Mitchell Hamline Law Spring 2022

MITCHELL HAMLINE SPRING 2022

Changing

the World

A Message from the Dean

Dear Alumni, I didn’t realize how much I missed campus life until we returned last fall. While we’re still doing a lot online, being around our students, faculty, staff, and alumni brings me energy.

It also connects me with how they change the world every day, in ways big and small.

– Students in our Institute to Transform Child Protection have worked for several years to pass important foster care reforms in Minnesota. Governor Walz signed two such bills into law last summer.

– Students in our Reentry Clinic have, for several years, helped hundreds of clients expunge records that contain minor offenses that keep them from jobs, housing, or education.

In September, those students attended Minnesota’s first-ever cannabis expungement clinic to help people there.

– Our alums served as both prosecutorial and defense attorneys at the Derek Chauvin trial last summer—a case followed worldwide.

– One alum who is a legislator in Washington passed important protections in 2021 for tenants facing evictions.

When we accept students, it’s because we believe they can be successful at Mitchell Hamline.

While they’re here, we never stop working to instill a duty towards public service and finding ways to change the world, in ways big and small. It’s been part of this school’s history for more than a century.

Mitchell Hamline also has long worked to expand access to legal education. Last spring, I went to two Minnesota prisons to administer the LSAT. We’re working with the organization All Square Minneapolis to explore whether we might one day offer a law school education to current inmates.

There are a lot of reasons for this. Most people in prisons return to society, and studies show recidivism rates plummet when inmates attain higher education degrees. Few people are more affected by the law daily than someone in prison; why not equip them with a law degree?

For now, it’s an exploratory endeavor with a lot of bridges to cross. But I’m hopeful.

In September, when Minnesota’s bar examiners began a two-year study of the bar exam, I called for major reforms. In short, there are more effective and equitable ways to license attorneys (more on page 15).

And in February 2021, our faculty passed a resolution to do this school’s work with an antiracist lens. It’s not enough to simply try to avoid being racist; we must actively be antiracist.

I don’t believe these are radical ideas. I believe they’re logical extensions of the work Mitchell Hamline and its predecessor schools have always done.

When we offered part-time night programs, and later, day programs, people with day jobs and families—like Warren Burger and Rosalie Wahl—could attend law school. Today, our nation-leading online programs have broadened access to legal education for so many more people, including students with disabilities or those in places without a nearby law school to attend. And we continue to welcome dozens of students each year who are the first in their family to ever attend college, like me.

The legal industry still lacks enough racial diversity, so we’re rethinking our admissions process to make sure we’re accepting people from all backgrounds with a fair assessment of whether they’d be successful law students.

And when they attend, it’s our responsibility to make sure they can use their degree in the way that best fits their lives. Our students, past and present, continue to change the world, in ways big and small. My mission as president and dean is to find ways to keep opening doors to people to make sure everyone who wants to attend law school has a chance. I hope you’ll join me in that work.

Sincerely,

Anthony S. Niedwiecki President and Dean

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW VOLUME 5 Published by Mitchell Hamline School of Law 875 Summit Avenue St. Paul, Minn. 55105 651-227-9171 alumni@mitchellhamline.edu mitchellhamline.edu/alumni President and Dean Anthony S. Niedwiecki Executive Editor Tom Weber Art Director and Designer Karl Peters Designers John Diebel Todd Spichke

Jon Geffen ’97, director of the Reentry Clinic, and Professor Brad Colbert ’85 conduct a remote meeting in the newly renovated Rosalie Wahl Legal Practice Center. The Rentry Clinic is one of several clinics providing students opportunities to change the world. Story, Page 4.

Photographers Paul Markert Matthias Orfield Brady Willette

Supply chain issues delayed the publication of this magazine. We thank you for your patience. We are also shifting the publication of the annual magazine to the spring to better reflect our school's academic year.

Look for our next issue in spring 2023.

Big Year for Clinics

Very successful 2021 built on a century of excellence

The Latest Innovation

HyFlex allows online and on-campus students to attend class simultaneously

Mama Sharon

For 30 years, Sharon Van Leer has been ‘the model of caring’ for students

A Focus on Access

Judge Richelle Wahi ’03 works for equity in the justice system

Writers Doug Belden Tom Weber Allison Burke Michelle Lee Goode Marla Khan-Schwartz Todd Nelson Caroline Yang

BOARD OF TRUSTEES Chair Frank V. Harris ’75

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Vice Chair Nicole James Gilchrist ’03 Secretary Steven J. Kirsch ’76 Treasurer Gregory L. Buck ’87

8 12 22

Judge Reynaldo A. Aligada ’02 Brian Batzli ’85 Alex Beeby ’16 Christine Chalstrom ’91 John. J. Choi ’95 Sam Clark Gloria Contreras Edin ’05 Scott Flaherty Jeanne M. Forneris Judge Donovan W. Frank ’77 Patrick Garay-Heelan ’09 Judge Sara Grewing ’03 Mark A. Hallberg ’79 Dr. Linda N. Hanson David G. Hellmuth ’92 Jean F. Holloway Jim Jacobson Christine Kucera Kalla ’94 Frances L. Kern ’13 Dr. Fayneese Miller Chris Montana ’13 Christopher Pham ’09 David D. Ransom ’91 Susan C. Rhode ’85 Magistrate Judge Becky R. Thorson ’95 Ugo Ukabam ’02 Wendy K. Watson ’97 Melissa Lee Wright ’93

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Photograph by CAROLINE YANG

Mitchell Hamline held a commencement ceremony on June 6, 2021, at CHS Field in St. Paul, home of the minor league Saints. It was one of the first events to be held in person in more than a year. Graduates walked the base paths to receive their diplomas on a stage built near second base. Students who graduated in spring 2020 and winter 2021 were also invited to have the chance for an in person event, after those two ceremonies were held online.

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1921 2021 How students continue to change the world through hands-on legal experience

BY DOUG BELDEN

I

n early 1921, United Charities of St. Paul reported it was finally free from financial worry and could “give our attention to matters of method and policy.” One area to be bolstered was legal aid. The general secretary noted with satisfaction on April 21 that United Charities had “succeeded in carrying out our long cherished plan of establishing a connection with the St. Paul Law School.

“Senior students of [St. Paul College of Law] are assigned to the District offices for field work,” the report said, “so that they may learn to know and value social evidence as it appears in family case work, and later to do definite legal work in the Central office.”

A century later, St. Paul College of Law is now Mitchell Hamline, but the school is still offering students the opportunity to get direct legal experience in a variety of clinics connected to needs in the community.

In 2021, in addition to celebrating a string of successes in court rulings, legislative action, and client service, clinic leaders and participants got a complete makeover of their space on the east end of the second floor. The $772,000 renovation shrunk the size of faculty offices in favor of shared spaces where students, professors, and clients can work together.

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Cierra Buckner, Miriam Itzkowitz, and Joanna Woolman (left to right) from Mitchell Hamline’s Institute to Transform Child Protection, at an event in October 2021, celebrating two new laws aimed at helping children and families. The institute had lobbied for the proposals for several years.

“That’s what the clinic is all about, working collaboratively, and that energy we’re hoping to get from having students around working together, with each other, and with the faculty,” said Professor Brad Colbert ’85, director of Mitchell Hamline’s clinical program.

The new space also includes private meeting areas for client consultations and conference rooms set up for online court appearances.

The partnership with United Charities no longer exists, but over the intervening century, Mitchell Hamline’s predecessor schools carved a path in experiential education. It established one of the nation’s first clinical programs in 1973 as well as groundbreaking clinics in alternative dispute resolution and child advocacy in the early 1990s. Clinical experience remains at the core of the school’s mission.

“It’s always been that the practice of law is an honorable profession, and the clinics are a great way—maybe the best way—to teach people how to practice law.”

Professor Brad Colbert ’85

“The best thing about this law school from a clinician’s point of view is that we’re seen as equals, we’re very much respected for what we do,” Colbert said. “It’s always been that the practice of law is an honorable profession, and the clinics are a great way—maybe the best way—to teach people how to practice law.

“That’s been the promise of the clinics and what makes Mitchell Hamline different.”

Making a difference Laura Sweeney ’21, who was named a Law Student of the Year semifinalist last year, recalled a client she worked with in a clinic whose gross misdemeanor conviction from college was preventing him from pursuing his lifelong goal of becoming a university professor. She helped get his record expunged, which freed him to begin a grad school program. “It felt really nice that I was able to help him pursue his dreams,” she said.

Students in the Intellectual Property Clinic succeeded in helping a solo inventor secure a patent in a process that took five years. By the time it was approved, the inventor had died, but the clinic sent the patent to his family to be framed as a memento of their loved one.

“You’re getting your hands in it and you’re talking with the people whose lives you are going to be helping improve.”

Laura Sweeney ’21

This is the core of what clinic work is about, Sweeney said—law students getting a chance to make a difference in the lives of actual people. “You’re getting your hands in it and you’re talking with the people whose lives you are going to be helping improve.”

The policy clinic in the Institute to Transform Child Protection essentially grew out of the experience of students, staff, and clients in the direct representation clinic. Natalie Netzel ’15, assistant professor and director of education and advocacy at the institute, says there were

“hundreds of calls over years” from individuals having trouble with the system, so they developed a new clinic aimed at changing laws and rules to improve Minnesota’s child welfare system.

Student Hannah Burton, a social worker for eight years, came to Mitchell Hamline because of the institute and its clinical work. After graduation, she wants to continue to “work within an interdisciplinary team to represent parents and relatives in the child welfare system and use what we learn from those experiences to inform change in child welfare policy and practice.”

Staying in tune with community needs. Giving law students the chance to make a real difference in people’s lives. Advocating for the betterment of society. It would all sound very familiar to the leaders of the St. Paul College of Law all those years ago. “The students are assigned regular work, which gives them training in dealing with facts, in preparing cases, and assisting in the trial of cases in court,” reads a report from school leaders in May 1921 on the recently established clinic involving the college and United Charities.

“They have found the experience which they have gained thereby very valuable.”

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“This is a very big year.”

Natalie Netzel, of the Institute to Transform Child Protection, was talking about the passage of two bills in the Minnesota Legislature in 2021 that the institute had pushed for with the help of clinic students. But she could have been describing the string of wins across the school’s clinical programs in 2021.

MARCH: Laura Sweeney ’21, who was involved in the Reentry and Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP) clinics, was named a semifinalist for Law Student of the Year by National Jurist magazine. In June, Claire Beyer ’21, who worked in the same clinics, was named an Outstanding Clinic Student by the Clinical Legal Education Association.

JUNE: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed the boundaries on the Yakama Reservation in Washington, in a case where clinic students helped Colette Routel, then the co-director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute, research and write an amicus brief. This followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Cooley that tribes could temporarily detain and search non-Indians believed to have committed crimes in Indian Country. Students helped edit an amicus brief in that case as well, and the brief was referenced during oral arguments. And it all followed the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on treaty rights in July 2020 in McGirt v. Oklahoma, in which clinic students contributed to a brief that was cited by the Court in its opinion.

JUNE: The Minnesota Legislature passed two bills long advocated by the Institute to Transform Child Protection and its clinical students: One mandating counsel for parents in child protection cases, the other making it easier for relatives to get licensed to provide foster care. In August, Brooke Beskau Warg ’19, following up on work she had begun as a clinic student, argued the first in-person case at the Minnesota Supreme Court after a monthslong pandemic break, resulting in a ruling that clarified parental rights in important ways.

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JULY: Students Martha Johnson and Tara Baker briefed and argued a case before the Minnesota Court of Appeals and won a ruling that reversed the termination of a grandmother’s custodial rights.

SEPTEMBER: At an event believed to be the first of its kind in Minnesota, Reentry Clinic staff and students met with dozens of people to work toward expunging criminal records for simple, nonviolent cannabis or petty misdemeanors.

This followed significant efforts in the Reentry and LAMP clinics during the pandemic to respond to urgent needs, including helping secure medical releases for inmates. And clinic leaders have started a conversation with community organizations about Mitchell Hamline’s potential involvement in the first ABA-accredited J.D. program for inmates at an ABA-approved law school.

DECEMBER: LAMP Clinic students Matt Wilkening and Andy Harris reached a successful settlement in a class-action lawsuit they brought against the Steele County, Minnesota, sheriff. The county agreed to change its policy that charged inmates to stay in jail and refunded money it had collected.

The Reentry Clinic won a pardon for a man convicted of drug offenses over 20 years ago. He had served 54 months in prison and turned his life around, but the convictions were holding him back from pursuing his goals of becoming a substanceabuse counselor and youth mentor. Student Madison Marchus prepared the pardon application under the supervision of Assistant Teaching Professor Elana Dahlager, who made the successful argument for the pardon.

In summer 2021, crews overhauled Mitchell Hamline’s clinical education space on the second floor. The 4,600-square foot area was stripped to the studs, revealing some of the original walls of the Catholic high school that operated there for decades before the law school.

The renovation created more office space for faculty and staff, as well as places where students can meet with clients.

The clinical education program is a model for law students to gain real world legal experience with actual clients. That program was co-created by Rosalie Wahl ’67, who later became the first woman on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The reconstructed Rosalie Wahl Legal Practice Center also contains a new memento. During construction, a spot was found behind where the new drywall would hang, and an idea was born to hide a time capsule. Future finders will get a sense of what was happening at Mitchell Hamline in the summer of 2021 with artifacts including a commencement program and a mask to denote living during a pandemic.

Professor Peter Knapp, longtime clinical program co-director, and Associate Professor Ana Pottratz Acosta, clinical instructor for the Medical Legal Partnership, helped place the time capsule in July.

The construction project was funded with a generous gift from the estate of Peter Berge ’83, a former adjunct professor who taught in clinics. “I can’t help but think if Peter were here today, he’d very much approve of what we did with this space,” said Knapp. “I think he would say it fits well with how we work with students to get them real-world legal experience.”

Professors Peter Knapp and Ana Pottratz Acosta help place the time capsule behind a wall in the refurbished clinical education space on the second floor, July, 19, 2021.

Learn more about the renovation of the clinical education space mitchellhamline.edu/lpc MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

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Amidst navigating COVID and returning safely to campus, Mitchell Hamline has also kept innovating

BY TODD NELSON

Christine Szaj

W

hen pandemic lockdowns began in March 2020, the rush to convert Mitchell Hamline’s in-person law classes to online might stand as one of the school’s finest moments. Or it was just another day at the office.

