News

Lawrence Zelle ’59, who founded the Minneapolis-based law firm now known as Zelle LLP, passed away peacefully May 8 at his home, surrounded by his family. He was 86.

Rising 3L Zoe Psiakis was selected by Equal Justice Works for a highly competitive 2021 Rural Summer Legal Corps Fellowship. She is one of 35 law students nationally (out of 460 applicants) to be named a fellow.

When a person writes software, makes a medical diagnosis, creates art or orders a drone strike, the law resolves many issues that arise. Take the coder, the physician, the artist or the military leader out the picture — as artificial intelligence (AI) is doing and increasingly promises to do — and the law will struggle.

The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) has named Joan Howland, associate dean for information and technology and Roger F. Noreen Professor of Law, as a 2021 recipient of its Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award.

The American Law Institute has, for nearly a century, brought together federal and state judges, prominent lawyers, and law professors to clarify and simplify the law, and secure the better administration of justice. ALI projects include Restatements, primarily addressed to courts, Principles, primarily addressed to legislatures, administrative agencies and private actors, and Codes, intended to be enacted by legislatures. One ALI project was the Model Penal Code, which became the foundation for criminal law in more than half of the United States.

Joan S. Howland, associate dean for information and technology and Roger F. Noreen Professor of Law, has been named the 2021 recipient of the prestigious Robert J. Kutak Award. 

The American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and the national Kutak Rock law firm established the Robert J. Kutak Award in 1984. The Kutak award is awarded annually to honor an individual who has made significant contributions to the collaboration of the academy, the bench, and the bar.

It’s a Thursday afternoon, and students in the Immigration and Human Rights Clinic are getting ready to meet with a client in a Law School conference room from an ongoing asylum case. They have conducted hours of research in preparation for the meeting, and are eager to share updates about the case.

Minnesota Law held its 133rd commencement on Saturday, May 15 as a livestream event broadcast from McNamara Alumni Center. 

Kao Ly Ilean Her '94, the first Hmong person elected by the Minnesota Legislature to serve on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, has died at the age of 52.

Her was elected by the Legislature to a six-year term as a regent in 2019. She was also the first Hmong woman admitted to the Minnesota Bar Association, and was a committed activist for Asian Americans and a beloved member of the state's Hmong community.