News

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has appointed Karin L. McCarthy (’94) to serve as a district court judge in the state’s 10th Judicial District. In making the appointment, Dayton praised McCarthy’s breadth of experience and her “strong commitment to justice in our state.”

The 2018 Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting—being held Jan. 3-6 in San Diego—will host several expert presentations from Law School faculty and staff on various legal and legal education topics, including insurance law, employee benefit law, Internet and computer law, and more. A full list of presentation details may be found below:

The Association of American Law Schools has announced that Professor Brett McDonnell will receive a 2018 award for excellence in legal education, presented by the AALS Section on Business Associations. McDonnell will be honored with the section’s Outstanding Mentor Award, which recognizes nominated section members who have demonstrated exemplary mentoring skills.

Brennan Gaeth, a member of the Law School’s most recent J.D. class, died unexpectedly on Nov. 23 in Milwaukee. He moved to Kansas City, Mo., to take a position with the firm of Shook, Hardy & Bacon after graduation, and in October he was sworn in to the Minnesota bar. As a student, Gaeth was an engaged member of the Law School community who volunteered with the Asylum Law Project and served as a Robina Summer Fellow doing housing advocacy work with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services.

Professor Linus Chan, who teaches the Detainee Rights Clinic in the Law School’s James H. Binger Center for New Americans, has been selected by Minnesota Lawyer magazine as one of its 2017 Attorneys of the Year. Chan was honored in the “Partners” category, along with Twin Cities attorney Mai Neng Moua. The two were nominated by the Minnesota Asian Pacific American Bar Association (MNAPABA) for their work on the “Minnesota Eight” case.

Students in the Law School’s James H. Binger Center for New Americans and recent Law School graduates played key roles in a class action litigation effort that won a court order on Tuesday, December 19, temporarily blocking the deportation of 92 Somali men and women. The lawsuit was filed by the Binger Center, University of Miami Law School, and other legal services organizations in U.S. District Court in Miami.

The Law Library and Riesenfeld Rare Books Center recently received an important archival donation from Chief Judge Edward J. Cleary (’77) of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. The donated material is related to R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul (1992), a key U.S. Supreme Court First Amendment case—indeed, the first hate speech case ever heard by the court. Cleary, who argued the case from the trial level to the Supreme Court, has generously gifted the library his copies of the petitions, transcripts, briefs, and correspondence related to the case, for the sake of future study.

Lawrence Yetka (’48), who served for a decade in the Minnesota legislature and for nearly two decades on the state’s highest court, passed away Nov. 12 in his hometown of Cloquet, Minn. He was 93.

Warren Spannaus (’63), a former three-term Minnesota attorney general and candidate for governor, died suddenly on Monday in St. Louis Park, Minn. He was 86.

Former Vice President Walter Mondale (’56), who was both a mentor and colleague of Spannaus, told Minnesota Public Radio, “This guy deserves a very significant place in Minnesota history and the history of legal rights and justice. He was an extraordinary public leader and human being, and I would hope that Minnesotans would agree with me on that.”

Amy Hang (’18), a student attorney in the Law School’s Ronald M. Mankoff Tax Clinic, recently won a favorable ruling for clients before the U.S. Tax Court in St. Paul on an issue that usually favors the IRS.