Or maybe both.

On one hand, the school’s in-house information technology services leaders and employees quickly mobilized to engineer the online transition. Students and faculty quickly learned or improved their use of Zoom and other digital tools.

On the other hand, Mitchell Hamline was as prepared as any law school in the country to overcome the pandemic’s hurdles. That’s because of the experience gained after its 2015 launch of the nation’s first hybrid online/on-campus J.D. program at an ABA-approved law school—now known as the blended-learning option, which combines distance learning with in-person instruction when possible.

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More tellingly, the school’s response to the pandemic’s unprecedented challenges marks not a beginning or an end. It’s only the latest steps in answering Dean Anthony Niedwiecki’s call for a “technological transformation” of Mitchell Hamline’s approach to legal education. The school didn’t just rest on its laurels as a leader among online learning; it has spent the pandemic further innovating. That transformation aligns with Niedwiecki’s vision of a school always looking for ways to make law school accessible for more people.

“The dean came in with two overriding priorities,” said Professor Greg Duhl, senior academic technology officer. “One is diversity, equity, and inclusion. The other is technology. And they’re intertwined because technology helps increase access. It’s really reimagining how legal education and law schools work with technology. We did it when we started the hybrid program and now, we have the opportunity to do it again.”

Building on his role in helping create what is now the blended-learning option, Duhl leads a newly constituted department that has brought together instructional designers, academic technology, and technology support staff.

The latest reimagining—as students returned to campus for fall classes—was the introduction of HyFlex.

The model, combining Greg Duhl the words “hybrid” and “flexible,” only happens with synchronous classes—those that occur on set days and times. Previously, those classes were only offered in-person. And all the remote classes were asynchronous, meaning students access the material and do the assignments on their own time. But with HyFlex, students now can be in the classroom or on Zoom. Those who join remotely appear on monitors so faculty and other students can see and interact with them.

“Our relatively early move into the blended education space gave us an important advantage when the pandemic hit, but we couldn’t sit still,” Jim Hilbert said Professor Jim Hilbert, vice dean of academic and faculty affairs. “I’m excited that we kept innovating; kept pushing to see what new technologies can offer; and stayed ahead of other law schools as we use these tools to educate our students and get them ready to be lawyers.”

The school’s first two HyFlex courses happened last summer; they were also the first classes with in-person attendance in more than a year. The courses started right after Mitchell Hamline held its first in-person commencement after two previous online ceremonies. Full vaccination was required to be on campus last fall.

Selva Palani, director of academic technology and technology support, spent two weeks observing daylong HyFlex summer classes to learn how to better incorporate technology into faculty training for the fall.

Many classrooms received technology upgrades over the summer: new cameras, ceiling

microphones, and large monitors that can move between classrooms.

“The good thing is we were already prepared,” said Palani, noting the upgrades had been in the works before the pandemic.

Amanda Soderlind, director of instructional design and development, said Mitchell Hamline pursues innovation in delivery methods—such as HyFlex, which is relatively new in higher education— as well as in different technologies to use within courses.

“I work closely with our academic technology team Amanda Soderlind to continually evaluate the technology tools we use,” Soderlind said. “We look to see if they’re fitting our needs for what we’re delivering and how we can use technology to most effectively design and deliver content to students.

“But doing that also lets us meet other goals, like designing and delivering equitable courses for all students, regardless of the programs they’re enrolled in.”

Instructional designers work closely with faculty to help build and create content for the asynchronous online learning in the blended program, according to senior instructional designer Kelli Simpson. The designers also help faculty identify the best online vehicles for delivering content to students.

“Even with students back in the classroom, many faculty still want that flexibility for students to have different ways to access content,” Simpson said.

“In the blended program, we work to design modules and the scope and the sequence of a course to find best practices for how to take their content and deliver it effectively using 21st century practices in an equitable way.”

“In HyFlex, I’ve worked a lot with faculty to find the best ways to incorporate inperson and online learning Kelli Simpson simultaneously and making sure it feels like a cohesive experience instead of two separate groups of students,” Simpson said.

Unlike most law schools that offer blended and other forms of online instruction, Mitchell Hamline placed all the resources for developing and delivering that learning in-house. Programs that partnered with outside technology companies thought Mitchell Hamline was “crazy” to design

Selva Palani

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“We have the largest instructional design/academic technology department of any law school in the country and I think it’s part of why we’re successful.”

and produce its own courses, Duhl said.

“People are surprised we do it in-house; that is unique,” he said.

“But I think it’s more economical because we control the quality and can be more innovative and nimbler.

Greg Duhl “We have the largest instructional design/academic technology department of any law school in the country and I think it’s part of why we’re successful.”

Mitchell Hamline’s groundbreaking experience in delivering online instruction was also why the phones of faculty and IT staff began ringing when the pandemic shut down most in-person classes.

“We had elementary and high schools and undergraduate programs who knew our reputation contact us,” said Hilbert.

“They said, ‘help us deliver the kinds of online instruction that we know you know how to do.’”

The school’s instructional design and academic technology teams, meanwhile, helped get faculty up to speed to teach synchronous classes online and convert course materials to digital formats.

“As challenging as those first few weeks were, we took the things we’d been doing in a different setting—asynchronous online—for some of our students and leveraged this expertise to convert fully in person instruction to completely remote and synchronous classes,” added Hilbert. “I think we met the

challenge and when we look back, it will be one of our finest moments.”

In Duhl’s view, the school’s response to going fully online simply built on the expertise it already had developed and demonstrated, so it was happy to help other schools.

At Mitchell Hamline, HyFlex classes will continue with further refinements. Faculty and staff are evaluating new technologies, including an artificial intelligence-assisted tool to improve student engagement in course discussions. The school is also looking to extend new technology beyond the classroom with new systems for finance, human resources, and online enrollment for students.

“When the pandemic came, for us at least from a technology standpoint, it really was just another day at the office,” Duhl said. “The transition was easy in many ways, from a teaching standpoint.

“As horrible as COVID has been in so many ways, one small silver lining is the word got out about the incredible technology work we’re doing here at Mitchell Hamline.”

Todd Nelson is a freelance journalist in the Twin Cities.

HOW WE TEACH

In-person synchronous

Remote synchronous

HyFlex

Remote asynchronous

A traditional setting where all participants are in the classroom at a set time.

A class offered online but at a set time. Most law schools only offered this kind of online learning when the pandemic started.

A combination of in-person and online learning for a class that happens at a set time. Students can choose to be in the classroom or online.

A class offered online with flexibility for students.

Assignments are posted at the start of each week and students watch lectures and finish work on their own time. This is offered for the online portions of Mitchell Hamline’s blended-learning enrollment option.

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Extra! Extra! Back issues of the Opinion now available!

The Opinion was a student-run newspaper at William Mitchell from 1959 to 2009.

The staff at the Burger Library worked tirelessly to make them available online.

Read the Opinion mitchellhamline.edu/opinion

Several Mitchell Hamline professors have written commentaries for a series in the St. Paul Pioneer Press about timely constitutional ideas and issues, the result of a collaboration among professors Natalie Netzel and Marie Failinger. Contributors have included professors John Radsan, Mike Steenson, Mehmet Konar-Steenberg, Joanna Woolman, and DeShayla Strachan.

Read the commentaries. mitchellhamline.edu/USConst

Remembering Vice President Walter Mondale Walter Mondale, who died in April 2021, received three honorary degrees from Hamline and William Mitchell over the years. But the Doctor of Laws degree he received in June 1988 didn’t just make him commencement speaker; he also got to see his son Ted receive his J.D. that day.

While he’ll be better known as an alum and namesake for the University of Minnesota Law School,Walter Mondale was very much a friend of Mitchell Hamline. He spoke at several classes and events over the years, always gracious with his time.

“When you take that oath,” he told those graduates in 1988, “I hope you really think about it and really mean it and remember it every day of your life from then on out.

“I hope your career will contribute to the positive side of the ledger.”

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Sharon Mama

BY TOM WEBER

Y

“Mama Sharon’s always been like a den mother, taking in students and being there to talk about law school or life.”

Chris Pham ’09

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ou first notice the bulletin board of photos inside Sharon Van Leer’s new office at Mitchell Hamline. Family photos include great-grandson and NBA rookie Jalen Suggs, along with some of the 36 foster children she’s raised. The remaining images are of former students, though Van Leer quickly adds they also count as family.

“You’d be surprised how many I talk to every day,” she chuckles.

Chris Pham is on that board. The 2009 alum and Mitchell Hamline trustee stops to see “Mama Sharon” during every campus visit.

“There were times I felt like an outcast,” said Pham, who noted the school was much less racially diverse when he attended. Pham often studied, ate, or just hung out in Van Leer’s office.

“Mama Sharon’s always been like a den mother, taking in students and being there to talk about law school or life.”

Now marking 30 years at Mitchell Hamline (and William Mitchell before that) Sharon Van Leer, 74, has been an influential part of many students’ lives.

Van Leer, currently a director of DEI, spent several years as a specialist for what was then the Office of Multicultural and International Inclusion. She joined William Mitchell in 1991 as an administrative assistant.

“She’s the model of caring,” said Michael Birchard, who as vice president of diversity,

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equity, and inclusion is Van Leer’s supervisor.

“When we talk about DEI, we sometimes forget the ‘B’ for ‘belonging.’ She makes students— many who come from families where law school is not a tradition—feel they belong.

“When there’s an obstacle—housing, transportation, or something else—she works tirelessly to find solutions.”

In some cases, she’s let students stay at her house until they can find a place—a generosity that doesn’t end at commencement. Shantel Thompson ’17 stayed with Van Leer when she took the bar last summer; Van Leer was one of her first calls in October to tell her she passed.

Sadly, Thompson was the victim of a random shooting attack just days later. Again, Van Leer was one of her first calls. “She’s a genuinely caring person,” said Thompson, from her hospital room.

“I’ve seen her help so many people.” The two texted or talked most days following the attack.

“Sharon has an amazing ability to make a few calls and find whatever someone needs,” said Dean of Students Lynn LeMoine ’11. “For many students, those resources can be the difference that allows them to remain in school.”

Her connections shouldn’t be a surprise. Van Leer’s office, complete with the candy bowl that attracts its own cadre of visitors, is blocks from where she grew up in St. Paul’s historically Black Rondo neighborhood.

Photograph by PAUL MARKERT

Deeply involved in her AME church, Van Leer famously invited young people over for meals after services. That led to her becoming a licensed foster parent.

She now lives in Woodbury, Minnesota, where she was elected in November to a third term on the school board. She also serves on the commission that recommends judicial nominees to Minnesota’s governor, and another that investigates attorney ethics complaints in Hennepin County.

Even so, the connections aren’t always from her impressive Rolodex. When colleague Tina Scaramuzzo and Van Leer take walks, Van Leer often photographs buildings with “For Rent” signs—in case a student asks about housing near campus.

“She’s unapologetically who she is,” said Scaramuzzo. “That means sometimes bluntly telling you exactly how she feels, but it also means always going the extra mile for students.”

Van Leer’s office is also part of a new suite that includes student space for studying or just hanging out.

When a Mitchell Hamline administrator called Cedrick Frazier ’07 in early 2021, his first question was whether Mama Sharon was still there.

“Sharon Van Leer is the reason a lot of us stay connected to the law school,” said Frazier, now a Minnesota state representative. “She was the glue that held things together for a lot of us—someone to talk to in a new and unfamiliar environment.”

Fellow alum Adine Momoh ’09, an equity partner at Stinson, agrees. “For a law student, especially law students of color in Minnesota where there are not many who look like you and there are not many faculty or staff of color, being greeted by a warm, familiar face who genuinely cares and takes the time to ask how you are doing is important,” she said.

“It helps build a sense of community and security.”

Photographs by BRADY WILLETTE

“Sharon Van Leer is the reason a lot of us stay connected to the law school. She was the glue that held things together for a lot of us—someone to talk to in a new and unfamiliar environment.”

Cedrick Frazier ’07

Mitchell Hamline has ramped up work in recent years to be more inclusive and equitable. Faculty approved a resolution in February 2021 declaring the school’s work would be done with an antiracist lens. In the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, the Dispute Resolution Institute convened several discussions—an effort called Truth and Action.

Recent hiring has been more racially diverse, as well.

As DEI efforts expand, many employees and students have stepped up to lead them, but they are still rooted in Van Leer’s numerous examples of caring, according to Birchard.

“She’s taught us how to care,” he said. “And it’s our job to replicate that throughout the school.”

Van Leer credits Mitchell Hamline with better realizing the “unconscious bias we all have. The school is more willing to take a chance on a culture shift.

“I’m going to speak my truth as we do that. But for these students, the most important thing that resonates is feeling they have a place.

“They can come to me anytime.”

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Frank Harris (right), chair of the Mitchell Hamline Board of Trustees, adjusts a medallion he placed around the neck of President and Dean Anthony Niedwiecki to mark Niedwiecki’s official installation.

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At installation, Dean Niedwiecki calls for broadening access to law school, reforms to bar exam

BY TOM WEBER

A

s a gay, first-generation college student from modest means, Anthony Niedwiecki would not have been able to attend law school back in the 1800s, when it was only available to the elite and those with money and time to attend.

But the law affects everyone, which is why a select few shouldn’t shape it, he said during his installation speech in September. It should reflect the diversity of experiences across the country.

“That’s why my focus as president and dean is to build upon and expand Mitchell Hamline’s tradition of providing access and opportunity to those who otherwise would not have been able to attend law school—not because they are incapable of succeeding there but because of who they are, their wealth or standing in the community, or their life circumstances.”

Niedwiecki started in July 2020, but COVID protocols delayed the event to formally mark the start of his tenure until September 2021.

“There are so many reasons I came here,” he said.

“Most important, I wanted to be at a school committed to providing access and opportunity to those who otherwise would not have gotten a degree.

“That’s part of its founding, and it’s been part of its mission from the very beginning.”

Photographs by ORFIELD PHOTOGRAPHY

Niedwiecki singled out structures within the law and at law schools that still prevent people from becoming attorneys—including the bar exam.

“Whether the bar exam is a good predictor of a law student’s abilities is not as important a question as why it was created in the first place,” he said. “It was built to keep certain people out of the profession.

