What Kent Krabill, Lawyer, and Human Rights Advocate, Learned from Atticus Finch

“Before I can live with other folks, I’ve got to live with myself.”

— Atticus Finch from “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Few characters are as revered or compelling as Harper Lee’s crusading Southern lawyer, Atticus Finch, in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” In this beloved story, Atticus embodies courage in the face of systemic and individual racism, fair-minded, reasoned parenting, a willingness to fight for the underdog, and a steadfast belief in speaking truth to power that has enshrined him as one of the most compelling role models in the canon of American literature. As a young person, Kent Krabill dreamed of following in the footsteps of his fictional hero. And while they’re big shoes to fill and the journey wasn’t always linear, Krabill — now a veteran attorney, father, role model, and human rights advocate — hopes he’s become his own version of Finch.

Kent Krabill’s Trajectory From the Law to Teaching and Back Again

These days, Kent Krabill is a successful and sought-after trial attorney at Lynn, Pinker, Hurst & Schwegmann (LPHS), a top-tier Dallas litigation firm. However, his dreams didn’t initially lead him to the study of law. A wide range of interests and talents put him on a different career track, but still one that would eventually lead him back to fighting the good fight.

“I’m non-traditional. I’m the first one in my family to go to college,” Krabill said. In his late teens and early 20s, he went from pursuing engineering to working construction and everything in between. “I’m great at math and science. I don’t know what that means that a guy [who’s] great at math and science became a lawyer,” Krabill stated with a laugh. (Although it’s likely a considerable help with the voluminous and complex spreadsheets he relies on to order his cases.) Krabill was also fascinated by the workings of the human mind, which led him to change his focus to psychology and sociology as an undergrad. Rather than become a practicing psychologist, however, another door opened for Kent when he decided to apply all that he’d learned about human behavior to the profession of teaching.

After graduation, Krabill taught special education, social studies, and writing for a couple of years. “I would have done that forever if our culture wasn’t so screwed up by paying lawyers more than teachers,” he admitted.

When his wife, Michelle, made the decision to stay home with their kids, Kent knew he’d have to supplement the loss of her income. A gifted commercial artist, Krabill reports Michelle was making double his teacher’s salary when she quit. At the age of 26, Krabill says going back to square one was like starting as a college freshman all over again. With interests in biology and psychology, Krabill briefly considered pursuing a career in medicine, but after working for a doctor while still in school, he realized it wasn’t a good fit. He simply didn’t feel like it was the right fit for the way his brain worked. “I like to argue. For me it felt too regimented,” he said. And although he admired the profession greatly, he knew “It just wasn’t going to be the right career for me….”

After weighing his need to provide for his family, his love of teasing out solutions to complex problems, and his desire to make meaningful contributions in a real-world forum, law school seemed like the next logical step. Mr. Krabill’s career at California’s Pepperdine Caruso School of Law was followed by a clerkship with The Honorable Judge Edith H. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas. Following his clerkship, Krabill launched his professional career at an Arizona law firm where he had been a summer intern.

Not too long after they’d made the move, he and Michelle realized raising their family in Texas was a better fit for them, so Kent accepted a position with the international law firm Jones Day. Kent had only been with Jones Day for a year when Mike Lynn recruited him for LPHS. “I wanted to try cases,” he explained. While many firms prefer to settle out of court, Lynn, Pinker, Hurst & Schwegmann has a well-earned reputation for their trial expertise. For many ambitious lawyers who yearn to hone their skills by arguing cases before a judge, it’s the best place in town. “I came here as a young associate, and I’ve been here ever since,” Krabill said.

How His Lived Experiences Made Kent Krabill a Better Trial Lawyer

Mr. Krabill acknowledges that the tools and wisdom he picked up along his circuitous career path have served to complement and strengthen his effectiveness as an attorney.

One of the most transferable skills he learned is how to inspire empathy through the art of storytelling.

