News

Seiko Shastri ‘21 has been named a 2021 Robina Post-Graduate Fellow.

Shantal Pai, 3L, and Heather Chang, 2L. are among the 2021 recipients of the President’s Student Leadership and Service Award announced by President Joan T.A. Gabel today.

The awards honor outstanding students for their invaluable leadership and service to the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities and the community.

Katherine Chen, 2L, and Victor Jimenez, 1L, will serve as Law Council the 2021-22 Law Council president and vice president, respectively. The students ran on a platform of improving the student experience and deepening support and communication for students who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).

Read about these two leaders and their plans for their administration in an online exclusive in Minnesota Law magazine.

Walter F. Mondale ‘56, former vice president of the United States and 1984 Democratic nominee for president, has died at 93.

“We are heartbroken by the news of Vice President Mondale’s death,” said Garry W. Jenkins, Dean and William S. Pattee Professor of Law. “As a politician, public servant, diplomat, and lawyer, Walter Mondale exemplified the values of leadership and service that we seek to foster at Minnesota Law. In addition, he led with a remarkable degree of warmth and humility that always put his fellow citizens and the common good first.”

Dear Law School Community: 

I am writing to follow up on President Gabel’s message about the recent killing of Brooklyn Center, Minnesota resident Daunte Wright, yet another unarmed Black man killed by the police. I’m saddened and angry that our community must yet again endure this incredible personal pain.

James R. Cho '99 has been appointed a U.S. magistrate judge in the Eastern District of New York.

Minnesota Law 1s Tony Sanchez, Emanual Williams, and Mica Standing Soldier were recently hired for three newly created public-interest clerkships at the Legal Rights Center. Now and through the summer they will coordinate public education and civic engagement efforts relating to the trials of Derek Chauvin and the other three former Minneapolis police officers charged in the killing of George Floyd. The clerkships are part of a unique collaboration between the LRC and Minnesota Law.

Mirella Ceja-Orozco, along with Elizer Darris, was recently appointed co-executive director of the Minnesota Freedom Fund. MFF’s mission is to end cash bail in the State of Minnesota and provide bail relief in the interim. The group, once operating on a shoestring, made national headlines last summer when it received more than $30 million in donations in the wake of the civil unrest following the brutal killing of George Floyd.

Four Minnesota Law students recently coordinated and participated in high-level policy discussions with members of the Biden transition team and incoming administration as part of the 2021 Summit for Civil Rights.

Read about the students' experience, which included connecting with a cabinet nominee and Biden transition team leaders, in a special online extra in the digital edition of Minnesota Law magazine.

Garry W. Jenkins, dean and William S. Pattee Professor of Law, has been named to the board of directors of Equal Justice Works, the nation’s largest nonprofit that supports law students and lawyers in launching public interest legal careers.