“But even today, the bar doesn’t test the skills needed to be a successful lawyer. There are more reliable and equitable ways to license lawyers.”

Niedwiecki’s comments came two days after Minnesota’s State Board of Law Examiners held its first of several public meetings as part of a comprehensive, two-year study of the bar exam. Recommendations are due in mid-2023.

Graduates of Wisconsin’s two law schools are licensed upon graduation, a process called diploma privilege.

Oregon’s Supreme Court recently gave preliminary approval to opening two additional pathways to licensure, including a type of apprenticeship model.

Niedwiecki also called for rethinking how scholarships are awarded at Mitchell Hamline and announced the creation of a scholarship named for Lena Smith. Learn more on the inside back cover of this magazine.

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Thirteen Minnesota judges spoke to several dozen students at an event to discuss externships, clerkships, and other opportunities for students and new graduates to gain experience in the judicial branch, September 2021

President and Dean Anthony Niedwiecki threw out the first pitch at a St. Paul Saints minor league baseball game, July 2021 (photo: Rob Thompson, St. Paul Saints)

AROUND MITCHELL HAMLINE Erin Punzenberger, from Mitchell Hamline’s human resources team, passes in front of the school during the Twin Cities Marathon, October 2021

(L-R): Pamela Barstow, Benjamin Hurst, and Kim Steed celebrate graduating from Mitchell Hamline, June 2021 16

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The Native American Law Student Association joined a national #RockYourMocs event—wearing their moccasins to celebrate and honor Indigenous people all over the world during Native American Heritage Month. These are Professor Angelique EagleWoman’s mocs, November 2021

About 200 people gathered on the front lawn of campus to mark the first anniversary of the killing of George Floyd. The event included 9 minutes, 29 seconds of silence, May 2021

Timothy Smitley graduated last summer along with his service dog, Brandy, who received a juris “dogtor” degree for attending all the same classes, June 2021

Adjunct professor and state representative Jamie Becker-Finn '11 took her Legislative Process class to the Minnesota Capitol to get a tour and hear from the nonpartisan staff who make daily proceedings run smoothly, November 2021

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to be an Antiracist,” visited in a virtual event facilitated by Mitchell Hamline trustee Gloria Contreras Edin ’05 and Deanna Burns, associate director of the Intellectual Property Institute and Patent Law Program, February 2021

New graduate Tyler Comer at commencement, June 2021 (photo: Caroline Yang)

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ALUMNI NEWS

Eliminate inequities, one deed at a time

BY MARLA KHAN-SCHWARTZ

M

aria Cisneros ’14 was shocked to learn her home in the Twin Cities suburb of Golden Valley, not far from where she grew up, had a racially restrictive covenant on its records.

It meant her husband, who is from Venezuela, and her family would not have been able to buy the home if that language was still enforceable.

So Cisneros, who also spent years before becoming an attorney helping immigrant families access essential resources and mortgages, took immediate action to remove the covenant language.

“It was cathartic to take that ‘ick’ off our title and declare that we are allowed to and should be there,” she said.

But the process was tedious, and Cisneros wondered how others without a law degree would fare. As Golden Valley’s city attorney and president of the Minnesota Association of City Attorneys, she was able to act—which led to a grassroots effort called Just Deeds.

Just Deeds collaborates with Minnesota communities to educate and help residents discharge the restrictive deeds at no cost. The effort, led by volunteer attorneys, real estate agents, and city partners, includes the city of Robbinsdale, where Cisneros’ father, Bill Blonigan ’79, is mayor. Mitchell Hamline staff member and state Rep. Mike Freiberg ’05 is one of several volunteer attorneys.

“You’re learning more about the history of your property, your neighborhood, and your city. And attorneys learn how to talk to people about systemic racism.”

Maria Cisneros ’14

Just Deeds is connected to a project called Mapping Prejudice, which in recent years has mapped which homes in Hennepin County, Minnesota, have these covenants on their titles.

Mapping Prejudice co-founder Kirsten Delegard says collaborating with Just Deeds helps people connect the data in meaningful ways. “It helps draw the line in very personal ways in terms of what people’s relationships are to practices of structural racism,” she said. “The map helps people see that connection. Just Deeds is helping people take action from there.”

“The intent of helping people go through the discharge process is that it is experiential learning for both the attorney and the homeowners,” added Cisneros. “You’re learning more about the history of your property, your neighborhood, and your city. And attorneys learn how to talk to people about systemic racism.”

With 101 discharges completed and hundreds pending, Cisneros hopes the effort increases community involvement. “When people connect with local government on this, there’s a lot of policy making that impacts how our communities are organized and who has access to spaces and resources,” she said.

Removing the racist and restrictive language is “a powerful act to take back your space,” she noted. “It’s like you’ve reclaimed this piece of land and staked your claim and said: ‘This is now an equitable and not a whites-only space.’”

Marla Khan-Schwartz is a freelance writer in the Twin Cities.

Learn more about Just Deeds and Mapping Prejudice. justdeeds.org

mappingprejudice.umn.edu 18

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ALUMNI NEWS

Traduciendo Esperanza: Translating Hope

BY MICHELLE LEE GOODE

F

or attorney Gloria Contreras Edin ’05, it’s not enough to practice law. It’s her practice in life to give people hope— something that shines from a dark place when she had little hope of her own.

Contreras Edin’s goal as a child was to survive. Born and raised in an unsafe part of east Los Angeles, she lived in an abusive household. “I felt trapped in an unhealthy environment that instilled fear and insecurity,” she said. She left home at 15 because being homeless, couch hopping, and sleeping in cars were better options than living in that house.

Contreras Edin was always hungry and by age 17, was a pregnant high school dropout. But she caught her first glimpse of hope around Thanksgiving that year. “A random woman gave me a bag of groceries.”

“It was more than just food to me; she gave me a bag full of hope.”

Soon after her son was born, Contreras Edin found an apartment where she could live and work, showing and renting apartments to college students—with a baby on her hip. “I thought, if they could go to college, so could I.” It took a while, but she eventually completed her high school credits and bachelor’s degree.

Contreras Edin met and married her husband during college and moved to rural Minnesota after graduation for his new job. They were surprised to find a lot of Hispanics in the community, and she was content to live a simple life in the country. But that changed when she found work providing English-toSpanish translation for courts and lawyers.

“I saw firsthand how their fate depended on what was being translated,” she said. “Without proper translation, or any translation at all for

that matter, the outcome was grim if not hopeless.

“From that point, I wanted to do more for this specific group of people—my people—so they too could understand and experience what justice and the pursuit of happiness truly is.”

Contreras Edin applied for and won a Bush Foundation scholarship, which she used to attend Hamline Law. There, she was inspired by Professor Howard Vogel. “He constantly reminded his students to be true to ourselves and our values,” she said. “It wasn’t enough to call ourselves lawyers.

“That forced me to go deep within before I went out. And when I did, my vision became crystal clear and things moved quickly.”

After law school, Contreras Edin was executive director of the non-profit law firm Centro Legal. After three years, she decided to start her own firm at her kitchen counter. Fourteen years later, Contreras & Metelska has served thousands of clients from over 25 countries on a wide range of immigration issues, committed to helping families stay together in the U.S. Contreras Edin also serves as a Mitchell Hamline trustee; sits on the board of the food shelf Neighbors Inc.; and has been a judge for Metropolitan Economic Development Agency’s Million Dollar Challenge, which awards $1 million every six months to local BIPOC startups.

“It brings me so much joy to see someone’s face light up when we hand them a check to start their own business,” she said. “What it represents is an entire community’s high hopes for their success.

“It’s their American Dream coming true.”

Contreras Edin keeps a silver paperweight cube she was given for donating to Hamline University.

The cube is engraved with John Wesley’s famous quote:

Do all the good you can, By all the means you can In all the ways you can, In all the places you can At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as you ever can.

“To me it means, ‘give people hope,’” said Contreras Edin. “I just Iove it!”

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ALUMNI NEWS

CHANGE THE LAW CHANGE THE WORLD

BY MARLA KHAN-SCHWARTZ

A

fter Amber Goodwin ’21 had spine surgery during law school, she felt relieved to be in Mitchell Hamline’s partially online blended-learning option so she could complete assignments without sitting in a traditional classroom. But the program didn’t just let her do her work primarily at home in Texas; it created opportunities to meet a diverse cohort.

“There was a dentist, a professional dancer, and all these people with amazing life experiences who helped shape my viewpoints about what justice looked like,” said Goodwin.

Rejected from several law schools just after college, Goodwin opted for a career. Those life experiences, she says, provided the tools to drive her educational goals and eventually attend law school. With an impressive resume and vast experience in political organizing, gun violence prevention work, and as founder of the Community Justice Action Fund, she knew what she wanted personally and professionally.

“Both of my parents attended segregated schools,” said Goodwin. “The law has been something that has been out of reach for so many people because it was used against us almost our entire lives to separate us. I really wanted to be part of the two percent of Black women lawyers who are fighting gender, social, and racial justice. That’s why I tried law school.”

She continued her nonprofit work throughout law school, even testifying before Congress about gun violence prevention in 2019. She was elected Mitchell Hamline’s first Black 20

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Student Bar Association president for her final year in law school.

In the weeks before graduation, Goodwin posted a recollection of her path to law school graduation on a social media post that went viral, earning her attention from news organizations including “Good Morning America” and Newsweek.

Then, she was invited to the White House for a Rose Garden speech where President Biden announced several executive measures to try to curb gun violence.

Now a law clerk in the Travis County (Texas) District Attorney’s office, Goodwin wants more people of color represented in law school to foster change in laws that perpetuate biased systems. She mentors a group of formerly incarcerated Black women who want to attend law school and plans to work with Mitchell Hamline’s alumni association to create access for them.

“Many laws are still made specifically to oppress people of color and women,” said Goodwin, who recalls students being asked on day one of law school why they were there.

“I stood up and said, ‘I didn’t come to law school just to learn the law. I came here to change the law.’

“I still believe that.”

The Infinite Mission

ALUMNI NEWS

Retired judge works to get more women on the bench

BY MICHELLE LEE GOODE

W

hen asked if she’s any less busy in retirement, her chuckle says it all.

Judge Gail Chang Bohr ’91 has served this past year as president of the Infinity Project, a nonpartisan group dedicated to getting more women into judgeships.

“There are plenty of qualified women, but they don’t put themselves forward,” she said. “We don’t endorse candidates, but we aim to demystify the judicial application process and prepare women to put their best foot forward.

“We’re also partnering with organizations like the Black, Native, Hispanic, and Asian bar associations to expand our pipeline and increase diversity.”

Chang Bohr’s own diverse background lends itself well toward this mission. “She’s a tremendously thoughtful and influential leader in the legal and judiciary communities,” said Irene Kao ’11, a former Infinity Project president. “She’s had a storied career advocating for children and breaking barriers.”

The ninth child of 15, Chang Bohr was born and raised in Jamaica, where her Chinese parents had immigrated.

She came to the U.S. on a full scholarship when she was 18 and earned degrees in social work, followed by a 19-year career. It wasn’t until age 43 that she attended William Mitchell, deciding a law degree would make her a better advocate. After graduating in 1991, Chang Bohr was then executive director of the Children’s Law Center of Minnesota for 13 years.

Then, in 2008, a rarity happened in Minnesota judicial elections: an open seat. Eight candidates ran. “I was unfamiliar with the process but was interested in being a judge,” she recalled.

“I knew I was qualified and connected with my community. But I didn’t know, for example, what campaigning involved.

“It turned out being the sort of thing moms, grandmas, and families do natu-

rally. With the help of the largest Asian and Pacific Islander community in the state and other supporters, we worked hard together, learned along the way, and won with 52 percent of the vote.”

That made Chang Bohr the first Asian American judge in Ramsey County. After serving five years, she reached the mandatory judicial retirement age of 70. She still serves as senior judge and continues equity work with several organizations, including the Infinity Project.

The infinity symbol—a number eight turned on its side—represents the organization’s logo and mission to achieve gender equity and increase diversity in states within the 8th Judicial Circuit. Women are half the population but fewer than a third of state judges. Nonwhite people are 40

percent of the population but fewer than 20 percent of state judges. Of the nation’s 12 judicial circuits, the 8th is the least diverse: Judge Jane Kelly is the only woman currently serving and one of just two women—both white—to ever sit on the court. The other was the late Diana Murphy.

“We have a lot of work yet to do,” added Chang Bohr.

Learn more about the Infinity Project.

theinfinityproject.org.

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ALUMNI NEWS

Finding a path outside the comfort zone

BY MICHELLE LEE GOODE

W

hen Judge Richelle Wahi ’03 presides at the Dakota County Courthouse in Hastings, Minnesota, she explains to parties why she doesn’t always make eye contact. “It’s important that people feel seen and heard.”

Wahi experienced hearing loss later in life, so she reads from a court reporter’s real-time transcription on a screen in front of her. Courtroom audio also connects with her hearing aid.

But the pandemic was a time when everyone—not just a select few­—needed technology accommodations to attend court.

Wahi and others realized the benefits of having proceedings online, especially without any public transportation connections to the courthouse. “Zoom greatly enhanced access to justice for people in the 1st Judicial District who didn’t have transportation and saved everyone time and money to get there,” she said.

Wahi, 46, was tasked with getting family court back up and running with a focus on inclusion and access. The importance of such work dates to Wahi’s childhood in rural southern Minnesota and extends throughout her educational and professional journey.

“Being one of only a few immigrant families and growing up in a small town, you’re made keenly aware of your differences,” noted Wahi, whose father was from India and mother from a Frenchspeaking part of Canada. English was rarely spoken at home.

Wahi wasn’t sure what to do after college but was interested in law and accepted to William Mitchell. She didn’t know it was the right choice until she met and was mentored by professor and former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Esther Tomlijanovich ’55.

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“This work is near and dear to my heart because we know there are inequities within our justice system that must be recognized, challenged, and changed to ensure true justice.”

Judge Richelle Wahi ’03

Tomlijanovich started a student group for women, lovingly called ‘the Coven,’ that met regularly for tea and encouragement. “Judge T taught me to never be afraid to ask the tough questions and to continue to go outside the comfort zone,” said Wahi. “And the Coven showed me there’d always be people to support me.”

