News

Last February, Bethany Owen ’95 became the new president of ALLETE Inc., a Duluth-based energy company. Owen also oversees ALLETE’s five operating divisions: Minnesota Power, Superior Water Light and Power, ALLETE Clean Energy, U.S. Water Services, and BNI Energy. She is the first woman president in the company’s history.

What advantages do think your legal background gives you as the president of a major corporation?

When the U.S. Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) agreed to review tax regulations for the first time in more than three decades, Professor Kristin Hickman was the first person they called, tapping her as special adviser. Hickman, a national authority in tax policy and administrative law, spent a year helping OIRA develop the process for reviewing federal tax regulations.

Anna Beadle ’10 was recently named executive director of the Minnesota Justice Foundation.

Housed at the Law School, the MJF is a nonprofit organization that strives for justice by creating opportunities for Minnesota law students to perform public interest and pro bono legal services.

Beadle has worked at the MJF for five years, most recently as a program director and staff attorney. Prior to joining MJF, she worked at Children’s Law Center of Minnesota. During law school, Beadle participated in the Child Advocacy Clinic as a student director.

Before being appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Elena Kagan had always wondered what happened during the highest court’s secret deliberations, when doors are closed and others are barred from eavesdropping.

Now she knows.

For nearly a decade, Kagan has been on the inside, one of only nine people who serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, deciding the fate of landmark, and sometimes more mundane, cases.

“The whole thing is a pretty good gig,” Kagan said. “It’s hard not to love the job.”

Tom Cotter, Briggs and Morgan Professor of Law, has been elected to membership in the American Law Institute (ALI).

ALI is the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and otherwise improve the law.

The federal courthouse in Minneapolis has been renamed in honor of pathbreaking Judge Diana Murphy '74, the first woman appointed to the federal bench in Minnesota and the first to sit on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Murphy died last year at the age of 84.

Belit Flores, who has a a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, spent five years doing research and development work at Cargill, Inc. before enrolling in Minnesota Law’s Master of Science in Patent Law (MSPL) program. She has more than 15 years of lab experience, which she is looking forward to putting to work in the exciting field of patent law.

Professor Brad Clary ’75 has been named the 2020 recipient of the prestigious Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for outstanding achievement in the field of legal writing.

Kelly Zech, 1L, served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the U.S. Navy specializing in operations for six years. Most recently, she served as a stay-at-home mom managing three children for seven years. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, where she obtained dual degrees in Management Information Systems and Entrepreneurial Management.

Welcome to the Minnesota Law class of 2022! Could you describe your naval experience and how it connects to your decision to study law?

The Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice and Ramsey County Community Corrections have been awarded a $197,000 grant to conduct a joint in-depth research and data-analysis project on the drivers of probation failures.