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Often, the early years are cited as the most crucial and stressful time for parents: late-night feedings, first steps, and helping children learn their ABCs. The list is long.

Minnesota Law alum Dan Solomon ’85, however, is on a mission to provide support for parents of teens and adolescents and their employers too. He sees this age as a time when children’s self-sufficiency emerges, but their needs are very much still in play.

Evan Bracewell ’26 is from Runnells, Iowa. He graduated from Iowa State University in 2023. This summer, he worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota. He says, “I was interested in this position because it allows me to assist with incredibly important work while getting to experience life working for the federal government.”

Patience Ranjani McHenry’s ’26 hometown is Beaumont, Texas, by way of the Bay Area, California. For her undergraduate degree, she studied sociology, psychology, and African American studies at the University of Notre Dame (Go, Irish!). This summer, she worked as an Edward Coles Fellow at the Illinois Human Rights Commission in Chicago. She says, “There are so many nuanced areas of the law, and administrative law is one of them.

Dawn Dudley ’26 is originally from League City, Texas, about halfway between Houston and the ocean. She completed her undergraduate degree at University College London where she earned a BA in History. Her dissertation was on Native American interactions with local courts in the Dakota Territory. This summer, she worked at the Transgender Law Center (TLC) as an intern on their impact litigation team.

Yessenia Gutierrez ’26 is from South Florida and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a double major in Biology and Latin American and Latino Studies. This summer, she worked as a Peggy Browning Fellow with the United Auto Workers in Detroit, Michigan. She was thrilled to learn from one of the unions at the cutting edge of the labor movement and energy transition.

Ellen Bart ’26 is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her undergraduate degree in economics and political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before law school, she worked in Washington, D.C., in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. This summer, she worked as an intern in Washington, D.C., for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in the Office of Chair Charlotte Burrows and was excited to be back in D.C.

Jacob Bourgault ’25 was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, and attended the University of Nevada, Reno for his undergraduate degree. He spent most of his life in the western United States and wanted to go somewhere different for law school. He said, “The University of Minnesota ended up being a perfect fit!” For the first part of the summer, he worked as a summer associate for White & Case in Houston, Texas. For the second part of the summer, he worked as a judicial extern for Judge William J. Fisher of the U.S.

The U.S. Supreme Court handed down multiple landmark decisions in late June and early July 2024 on some of the most contentious issues in modern American politics and society. Minnesota Law faculty who have carefully followed cases over the past few months share their thoughts on the decisions and implications for the future.

Minnesota Law alum Dane DeKrey ’14 began his legal career at Zimmerman Reed in Minneapolis working on class action suits on behalf of plaintiffs until he felt a different calling which led to a move to Fargo, North Dakota, where he became an assistant federal public defender. From 2019-21 he led the ACLU of North Dakota. He missed practicing law, so in 2021 he co-founded the boutique law firm, Ringstrom DeKrey PLLP. Its primary focus is state and federal criminal defense, with a growing civil rights practice.