After law school, Wahi litigated multimillion dollar cases. But it was a conciliation court case worth just $567, where she volunteered as referee, that pulled her heartstrings. “As small as this case may seem, it was important to this person. It became important to me to serve everyday people.” When

a vacancy opened on the bench, Wahi applied and was appointed district court judge in 2016.

Wahi’s equity work also includes serving on the Minnesota Judicial Branch’s Statewide Committee for Equality and Justice and chairing the Subcommittee on Access and Fairness.

The work identifies bias within the justice system and recommends changes in processes, procedures, and policies.

“This work is near and dear to my heart because we know there are inequities within our justice system that must be recognized, challenged, and changed to ensure true justice. It’s my path, it’s my duty.”

Photograph by BRADY WILLETTE

ALUMNI NEWS

Alumni Award winners Two esteemed Minnesota judges and a solo practitioner who helped start Mitchell Hamline’s Self-Help Clinic were recognized by the Mitchell Hamline Alumni Association in 2021.

Judge Leo Brisbois ’87

received the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Brisbois, who grew up on the White Earth Tribal Reservation in northern Minnesota, endowed a scholarship fund for firstyear American Indian students at Hamline Law. He’s the first person of known American Indian descent to be president of the Minnesota State Bar Association. In 1990, he was appointed a U.S. magistrate judge for the District of Minnesota in Duluth.

He also served in the Judge Advocate General Corps from 1987 to 1990.

Judge (ret.) John Rodenberg ’81

received the Outstanding Alumni Award.

Rodenberg has worked tirelessly on issues relating to Minnesota’s child welfare system. He was on a 2008 working group that made significant recommendations relating to parent representation. He was also on the initial advisory board of William Mitchell’s Child Protection Clinic in 2010; that clinic is now part of the Institute to Transform Child Protection.

Rodenberg was named to the district court in 2000, then the Minnesota Court of Appeals in 2011. He retired in 2020.

Sarah Soucie Eyberg ’11

received the Recent Alumni Award.

A solo practitioner, Soucie Eyberg works to get clients Social Security Disability benefits. She has also performed significant pro bono and volunteer work, including with the Minnesota Justice Foundation. She helped create what is now Mitchell Hamline’s Self-Help Clinic and is an adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline.

Trailblazing judge joins Alumni Association board Hennepin County Judge Tanya Bransford ’83 joined the school's alumni board in 2021.

Judge Bransford has been a district court judge since 1994 and has been retained in that post via election five times, most recently in 2020.

Previously, she was the first Black woman to serve as a district court referee in Hennepin County’s Juvenile Division, and she was the first Black woman to be a workers’ compensation judge in the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings.

She chairs the court’s Equal Justice Committee and is a founding member of the Minnesota Judicial Council’s Equality and Justice Committee.

There’s no need to only hear from us once a year.

Sign up for The Brief. This monthly newsletter, delivered to your inbox, will keep you updated on the latest news from Mitchell Hamline, along with CLE and other events and opportunities coming up.

Head to mitchellhamline.edu/alumni and sign up for The Brief.

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ALUMNI NEWS

Three alums land on national 40 Under 40 lists Two nationwide bar organizations recognized three Mitchell Hamline alums this year in separate “40 under 40” lists.

Adine Momoh ’09, a partner at Stinson, was named to the National Bar Association’s Top 40 Under 40 for the nation’s best advocates.

The National Bar honored lawyers under 40 who “exemplify a broad range of high achievement, including in innovation, vision, leadership and legal Adine Momoh

and community involvement.”

Meanwhile, the National LGBT Bar Association’s list of “40 Best LGBTQ+

File photo of Washington State Senator Patty Kuderer ’86, during floor debate on March 9, 2019. (photo courtesy Washington Legislative Support Services)

Lawyers Under 40” included Erica Holzer ’13, a partner in Maslon’s litigation group and former editor in chief of the Mitchell Hamline Law Review, and Rachel Maes ’14, an Erica Holzer

assistant city attorney for the city of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

The list recognizes those who have “demonstrated a profound commitment to LGBTQ+ equality.”

Rachel Maes

Law review honors two alums The Mitchell Hamline Law Review recognized two alums in May for their service that reflects the values of the publication.

Erica Holzer ’13 and Sarah Larsen ’11 received the Wallace-Lerner Award for Excellence in Leadership.

Holzer is a partner in Maslon’s litigation group.

Larsen is outreach services librarian for the Minnesota State Law Library.

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Alum sponsored historic evictions law in state of Washington In 2021,Washington became the first state to guarantee low-income tenants access to a lawyer if they’re being evicted, thanks to legislation sponsored by state Sen. Patty Kuderer ’86.

The new law includes several provisions aimed at reducing homelessness, though the right to counsel language received the most attention because of its historic nature. Only local jurisdictions—including New York City and San Francisco —previously had guaranteed attorneys for people facing evictions.

“Tenants are at an unfair advantage if they go to court against property managers who have teams of lawyers,” Kuderer said. “This balances the scales by having an attorney who specializes in housing law represent the tenant.”

Kuderer, 62, noted only eight percent of tenants in Washington had a lawyer during an eviction proceeding before the law, compared to 92 percent of landlords. Data also show tenants with legal representation are less likely to be evicted.

“The ultimate goal is saving tenancies, and this is a crucial piece.”

Kuderer’s time in elected office is the culmination of a career serving the public. Before moving to Washington, she was city attorney in Red Wing, Minnesota. She also represented municipalities and counties in private practice, which led to several appearances before Minnesota’s Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. One case was argued on the then-William Mitchell campus with several former classmates and faculty attending—a career highlight.

Her father, Elton Kuderer ’60, was Martin County attorney during the 1970s and later a University of Minnesota regent. Two of Kuderer’s brothers, Gregory ’81 and Robert ’90, practice at Erickson, Zierke, Kuderer & Madsen.

FACULTY NEWS

Professors in the Media

In 2021, when the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin brought worldwide attention to the Twin Cities after the murder of George Floyd, our professors were quoted often to help explain what was happening during the trial.

Professors Brad Colbert ’85, Joseph Daly (ret.), Rick Petry ’98, and Ted Sampsell-Jones (clockwise from top left, ) were the most quoted. They appeared on national broadcasts and were often interviewed for wire service stories, which appeared in hundreds of publications around the world.

This important legal analysis arguably represented the most Mitchell Hamline has ever been in the news and led to them being contacted again for analysis in later stories about the trials of Kyle Rittenhouse and former police officer Kimberly Potter.

Here’s a sample of other 2021 media coverage from across the country featuring our faculty: “A sizeable population in Minnesota can’t afford a lawyer and don't know how to tap free services. It’s why unresolved legal issues often span years.”

LEANNE FUITH ’10, on a new app that helps people connect with pro bono legal services in Minnesota. June 7, Star Tribune

“These types of legal rights for nature are aligned with stewardship and reciprocity concepts in Indigenous legal traditions.”

ANGELIQUE EAGLEWOMAN (Wambdi A. Was’teWinyan) Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (Dakota), on a new “rights of nature” case in Minnesota that could affect treaty rights in Indian Country. Aug. 26, Indian Country Today

“On the one hand, we’ve seen increased integration of Muslim Americans in almost all spheres of law, politics, and society. On a different note, however, we’ve also seen increased discrimination against Muslim Americans.”

ENGY ABDELKADER, in a SkyNews reflection on the legacy of the September 11th attacks, 20 years later. Sept. 7, SkyNews, UK

“A lot of people look at their own circumstances and say, my quality of life isn't what I wish it would be. I'd like to have better working conditions, maybe more vacation time, you know, being at home all the time I realized I actually do miss my kids, and I'm not sure I want to go back and work like I did before.”

DAVID LARSON, on the trend of multiple labor strikes occurring in several industries simultaneously. Oct. 18, KARE 11

“The [state] court says quite clearly that the right of procreation is one of the basic civil rights of humankind and therefore the right to privacy under the Minnesota Constitution encompasses a woman’s right to decide to terminate her pregnancy.”

LAURA HERMER, on the implications for abortion policy in Minnesota in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s arguments in the “Dobbs” case. Dec. 1, AXIOS MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

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FACULTY NEWS

VIEWS FROM THE SUMMIT Professors Janus, Juergens, and Ver Steegh retire

BY TOM WEBER

T

he legacies of Eric Janus, Ann Juergens, and Nancy Ver Steegh won’t just be the expertise they brought to their fields of study but also having been part of two major changes: the combination that created Mitchell Hamline and implementing a first-in-the-nation way of offering legal education through online learning.

Janus and Juergens started at William Mitchell in 1984, working in clinical education—which offers students chances to do real-world legal work—and also pushing to integrate those skills and clinic work throughout the school’s entire curriculum.

Later, when Janus served as Mitchell’s president and dean,Ver Steegh was vice dean for five years leading up to introduction of the Hybrid program and the combination with Hamline Law. 26

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Eric Janus Eric Janus was William Mitchell’s president and dean from 2007 to 2015, stepping down just before the school became Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Overseeing the combination with Hamline Law—which had percolated during a decade of declining law school enrollment nationwide—ranks as one of Janus’ proudest accomplishments. The other was starting the nation’s first on-campus/online J.D. program at an ABA-approved law school. The Hybrid program has continued to innovate and is now known as the blended-learning enrollment option.

“Online helped us survive that downturn,” Janus said.

“But it also brought the school back to its roots.

“Being a night school for part-time students was important to the soul of the school,” Janus said. “But there’d been persistent drops in night enrollment, which was disappointing.

With Hybrid, we spoke to that history and reimagined night law school for the 21st century.”

As president and dean, Janus also oversaw a $25 million campaign for endowed chairs and scholarships, which

FACULTY NEWS

“ We’ve trained the judges, public defenders, county attorneys, and plenty of elected officials who have all added to the quality of civic life in Minnesota.

I hope that continues to be our focus.”

Eric Janus

helped support the work of the school’s faculty. “This school’s strength has been combining the need for academic scholarship with the need for clinical education that puts students into real-world legal situations,” he said. “I love that we’re a place where the idea of justice isn’t just a theory.

It’s something you do.”

Janus—a Peace Corps alum and amateur photographer— has focused his scholarship on mental health law, especially around civil commitment. He helped rewrite Minnesota’s laws around such commitments in the early 1980s. When the state moved in the 1990s to civilly commit sex offenders, even after they’d served time for their criminal convictions, Janus was part of a 10-year lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of those laws.

When Juergens became clinics co-director in 1989, she pushed to better integrate skills training throughout the school’s curriculum. “Skills like interviewing and negotiation started to be taught in earlier classes for students, which meant we didn’t have to use precious time on that when they got to our clinics.

“Students loved it.”

It was still a time when clinics had a low reputation in legal education, she recalls. But as more people interacted with Mitchell students, “they couldn’t believe the sophistication of the issues they were dealing with.

“They thought we were putting students on simple, dogbite litigation cases. But we were dealing with core needs, even life or death. Anything around housing, for example, can be a life-or-death matter.”

Nancy Ver Steegh Nancy Ver Steegh has been amazed at the changes in family law where she’s focused her work: domestic violence.

Her work has included helping develop ways for judges to handle cases when domestic violence is involved. “Courts have different approaches now and understand the effect domestic violence has on children,” she said. “It’s been gratifying to see how social science research has changed legal responses to domestic violence.”

Ann Juergens As she cleaned out her office last summer, one photo taped to a file cabinet stood out for Ann Juergens.

It was from the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women in China. She was in the room when then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the now-famous words “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.”

Juergens has a longtime commitment to advancing feminist approaches to legal issues. Even outside that scholarship, she often advocated at the law school for pay equity and more benefits for both faculty and staff with families.

She has also long championed clinical education and teaching legal skills in law school—and she’s an expert on housing law. Developing a chatbot clinic in recent years is one example of her work expanding the possibilities of online learning.

“I know I’ve made a difference in clients’ and students’ lives. I’ve been quite lucky, and I hope that clinical work remains part of the school’s DNA.”

“I believe the school will continue to innovate while keeping its core values.

We offer flexible but rigorous education, practical experience, and a focus on access to justice. And there are plenty of ways to implement those values— it’ll be fun to see where it goes.”

Nancy Ver Steegh Ver Steegh also was in leadership for five years as vice dean/associate dean when “applications were going down and the school was struggling financially.

“But we fortunately used those challenging times to innovate in a way I think has positioned us even better for the future.”

Juergens and Ver Steegh are now faculty emerita; Janus is president and dean emeritus. All three plan to continue research and writing. Janus will still direct the Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center he created at Mitchell Hamline.

Ann Juergens

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FACULTY NEWS

Mitchell Hamline welcomes six new faculty; plans more hires Mitchell Hamline welcomed six new faculty members, with plans to add up to five additional tenure/tenure-track faculty in fall 2022.

Professor of Law Jill Bryant returned to Mitchell Hamline after several years at Hamline University. She previously directed Hamline Law’s Business Law Institute; her appointment will strengthen the school’s business law offerings.

David Cleveland joined the Legal Writing faculty as Mitchell Hamline’s first Distinguished Professor and Scholar. Cleveland previously taught at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and is a former dean and legal writing director at Valparaiso Law.

Jill Bryant

Assistant Professor of Law Dr. T. Anansi Wilson is working to establish a center that broadly focuses on social justice “but also explicitly engages in multidisciplinary study, community dialogue, and artistic expression regarding the interplay between ‘black letter law’ and Black and BlaQueer life.”

Visiting Assistant Professors Three faculty are part of the new Visiting Assistant Professor program, designed to diversify legal education by recruiting accomplished attorneys into teaching with two-year appointments.

Engy Abdelkader, an accomplished human rights attorney, has been a fellow at the Public Religion Research Institute and German Marshall Fund of the

David Cleveland

Anansi Wilson

Engy Abdelkader

United States. Her teaching and research explore religion, race, and gender at the intersection of law, politics, and society.

Maikieta Brantley was previously a Lawyering Process Program fellow at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Her pro bono work has included representing clients in landlord/tenant matters.

DeShayla Strachan, a former journalist, has served in attorney positions at the Florida Council Against Sexual Violence, the Florida Department of Children and Families, and as an assistant state attorney. She also taught at Mercer University’s law school.

Maikieta Brantley

DeShayla Strachan

Professor Colette Routel named to judgeship

Professor Doug Heidenreich leaves his office

It was a bittersweet day when Mitchell Hamline professor Colette Routel was appointed to a Hennepin County, Minnesota, judgeship. She assumed the job in September.

