Law School News

The William E. McGee National Civil Rights Moot Court Competition is being held at the Law School March 4-6, 2010. A diverse cross-section of attorneys and judges make up the panels that preside over the oral arguments.

The second annual Minnesota Conservative & Libertarian Legal Colloquium, sponsored by the University of Minnesota Law School, will be held April 16, 2010, at the Law School.

The Minnesota Supreme Court will hold a special session for 1Ls on March 2, 2010.

On Feb. 4-7, 2010, in Orlando, Fla., Danielle Bailey ('11) and Emily Van Vliet ('10) competed in the ABA National Negotiation Competition and also accepted their trophy for placing first at the November ABA Regional Negotiation Competition. Student coaches Bobby Mir ('12) and Ben Tozer ('12) and faculty adviser Mary Alton accompanied the team.

The Law School's Civil Rights Moot Court team—3Ls Dana Boraas, Anthea Dexter-Cooper, Ann Entwistle, and Sara Seeger—advanced to the semi-finals, and the respondent team, Dana Boraas and Ann Entwistle, received the Best Brief Award in the National Religious Freedom Moot Court competition February 5-6, 2010.

Kevin Wolf ('92) was confirmed as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration by the Senate on Feb. 11, 2010. He was nominated for the position by President Obama on Dec. 21, 2009.

Antony Duff, the world's most distinguished theorist in criminal law and punishment, will join the faculty as a tenured professor beginning in the fall semester 2010. Duff presented the Law School's annual Dewey Lecture on the Philosophy of Law in September 2009, entitled "In Search of a Theory of Criminal Law?" In his talk, he laid out a new and fundamental framework for understanding criminal law. Duff will come to Minnesota from the Department of Philosophy, University of Stirling, Scotland.

The University of Minnesota Law School and the Office for Technology Commercialization (OTC) have received a significant gift of royalty-bearing patents from 3M. The patents, with an estimated value of $760,500, are expected to generate revenue approaching $2 million over the next five years, which will be divided between the Law School and the OTC. At the Law School, the newly established 3M Fund for Law, Science and Technology will support various programs and initiatives in teaching and research.

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor made a brief visit to the University of Minnesota's West Bank campus on Feb. 10, 2010. She was the featured guest at a luncheon at the Law School, and in the afternoon she spoke at the annual bipartisan Legislative Policy Conference at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

The University of Minnesota Law School's Theatre of the Relatively Talentless (TORT) will present its seventh annual musical, "A Midsemester Night's Dream," on March 5-6 at the Pantages Theatre in downtown Minneapolis. Like all TORT productions, it is written, performed, and produced entirely by Law School students.

Professor Fred Morrison has been reappointed to a five-year term on the Board of Trustees for the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. The Board meets annually to oversee the work of the Institute, which researches basic issues, current developments, and interplay among public international, national, and European law.

The Minneapolis law firm of Winthrop & Weinstine kicked off a new mentorship pilot program for minority University of Minnesota Law School students with a reception at its offices Jan. 20, 2010.