Driven

Minnesota Law’s Driven to Lead campaign surpassed its original $80 million fundraising goal, raising more than $100 million in total for scholarships, faculty and scholarly support, clinical programs and experiential learning opportunities, leadership programming, and the annual fund.

The Law School’s fundraising initiative was part of the University-wide Driven campaign that raised more than $4 billion systemwide. The campaign, which had its public launch in September 2017, ended on June 30, 2021.

Thank you for supporting future generations of lawyer-leaders!

How Your Gifts Support Minnesota Law

Thanks to the generous support of alumni and friends, the funds contributed to the Law School during this historic campaign have been instrumental in:

Establishing transformational Law School initiatives, such as the James H. Binger Center for New Americans and the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice
Providing numerous scholarships, making legal education more accessible and expanding opportunities for first-generation students and students from underserved communities
Endowing professorships to support our world-class teacher-scholars and expand the impact of our faculty through scholarship and policy
Creating clinics that provide legal assistance to thousands throughout Minnesota and have advanced the law through prevailing in precedential cases in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court
Supporting students in pursuing public interest work and other experiential opportunities through funded fellowships and internships
Fostering innovations that enable the Law School to nurture cutting-edge programs and initiatives that maintain its position at the forefront of legal education.

Transformative Impact

In December 2017, Rahum Mohamed (pictured above with his family) was illegally put on a flight by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Somalia. For the next 40 hours, Rahim and 91 other people were shackled to their seats. Several passengers endured excessive force and abuse at the hands of ICE before the flight was aborted and returned to the United States. The James H. Binger Center’s Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic worked with partners in Florida to file a class-action lawsuit against ICE, halting the deportation of the “Somali 92.”

Tomorrow's Lawyer-Leaders

As a 2L, Kristin Trapp ‘21 testified before a committee of lawmakers on the merits of a constitutional amendment that she conceived of and helped draft. On Feb. 26, 2020, Trapp appeared before the Minnesota House’s Government Operations Committee to speak in support of her proposal to swap out gender-specific language from the Minnesota Constitution for gender-neutral terms. For example, rather than referring to a senator as “he” in subsequent references, the state Constitution would repeat the word “senator” throughout.

Read about Kristin's efforts