A popular instructor and nationally known expert in federal Indian law, Routel has testified before Congress and also litigated and won several cases on behalf of Tribal Nations and their interests—thanks in part to work by students in a clinic she founded.

Routel also wrote or co-wrote eight amicus briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years, including one discussed during oral arguments in the 2021 case United States v. Cooley.

Routel taught at both Hamline Law and William Mitchell before the schools combined. Most recently, she was codirector of Mitchell Hamline’s Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute.

Doug Heidenreich ‘61 has been part of William Mitchell and Mitchell Hamline for more than 60 years. First as a student in the early 1960s, then as dean and as a professor. He has taught thousands of students in his decades at the school.

As dean, Heidenreich was instrumental in William Mitchell moving to its current campus. He wrote a history of the school in 2000.

Even after he retired a few years ago, Heidenreich still maintained an office that he regularly used. But after a year of working from home during COVID, Heidenreich decided last May it was time to clean out the office—truly the end of an era, though he’s still made it back to campus a few times since.

Read more of Professor Heidenreich’s long career from the fall 2012 alumni magazine. mitchellhamline.edu/DRH

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MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

STUDENT NEWS

WORLD CHAMPIONS! Mitchell Hamline students claim first place in global negotiation competition

A

fter prepping for and competing in an online international competition for more than a week without much sleep, Austyn Boothe ’22 and Daniel Sheikhan ’21 decided to stay up until 4 am in early July to watch the results.

It was a good call.

The duo won first place in the 2021 International Negotiation Competition. It’s the second time Mitchell Hamline has won the top prize in the school’s six-year history.

They admit the wee-hours announcement didn’t fully register at first. “We just saw Team USA flash across the screen and started cheering,” said Boothe. “Given the sheer talent of the other teams, I was genuinely shocked.”

Boothe and Sheikhan represented the United States as one of 28 teams from around the world taking part in a series of negotiation sessions over five days. Each day featured simulated international negotiation sessions judged by legal experts from across the globe. The sessions related to space law.

The competition was hosted remotely by the National University of Singapore and Singapore International Mediation Institute.

“Although the competition was virtual, it was one of the most enjoyable and best learning experiences of law school,” added Sheikhan.

The team was coached by Hamline University Professor Ken Fox, Dean of Students Lynn LeMoine ’11, and Adjunct Professor Patrick Zitek ’10.

“Austyn and Daniel were incredibly motivated to learn and improve their negotiation skills and they consistently received praise for their teamwork,” said LeMoine. “Their ability to communicate seamlessly with each other was especially helpful in a remote setting.”

A native of Toronto, Canada, Sheikhan works with Reece Law and holds positions at Donate Northern, The Northern Express Minnesota, and a real estate and investment firm he founded.

Boothe is the first person in her family to earn a college degree. She’s also an AmeriCorps alum and has been active in Mitchell Hamline’s Student Bar Association as cohort representative and parliamentarian.

The International Negotiation Competition is a competition for law students to engage in the resolution of international disputes or transactions. The Mitchell Hamline team was invited to the international contest after placing second in a national negotiation competition sponsored by the American Bar Association.

In 2017, Mitchell Hamline students Brian Kennedy ’18 and Briana Al Taqatqa ’18 took first at the same competition, which was held in Norway that year.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

29

STUDENT NEWS

Three receive Student Award of Merit Amber Goodwin, Aretha Haynes, and Tiffany Phillips were Student Award of Merit recipients in 2021.

The award from the Mitchell Hamline Alumni Association recognizes graduating students whose contributions and participation in organizations and other events go above and beyond, along with a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Phillips and Haynes graduated in January 2021; Goodwin graduated in June.

“These students’ tireless work has absolutely made Mitchell Hamline better,” said Dean of Students Lynn LeMoine ’11.

The honorees all came to law school mid-career: Goodwin, after two decades in politics and policy; Phillips, after 12 years in the Navy; and Haynes, after a career in sales and research.

Goodwin, the 2020-21 Student Bar Association president, was “a role model for all our students,” according to one letter nominating her for the award. Her

Amber Goodwin

Aretha Haynes

work in gun violence prevention brought her to a White House event in April on the topic.

Haynes earned praised for her work as president of Mitchell Hamline’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA) in raising the group’s visibility and making the school’s culture more inclusive and welcoming. She co-created Student Organizations for Systemic Change—a group promoting systemic change and

Tiffany Phillips

eliminating systemic oppression—and was a distinguished extern for Ramsey County Judge Sophia Vuelo ’98.

Phillips, who earned several commendations and medals in the Navy, was lauded for leading a remote Legal Methods course as a 3L. She also served on the school’s Law Review and, as one student wrote, has academic prowess and “dedication to what is right.”

2021 STUDENT PROFILE 2021 Entering Class* Enrolled

Median age

394

29

Full time

BIPOC

Part time

LSAT 25th-75th percentiles LSAT Median

153

UGPA 25 -75 percentiles th

Women

th

LGBTQ+

2.92–3.61 UGPA Median

3.29

Students holding graduate degrees

77

Foreign countries represented

7

States represented

41

Undergraduate institutions represented

219

First generation First generation law * LSAT/UGPA percentiles were calculated by the Law

School Admission Council based on matriculant lists provided by Mitchell Hamline School of Law to the ABA.

30

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

34%

Annual Tuition

Enrolled

Full time—2021-22

1,237

19–65

24% 60% 11%

37% 63% 150–158

Age range

Total Student Enrollment

79%

Full time

39%

48,180

$ Part time

61%

Part time—2021-22

34,800

$

Students with foreign citizenship

16

States represented

48

Bar Passage Rate (for graduates who took the exam in Minnesota for the first time in Feb. 2020, July 2020, and Sept. 2020)

73%

BIPOC

23%

Employment

Women

2020 grads

55%

89%**

** In the class of 2020, 89% of Mitchell Hamline students who were seeking work were employed in Bar passage required, J.D Advantage, or other professional positions—or were pursuing an advanced degree full time—within 10 months of graduation.

STUDENT NEWS

IN BRIEF Laura Sweeney ’21 was named a Law Student of the Year semifinalist by National Jurist magazine. She was recognized for her work winning expungements for clients through Mitchell Hamline’s Reentry Clinic, along with helping a recently released mother modify her custody to see her son more, through the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP) Clinic.

Flag honor from Afghanistan Brandon Newberry ’21 couldn’t attend his own graduation last June because he was working in Afghanistan, doing contract security. So, in honor of his entire class, Newberry arranged to have a U.S. flag flown over the embassy annex in Kabul on June 3. He then donated the flag to Mitchell Hamline.

Newberry’s contract work is his next chapter after a career in the military. He was last year’s president of Mitchell Hamline’s Veterans Association.

Ryan Franklin, this year’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA) president, played last summer for the Minnesota Vixen, a semipro women’s football team.

The Vixen were undefeated until losing the championship game. Franklin is a linebacker and was special teams MVP, leading the team in special teams tackles.

Victoria Guillemard ’21 won an important ruling that allowed her to continue her work educating her neighbors about a whites-only church operating in Murdock, Minnesota, through a group she co-founded, Murdock Area Alliance Against Hate.

Claire Beyer ’21 won an Outstanding Clinic Student award from the Clinical Legal Education Association. She worked for 18 months in the Reentry and LAMP clinics, winning criminal record expungements; working to secure conditional medical release for inmates at high risk during COVID; helping draft an amicus brief in support of felon voting rights; and challenging pay-for-stay jail fees on behalf of indigent clients.

Alexander Davis ’21 received an honorable mention in the American University Washington College of Law National Health Law writing competition.

His paper was on Minnesota’s immunization law.

Laura Cummings won Mitchell Hamline’s Roy Snell Health Care Regulatory and Compliance Writing Competition. She is a registered professional engineer, working for a global manufacturing company in North Carolina.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

31

SCHOOL NEWS

Center celebrates victory against menthol

BY TODD NELSON

T

he Public Health Law Center (PHLC) at Mitchell Hamline celebrated a key victory in 2021 in its long-running battle to snuff out the sale of menthol cigarettes.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in April it would issue rules that ban menthol cigarettes and all flavors including menthol in cigars. The move was a direct, if long overdue, response to a formal “citizen petition” written

by PHLC and joined by 18 national organizations, including the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and the Center for Black Health and Equity.

That petition was first filed in 2013, when PHLC staff delivered several banker’s boxes to the FDA’s offices in Maryland, each containing a copy of the petition and a thousand pages of scientific evidence establishing menthol-flavored cigarettes’ harmfulness and addictiveness.

“Change this big takes way too long, but this is a truly historic agreement,” said Doug Blanke, PHLC’s founder and executive director. “It’s a testament to a handful of visionary advocates for racial justice, and to our own dedicated staff, who are forcing the federal government to do the right thing, despite bureaucratic inertia and the power of Big Tobacco.”

Yet even with the move, Blanke says menthol products might still be in stores for another five years, given the agency’s slowness and the tobacco industry’s litigiousness.

Blanke praised PHLC staff members’ continuing efforts on the menthol ban, including Natasha Phelps, lead senior staff attorney for Minnesota programs.

The goal is to improve public health and advance a commitment to equity that PHLC shares with Mitchell Hamline, which became an entirely tobacco-free campus in January.

Banning menthol cigarettes is among the most powerful steps the FDA could take to improve public health in the United States, where tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death, according to the petition. “Menthol cigarettes are the source of addiction for nearly half of all teen smokers,” it continued. “Menthol increases the palatability of smoking, especially among youth and members of racial and ethnic populations, and menthol increases the difficulty of quitting.”

The 2009 Tobacco Control Act, which gave the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products, left menthol as the only flavor still allowed in cigarettes. Desmond Jenson, PHLC’s lead senior staff attorney for federal regulation, called that a “racist exemption.”

“It’s the most important flavor in cigarettes for the tobacco industry to addict nonusers,” Jenson said. “It cannot be overstated just how atrocious that is.”

The tobacco industry long has targeted African American, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ communities in marketing menthol cigarettes, said Joelle Lester, director of PHLC’s Commercial Tobacco Control Programs.

“It’s thrilling to have an opportunity to meaningfully advance equity,” she said.

“This is a social justice issue that has been spearheaded by amazing African American leaders.

“And we won’t stop until menthol cigarettes are off the market.”

Joelle Lester, Dr. Valerie Yerger, and Doug Blanke at FDA headquarters hand-delivering the original petition requesting the FDA ban menthol in cigarettes on April 12, 2013. Lester and Blanke are with the Public Health Law Center; Yerger is with the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council.

Natasha Phelps of the Public Health Law Center at Mitchell Hamline speaks at an event about the plight of Black Americans and mentholated tobacco products at the National Press Club on May, 23, 2019.

Seated to her right are (L-R): Laurent Huber with Action on Smoking and Health; Sharon Eubanks, a former Justice Department prosecutor; and Channte Keith with the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network.

Mitchell Hamline has banned smoking and the use of commercial tobacco products and electronic delivery devices across the entire campus, indoors and outdoors. This includes all parking lots and within private vehicles on Mitchell Hamline property. The school occupies Dakota homelands. We support keeping tobacco sacred. Ceremonial purposes are allowed.

32

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

SCHOOL NEWS

Two trustees join Mitchell Hamline board Twin Cities attorneys Sam Clark and Scott Flaherty joined the Mitchell Hamline board of trustees last summer.

Clark is civil division director in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and a former St. Paul city attorney. He also worked with Senator Amy Klobuchar on the Judiciary Committee and as her state director. He’s a former partner at Greene Espel.

Flaherty is a partner at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister. He has taught at the Uni-

versity of St. Thomas School of Law and is secretary of the Minnesota Supreme Court Historical Society. He previously chaired the ACLU of Minnesota board and the Minneapolis Commission on Civil Rights.

Judge Denise Reilly ’83, Richard Mack ’93, and Charles “Chuck” Johnson ’75 stepped down as trustees.

Judge Jill Flaskamp Halbrooks ’85 became trustee emerita.

Sam Clark

Scott Flaherty

Niedwiecki adds three to senior leadership team President and Dean Anthony Niedwiecki added three members to his executive leadership team: Michael Birchard was named Mitchell Hamline’s inaugural vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

He previously served in similar roles at several campuses in the Minnesota State system, including most recently at Dakota County Technical College and Inver Hills Community College, and he teaches at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota.

Mike Freer was named director of human resources. He has also had a long career in several similar positions in the Minnesota State system, most recently at Saint Cloud State University, and is a former corrections officer.

Tressa Ries was named vice president of finance and administration. She joined the law school with many years of finance and accounting experience, most recently serving in the same role at St. Cloud State University. She also has been in leadership positions at Mary Baldwin University, Colorado School of Mines, and Ohio University.

BEST LAW SCHOOL AND

BEST

CLE PROVIDER

Mike Freer

Michael Birchard

The readers of Minnesota Lawyer and Finance & Commerce magazines have again voted Mitchell Hamline School of Law as Best Law School. They also voted the school the Best Non-Association Continuing Legal Education Provider.

This marks the fourth time in five years we’ve been named Best Law School and the fifth straight year we’ve won the CLE award.

Tressa Ries MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

33

SCHOOL NEWS Last spring, Mitchell Hamline offered its first-ever class that focuses on transgender rights and the law, taught by Ellen Kennedy, from World Without Genocide at Mitchell Hamline, and Tara Kalar ’12, a state human services judge.

Elana Dahlager joined our Reentry Clinic as staff attorney and assistant teaching professor.

In May, Professor Dena Sonbol ’08, dean of academic excellence, won the institutional leadership award from the Association of Academic Support Educators.

Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Anne McKeig ’92 returned to teaching last summer with a course on the Indian Child Welfare Act. Two members of the Legal Writing faculty were promoted: Wendy Shea was named professor of law. Melissa Shultz was placed on tenure track as associate professor of law.

Members of the Academic Excellence department received faculty appointments: Nicole Coon, Maggie Eilertson ’08, Kari Milligan, Garrett Mulrooney ’97, and Alex Wainberg were promoted to associate teaching faculty; Laura Brooks ’15 to assistant teaching faculty.

In July, Susan Galazen ’98 from our Career and Professional Development

office, was named to the National Advisory Council of Equal Justice Works, which champions public service on law school campuses.

