News

Second-year Law School student Abigail Hencheck (’19) has been selected to receive a 2017-18 Benjamin B. Ferencz Fellowship in Human Rights and Law. The fellowship, which is awarded by World Without Genocide, an organization based at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, is named in honor of international human rights advocate Benjamin B. Ferencz.

Karen Lundquist, assistant professor of legal writing and English as a second language in the Law School’s LL.M. program, has been honored as the 2017 Volunteer of the Year by LegalCORPS, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit. Through the services of volunteer attorneys, LegalCORPS provides free assistance in nonlitigation business law matters to low-income owners of small businesses, small nonprofit organizations, and low-income innovators in Minnesota. Lundquist will receive her award at LegalCORPS’ annual celebration, to be held the evening of Monday, Oct.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers has presented Professor JaneAnne Murray with a presidential commendation for her “commitment to ensuring justice and due process for all” as a leader with two NACDL clemency efforts: Clemency Project 2014, an initiative spearheaded by the Obama administration, and the recently launched NACDL/FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) State Clemency Project. Also honored was Marjorie J. Peerce, co-managing partner with Ballard Spahr, a New York firm that recently merged with Minneapolis-based Lindquist & Vennum.

Clinical Professor Brad Clary (’75) has been appointed to serve on the Accreditation Committee of the American Bar Association’s Council on Legal Education, the official U.S. Department of Education-approved accrediting agency for the nation’s law schools.

At 9 a.m. on Aug. 28, the members of the J.D. class of 2020 gathered in Mondale Hall for the start of their University of Minnesota Law School orientation. The next four days would be a whirlwind: welcoming speeches from Dean Garry W. Jenkins and other leaders, meet-and-greet moments, section assignments and meetings, no less than three legal writing sessions, insights from professors, introductions to the Law Library and Career Center, a group photo, an ice cream social, mock classes, working lunches, the Great Law School Scavenger Hunt, and much more.

The American criminal justice system relies on jurors to regularly decode the mental states of criminal defendants. When those defendants are people of color, decoding minority mental states is a centerpiece of the justice process.

A new study released by Law School Professor Francis Shen finds that it may be possible to make these “minority mens rea” determinations (mens rea is a legal term referring to criminal intent) without significant racial bias.

Professor Joan S. Howland, the Roger F. Noreen Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Information Technology, has been elected to a three year term as a delegate to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, the policy-making body of the organization.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has appointed Shan C. Wang (’02) to serve as a district judge in the state’s 7th Judicial District, which encompasses Becker, Benton, Clay, Douglas, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Otter Tail, Stearns, Todd, and Wadena Counties. In making the appointment, Dayton praised Wang for the “diverse professional and volunteer experience he will bring to this important role.”

E. Richard Larson (’69), a pioneering civil rights lawyer with the ACLU and the NAACP, among others, died July 22 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 73.

The Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost has announced that Professor Francis X. Shen has been named a 2017-19 McKnight Presidential Fellow. This fellowship program is targeted at the University’s most promising faculty who have been newly granted tenure and promotion to associate professor; it recognizes their scholarly accomplishments and supports their ongoing research and scholarship with supplemental funding for a three-year period. Shen is one of just five faculty members University-wide to be so honored this year.