Three Faculty Receive the 2024 Stanley V. Kinyon Teacher of the Year Awards

During Minnesota Law’s 136th commencement ceremony this past Saturday, Interim Dean William McGeveran announced the 2024 recipients of the Stanley V. Kinyon Teacher of the Year Awards.

Professor Jill Hasday received the 2024 Stanley V. Kinyon Teacher of the Year Award for tenured faculty. Hasday joined the Law School faculty in 2005 and has been the Centennial Professor in Law since 2013. She teaches and writes in the areas of anti-discrimination law, constitutional law, family law, and legal history. In 2014, Professor Hasday became a Distinguished McKnight University Professor. This is her second time winning the Kinyon Award, having previously been awarded in 2018. She has written two books: Family Law Reimagined, published by Harvard University Press in 2014, and Intimate Lies and the Law, published by Oxford University Press in 2019. It won the Scribes Book Award "for the best work of legal scholarship published during the previous year" and the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Family and Relationships.

In nominating Professor Hasday, students said, “Her teaching skill, legal expertise, and passion for her students make her very deserving of this award,” and “She always knows exactly what her students need to hear, and she empowers them to explore challenging intellectual questions. Her lectures are not just substantive, but artful.”

Professor Elizabeth Bentley received the 2024 Stanley V. Kinyon Award for clinical teaching. She joined the Law School in 2022 as a visiting assistant professor of law. She specializes in federal and state constitutional law and appellate practice. At the Law School, she directs the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic, where students engage in state and federal appellate practice involving civil rights and social justice work. Professor Bentley served as a law clerk to Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court of the United States during the 2017-2018 term. She previously clerked for Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Jed S. Rakoff on the Southern District of New York.

Bentley was recently appointed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals by Governor Tim Walz. She will depart the Law School in August.

In nominating Professor Bentley, students said, “Her clinic empowers students to take on a significant role in high-stakes and high-profile litigation. Professor Bentley provides detailed constructive feedback, and creates multiple opportunities to expose students to the real work of civil rights advocates,” and “Her excellent teaching, expert clinical management, and strong mentorship has made her quickly become one of Minnesota Law's most beloved professors.”

Professor Andrew Martineau received the 2024 Stanley V. Kinyon Teacher of the Year Award for skills and practical teaching. Martineau is the instructional services librarian. He leads the Law Library’s instructional program, which includes coordinating research instruction for first-year law students, teaching a practice-ready legal research course, and giving presentations on specialized legal research topics in upper-division seminars. He also provides reference services to the Law School community.

Martineau is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries and the Minnesota Association of Law Libraries. He is currently the President of the Minnesota Association of Law Libraries and serves as the vice chair/chair-elect of the AALL Law Library Journal Article of the Year Jury.

In nominating Professor Martineau, students said, “He is excellent at what he does, and is kind and approachable with students with all questions,” and “Every time I have connected with Professor Martineau, I have walked away feeling more prepared and with a clearer sense of where to begin my research. He makes a task that will be part of all of our careers feel clearer, more approachable, and more manageable.”

Stanley V. Kinyon graduated from Minnesota Law in 1933 and was on the faculty for 40 years. He was a recognized scholar in the field of commercial law and known as a friend of students, inside and outside the classroom. In his honor, his family and friends endowed the Stanley V. Kinyon Awards in Teaching.