In July, Professor Barbara Colombo ’89 was reappointed to the Minnesota Racing Commission, a public body that oversees the state’s racing industry.

34

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

In July, Visiting Assistant Professor DeShayla Strachan was appointed an assistant editor for Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute,

a top peer-reviewed journal.

In August, Professor David Allen Larson was elected chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. Larson was also a key player in developing an online dispute resolution program that launched last year in New York City.

In September, Professor Angelique EagleWoman became sole director of the Native American Law and Sovereignty Institute, after fellow co-director Colette Routel was appointed a Hennepin County judge. Mitchell Hamline also welcomed a record number of firstyear Native American students this fall.

In May, three students in the Advanced Advocacy: Civil Litigation summer course, taught by Professor John Sonsteng and Adjunct Professor Willow Anderson ’02, became the first students on campus for in-person learning in more than a year. Several other students attended the weeklong class online in what was also our first HyFlex class (see page 8).

In September, Professor Peter Knapp was named to a committee that will help Minnesota senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith make recommendations to the president for a federal judgeship.

In October, Professor Jon Geffen ’97, director of Mitchell Hamline’s Reentry Clinic, was named chair of a new state task force that is reviewing Minnesota’s law that limits and disqualifies people from working in various health and human services jobs if they have criminal records.

CLASS NOTES

1973 SCOTT NEWMAN was reelected to the Minnesota Senate and named chair of the Transportation Finance and Policy Committee.

1975 JEFF ANDERSON was named a 2021 Minnesota Icon honoree by Finance & Commerce and Minnesota Lawyer.

1976 STEVEN J. KIRSCH was recognized for his professional excellence in the category of Product Liability Litigation– Defendants by The Best Lawyers in America.

ROBERT G. RANCOURT was appointed to the board of directors of the Addiction Policy Forum.

CAROL HOOTEN retired from the Minnesota Court of Appeals.

MARK S. RUBIN retired as St. Louis County (Minn.) attorney, after more than 10 years in the elected post and more than 40 years in the county attorney’s office. Rubin was also named a 2021 Minnesota Icon honoree

by Finance & Commerce and Minnesota Lawyer.

1979 GLENN M. BAYERKOHLER was awarded the 2021 Cathy Cowan Award at Southwest Minnesota State University for his service to the school and the community.

RON L. BEAL retired after 38 years of teaching law at Baylor Law School.

JAY CARLSON was one of five judges named to serve on a panel that heard and decided cases related to redistricting in Minnesota.

MARK A. HALLBERG joined Robins Kaplan as of counsel.

JEFFREY G. STEPHENSON retired from the Ramsey County (Minn.) Attorney's Office.

1977 CHUCK WIGER was reelected to the Minnesota Senate.

He announced he would retire from the Legislature after the 2022 election.

1978 JAMES C. BACKSTROM retired as Dakota County (Minn.) attorney after more than 30 years in the elected post and more than 40 years in the county attorney’s office.

PETER W. GORMAN was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

1980 BARBARA J. GISLASON was promoted to the editor-in-chief of the Juriste International, the flagship publication of the Paris-based Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA).

Gislason also received the Presidential Gold Medal from UIA President Jorge Marti.

LOUIS H. SCHIFF was appointed the associate dean of the Florida Judicial College by the education committee of the Florida Supreme Court for a three-year deanship.

1981 ROBERT T. LUND won first place in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Book Awards’ Thriller category with his second novel, “A Climate for Death”. He writes under the name R.T. Lund.

JAMES E. MEYEN retired from his postion as the senior naval science instructor in the Durfee High School Navy JROTC program in Fall River, Mass. Prior to this role, he retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as a lieutenant colonel after 21 years as a judge advocate.

KATHLEEN M. NEWMAN achieved recertification as a family law advocate with the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

KIRK W. REILLY retired from Lathrop GPM, concluding a 37-year law career.

JODI WILLIAMSON was one of five judges named to serve on a panel that will hear and decide pending cases related to redistricting in Minnesota.

1984 CARTER DELAITTRE was named one of the Best Lawyers in America for 2022.

WILLIAM S. FORSBERG joined Fredrikson & Byron.

ALAN S. MILAVETZ was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

DAN C. O’CONNELL achieved recertification as a family trial advocate from the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA).

MANSCO PERRY announced his retirement from his position of executive director and chief investment officer of the Minnesota State Board of Investment.

1982 KENNETH J. ABDO was named among the 2021 Midwest Trailblazers by The American Lawyer and a 2021 Top Music Lawyer by Billboard magazine.

DAVID E. SCHAUER retired from his position as Sibley County (Minn.) attorney. He started the job in 1988, making him the longest-serving Sibley County attorney and the second-longest-serving county attorney in the state.

1983 LARRY McDONOUGH ran seminars across Minnesota to instruct landlords, tenants, attorneys, and judges on the details of COVID-related rental assistance that was available, as well as a law in Minnesota that detailed how an eviction moratorium would gradually end.

1985 SHERRY A. ENZLER was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the group category for the Bde Maka Ska Name Restoration.

SONJA DUNNWALD PETERSON was named a Minnesota Lawyer 2021 Diversity and Inclusion Honoree.

CINDY K. TELSTAD was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer for outstanding service to the profession.

TIMOTHY M. WALSH joined the Minneapolis office of Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr as a partner in the firm's real estate practice.

JULIE A. WRASE is the chair of the St. Olaf Fund Board.

1986 CLARK D. OPDAHL was named on the 2021 Minnesota Super Lawyers list and listed as one of the Best Lawyers in America for 2022. chief judge of Minnesota’s 3rd Judicial District.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

35

CLASS NOTES ALICE L. SILKEY was named a Minnesota Lawyer 2021 Diversity and Inclusion Honoree.

1989 RODNEY H. JENSEN is now in partnership with his daughter, Madeline Jensen ’18, practicing family law as Jensen Law Offices.

1987 JOSEPH A. BUELTEL was elected to a two-year term as chief judge of Minnesota’s 3rd Judicial District.

JAMES P. CAREY was recognized

by Best Lawyers as the 2022 Lawyer of the Year, for Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs and elected to the board of directors of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

NICK FRENTZ was reelected to the Minnesota Senate.

JEFFREY S. SHERIDAN was named a 2021 Minnesota Icon honoree by Finance & Commerce and Minnesota Lawyer.

VICTOR I. VIETH received the Victim Rights Legend Award from the U.S. Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime.

1988 THERESA A. CAPISTRANT was named on the 2021 Minnesota Super Lawyers list for the 20th consecutive year.

KEITH J. GRADY joined the Tucker Ellis IP department as partner in the St. Louis office.

KATHRYN M. KEENA was appointed Dakota County (Minn.) attorney, the first woman to hold the position.

CYNTHIA M. MACDONALD was appointed assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Service’s health care administration.

KARIN L. SONNEMAN was appointed to the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit Advisory Board.

1990 MARK W. SHEAHAN was named president and chief executive officer of Graco.

1991 RODNEY W. DEQUAINE was appointed a family court judge for the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.

TINA M. FILIPIAK retired from the Will County (Ill.) State’s Attorney's Office.

D. THOMAS GRIEP was named president and chief executive officer of Murphy Companies.

KAREN A. KUGLER was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

KATHLEEN A. MOTTL retired from her position as judge in Minnesota’s 10th Judicial District.

BETTY C. RESCH was elected mayor of Lake Worth Beach, Fla. DEBORAH K. SUNDQUIST was reappointed as a judge on the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals.

CATHRYN D. REHER joined Barna, Guzy and Steffen as shareholder.

1992 JOSEPH K. EISCHENS launched Eischens + Vogel Mediation Solutions.

CHRISTINE A. GIMBER joined Bakke Norman as shareholder.

36

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

Alums played key role in Chauvin trial

Steven Schleicher

Matthew Frank

Eric Nelson

When former police officer Derek Chauvin went on trial last year for the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Mitchell Hamline alums played key roles in the deliberations. Matthew Frank ’91 and Steven Schleicher ’95 were part of the prosecutorial team for the state of Minnesota.

Eric Nelson ’01 was the defense attorney who represented Derek Chauvin.

In the aftermath of Chauvin’s conviction, Schleicher drew attention for his pro bono work as a special prosecutor.

He was among those interviewed for “60 Minutes” and was recognized with awards from the Minnesota Justice Foundation as well as Trinity College Dublin in Ireland.

Several Mitchell Hamline faculty members were interviewed often during the trial (see page 25) and professors John Radsan and Rick Petry ’98 offered a summer course that focused on the trial as a way to explore the laws and legalities at play during the case.

DeLinda Washington named chief people officer at HealthPartners DeLinda Washington ’94 was named senior vice president and chief people officer at HealthPartners in February 2021. She leads human resources operations across the 26,000-person company.

Washington previously spent seven years in human resources leadership roles at Kaiser Permanente, and before that at PepsiCo/Frito-Lay, Fannie Mae, and Honeywell. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., she was an All-American basketball player in high school and played college basketball at Wisconsin.

CLASS NOTES NANCY T. POLOMIS received the Minnesota Business Partner Excellence in Service Vision Award from the Community Associations Institute.

1993 AMY H. KURONEN joined Frandsen Bank & Trust as an assistant vice president and trust officer in the wealth management & trust division.

JOHN J. CHOI, Ramsey County attorney, was appointed to a committee to recommend candidates for the U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal for Minnesota.

Choi was also appointed to the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit Advisory Board and worked with police leaders to reduce non-public-safety traffic stops.

ANDRIEL M. DEES was named vice chancellor for equity and inclusion by Minnesota State.

1994 ABBY L. BRIED was named vice president and general counsel of Panasonic Avionics Corporation.

ROBERT J. LIGHTFOOT was named one of the Best Lawyers for 2022.

ERIC H. CHADWICK was appointed a co-chair of the intellectual property litigation practice group at DeWitt.

MARYLYNNE D. FILACCIO earned a Ph.D. in school psychology from the University of Northern Colorado.

JEFFREY S. FREHNER was named chief operating officer at Lectric eBikes.

DOUGLAS D. HERMAN joined Lynch Dallas.

BRIGITT M. ORFIELD was named on the 2021 Minnesota Super Lawyers list and one of the Best Lawyers in America for 2022.

DAMON E. SCHRAMM rejoined Lathrop GPM.

1995 DENISE E. BARNETT was appointed a United States bankruptcy judge for the Western District of Tennessee.

MICHAEL J. CASE joined Frost Brown Todd. Case also became the chief executive officer of Transaction Expeditors, a subsidiary of Frost Brown Todd.

BOBBY JOE CHAMPION was reelected to the Minnesota Senate.

1997 DAVID M. AAFEDT was reelected to the board of directors at Winthrop & Weinstine. Aafedt was also reelected as chair of the board of directors for the Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota. This will be David's eighth term.

ANGELA BERANEK was appointed deputy district attorney in Eau Claire County, Wis. KELLY A. JEANETTA was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

KRISTY A. MARA was elected to a two-year term as president of the Minnesota Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML).

KATHLEEN S. RUHLAND was named to the management team at DLA Piper.

Ruhland is the global co-chair and U.S. chair of the firm’s corporate practice.

ANN M. WILLIAMSON was named chief privacy officer at UnitedHealth Group.

1996 CONNIE A. LAHN was named a Minnesota Lawyer 2021 Diversity and Inclusion honoree.

DEBRA A. LAUTENSCHLAGER is now the managing attorney for the Law Office of the Public Defender in Roswell, N.M. JOMARIE L. MORRIS was appointed to the Executive Council of the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota.

DENNIS L. MUNSON was admitted to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

CHRISTOPHER J. MORELAND formed the new Minneapolis law firm MJSB Employment Justice.

1998 GALEN W. EAGLE BULL was named deputy director of investigation and adjudication, university compliance services, at the University of Texas at Austin.

KELLY MOLLER was reelected to the Minnesota House of Representatives.

CAROLINE S. PALMER was appointed to the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit Advisory Board.

Palmer was also selected as a fellow in the Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

SOPHIA Y. VUELO was named a Minnesota Lawyer 2021 Diversity and Inclusion honoree.

1999 WILLIAM J. ANNEXSTAD was appointed to the United States Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals as an appellate military judge.

JEFFREY A. STREIFFER was named partner at Goldfarb & Lipman.

2000 WENDY BADGER joined Tennant Company as global compliance counsel.

SARA N. WILSON was named a shareholder at Lommen Abdo.

2001 JEFFREY S. SIEBEN was named on the 2021 Minnesota Top 100 Super Lawyers list.

LISA T. SPENCER was named on both the 2021 Minnesota Top 100 Super Lawyers and Top 50 Women lists. Spencer was also listed as one of the 2020 Notable Women in Law by Twin Cities Business and one of the Best Lawyers in America for 2022.

KARL G. SUNDQUIST joined Colosimo, Patchin & Kearney as partner.

2002 JASON E. ENGKJER joined DeWitt’s transportation & logistics practice group.

JAYNE J. JONES wrote “The No Sugar Baker’s Cookbook of Healthy Living and No Regrets”.

MATTHEW A. SLAVEN was named vice president and general counsel of MV Ventures.

KELLY F. SOFIO joined Lommen Abdo.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

37

CLASS NOTES

BROOK R. MALLAK joined the Office of the Ombudsperson for Families as the ombudsperson to Asian American families.

TERESA FARISS MCCLAIN was named a 2021 Minnesota Icon honoree by Finance & Commerce and Minnesota Lawyer.

JENNIFER L. STANFIELD was appointed to Minnesota’s 10th Judicial District Court bench.

2003 ANNA P. ANDOW was appointed to Minnesota’s 4th Judicial District Court bench.

TAMMERA R. DIEHM was listed in the 2021 edition of Chambers.

JILL KEHAULANI ESCH was named a Minnesota Lawyer 2021 Diversity and Inclusion honoree.

JAPAUL HARRIS was presented the President’s Award at the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers Gala.

MONICA I. DOONER LINDGREN was appointed president of the Ramsey County (Minn.) Bar Association for the 2021-22 year, the first Latina to serve in the position.

LYNDSEY OLSON became the first woman judge advocate to be promoted to colonel in the Minnesota National Guard. She’s also the first woman assigned as staff judge advocate to lead the legal section for the 34th Red Bull Infantry Division.

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MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

TORREY WESTROM was reelected to the Minnesota Senate and was named chair of the Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee.

