News

Professor Daniel Schwarcz, Fredrikson & Byron Professor of Law, has received the University of Minnesota’s 2023-24 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education. This honor is awarded to exceptional candidates who have been nominated by colleges for excellence in graduate and professional education.

When Tatiana Freeman, founder of Nosh Posh, a health-conscious snack company, sought legal counsel to fortify her growing enterprise, she turned to Minnesota Law’s Business Law Clinic for assistance. Through the clinic, Freeman collaborated with law students and attorneys to refine contracts, policies, and agreements essential for her business. Freeman elaborated, “Without the Business Law Clinic, I probably wouldn’t have formal agreements.

Adjunct Professor Imani Jaafar wasn’t surprised to learn that the Law in Practice (LiP) course at Minnesota Law earned national recognition from Bloomberg Law for the second year running. In her four years as an adjunct professor for the class, Jaafar has witnessed its innovative approach to teaching 1Ls the day-to-day skills they will need to practice law.

Emanual Williams ’23 had just graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School and was studying for the bar when he argued for and won a commutation from the Minnesota Board of Pardons (BOP) for the client he had represented as a student in the Law School’s Clemency Project Clinic. The client, Hansakda Souvannarath, had been the driver in a drive-by shooting when he was just 19 years old. In 1995, he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, followed by an additional sentence of 17 consecutive years.

The University of Minnesota Law School joins together with the University of California Irvine School of Law (UCI Law), colleagues, friends, family, and the legal community to mourn the passing of former Minnesota Law professor Dan L. Burk, who served on the Minnesota Law School faculty from 2000 to 2008. Professor Burk was a Distinguished and Chancellor’s Professor of Law and founding faculty member and the first Chancellor’s Professor at UCI Law. He passed away on Sunday, February 4.

Has a noncitizen truly been notified of their immigration-related removal hearing if the federal government fails to follow its statutory requirements to provide written notice? In January, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the question of proper notification and whether the federal government may remove noncitizens in absentia if they were not duly informed of their hearing date.

The University of Minnesota Law School’s Clemency Project Clinic—in collaboration with the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic, ACLU-MN, and Mitchell Hamline School of Law’s Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners Clinic—has secured a major victory for four individuals it was representing in a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections (DOC). In Tanya Wagner et al. v. DOC, the plaintiffs had challenged the DOC’s decision to return them to prison.

Minnesota Law's Law in Practice Program, directed by Prof. Randall Ryder '09, and coordinated by Experiential Education Administrator Diana Witt, has been named as a top 12 finalist in Bloomberg Law's Law School Innovation Program.

Michael Berman ’64 passed away earlier this month after a short illness at his home in Washington, D.C. He is survived by his beloved spouse, Debbie Cowan. Berman, a Minnesota native, notably served as deputy chief of staff and counsel to Vice President Walter Mondale ’56 and as a subsequent advisor to several elected officials.

Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin has been named Honorary King's Counsel (KC Hon) by His Majesty The King of England, who approved the appointment of 95 barristers and solicitors as new King’s Counsel (KC) in England and Wales and five new Honorary King’s Counsel (KC Honoris Causa). Honorary KCs are awarded to those who have made a major contribution to the law of England and Wales, outside practice in the courts.