News

Mary Georgevich ’18  is currently a law clerk for Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Anne K. McKeig. As a student, Georgevich was involved in clinical work at the James H. Binger Center for New Americans in both her 2L and 3L years. In reflecting back on the experience, she says her involvement was the highlight of her law school career.

In what ways did you find your participation in the clinic valuable?

Derbin Kenneth Lindgren Jr. ’58, the last surviving founding partner of the Twin Cities law firm Larkin, Hoffman, Daly & Lindgren, died peacefully on Jan. 16 at the age of 86.

Three University of Minnesota law students are effectively pushing back against potential executive overreach, arguing and winning an important case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. The case, Jasso Arangure v. Whitaker, was decided in late December. The legal issue in Jasso was whether “res judicata,” a legal principle intended to prevent relitigation of cases between the same parties over the same issues, applies at the administrative level of an immigration proceeding.

The Law School just launched a new clinic designed to provide legal assistance to the growing number of immigrants living in rural areas.

During times of social upheaval, many people become overwhelmed. Instead of getting engaged, they nod off, dreaming of quieter times. At the Law School’s fourth annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation, Laura Coates ’05, a CNN legal analyst and author, urged listeners not to be one of those people.

Coates began her speech, titled “Conscious Justice in a Fake News Era; A Reflection on MLK’s Sermon ‘Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,’” by reading an excerpt of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s 1968 address at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Professor Daniel Schwarcz has been named the Fredrikson & Byron Professor of Law.

Associate Professor Steve Meili has been named the inaugural James H. Binger Professor in Clinical Law.

Meili, who entered law teaching in 1991, joined the Law School faculty in 2008 as a clinical professor. He received tenure as an associate professor in 2018.

Warren Francis Plunkett ’48, who served for 26 years as a judge in Minnesota’s 3rd Judicial District, died Dec. 30 in Austin, Minnesota, of complications from pneumonia. He was 98.

An interdisciplinary immigration-data-collection project proposed by Professor Linus Chan and Jack DeWaard, professor of sociology in the College of Liberal Arts, has received a faculty research award.

The title of the newly funded project is “Promoting Transparency and Engagement in U.S. Immigration Court by Ensuring the Quality and Utility of Data Collected by Volunteer Observers.” The University of Minnesota’s Human Rights Initiative approved $47,087 in funding for the 2019 calendar year.

Minnesota Law is home to a very vibrant community of international students from around the globe. One of those students is Natacha Garcia from Caracas, Venezuela, who first came to Minnesota Law in 2016 to get her LL.M. After completing that program, she enrolled in our J.D. program and is currently a 3L.

Why did you choose Minnesota Law when you originally came here for your LL.M. degree?