2004 MÁEL EMBSERHERBERT co-edited the book, “With Honor and Integrity: Transgender Troops in Their Own Words”.

NICHOLAS J. O’CONNELL was recognized by Best Lawyers as the 2022 Lawyer of the Year, Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants in Minneapolis and was listed on the 2022 list of The Best Lawyers in America.

MARY SENNES rejoined Stoel Rives as of counsel.

LAWRENCINA MASON ORAMALU was named director of the Center for Student Leadership at Texas Woman’s University.

MARY FRANCES M. PRICE joined Moss & Barnett.

MEGHAN T. STILING was named chief digital officer at Nerdery.

LUKE M. WAGNER was elected judge in the newly created Branch 3 of the Dunn County (Wis.) Circuit Court.

2007 CHRISTIAN A. BRANDT joined HAWS-KM as senior attorney.

SAMUEL J. EDMUNDS was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

BRYCE A. EHRMAN was appointed to Minnesota’s 1st Judicial District Court bench.

SANDRA E. FEIST was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives.

2006 MELISA LÓPEZ FRANZEN was elected leader of the DFL caucus in the Minnesota Senate.

CEDRICK R. FRAZIER was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives.

NICOLE KINTOP SMITH joined Greenberg Traurig as shareholder.

2005 IMRAN S. ALI joined the law firm of Eckberg Lammers as a shareholder, attorney and director of law enforcement education and training. Ali was also named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

JILL A. BRISBOIS was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the individual category.

TAMARA CABANRAMIREZ was appointed to the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit Advisory Board.

MIKE FREIBERG was reelected to the Minnesota House of Representatives and named chair of the Preventative Health Policy Division Committee.

SIV I. MJANGER was appointed to Minnesota’s 10th Judicial District Court bench.

ALEXANDER J. KIM was named a Minnesota Lawyer 2020 Diversity and Inclusion honoree.

DEANNE M. KOLL was appointed to the board of administrative oversight, a Wisconsin Supreme Court committee.

MATHEW R. KORTE was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

MARGARET P. MOSS (Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota) was named to Forbes Magazine’s 50 over 50 ‘Leading the Way in Impact’ list.

JENNIFER L. PLUMB was accepted into Class II of the Heart of America Fellows Institute of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC).

RUTH RICHARDSON was reelected to the Minnesota House of Representatives and named chair of the Education Policy Committee.

SUSAN M. RODRIGUEZ was appointed to the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings as an administrative law judge.

ROCHELLE L. HAUSER was listed as one of the 2020 Notable Women in Law by Twin Cities Business and was named on the 2021 Minnesota Super Lawyers list.

AMY E. LUKASAVITZ was appointed to Minnesota’s 6th Judicial District Court bench.

JOHN C. REDPATH was named shareholder at Winthrop & Weinstine.

KEVIN A. SIEBEN was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

MICHAEL T. STEINERT was named chief operating officer of Securian Asset Management.

KAREN WESTWOOD received a 2021 Minnesota Lawyer Unsung Legal Hero Award.

CLASS NOTES

2008

RACHEL M. DAHL was named partner at Maslon.

JUANITA FREEMAN was one of five judges named to serve on a panel heard and decided pending cases related to redistricting in Minnesota.

SARAH M. HOFFMAN was elected to Bassford Remele’s board of directors.

ROBYN L. INGBER joined Hellmuth & Johnson.

ELIANA A. LEE was named a legal engineer at LinkSquares.

MANUEL R. MORAN wrote the book “Fountain of Health: Regain Your Health, Happiness, and Lose Weight. A Revolution in Health for Everybody”.

J. STEVE NYS was named shareholder at Fryberger, Buchanan, Smith & Frederick.

ELIZABETH J. ROFF was named partner at Stellpflug Law.

HOLLY H. DOLEJSI was named a Minnesota Lawyer 2020 Diversity and Inclusion honoree.

MICHAEL P. GOODWIN was named one of the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the group category for creating peacetime emergency precedent.

BREE JOHNSON formed the new Minneapolis law firm MJSB Employment Justice.

JEN McEWEN was elected to the Minnesota Senate.

ADINE S. MOMOH was selected as a member of the 2021-22 class of the National Bar Association’s Top 40 Under 40 for the Nation's Best Advocates.

CHRISTOPHER D. PHAM was named a “40 Under 40” honoree by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

JOSHUA E. SCHAUB was named a “40 Under 40” honoree by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

TANIA A. SHAPIRO-BARR joined Viksnins Harris Padys Malen.

ANDREW J. WISHNIA was appointed deputy assistant secretary for climate policy in the U.S. Department of Transportation.

2009 ROBERT H. AMBROSE is an adjunct professor teaching Law in Practice at the University of Minnesota.

ALLISON A. BURKE was named director of development and alumni relations at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. KRISTIEN R. BUTLER was appointed to lead the Department of Human Rights & Equal Economic Opportunity (HREEO) in Saint Paul.

KIM COLLINS was named deputy commissioner of MnDOT.

BENJAMIN R. WILCOX was elected to the Southwest Initiative Foundation board of directors.

Duchess Harris recognized for campus, community work Dr. Duchess Harris ’11, an American Studies and Political Science professor at Macalester College, won the school’s Thomas Jefferson award last year for her contributions to the campus and community.

Harris’ work “has focused on events of Black political importance that have largely been ignored or neglected,” according to Macalester. Her writing includes a 120-book series for young and young adult readers that addresses race, gender, and class.

Her grandmother, Miriam Daniel Mann, was a “Hidden Figure,” one of the Black women who worked for NASA during the space race. Harris has written about these women and threw out the first pitch at a Twins game to help mark the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

“This award has tremendous meaning in this political moment because I feel like the college sees me and the work that I have done to lift up racial justice and equity,” said Harris.

KRISANN R. NORBY-JAHNER was promoted to shareholder at Vogel Law Firm.

LAUREN E. NUFFORT was named a board member at Lommen Abdo.

ESTEBAN RIVERA served as president of the Hennepin County (Minn.)

Bar Association.

2010 JACOB D. CAMPION was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the group category for creating peacetime emergency precedent.

HALLA Y. ELRASHIDI was named Minnesota’s taxpayer rights advocate.

JESSICA M. KENNEDY was named to the board of MNsure, Minnesota's health insurance exchange.

ANDREA J. LIESER was appointed to Minnesota’s 5th Judicial District Court bench.

KODI J. VERHALEN was elected by the Minnesota Legislature to serve a six-year term as regent of the University of Minnesota for the 6th Congressional District.

2011 JAMIE BECKERFINN was reelected to the Minnesota House of Representatives and named chair of the Judiciary Finance & Civil Law Committee.

KATHRYN H. BENNETT was named to the National Law Journal’s inaugural Rising Stars of the Plaintiff Bar list.

JEFFERSON B. COOMBS was appointed to Wyoming’s 9th Judicial District Court bench.

ANDREW IRLBECK was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the two partners category.

MARIAH K. MILLS JACOBSEN was promoted to general counsel of Northern Tool + Equipment.

IRENE KAO was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year

by Minnesota Lawyer in the individual category.

SARAH E. LARSEN received the Wallace-Lerner Award for Excellence in Leadership from the Mitchell Hamline Law Review.

ABIGAIL A. PETTIT was elected shareholder at Avisen Legal.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

39

CLASS NOTES

LISELOTTE D. SCHLUENDER was appointed assistant county attorney in St. Louis County, Minn.

DANIEL L. BRUZZONE was named partner at Patterson Thuente IP. ALEXANDRA L. CONNELL was named shareholder at Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell.

2012 BELMA DEMIROVIC CHINCHOY was selected as an adjunct professor of immigration law at Pepperdine University School of Law. JEFFREY K. HOLTH was named shareholder at Jacobson Law Group.

AMRAN A. FARAH was appointed to a committee to help recommend candidates for the U.S. attorney and U.S. marshal for Minnesota. Farah was also named a “40 Under 40” honoree by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

RYAN J. LONG was elected to serve on the board of directors for the Wisconsin State Bar Elder Law and Special Needs Section.

MICHAEL L. MURPHY was named shareholder at Jacobson Law Group.

JANET M. OLAWSKY joined Harris & Company.

BHUPESH A. PATTNI was appointed to Minnesota’s 6th Judicial District Court bench.

NELS PIERSON III was re-elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives.

MARCOS RAMIREZ was named a Minnesota Lawyer 2020 Diversity and Inclusion honoree.

JOHN M. SCHMID was named shareholder at Moss & Barnett.

BRANDON M. ZUMWALT was named partner at Johnson, Moody, Schmidt & Kleinhuizen.

2013 ELLIE BARRAGRY was named partner in the litigation department at Fox Rothschild.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

N. AMEE PHAM was appointed assistant chief workers’ compensation judge with the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings.

JACOB W. STEEN was elected shareholder at Larkin Hoffman.

COURTNEY A. THOMPSON joined Fredrikson & Byron’s Minneapolis office as shareholder.

ERICA A. HOLZER was named partner at Maslon.

ASHLEY M. KEMPLIN-GAMM joined Eckberg Lammers in the firm’s commercial real estate group.

40

CHRISTOPHER S. PAUL joined Panattoni Development as senior development manager.

TOU XIONG was reelected to the Minnesota House of Representatives.

2016 CHRISTOPHER A. GARCIA was appointed by the Biden-Harris administration to serve in the White House as a senior legislative affairs advisor.

GULED A. IBRAHIM was named a 2021 Bush Fellow.

AMY C. WALLACE joined SiebenCarey and was named on the 2021 Minnesota Rising Stars list.

BRYAN J. HUNTINGTON was named shareholder at Larkin Hoffman.

CHRISTOPHER H. MONTANA was named Artisan Spirit of the Year

by Artisan Spirit Magazine. The distillery he started, Du Nord Social Spirits, entered into an agreement with Delta Airlines to serve Du Nord vodka on flights.

JAMES T. PECHACEK was named partner at Dykema.

ANDREW R. SHEDLOCK was elected partner at Kutak Rock.

MARCUS L. URLAUB was elected a shareholder at Monroe Moxness Berg.

CARRIE L. WEBER was elected shareholder at Ahlers & Cooney.

ALICIA N. NORBY joined Thorwaldsen & Malmstrom.

2015 KATHRYN L. BABB joined Taft Stettinius & Hollister.

ADAM J. HANSON was promoted to chapter president of the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Minnesota and North Dakota Chapter.

EMILY M. PARKS was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the group category for the state Covid legal team/executive order drafting team.

ALLISON M. PLUNKETT was named a 2021 Minnesota Rising Star and listed on Best Lawyer’s Ones to Watch for 2022.

2014

KYLE L. PROUTY joined Heimerl & Lammers.

NIKO A. BOULIERIS joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oklahoma as assistant United States attorney.

ELISE R. RADAJ joined Moss & Barnett.

CANDACE M. GROTH joined Vela Wood as a senior attorney.

Groth also got married in August.

LINDSEY E. O’CONNELL was named shareholder at Tuft, Lach, Jerabek & O’Connell.

BRITTANY M. RICE became the first director of equity and inclusion of the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.

KERIANN L. RIEHLE was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the group category for creating peacetime emergency precedent.

CASEY H. SCHOFIELD-MORK was appointed assistant county attorney in Cottonwood County (Minn.).

2017 BROOKE A. ACHUA joined the New York office of FeganScott.

NADINE T. GRAVES was appointed to the Minnesota Conviction Review Unit Advisory Board.

She also released the second season of her podcast, “The Waiting Room with Nadine Graves,” giving a voice to those impacted by the criminal justice system.

CLASS NOTES

GREGORY LARS GUNNERSON received the 2020 Patent Pro Bono Achievement Certificate from the USPTO. KIRSTEN H. PAGEL joined Nilan Johnson Lewis.

KELSEY M. SCANLAN joined the wealth preservation and estate planning team at Moss & Barnett.

2018 WILLIAM K. DAVIES is now an associate attorney at Lanners & Olson.

J. BRIAN FERGUSON was appointed to the panel of Chapter 7 trustees for the Western District of Arkansas.

MADELINE C. JENSEN is now in partnership with her father, Rod Jensen ’89, practicing family law as Jensen Law Offices.

TAYLOR LEVY was one of eight humanitarian and legal experts to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris during a trip by the vice president to El Paso in June.

JANA L. MURRAY joined Huson Law Firm as associate attorney.

CHRISTY M. PENTON was certified as a member of The Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

N. CHETHANA PERERA joined Fredrikson & Byron.

GREGORY ROBINSON received the Personal Family Lawyer (PFL) designation.

HANNA R. VALENTO was elected to the city council in Forest Lake (Minn.), the youngest person to ever serve on the council.

2019

BRIAN GRUBER was named to the Florida Supreme Court’s Mediator Ethics Advisory Committee.

LUKE F. BELFLOWER joined Hellmuth & Johnson.

LAUREN C. CURTRIGHT joined Bassford Remele.

JACOB P. KACZMAROWSKI joined Ledin, Olson, & Cockerham.

ASHLEY L. KINER joined Huson Law Firm as associate attorney.

RICHARD DORNFELD was named one the 2020 Attorneys of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the group category for creating peacetime emergency precedent.

ANNELIESE L. MCCAHERY was named attorney at Eckberg Lammers.

HANNAH MOHS joined Arthur, Chapman, Kettering, Smetak & Pikala.

KARA J. BREMER was named a 2021 Minnesota Rising Star and listed on Best Lawyer’s Ones to Watch for 2022.

MADELINE K. CAREY was named attorney at SiebenCarey.

DEA P. CORTNEY was named attorney at Sieben Edmunds Miller.

CARA DIMARE wrote the proposal that earned accreditation for a new four-year Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice at Sitting Bull College in North Dakota.

MICHELLE M. GIBBONS was named an associate attorney at Baillon Thome Jozwiak & Wanta.

SUSAN TROMBLEY received a 2021 Minnesota Lawyer Unsung Legal Hero Award.

SHEILA S. NIAZ joined Merchant & Gould.

MICHELLE MCFADDEN joined Thompson Dorfman Sweatman.

2020

SHAHRAM (SEAN) SHEKIB was elected president of the New York State Academy of General Dentistry.

JACOB MORGAN joined Johnson, Killen & Seiler.

REBEKAH E. COHEN ISRAEL joined Moss & Barnett.