Non-fiction storytelling in a trial setting allows attorneys to present a contextual narrative that empowers juries and judges to follow and retain the facts of a case. Making these connections in turn inspires judges and juries to have empathy for their clients by relating the facts of the case to their own lived experiences. As a Harvard Business Publishing Dec. 20, 2017 blog post co-written by Vanessa Boris and Lani Peterson, Psy.D., a psychologist, professional storyteller, and executive coach stated: “Telling stories is one of the most powerful means that leaders have to influence, teach, and inspire… Storytelling forges connections among people and between people and ideas. Stories convey the culture, history, and values that unite people. When it comes to our countries, our communities, and our families, we understand intuitively that the stories we hold in common are an important part of the ties that bind.”

First of all, if you learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks,” Atticus Finch counseled his daughter. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

Boris and Peterson add that when the goal of communication is to influence a target audience (the judge and jury in a courtroom scenario), information minus context rarely changes attitudes, beliefs, or outcomes. “Research confirms that well-designed stories are the most effective vehicle for exerting influence,” they affirmed.

While not every case goes to trial, Kent Krabill prepares all of his as if they will. “The reality is… when you’re engaging in the discovery process, you’re looking at docs, you’re interviewing people, you’re sizing it up — How is this going to play? — and then [you] have to come up with the narrative,” he said. “It’s really storytelling. To me, that’s all awareness. It’s just who can come up with the best story because… the facts are the same [for both sides].”

Modern-Day Atticus Finch Fights for Justice

Kent Krabill’s admiration for Atticus Finch can also be seen in his many commitments to helping people experiencing injustice, whether it be volunteering his time serving the homeless, arguing voting rights cases, defending free speech, or helping disenfranchised Ugandan citizens obtain fair legal representation via a prison outreach program sponsored by Pepperdine Caruso’s Sudreau Global Justice Institute. Sadly, the parallels between the unequal justice meted out to the haves and have-nots in the Ugandan penal system, where accused criminals — guilty or innocent — can wait years to come to trial, are disturbingly familiar.

Krabill notes this Ugandan legal initiative was spearheaded by his favorite professor, Jim Gash (who has since become Pepperdine’s president and CEO) author of Divine Collision: An African Boy, and American Lawyer, and Their Remarkable Battle for Freedom. Several years ago, Professor Gash heard Bob Goff, author of Love Does, detail his efforts on behalf of African students and the sheer amount of work that had yet to be done. “Jim ended up going [to Uganda] and… there was this kid… in jail, but he had never had a trial. And Jim’s wondering, ‘How can he not have a trial? He’s been in jail for like five, six years?’ And then Jim figures out [Uganda doesn’t] have plea bargaining, and one thing leads to another,” Krabill recalled. So, Jim and his team introduced plea bargaining, which has led to remarkable changes in the Uganda legal system and helped countless people across the country.

Through Gash’s efforts working alongside his colleagues and the law students enrolled in the Global Justice Institute, local defense attorneys and prosecutors, the Ugandan Supreme Court, and the legislature, the program has had a wide-reaching impact. “We’ve set up plea bargaining in their country, and now Pepperdine is doing it in Rwanda… [and] several other countries.” Even though Krabill admits that the plea-bargaining system is problematic, and the violent nature of some individual cases can be nearly incomprehensible, he maintains, “It’s a step on the road to democracy and fairness… [It’s] such an amazing thing [that they] are literally changing the foundations of their country and their criminal justice system to bring equity to people.”

Atticus Finch saw the courts as the great leveler:

…There is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president,” wrote Harper Lee. “ That institution, gentlemen, is a court… Our courts have their faults as does any human institution, but in this country, our courts are the great levelers, and in our courts, all men are created equal.

Kent Krabill sees this text as an adult and realizes that much of what Atticus states here is still aspirational even in modern-day America. Indeed, Krabill recognizes that in many respects we still have a long way to go to achieve full equality under the law. Until that day, you can expect to see Mr. Krabill fighting to help make that dream a reality, both in and out of court.