Max Kautsch, licensed to practice law in Kansas and Nebraska, focuses his practice on First Amendment rights and open government law. He helps news media and members of the public assert rights of access to court proceedings, court records, and government agency documents. He serves as the legal hotline attorney for the Kansas Press Association and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters, is president of the Kansas Coalition for Open Government, and is an adjunct professor at the University Kansas School of Law. Kautsch is also hotline counsel to both the Nebraska Press Association and the Nebraska Broadcasters Association. He represented the prevailing plaintiff in Roe v. Phillips County Hospital, 317 Kan. 1 (2023), where the Kansas Supreme Court held that the plain language of the Kansas Open Records Act “requires a public agency, upon request, to provide a copy of a public record in the format in which it maintains that record.”
Kautsch, a Lawrence native, received his law degree from the Washburn University School of Law in 2003, after earning an undergraduate degree in 2000 with honors in English Literature from the University of Kansas. He has been a licensed member of the Kansas bar since 2003, and has been admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of Kansas. His previous areas of practice included criminal defense and landlord/tenant law.
Kautsch Law, LLC services include:
- accessing court proceedings and records
- obtaining public records from government agencies
- advising news media outlets regarding current or potential defamation claims
- providing educational programs regarding the state of First Amendment law