News

Former UI president Willard "Sandy" Boyd ’51 died on December 13 at the age of 95.

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Boyd received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Minnesota. He went on to obtain Master of Law and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees from the University of Michigan.

A woman was absolved of liability from a more than $335,000 federal tax liability accrued by her ex-husband thanks to students in Minnesota Law’s Ronald M. Mankoff Tax Clinic.

Different students have worked on the case since the beginning of the 2019 academic year, according to Associate Clinical Professor Caleb Smith, who oversees the Tax Clinic. In addition to the federal tax savings, a clinic student’s persistent efforts saved the woman nearly $24,000 in state taxes.

Minnesota Law School will launch a Gun Violence Prevention Clinic in January 2023. The clinic is believed to be the first in-house law school clinic in the nation with a focus on promoting gun violence prevention through strategic litigation.

Julian Edward Collins ‘78, a retired circuit court judge, died on December 1 at the age of 78.

Collins was elected to the bench of Columbia County in Florida in 1988. After 11 years on thje Columbia County bench, he was appointed a Circuit Court judge. Collins held that seat for the next 14 years, until he reached the state’s mandatory judicial retirement age of 70. He served about four of those years as chief judge,

The University of Minnesota Law School, through the generous support of the global law firm Jones Day, has established a new scholarship and fellowship program to enhance the development of a robust pipeline of diverse talent at the Law School and in the Twin Cities legal community.

The Jones Day Diversity Fellowship provides the recipient with:

On November 18, faculty and staff of Minnesota Law and The Advocates co-sponsored the Fall 2022 Asylum Conference.  Over 200 attorneys, paralegals and community members learned how to improve client collaboration and build a case record to withstand appeal.  Participants built skills to address systemic and implicit bias when representing trauma survivors, including critical interviewing skills and techniques to effectively work with interpreters.  Appellate lawyers discussed common errors seen in records on appeal and ways court practitioners can reserve key issues for appeal.  The confere

November is Native American Heritage Month. Four Minnesota Law students, who are members of the Native American Law Student Association (NALSA), answered questions about what Native American Heritage Month means to them and about building capacity for the newly re-formed NALSA affinity group. 

What does Native American Heritage Month Mean to You?

The Association of American Law Schools has awarded Professor Jonathan H. Choi honorable mention in the AALS Scholarly Papers Competition for his paper “Computational Corpus Linguistics.”   

Choi, who specializes in tax law, statutory interpretation, and computational analysis of law, is the first Minnesota Law scholar to receive the award in two decades.  

Choi will be recognized at the AALS Annual Meeting  in San Diego at an awards event on Jan. 5, from 1:00–2:40 p.m. (Pacific time).
 

Fellow alumni,

Students participating in MinnesotaLaw's Immigration and Human Rights Clinic helped their client Rachell, a 27-year-old trans woman from Honduras, get asylum in the United States. Rachell, who escaped from physical and sexual abuse and the threat of gang violence in her native country, now has a permanent home here.