained custody of all her children, and called Kay three months ago to invite her to the high school graduation of one and college graduation of another.

That passion to serve the person and not just handle the case is widespread throughout the P.D.’s Office. Kay described the P.D.’s Office as a supportive atmosphere that fosters social change and described her colleagues as tenacious, forward-thinking, and brave. The office, which is led by an all-woman management team, encourages community involvement. Not only does the office participate in and facilitate various clinics to help citizens with record expungement and driver’s license reinstatement, but it is active in promoting social justice on a systemic level. Recent posts from the office’s official Facebook page have shown attorneys making posters for protests and demonstrations in the wake of police brutality and other injustices plaguing minority communities.

Kay expressed the need for attorneys to be bold in their representation, which involves speaking on current social issues; these issues impact her clients, so her representation must account for those things. Although she thinks that everyone should intern for the P.D.’s Office (I strongly second that), she indicated that one’s job does not matter: “I think you can experience life to the fullest no matter what you do and help people.” Kay’s career is a testament that zealous advocacy and compassion for one another are not mutually exclusive.

By Ebony Davenport Esq. Co-Chair DBA Editorial Board University of Dayton School of Law davenporte1@udayton.edu 937.229.3555

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