Governor Tim Walz announced the appointment of Minnesota Law alum Luis Rangel Morales '13 as District Court Judge in Minnesota’s First Judicial District. Rangel Morales will replace the Honorable Shawn M. Moynihan and will be chambered in Hastings in Dakota County.
Professor Paul Vaaler was quoted by the Star Tribune from testimony he provided in the Feeding Our Future federal fraud investigation. Attorneys for one of the defendants questioned Prof. Vaaler about his extensive research on migrants’ finances, related to their arguments that their defendants relied on informal transactions that aren’t reflected in the financial data prosecutors have relied on.
Professor Kristin Hickman has been named Minnesota Law's Associate Dean for Faculty and Intellectual Life, beginning this summer. Hickman is the McKnight Presidential Professor of Law, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor, and the Harlan Albert Rogers Professor of Law. She is a leading authority in the fields of tax administration, administrative law, and statutory interpretation.
2Ls Leah Kanihan ’25 and Madeleine Kim ’25 joined Minnesota Law’s Gender and Sexuality Moot Court team, fueled by a passion for advocating for people affected by this deeply personal area of law. So, Kim was disappointed when she learned that their team would represent the petitioners, requiring the pair to make the case for something they do not support.
In the fall of her 2L year, Amy Cohen ’24 took Professor JaneAnne Murray’s evidence class. At the time, Cohen was weighing her clinical choices and Murray encouraged her to consider the Clemency Project Clinic, which advocates for individuals serving disproportionately long prison sentences.
“JaneAnne said to me, ‘There are many people are serving longer-than-needed sentences,’” recalls Cohen. “That stuck with me and drew me to the clinic.”
Professor Jill Hasday discussed the book she is writing, We the Men: How Forgetting Women’s Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality, in a Minneapolis Star Tribune article on historical and current struggles over Equal Rights Amendments.
Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin was quoted in the Swiss news website RSI about Swiss citizens who have been unable to leave a Kurdish-controlled prison camp in northern Syria. Prof. Ní Aoláin visited the camp as former U.N. special rapporteur last year. She described the conditions in the camp saying that up to 75% of prisoners are ill and that starving and not caring for this specific prison population could constitute a war crime and crime against humanity, just as detention without trial is illegal.
Minnesota Law Dean-Designate William McGeveran was interviewed by Minnesota Lawyer. As a member of the Minnesota Law community for nearly two decades, he spoke about being ready to work swiftly to build on what he lauds as the law school’s multiple successes. “One nice thing about coming into this with a lot of familiarity and time as interim dean is that you can hit the ground running more easily than someone else might. And so, I intend to take advantage of that.”
Interim Dean William McGeveran’s appointment as the next dean of the University of Minnesota Law School was noted among the latest in law dean and other education news from across the U.S. in ALM|Law.com.