News

Minnesota Law students Dahlia Wilson, 2L, and Julian Roby, 2L, have been awarded scholarships by the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers (MABL).

Wilson is the recipient of the Judge Michael Davis Scholarship. (Judge Davis ’72 is a senior U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Minnesota). Roby is the recipient of the William McGee Scholarship. (McGee ’80 was a legendary chief Hennepin County public defender.)

Minnesota Law grads once again had the highest bar passage rate in the state, with 97% of first-time test takers passing the Minnesota Bar exam.

This result is significantly above the 88% statewide average passage rate on the exam.

The 2022 results slightly exceed last year’s rate (96%) and are the Law School's second highest pass rate since the introduction of the Uniform Bar Examination in 2014.  

In addition, 100% of Minnesota Law takers on their second or more attempts passed the exam in this administration.

The Law School’s new Civil Rights Appellate Clinic recently helped prepare and file an amicus brief in a Minnesota Supreme Court case contesting the legality of a police search of a woman’s shoulder purse during a vehicular stop.

Two Minnesota Law alums, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Ann Montgomery ’74 and Gerald L. Seck '69, along with Barbara Frey, director emeritus of the University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Program, were recognized as “Minnesota Icons” by Finance and Commerce and Minnesota Lawyer.

Dulce Foster ’98 was recently sworn in as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Minnesota.  

On Aug. 31, Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz administered the oath of office to Foster at the Diana E. Murphy United States Courthouse in Minneapolis.

Minnesota Law's program previewing the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022-23 Term is now available for viewing.

More than 100 attended the hour-long event, held on Oct. 3 (the First Monday of October) to coincide with the first day of oral arguments. The panelists—Professors Elizabeth Bentley (who also served as moderator), Alan Rozenshtein, David Schultz '98, and Liliana Zaragoza—highlighted some of the key cases to follow.  Cases discussed included: 

Minnesota Law Review's Volume 107 Symposium, Leaving Langdell Behind: Reimagining Legal Education for a New Era, is being held today.

The program, which is both in-person at Mondale Hall and online, highlights major themes in legal pedagogy, curriculum, and licensure, and engage law school students, faculty, and staff throughout the country in evaluating the shortcomings of the standard legal education and developing alternative methods.

Meet LL.M. student Anıl Can Çetinkaya of Istanbul, Turkey, who helped finance his legal education by performing translation/ subtitle work for a vendor that services large streaming companies, such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime. For this reason, Çetinkaya says he says watching a movie or TV seems like work to him, and he prefers to be active in his free time. Perhaps not surprisingly given his background with streaming content, his primary legal area of interest is intellectual property. 

With an MBA and a Master’s in Public Health (MPH), David Lee, 1L, has already had a diverse and interesting background that includes medical research, business-process improvement, innovation and invention, and entrepreneurship. Notably, he started an industrial hemp farm and invented a machine that helps with mushroom cultivation (patent pending).

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Meet Christhy Le, 1L,  who obtained her B.S. in biochemistry and biology from Brown University and worked for nearly five years in digital marketing for Anheuser-Bush.  Her first-hand experience dealing with consumer data left her with a passion for privacy and a desire to improve data-protection practices.

"I hope to work in privacy regulation to bring about effective and nuanced legislation as technology continues to advance," Le says.

A first-generation student, Le is also the proud daughter of two Vietnamese immigrants.