News

Students from the James H. Binger Center for New Americans’ Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic (FILC) secured an important victory for their client, Walid Abdulahad, in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In an opinion issued April 11th, the Sixth Circuit ruled that the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) failed to properly consider evidence that Mr. Abdulahad had presented to show that he would face torture if forced to return to Iraq, his country of origin.

It didn’t take long for Adam Mikell ’23 to decide where he wanted to spend his time doing pro bono work—the Business Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. After serving as the clinic’s student director in his last year at Minnesota Law, the corporate finance attorney in his first year at Stinson LLP has a special place in his heart for it.

Since 2013, students in the Law School's Child Advocacy & Juvenile Justice Clinic and Professor Perry Moriearty have worked to reform Minnesota's Heinous Crimes Act, which became unconstitutional in 2012 when the U.S. Supreme Court banned the mandatory imposition of life in prison without parole for children.

Two students in the James H. Binger Center for New Americans’ Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic (FILC) recently had the rare opportunity to argue an impact litigation case in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Mollie Clark Ahsan ’24 and Amirah Ellison ’24 shared the opening and rebuttal arguments, respectively, for a complex case involving the deportation of a local permanent resident.

On March 12, 2024, Gun Violence Prevention Clinic students Will Roberts ’25 and Arielle Hugel ’25 argued in Federal District Court on behalf of the State of Minnesota before Magistrate Judge John Docherty ’86. The Gun Violence Prevention Clinic, led by Visiting Assistant Professor of Law Megan Walsh, is assisting the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office in their lawsuit against Fleet Farm, in which the State alleges that Fleet Farm negligently sold firearms to straw purchasers.

Emanual Williams ’23 had just graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School and was studying for the bar when he argued for and won a commutation from the Minnesota Board of Pardons (BOP) for the client he had represented as a student in the Law School’s Clemency Project Clinic. The client, Hansakda Souvannarath, had been the driver in a drive-by shooting when he was just 19 years old. In 1995, he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, followed by an additional sentence of 17 consecutive years.

Has a noncitizen truly been notified of their immigration-related removal hearing if the federal government fails to follow its statutory requirements to provide written notice? In January, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the question of proper notification and whether the federal government may remove noncitizens in absentia if they were not duly informed of their hearing date.

The University of Minnesota Law School’s Clemency Project Clinic—in collaboration with the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic, ACLU-MN, and Mitchell Hamline School of Law’s Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners Clinic—has secured a major victory for four individuals it was representing in a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections (DOC). In Tanya Wagner et al. v. DOC, the plaintiffs had challenged the DOC’s decision to return them to prison.

Professor Linus Chan, the James H. Binger Professor of Clinical Law, has been named a Minnesota Attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the Group category for his participation in "Immigration Attorneys for Drivers Licenses for All."

Students and faculty of the Gun Violence Prevention Clinic, led by Visiting Clinical Professor of Law Megan Walsh, have been named Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer for their work in Defending Minnesota Gun Regulation Post-Bruen.

Included in the group are: Prof. Megan Walsh, Aidan Earnest '24, Arielle Hugel ’25, David Lamb ’24, Rose Lewis '24, Wyatt Lutenbacher ’25, Ted Mathiowetz '24, Chad Nowlan '24, Emily Byers Olson ’25, Will Roberts ’25, Nicholas Taylor ’24, and Meghan Zula ’25.