News

Minnesota Law's James H. Binger Center for New Americans received the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association (MHBA) Access to Justice Award at MHBA's annual gala on March 27.

Minnesota Law is pleased to welcome Lyle Cherneff as a visiting assistant professor of law beginning in fall 2026. Cherneff is currently a Liman Legal Fellow with the Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis. He received his B.A. with honors from Brown University and his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was articles editor for the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism and a recipient of the Israel H. Peres Prize for Best Student Note or Comment appearing in the Yale Law Journal and the Benjamin Scharps Prize for Best Paper by a Third-Year Student.

The aspirations of Minnesota Law students and the excellent work they will do throughout their careers depend on contributions from alumni and friends like you. Thank you for this vote of confidence in our extraordinary future attorneys. Hear from a few students whose lives have been changed because of scholarships.

The University of Minnesota has awarded Professor Nicholas Bednar ’16 the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship. The central purpose of the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship program is to strengthen the University’s faculty for the future. The program is designed to advance the careers of outstanding junior faculty members who have been identified as having the potential to make significant contributions to their departments and to their scholarly fields.

Robert J. Hennessey ’68 passed away on March 2 at age 82. He was born in St. Paul and was raised in the Rice Street neighborhood where he grew to love baseball, politics, and the law. He graduated from Washington High School and the University of Minnesota — he was the first in his family to attend college. He then graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1968.

Professor Alexander Boni-Saenz, Robins Kaplan Distinguished Scholar, has been elected an Academic Fellow to the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC).

Prof. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin KC (Hons), Regents Professor; Robina Chair in Law, Public Policy, and Society; and faculty director of the Human Rights Center, traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, to report to the UN Human Rights Council on the findings of the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI). Ní Aoláin serves as a commissioner on the COI.

On March 4 the Human Rights Center, Binger Center for New Americans, and Advocates for Human Rights held a special briefing in Geneva, Switzerland to provide UN member states, UN agencies, and international civil society with expert analysis of the scope and federal immigration operations in Minnesota.

Gregory P. Joseph ’75 passed away on February 27 at age 75. Joseph was born and raised in Minneapolis, and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota. He then graduated with honors from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1975.