Attorneys involved in a Kansas school finance lawsuit have chosen the dean of Pepperdine University’s law school and a Topeka attorney to serve as mediators to settle the case.

The attorneys told Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss on Monday that law school dean Deanell Tacha and Topeka attorney James Steven Pigg will mediate the case. Tacha is the former chief judge of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Nuss also announced that the court would hear the appeal of a lower-court ruling on the case on Oct. 8 in Topeka.

The state is appealing a January ruling by a three-judge panel in Shawnee County that legislators must increase the state’s annual spending on schools by at least $440 million