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raduating from Bishop Carroll High School in 1983 at the age of 18, I moved to Topeka, Kansas, away from home for the first time, to attend Washburn University. Although generous scholarships from the school helped, I still held a variety of interesting jobs, including emptying trash cans in a city park, driving a train, riding in a bus with ponies, and transferring home movies to videotape. I graduated in 1987 with a Bachelor’s degree with highest honors (summa cum laude) in speech communications, with minors in philosophy and political science.

After college, I moved to Lawrence, Kansas, to attend law school at the University of Kansas. The Jayhawks won the national championship in basketball in 1988, and the town went crazy. Law school was somewhat less exciting, but I graduated in the top half of my class with my Juris Doctorate degree in 1990.

Since that time, I have practiced in counties all over Kansas. My practice has concentrated on all areas of family law, in Social Security disability cases, and in juvenile law. I spent many years serving the poor and elderly as an attorney at Kansas Legal Services, a not-for-profit charitable law firm headquartered in Topeka, Kansas. I have been in solo private practice since January of 2007. I am ably assisted by my sister, Margie Cartwright.

In my time away from work, I enjoy spending time with my wife and children. I am a fanatic Wichita State University volleyball fan (go Shockers!) and a determined (but slow) fitness runner. I love hot rods, and you can find the Ternes family spending warm summer evenings haunting local car shows. Novels from John Grisham and James Rollins fill the late evenings before bed. I am a life-long Catholic.