“To be selected as a Weigand scholar is a humbling experience. I am honored to join such a talented group, and I accept Mr. Weigand’s charge to work together with fellow Weigand scholars to help shape Kansas’ legal environment.”
Ryan Raybould
University of Notre Dame
Weigand Scholar: 2012
Hometown:
Leawood, KS
Education:
B.A., History, Yale University, 2005
- First Team Academic All Ivy League
- Varsity Men’s Soccer (2005)
- First Team All Ivy League
- Varsity Men’s Soccer (2005)
- Men’s Soccer Varsity team captain (2004-2005)
- Varsity Men’s Soccer four year starter
J.D., University of Notre Dame Law School, 2012
- Graduated magna cum laude
- Moot Court Tournament Winner
- Federal Courts Editor, Notre Dame Law Review
Employer:
US Senate – Office of Senator John Cornyn
Ryan Russell Raybould grew up in Lenexa, KS before his family moved out to Leawood, KS while Ryan was in the fifth grade. Ryan went on to graduate from Rockhurst High School in 2001. While there, he won two soccer state championships and captained the team his senior year.
Recruited to play soccer at Yale University, he earned First Team all-Ivy Honors and Academic all-Ivy while undertaking the role of captain. Off of the pitch, he volunteered for the Luther House Tutoring Program where he helped develop the New Haven youth’s math and reading skills. His favorite class at Yale was Cold War, and he wrote his senior essay on Kansas’ role in the Civil War.
A day after graduating from Yale University, he joined the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer. He played with the Wizards for three years before heading to Sweden to continue his professional soccer career. He played for two seasons in Sweden’s highest soccer league with Gefle IF. While playing professional soccer for two years overseas, he learned to speak Swedish and worked with the Red Cross.
His experiences abroad ultimately led him to Notre Dame Law School. During his first year, he won the Moot Court Tournament. In his second year at ND Law, he joined the Notre Dame Law Review, and served as the federal courts editor. Ryan also lived in and helped run Keough Hall dorm–a dorm catering to 270 Notre Dame undergraduate males. He graduated law school with honors, magna cum laude, in 2012.
Upon graduation Ryan accepted a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Reed O’Connor for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. After his completing his clerkship, he was hired by the Department of Justice as part of the Attorney General Honors Program, working in the criminal tax division component. From January to August 2014 Ryan was on a detail at the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia where he prosecuted street crimes. He is stationed in Washington D.C. where he tries white collar crime cases all over the country.
In 2017, Ryan moved to the US Attorney’s Office as a prosecutor in Nashville, TN.
Ryan returned to Washington DC to serve as Chief Counsel for Senator John Cornyn in 2020.
“Perhaps more than anything else, what draws me back to Kansas are the people. Kansans are a special lot defined by their hard-working mentality, sincerity, and dedication to improving the quality of life of others. I am excited to be back in a place I affectionately call home.”