Tom Johnson ’70, who served as Hennepin County Attorney from 1979 to 1991, died June 8 at his home in Minneapolis after a six-year battle with advanced prostate cancer. He was 75.

Raised on a farm in northern Minnesota, Johnson graduated from Duluth Central High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Minnesota before enrolling at Minnesota Law. In 1972, he worked on the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern, and the following year he ran successfully for a seat on the Minneapolis City Council, where he served for four years.

With a generous gift from Catlan M. McCurdy ’11 and Sanjiv P. Laud ’12, and an equal match from the Law School, the George Floyd Memorial Scholarship in Law was announced this week. 

The endowed scholarship will provide critical financial support, allowing underrepresented students, and Black or African-American students in particular, to pursue careers in the law and achieve their dreams.  

Judge Toddrick S. Barnette ’92, who has served for 14 years on the Hennepin County District Court bench, was last month elected by his peers to serve as chief judge of the Hennepin County District Court. He will take over his new position on July 1, becoming the first chief judge of color in the court’s history. Before joining the bench, Barnette served as a senior attorney in the Office of the Hennepin County Attorney and, prior to that, a senior attorney in the Office of the Hennepin County Public Defender.

Rising 3L Rachel Wydra, who has been living in her hometown of Downers Grove, Illinois, since classes at the Law School went remote last March, was motivated to take action when news came of the brutal killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Working with other residents of the village, a leafy, boutique-filled suburb of Chicago, she organized a grassroots campaign for greater transparency in local policing policies.

Professor Maria Ponomarenko is one of eight legal scholars who released a list of urgently-needed reforms to address enduring problems in American policing.