ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The announcement from Jason Maxwell earlier this year that he planned to step away from the Liberal Municipal Court for a new position in Kansas City left a vacancy on the bench.

That vacancy will be filled by a new yet familiar face with Lane Frymire, who has much experience in Liberal and in the law field. As he tells it, his interest in the field was sparked at a young age.

“My father was a police officer in Evelyn, Texas, and he retired from that in either 2004 or 2005, and my mother, who’s retired now, was an attorney for the Internal Revenue Service for her whole legal career. So I kind of grew up in that law and order type of background,” Frymire said. “When I was in undergrad, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do – I was a political science major in undergrad with a pre-law minor. I started taking some classes in undergrad. Political science is more about political thoughts and theories and things like that, but I took like a constitutional law class and other classes like that, and it turned out I liked learning about the law. So I decided to get in the law, and then I, you know, started taking studying for and taking the LSAT, which is the law school admissions test. My last year of undergrad went pretty well, and I started sending out applications to law schools, and I ended up going to Washburn University in Topeka.”

That work, Frymire said, ultimately led him to Liberal.

“I was recruited out of law school to come and work out here by Rick Yoxall, Nathan Foreman and Nathan McCaffrey for their firm, and I started there in August 2010,” Frymire said. “I worked there as an associate for three years, made partner after about three and a half years, and then was with what’s commonly referred to as the Yoxall firm until retired in July of 2024. I had also worked with Ryan Redick, who now works for the district attorney’s office and down in the Oklahoma Panhandle. He left in January of this year, and then we merged firms with Sharp McQueen this year. I’ve been practicing law just right at 16 years. I’m originally licensed in Kansas, and I got my Oklahoma law license in September of 2016, so I’m licensed in both sides of the Panhandle.”

Eventually, Frymire said, he began working with Maxwell.

“I started working on a pro tempore basis for the Municipal Court about four and a half or five years ago, and he would ask me to step in if he was going on vacation, or sometimes he would have a conflict and have to recuse himself, or he would be out of town for something else,” Frymire said. “So I did that for a while, and apparently I did a good enough job, so I pretty much became his go to pro tempore judge, and so for the better part of the last few years, unless there happened to be a day where I couldn’t do it because I had another obligation or something like that. When he announced he was moving away from Liberal, was approached by Kim [Clinkingbeard] and city officials about coming over here and you know being municipal court judge. I didn’t want to do it on a full time basis because I still got a pretty thriving law plan with clients. So I two days a week I’m over here every Tuesday and Thursday all day, hands the municipal court, and then you know the other three days of the week, and then plus weekends I’m dealing with my clients in private practice.”

Frymire said taking the Municipal Court post was a rather easy decision.

“I was flattered and grateful they thought enough of me as a pro tempore judge to approach me about doing it on a more regular basis. I’ve been practicing law for 16 years and worked with the Municipal Court a lot of times,” Frymire said. “I looked at this was kind of a natural progression of things, and I’ve really enjoyed the time spent on the bench in a pro tempore role. It’s a municipal court setting, but we still do serious business here, and I take the job very seriously. I enjoy my time on the bench, and it’s a different perspective being on the bench board instead of being a member of the bar looking at the bench.”

Frymire added there are multiple differences between being a lawyer and a judge.

“The biggest difference is as an attorney you are an advocate for your client and looking out for your client’s best interest. That is not the role that you have as a judge. The role of a judge is hear the facts and evidence and apply the facts to the law to reach the outcome,” Frymire said. “What I’ve learned from other judges, and something I’m a big proponent of, is how perception matters. I want litigants, when they appear before me, to feel like they’re being treated fairly, and they have their day in court. The verdict might sometimes not go their way, but I want them to feel like they’re getting treated fairly when they come to court, and a lot of that just goes with treating the people in front of you with the respect and dignity they deserve.”

Overall, Frymire said, he is looking forward to working more with the Municipal Court. Frymire added he will also continue seeing clients at his current office.

“I appreciate the faith City of Liberal leadership has in me and how they had enough faith and confidence in me that I would do a good job,” Frymire said. “I’m still doing the same thing I did in my  pro tempore role, I’m just doing it more often now, and it’s a little bit different. I’m enjoying my time over here, and I will work hard to do the best job I can do.”