News

The New York State Senate has confirmed Paul G. Feinman (’85) as a judge on the New York Court of Appeals, making him the first openly gay jurist to serve on the state’s highest court. Feinman currently serves as an associate justice of the appellate division of the Supreme Court in Manhattan. “With decades of experience, Judge Feinman is a leader in his field and a trailblazer who joins the court as its first openly gay judge,” said New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who nominated Feinman to the Court of Appeals last week.

The University of Minnesota Board of Regents has named Fionnuala Ní Aoláin a Regents Professor of Law. The designation, granted earlier this month, is the highest level of recognition given to faculty by the University.

“Professor Ní Aoláin’s contributions to the human rights field around the world have not only been extremely impactful, they’re inspiring,” said University President Eric Kaler. “She exemplifies the qualities of teaching, research, and scholarship that this honor requires, and I congratulate her on this well-deserved distinction.”

The University’s Women’s Center has announced that Sarah Rohne, employer relations director and associate director of the Career Center, will receive the 2017 Mullen-Spector-Truax Women’s Leadership Award. Established in 1997, this award is given to a faculty or staff woman at the University who has made outstanding contributions to women’s leadership development and has ensured the long-term sustainability of her programs and initiatives.

Members of the American Law Institute voted this week at the organization’s 2017 annual meeting to approve the proposed final draft of Model Penal Code: Sentencing. The project, launched in 2001, re-examines the sentencing provisions of the ALI’s 1962 Model Penal Code in light of the many changes in sentencing philosophy and practice that have taken place since its original publication. Professor Kevin R. Reitz, who holds the James Annenberg La Vea Land Grant Chair in Criminal Procedure Law, was the project’s “reporter,” or lead drafter, throughout its duration.

Cheiron: The International Society for the History of Behavioral and Social Sciences has awarded its 2017 Cheiron Book Prize to Professor Susanna Blumenthal for Law and the Modern Mind: Consciousness and Responsibility in American Legal Culture (Harvard University Press, 2016). Since 2004, Cheiron has given the prize biennially for an outstanding monograph in the history of the social/behavioral/human sciences.

The University of Minnesota Law School held its 129th commencement ceremony May 13 at Northrop Memorial Auditorium. Dean Garry Jenkins welcomed the J.D., LL.M.​,​ and M.S.P.L. class​es, their families and friends, and several special guests: Cathy Haukedahl (’79), executive director of Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, David McMillan (’87), a member of the University of Minnesota Board of Regents and executive vice president at Minnesota Power, and University Executive Vice President and Provost Karen Hanson.

The Law School welcomed graduates and their families for the 2017 Student Awards and Recognition Ceremony, held at 2 p.m. on May 12 in Lockhart Hall. The event acknowledged outstanding student achievement among those in the Class of 2017, prior to the May 13 commencement.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association has named Professor Benjamin Casper Sanchez (’97) the winner of its 2017 Elmer Fried Excellence in Teaching Award. Casper Sanchez is the director of the Law School’s James H. Binger Center for New Americans and the professor of the Center’s Federal Immigration Litigation Clinic. The Elmer Fried Award, established in 1997, is one of the most prestigious in the field of immigration law. The AILA will present the award to Casper Sanchez on June 24 at its annual conference in New Orleans.

Aleida Ortega Conners (’13) has been named president-elect of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association, which was founded in 1991 to organize Hispanic attorneys, judges, law students, and other concerned members of the Hispanic community into a force for professional and community benefit. Conners is an associate with the Minneapolis law firm of Fredrikson & Byron, where she specializes in corporate law and helping businesses expand into Latin American markets. Her MHBA term began April 20 and will extend through 2018.

David R. Stras, an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court and a former professor at the Law School, was nominated on Monday to the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit by President Donald Trump. Stras was a faculty member at the Law School from 2004 to 2010, teaching and writing primarily in the areas of constitutional law, federal courts and jurisdiction, and criminal law. In 2006, just two years after arriving at the Law School, he was named the Stanley V. Kinyon Tenure Track Teacher of the Year.