News

Third-year Law School students Rachel Molsberry and Katie Ziomek have each been awarded two-year postgraduate fellowships through Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice.” Molsberry will spend the term of her fellowship at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s office in Willmar, Minn., working to develop a medical-legal partnership. Ziomek will work for the Battered Women’s Justice Project in Minneapolis.

Third-year Law School students Shannon Jankowski and Amanda McAllister have been selected to receive 2016-17 Benjamin B. Ferencz Fellowships in Human Rights and Law. The fellowships, which are awarded by World Without Genocide, an organization based at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, are named in honor of international human rights advocate Benjamin B. Ferencz.

The Law School mourns the passing of Judge Myron H. Bright (’47), who served a record 48 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. Bright passed away Dec. 12 in Fargo, N.D. He was 97. He had been hearing cases until a few weeks ago as a judge with senior status on the court. Fellow judges and other court observers praised his brilliance, congeniality, compassion, and dedication to equal rights for all.

The Association of American Law Schools has announced the winners of its 2017 section awards for excellence in legal education. Joan Howland, Roger F. Noreen Professor of Law, associate dean for information and technology, and director of the Law Library, was chosen to receive the AALS Section on Law Libraries and Legal Information Award.

Miles Lord (’48), an outspoken judge whose two decades on the U.S. District Court were marked by frequent controversy and banner headlines, died in Eden Prairie, Minn., on Dec. 10. He was 97.

Lord presided over a number of “huge cases that reformed the law and set a new standard for judicial courage,” former Vice President Walter Mondale (’56) told the Associated Press. “When he got onto something, he really didn’t care about the consequences. He wanted to do what was right.”

In its December 2016 issue, the AMA Journal of Ethics has published an article co-authored by Law School students Joshua Preston (’19) and Caitlin Opperman (’18), along with Professor Francis Shen and other student members of the Shen Neurolaw Lab. Preston was the lead author on the article, “The Legal Implications of Detecting Alzheimer’s Disease Earlier,” which touches on several ramifications of the increasing use of early-detection technology to diagnose and treat AD.

The Law Library’s Stefan A. Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center has opened a new exhibit, “Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective,” that illuminates theories and moments of transitional justice from high medieval Europe through the war crimes trials that followed World War II. The exhibit was created as part of the Human Rights Center’s recent Transitional Justice Week and will be open through spring.

Anne Dutton (’16) has been awarded a two-year postgraduate fellowship through Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit organization whose mission is “mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice.” Dutton will spend the term of her fellowship working at the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, representing child asylum seekers in jurisdictions that deny children's claims at rates significantly above the national average.

The Law School’s National Moot Court Competition teams achieved outstanding results at the Region 14 tournament at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, this past weekend, sweeping the best brief awards and sending one team on to the national finals.

On September 28, 2016, more than 300 alumni and other members of the Twin Cities legal community gathered at the Commons Hotel on the University campus for a reception welcoming new Law School Dean Garry Jenkins.