News

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has appointed Shan C. Wang (’02) to serve as a district judge in the state’s 7th Judicial District, which encompasses Becker, Benton, Clay, Douglas, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Otter Tail, Stearns, Todd, and Wadena Counties. In making the appointment, Dayton praised Wang for the “diverse professional and volunteer experience he will bring to this important role.”

The New York State Senate has confirmed Paul G. Feinman (’85) as a judge on the New York Court of Appeals, making him the first openly gay jurist to serve on the state’s highest court. Feinman currently serves as an associate justice of the appellate division of the Supreme Court in Manhattan. “With decades of experience, Judge Feinman is a leader in his field and a trailblazer who joins the court as its first openly gay judge,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who nominated Feinman to the Court of Appeals last week.

The University’s Women’s Center has announced that Sarah Rohne, employer relations director and associate director of the Career Center, will receive the 2017 Mullen-Spector-Truax Women’s Leadership Award. Established in 1997, this award is given to a faculty or staff woman at the University who has made outstanding contributions to women’s leadership development and has ensured the long-term sustainability of her programs and initiatives.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association has named Professor Benjamin Casper Sanchez (’97) the winner of its 2017 Elmer Fried Excellence in Teaching Award. Casper Sanchez is the director of the Law School’s James H. Binger Center for New Americans and the professor of the Center’s Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic. The Elmer Fried Award, established in 1997, is one of the most prestigious in the field of immigration law. The AILA will present the award to Casper Sanchez on June 24 at its annual conference in New Orleans.

Aleida Ortega Conners (’13) has been named president-elect of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association, which was founded in 1991 to organize Hispanic attorneys, judges, law students, and other concerned members of the Hispanic community into a force for professional and community benefit. Conners is an associate with the Minneapolis law firm of Fredrikson & Byron, where she specializes in corporate law and helping businesses expand into Latin American markets. Her MHBA term began April 20 and will extend through 2018.

The Ramsey County Bar Association has named Judge Nicole Starr (’03) the recipient of its 2017 Excellence in Diversity Award.

Starr, a judge on Minnesota’s 2nd Judicial District bench since 2015, has been actively involved in human rights, diversity, and inclusion issues at local, national, and international levels for many years. Locally, she has organized tours of law offices for students of color. She served as vice chair of the St. Paul Human Rights Commission from 2005 to 2010 and has been a legal consultant for the Indian Child Welfare Center.

The National Jurist has named Nadia Anguiano (’17) as one of its “Law Students of the Year.” The magazine asked more than 200 law schools for “stories of their most devoted students with unparalleled attitudes” and selected 25 individuals from among the nominees, based on such factors as leadership, focus, and commitment to justice. Anguiano is the top honoree (of five) in the Midwest region. Last year, then-Law School student Rajin Olson (’16) was similarly recognized.

A new report from the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity at the University of Minnesota Law School describes how charter schools are worsening segregation and failing to achieve consistent academic improvement.

Today the University of Minnesota Law School announced a transformational $25 million gift from the Robina Foundation. The grant—the single largest philanthropic gift in the Law School’s history—will fund the newly named James H. Binger Center for New Americans, establish a James H. Binger Professorship in Clinical Law, and provide scholarship support to Law School students.

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.