News

Richard A. “Dick” Bowman (’65), renowned product liability litigator and founding partner of the law firm Bowman and Brooke, passed away Sept. 7. He was 75.

Lawrence D. “Larry” Cohen (’57), former mayor of St. Paul, chairman of the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, and chief judge of the Ramsey County District Court—the only person ever to have held all three of those positions—died Sept. 11 at his home in St. Paul, surrounded by his family. The cause was lung cancer, diagnosed three weeks before his death.

At 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 30, the members of the J.D. class of 2019 convened in Mondale Hall for the start of their University of Minnesota Law School orientation. The next three days would be packed with welcomes, introductions, and briefings, intermixed with legal writing sessions, professorial insights, a mock criminal law class, meetings with career counselors, working lunches, an ice cream social, a Law Council social, and the ever-popular Great Law School Scavenger Hunt.

Governor Mark Dayton has reappointed Edward J. Cleary (’77) as chief judge of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Cleary was first named to the Court of Appeals in 2011, and was its appointed chief judge in 2013. His second term in that role will begin Nov. 1 of this year and expire on Oct. 31, 2019.

“Chief Judge Cleary has demonstrated a strong commitment to Minnesota throughout his career and as a member of the judiciary,” Dayton said in announcing Cleary’s reappointment. “I thank him for his past service and willingness to continue working on behalf of the people of Minnesota.”

The influential blog Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports noted yesterday that the University of Minnesota Law School ranked 15th among all U.S. law schools (tied with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) for the number of times its tenured faculty’s published scholarship was cited in legal journals.

The Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota has named the Law School’s Center for New Americans as its 2016 National Advocate of the Year. In announcing the award, ILCM executive director John Keller said that the Center’s “commitment to immigrant and refugee issues over the past year was tremendous,” citing its U.S. Supreme Court victory in Mellouli v.

On Aug. 3, President Obama commuted the sentences of 214 federal inmates, most of them imprisoned for nonviolent drug-related offenses. Among them was Bernard Gibson, 66, who was represented in his clemency application by Professor JaneAnne Murray and David Blevins (’15).

Jonathan Estes, Dara Johnson-Ayodele, and Hal Spott, all members of the Law School’s class of 2016, have been named Star of the North Fellows by the state of Minnesota. Each will spend the next year in a salaried position at a state agency that aligns with their educational background and professional interests—Estes at the Department of Transportation’s aeronautics office, Johnson-Ayodele in purchasing and service delivery at the Department of Human Services, and Spott in fleet and surplus at the Department of Administration.

Executive Vice President and Provost Karen Hanson has announced the appointment of Garry W. Jenkins as dean of the University of Minnesota Law School, effective July 31, 2016.

Wendell “Wendy” Anderson (’60), whose term as governor in the 1970s was marked by landmark legislation known as the “Minnesota Miracle” and by his appearance on an iconic Time magazine cover, has passed away at the age of 83. He had suffered with Alzheimer’s disease in recent years, and died July 17 of pneumonia at Our Lady of Peace hospice in St. Paul. Memorial service preparations are pending.