News

The Law School Career Center’s Wendy Griak and Simona Suen were awarded one of this year's Campus Climate Micro-Grants to fund a new project they created that helps students who are first-gen, from families with little or no legal experience, and/or from economically disadvantaged backgrounds obtain professionally branded business cards.

During times of social upheaval, many people become overwhelmed. Instead of getting engaged, they nod off, dreaming of quieter times. At the Law School’s fourth annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation, Laura Coates ’05, a CNN legal analyst and author, urged listeners not to be one of those people.

Coates began her speech, titled “Conscious Justice in a Fake News Era; A Reflection on MLK’s Sermon ‘Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,’” by reading an excerpt of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1968 address at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

When Professor Stephen Meili looked out on his immigration law class at the start of the fall semester, there was a familiar face mixed in among the group of eager students seated before him. Amna Arabi, a Metropolitan State University student taking his class through an individualized studies program that allows her to earn credits at other institutions, first met Meili five years ago when he and law students at the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic represented her in an asylum case.

At the May 12 commencement ceremony, five students were honored for distinguished academic, service, and leadership achievements at the Law School.

Alexis Dutt ’18 presented the two outstanding student awards selected by members of the Class of 2018—the Excellence in Public Service Award and the Most Outstanding Contribution Award.

On an overcast, cool, and crisp Saturday morning, the Law School held its 130th commencement exercises at Northrop Auditorium on May 12.

In his opening remarks, Dean Garry W. Jenkins congratulated the students on their hard-earned success and welcomed them to their new role as legal professionals who will be entrusted with the lives and affairs of their clients.

The Ramsey County Bar Foundation recently named 1L Elvis Kim and 2L Khansaa Nadeem as 2018 Diversity Scholarship recipients.

The Ramsey County Bar Association Diversity Committee reviews applications and recommends scholarships for law students based on their academic or professional achievement and leadership potential. Kim and Nadeem were among a group of eight students who received the scholarships this year.

Minnesota Women Lawyers (MWL) recently named 2L Rebecca Rosefelt as the 2018 recipient of the MWL Equal Justice Award.

MWL annually invites all Minnesota law students to submit papers on topics involving law and social justice for consideration for the Equal Justice Award.

As Minnesota prepares to host Super Bowl LII, its leaders are promoting the region as “Bold North.” At the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation at the Law School, Dean Garry Jenkins put a twist on this idea, asking those in the community—and statewide—to boldly confront racial injustice.

The Law School’s Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity and Law & Inequality: A Journal of Theory and Practice will present a “Summit for Civil Rights: Racial Unity and Integration as a Path to Prosperity” Nov. 9-10.

Vice President Walter Mondale (’56) and Rep. Keith Ellison (’90) are serving as co-conveners of the summit. The Kresge Foundation, based in Troy, Mich., is a sponsor of the convening and is providing grant support.

The American criminal justice system relies on jurors to regularly decode the mental states of criminal defendants. When those defendants are people of color, decoding minority mental states is a centerpiece of the justice process.

A new study released by Law School Professor Francis Shen finds that it may be possible to make these “minority mens rea” determinations (mens rea is a legal term referring to criminal intent) without significant racial bias.