Law School News

Professor Myron Orfield is the faculty recipient and Gilbert A. Castro ('09) is the student recipient of the Dr. Matthew Stark Award for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties for 2009. The Stark Award is given to faculty members and students who have demonstrated distinguished service, writing, teaching, involvement, or public leadership in civil liberties, civil rights, public education, or social justice.

Mikka Gee Conway, '11, is one of three students to receive the 2009 Arent Fox Diversity Scholarship.

The Labor Lawyer has a new home, the University of Minnesota Law School, which commences editorship in summer 2009 with the journal’s 25th volume. Professors Laura J. Cooper and Stephen F. Befort ('74) are the journal’s new co-editors and will edit collaboratively with a team of students led by Editor-in-Chief Jack Sullivan ('10).

Jennifer M. Green will join the University of Minnesota Law School faculty this fall. The former senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and adjunct professor at City University of New York School of Law had been uncertain about her start date pending completion of a major human rights case.

Lauren Beach, a student in the University of Minnesota's Joint Degree Program in Law, Health, and the Life Sciences, was recently selected as a 2009 Point Scholar. Only 11 recipients nationwide were chosen from nearly 2,500 applicants. Beach is pursing a J.D. at the Law School with a health law and bioethics concentration, and a Ph.D. in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology & Genetics. She expects to complete both degrees in 2013.

For the second consecutive year, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP is the first organization to achieve 100% participation in the University of Minnesota Law School's Partners at Work challenge.

Luke Grundman ('09) and Carmen O'Halloran ('08) have been named recipients of 2009 Equal Justice Works fellowships, to begin in September and last for two years. Grundman will work with the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis in the areas of affordable housing and microfinance, human rights, and consumer rights. O'Halloran will work with Mid-Minnesota Legal Assistance in Minneapolis in the areas of immigrant populations and children and youth.

President Barack Obama has announced B. Todd Jones ('83) as his nominee for U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota. The nomination, which must be confirmed by the full U.S. Senate, went to the Senate on June 4. If confirmed, Jones will replace acting U.S. Attorney Frank Magill, who was appointed in January 2008 to fill the position after Rachel Paulose resigned.

Prof. Joan S. Howland, the Law School’s Associate Dean for Information and Technology, served as an advisory board member, co-chair of the American program planning committee, and a speaker at the China-U.S. Conference on Legal Information and Law Libraries conference in Beijing May 27-29, 2009

Prof. Cooper was elected to a three-year term on the National Academy of Arbitrators' Board of Directors at the Academy's annual meeting in May. The Academy provides professional education for arbitrators and advocates, promotes research on workplace dispute resolution, and articulates ethics and guidelines for fair procedures in labor and employment arbitration.

The Law School has chosen Jean M. Sazevich as the Director of Advancement after an extensive nationwide search. When Sazevich assumes her duties on June 30, she will lead the Law School’s development and alumni relations office in developing the institutional resources to fulfill the Law School’s aspirations to be a leading center for innovative teaching and research.