News

For the second straight year, The National Jurist has named Professor Joan Howland to its annual list of the 25 most influential figures in American legal education. Howland, who holds the Law School’s Roger F.

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.

Over the past week, students and faculty from the Law School’s Center for New Americans joined forces with lawyers from the Center’s law firm and nonprofit partners to mobilize a rapid response to President Donald Trump’s January 27 executive order barring immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations. CNA’s work unfolded on many fronts, in Minnesota and across the country, and contributed to the Minnesota attorney general’s joint lawsuit with the state of Washington that, late Friday, secured a federal court injunction temporarily blocking the executive order nationwide.

During the first week of January, students and staff from the Center for New Americans participated in two trips designed to serve vulnerable immigrant populations: a CNA-sponsored trip to Dilley, Texas, and a trip to Tacoma, Wash., sponsored by the Asylum Law Project student group.

The Hennepin County Bar Association has selected Law School alumni Cathy Haukedahl (’79) and Jonathan Bye (’83) as recipients of its 2017 Pro Bono Publico awards, which  recognize significant contributions to pro bono services in the state’s largest county.

On Thursday, Jan. 19, President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of 330 inmates, bringing to 1,715 the number of commutations he granted while in office—far more than any president in history. Fourteen of those commutees were represented by Professor JaneAnne Murray and her students in the Law School’s Clemency Project. Four of the 14 were commuted on the president’s last full day in office, and Robert Zauzmer, head of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, called with the happy news. Ross Arellano Edwards (’16) took the call.

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy has announced that Kathryn Hoffman (’06) will be its new executive director. Hoffman has been an attorney with MCEA for the past six years, most recently serving as legal director. In her new role, she will lead a team of environmental attorneys, experts, and policy advocates who work to protect Minnesota’s environment and natural resources.

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.

A jury trial in southeastern Minnesota last week allowed a young immigrant woman to tell her story of labor exploitation and misery. The verdict shows that the jury of four men and three women believed her.