During the first week of January, students and staff from the Center for New Americans participated in two trips designed to serve vulnerable immigrant populations: a CNA-sponsored trip to Dilley, Texas, and a trip to Tacoma, Wash., sponsored by the Asylum Law Project student group.
The Hennepin County Bar Association has selected Law School alumni Cathy Haukedahl (’79) and Jonathan Bye (’83) as recipients of its 2017 Pro Bono Publico awards, which recognize significant contributions to pro bono services in the state’s largest county.
On Thursday, Jan. 19, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 330 inmates, bringing to 1,715 the number of commutations he granted while in office—far more than any president in history. Fourteen of those commutees were represented by Professor JaneAnne Murray and her students in the Law School’s Clemency Project. Four of the 14 were commuted on the president’s last full day in office, and Robert Zauzmer, head of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, called with the happy news. Ross Arellano Edwards (’16) took the call.
Professor Steve Meili was quoted in the St. Paul Pioneer Press concerning President Trump's draft executive order that would indefinitely prevent Syrian refugees from entering the United States and would bar refugees from all other parts of the world for up to 120 days. In addition, the order would suspend immigration of any kind from several predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy has announced that Kathryn Hoffman (’06) will be its new executive director. Hoffman has been an attorney with MCEA for the past six years, most recently serving as legal director. In her new role, she will lead a team of environmental attorneys, experts, and policy advocates who work to protect Minnesota’s environment and natural resources.
Fifty years ago, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. published his book Where Do We Go From Here, he tackled issues of racial and economic justice.
In an MLK Convocation held Jan. 18 at the Law School, Dean Garry Jenkins, Judge Michael Davis (’72), and Judge Nicole Starr (’03), tackled the same topic, but altered the subtitle from King’s “Chaos or Community?” to one probing the topic “Law and Leadership in a Fractured Era.” The convocation was sponsored by the Law School Diversity Committee.
