News

Kenneth Schoen, former director of the Law School's Institute for Criminal Justice, died on Sept. 1 at the age of 89.

Schoen had a long career devoted to criminal justice reform, helping to develop alternatives to incarceration and improve prison conditions nationwide. He also served as Minnesota commissioner of corrections, and as director of criminal justice grantmaking for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation in New York.

Thanks to a generous gift from Medtronic, Minnesota Law has created two new scholarships named after trailblazing alumni. The Judge Pamela G. Alexander ’77 Scholarship and Judge Michael J. Davis ’72 Scholarship were established to support law students who show a commitment to social justice and exhibit outstanding potential for legal work as civil rights or public interest attorneys.

Effective immediately, Professors Allan Erbsen and William McGeveran have been named as the Popham, Haik, Schnobrich/Lindquist & Vennum Professor of Law and the Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty, & Bennett Professor of Law, respectively.

The Law School’s Driven to Lead campaign has not only surpassed its original $80 million fundraising goal, but exceeded its $100 million stretch goal, raising more than $100 million in total for scholarships, professorships and faculty research, student support and fellowships, clinical programs and experiential learning, leadership programming, and the annual fund.

Associate Dean for Information and Technology Joan Howland was recently elected to the Board of Governors of the International Association of Law Schools (IALS).

Charles Rubenstein ’55, a longtime friend and supporter of the Law School, passed away on July 9 at the age of 99. At the time of his death, he was one of the Law School's oldest living alumni.

Born into a poor family of Russian Jewish immigrants, Rubenstein served in the U.S. Army during World War II. His route to Law School was through hard work and dedication.

After graduating from Minnesota Law, Rubenstein practiced as a sole practitioner and worked in many different areas of the law.

Minnesota Law welcomed 231 first-year J.D. students from nearly 140 undergraduate institutions in 38 states, the District of Columbia, and six different countries. It is one of the most diverse and academically accomplished classes in the Law School’s nearly 135-year history.

Key statistics of Minnesota Law’s class of 2024 include:

After nine years as a fixture on WCCO Radio, Roshini Rajkumar ’97 is stepping away on Sept. 5 to concentrate on her media coaching & consulting business. She is not giving up on broadcast entirely, however, and plans to continue her digital show, Discover Minnesota with Roshini, on the Good Neighbor’s Facebook platform.

Six Minnesota Law students recently shared their perspectives on their diverse summer career experiences, which ranged from working at a big law firm, to providing legal assistance to potato farmers in rural Maine, to interning at federal agencies such as the FCC and SEC, to performing corporate work for a major streaming entertainment network.

Learn more about how the students spent their summers and what they experienced by following the links below:

The Law School has named incoming 1L Brandon Redmon as the first recipient of the George Floyd Memorial Scholarship in Law.

The scholarship was set up by the Law School with the generous support and leadership of Catlan McCurdy '11 and Sanjiv Laud '12 as well as hundreds of other contributors.