ZACHARY M. SHEAHAN joined Fredrikson & Byron’s mergers & acquisitions group.

TIMOTHY J. RYAN was appointed to the Illinois Finance Authority.

GABRIEL RAMIREZHERNANDEZ joined Maslon.

SIMONE E. WASHINGTON joined the Philadelphia office of Travelers Insurance as associate counsel.

TERRY E. WHITE started as a part-time prosecutor and investigator for the Nodaway County Prosecutor’s Office (Mo.).

2021 JUSTIN ANDREW joined Weld Riley.

JOHN F. EDELL joined Arthur, Chapman, Kettering, Smetak & Pikala.

HOLLY HANKINS joined Blethen Berens.

ADAM J. HANSON joined Maslon.

MEGAN MILLER co-authored an American Bar Association publication, “What Is a Trademark, Fourth Edition”.

JENNIFER A. GISH joined Gislason & Hunter.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

41

IN MEMORIAM

1952

1957

RICHARD “DICK” E. BRINK, 98, died July 4, 2021. Survived by his children, Thomas (Mary Florence) and Gretchen (Rob) Bigwood; step-children Nancy (William) Haverland, Robert (Lynne) Cousins Jr., and David Cousins; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

RICHARD “DICK” P. MAHONEY, 92, died Nov. 25, 2021. Survived by his wife, Helen Mahoney (Bauers); children Patrick, Brigid Spicola, Tim (Sheila), Kevin (Jane Tenquist) and Kate; siblings Mary Catherine Baumgaertner, Elizabeth Spillane, Margaret Ann (Jack) McMahon and James (Mary Ann); eight greatgrandchildren, nieces and nephews, and extended family.

MARVIN L. GRUNDHOEFER, 93, died Oct. 15, 2020. Survived by his wife, Judy; daughter Mary (John) Langan; sons Joseph (Jodi) and Michael (Libby); daughters-in-law Mary Grundhoefer and Jane Grundhoefer; step-children Eric (Jane) Hagen, Nina (Keith) Pumper, and Carl (Kim) Hagen; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

RODERICK B. MCLARNAN, 95, died Dec. 15, 2021. Survived by his former wife, Virginia; long-time companion Joan Westlake; children Timothy (Anne), Terrance (Karin), Thomas (Jennifer), Nancy Amerman (Jon Otto) and Susan (Chris) Berglund; and 14 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

1955 CURTIS “CURT” A. PEARSON, 94, died Oct. 29, 2021. Survived by his children, Kurt, Todd (Melinda Greer) and Lizanne (Scott) Larsen; six grandchildren; and daughter-in-law, Kim, wife to late son, Charles.

WALTER “WALT” W. PETROSKI, 95, died March 3, 2021.

Survived by his wife, Dorothy; children Mary Jean (Jim) Higgins, Janet (Bill) Hansen, and Alan (Jill); and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

1956 STEWART F. KVALHEIM, 97, died, Feb. 20, 2021. Survived by his wife, Joyce; daughters Mary (Carl) Saarion and Beth Wilms; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and beloved nieces and nephews.

42

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

1958 GORDON E. HACKMAN, 96, died Aug. 14, 2021.

Survived by his brother, Charles; children Dave (Maureen) and Mary (Bryan Maret); grandchildren Ian and Samuel Maret; many nieces and nephews; other family; and dear friends.

JAMES “JIM” T. HART, 91, died March 15, 2021.

Survived by his children, Jim (Cheryl), Lindsay (Joe) Smith, Leslie (Greg) Brzezinski, Tom (Chanthy), Elizabeth, Rob, Mary (Percy) Gutierrez, John, Dan (Dolores), and Maggie (Tom) Crichton; sister Patte Peterson; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

JOHN E. SCHWARZ, 89, died April 13, 2021. Survived by his biological children, Randy Schwarz, Sara Schwarz Groden, Scott Schwarz, Carrie Schwarz Burke; daughter-in-law Jesi Schwarz; brother Dick; step-children Kathryn Anderson Richards, Keith Anderson, Judd Anderson, and Sara Anderson Hahn; foster son David Waithaka; many grandchildren and greatgrandchildren; and many step-grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins.

Thomas Carey, judge and former adjunct professor Former Minnesota judge and adjunct professor Thomas Carey ’63 died in April at the age of 84. He served as judge from 1986 to 2000.

He was one of Minnesota’s first statewide asbestos litigation judges, presiding “over lawsuits targeting manufacturers whose products contained the material at a time when its harmful effects on human health and links to cancer were still coming to light,” according to the Star Tribune.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Gerry; his children, Sean (Corinne), Pat (Susan), Jim (Molly), and Kelly (Jim) Frankenfeld; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Walter Anastas, professor and champion for Ukraine Longtime professor Walter Anastas ’64 died in April at the age of 90.

Born Volodymyr Anastasievsky in Mława, Poland, his family was displaced during World War II and survived the brutality of both the Nazi and Soviet regimes. His family moved to Minneapolis in 1950, and he served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He graduated first in his class at both the University of Minnesota and William Mitchell College of Law. He returned to Mitchell after one year in private practice, teaching business law for 20 years.

Anastas also was dedicated to helping the people of Ukraine, including helping draft Ukraine’s new constitution after its independence in the early 1990s.

He is survived by his wife, Julia, children Walter and Natalie Jachotorowycz; and four grandchildren.

IN MEMORIAM

1960 LLEWELLYN “LEW” H. LINDE, 92, died Nov. 27, 2020.

Survived by his sister-in-law, Rosie Sontag; daughter Kay (Robert) Heisler; son Richard Linde; son Paul Linde (Laurie Schultz); daughter Sara Linde; and daughter-in-law Carol Linde; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

EDWARD “ED” H. RASMUSSEN, 93, died Nov. 29, 2021. The longtime attorney and one-term state representative is survived by his wife, Betty; his first wife, Marilyn; children Jon (Deborah), Pamela (James), Paul (Cynthia) and Susan (Karl); stepson Chris (Amy) Kvam; Veronica Kvam; nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

1961 ROBERT “BOB” T. WHITE, 90, died Dec. 8, 2020. Survived by his children, Catherine, Jane (Bob) Schneeweis, Peggy, Mary (Jim) Frey, Judy (Elliot) Jaffee, Jim (Theresa), Tom, Sara (Joe) Thull, and Bill; 22 grandchildren; 16 greatgrandchildren; siblings Tom (Darlene), Jim (Pat), Cathy Eilers, Mary White, OSB and Patty (Ed) Pendleton; and many nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends.

1962 CHARLES “CHARLIE” R. LLOYD, 89, died Nov. 12, 2021. Survived by his wife, Jan; five children and their spouses Sue and Scott, Mike and Dani, Judy and Derek, Stephanie and Dean, and Katy and Carl; 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

1963 JOHN M. MOYLAN, 86, died July 18, 2021. Survived by his wife, Joy; children Jim (Carol), Michele (David Wheaton), Sue (Steve) Hunt, Katie (Dan) Doll, Tony (Leanne), and Matt (Lietoute); 22 grandchildren; a great-grandchild on the way; his sisters Ann and Mary; and many nieces and nephews.

JOSEPH “JOE” M. PELLISH, 85, died Nov. 27, 2020.

Survived by his wife, Millie; sons Joseph (Elaine) and Brian (Karen); six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and brother Steve Pellish.

1964 CELESTINE “VON” E. VON FELDT, 95, died June 2, 2021.

Survived by his wife, Cindy; children Kevin, Carol (Bob Rubbelke) King, Paige (Jim) Krieger, Kerry (Bradley) Williams, Charles (Lisa); and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

1967 PATRICK “PAT” D. MOREN, 80, died Feb. 24, 2021.

Survived by his wife, Judy; children Mark (Becky), Michelle (Ron Woolever), and Matt (Rosemary Feit); many grandchildren and a grandchildren; and brother Mike.

1968 JAMES “JIM” V. BEAL, 81, died Feb. 19, 2021. Survived by his partner, Judy Holm; sons Jay (Jill) and James; grandsons Travis and Cameron; brother Robert (Mary); nieces Anna Beal and Sarah (Tim) Rosengren; great-nephew Samuel; sister-in-law Arlene Beal; and former wife Marlies Lang.

CLIFFORD “CLIFF” W. GARDNER, 82, died Jan. 28, 2021. Survived by his wife, Annette; daughter Susan Gardner, and her son Sam; daughter Kathy (Ted) Martin, and their children Charlie and Sophie; son Dan (Deb) Gardner, and their children Ellie and Claire; sisters Joan Sprengeler, Mary Gayle (Jim) Dietz, and Anne (Charles) Butler; brother John (Terry) Gardner; sister-inlaw Joan (John) Finitsis; brotherin-law Harris Takle; and many nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.

Robert Hillstrom, real estate litigator and benefactor Robert Hillstrom ’70 died in December 2020 at the age of 88. After working as a teacher, real estate agent, and home builder for many years, he attended William Mitchell and graduated first in his class in 1970. He practiced law until 1987, focusing on real estate related litigation.

Hillstrom was a generous supporter of Mitchell Hamline and made many gifts to the law school.

In a 2010 article, Hillstrom said “everything I have of value—other than family and some friends—I owe to my time at William Mitchell. I hope the scholarship enables some students to have a career as satisfying as mine.”

Hillstrom is survived by his wife, Saba; his children Robyn West, Scott Hillstrom ’84, Shelley Peterson, Brad Hillstrom, Tamara Hillstrom; and 16 grandchildren.

Jerry Relph, state senator Minnesota state Sen. Jerry Relph ’74 died in December 2020 of COVID complications.

He was the first Minnesota legislator to succumb to the virus.

After serving his country in Vietnam, Relph returned to Minnesota and graduated from William Mitchell College of Law in 1974. He practiced law for several decades before running for public office in 2016.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret “Pegi” Broker-Relph; children Kerry (Shawn) Thompson and Dana Relph; stepchildren Laura (Wyatt) Kern, Carl Broker, Steven Broker, and Eric Broker; three grandchildren; and many nieces, nephews, relatives, and friends.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

43

IN MEMORIAM

Linda Gallant, professor and court referee

David Herr, appellate lawyer and author

Former professor and Hennepin County District Court referee Linda Gallant ’77 died in June at the age of 75. Gallant’s private practice focused on serving lowincome clients. She joined the William Mitchell faculty in 1986 as a clinics instructor, supervising students certified to represent clients in court. She became a Hennepin County District Court referee in the early 90s and was sworn in by her mentor, Justice Rosalie Wahl ’67. Gallant is survived by her sister, Leslie Crowe (John); her brothers, Edward (Lorraine) and George (Anne); and several nieces, nephews, and grandnieces and grandnephews.

David Herr ’78, a highly regarded appellate lawyer and complex case litigator who long mentored students and taught at Mitchell Hamline, died on Dec. 22 at the age of 71. He had been diagnosed with ALS. “I already miss his wit, writings, and wisdom,” said Professor Roger Haydock, who knew Herr since Herr’s days as a law student in the 1970s.

Herr was instrumental in growing the William Mitchell Law Review at that time. “He loved the law, his family, and Mitchell Hamline.” A longtime partner at Maslon, Herr wrote more than 15 publications on Minnesota and federal law while also helping draft and amend rules that guide and govern how lawyers and judges in Minnesota adjudicate civil practice in the state.

1970 ROBERT C. HENTGES, 80, died June 20, 2021. Survived

by Judith and their children Jill (Wayne) Schafer, and Susan (Matt) Carter, son-in-law Rod Taylor; and four grandchildren Justin, Hilary, Kelcy, and Megan.

KENNETH “KEN” J. OEHLERS, 89, died June 28, 2021. Survived by his children, Ken (Dolly), Susan (Jordan) Henderson, Jeannie (Greg) Walton, Kathy (Tim) Garling, Denise Ohio (Catherine Minden), Joe, David (Wendy), and Stephen (Adrienne); brother Robert (Linda); sister-in-law Connie Hoye; brother-in-law Ted Collins (Jean Dick); and many grandchildren, greatgrandchildren, nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.

1971 DANIEL F. DAHLIN, 75, died Dec. 18, 2020.

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MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

DAVID MAGNUSON, 78, who served as Stillwater, Minn., city attorney for 40 years, died on Dec. 25, 2021 from ALS-related complications. Survived by his wife (whom he met during law school), Mary, and three children, John, Jim, and Fran.

1972 M. JOHN STEWARD, 75, died Jan. 21, 2021. Survived by his wife, Connie; son Patrick (Patricia Greipp); daughter Catherine “Katie” (Anthony Parrinello); and granddaughters Annie and Lily Parrinello, and Kayleigh Rhys Steward.

1973 KEITH A. HANSON, 76, died Jan. 16, 2021.

Survived by his wife, Irene; children Elizabeth Hanson, Mark Hanson, Danielle (Hanson) Broscoff, and Nate Broscoff; grandchildren Elijah, Aubrey, and Autumn Broscoff; brothers Philip and Kenneth; and sisters-in-law Kathy and Janie; brother-in-law Allan; and numerous nieces and nephews.

JOHN P. WEINARD, JR, 81, died Dec. 18, 2020. Survived by his wife, Martha Gisselquis; brother Bruce (Virginia); sisters Sue (Fritz) Hanus and Sandy (Wayne) Johnson; and numerous nieces, nephews, and in-laws.

1974 TIMOTHY J. DWYER, 73, died May 14, 2021.

Survived by his wife, Mary; children Shannon, Murphy (Meghan), Kelly (Emily), and Sean; and bearded collies Bishop and Winston.

ROSS E. KRAMER, 81, died Sept. 12, 2021.

PETER “PETE” J. STIEHM, 73, died Oct. 2, 2021. Survived by his children, Andrew (Marlene Ovalle) Stiehm, Molly (Shannon) Lindmeyer, and Matthew (Anna Schroer) Stiehm; siblings Patrick (Betty) Stiehm, John (Judy) Stiehm, and Ann (Neil) Ahlstrom; and several grandchildren, relatives, and friends.

1976 DAVID A. BIEGING, 72, died Sept. 12, 2021. Survived by his wife, Nancy (Willing); brothers John (Lou Ann) and Jim (Deb); daughters Sarah (Christopher) Johnson, Lindsey (Greg) McConnell, and Laura (Lois) Bieging; and many grandchildren, nieces, nephews, greatnieces, and great-nephews.

CHARLES “CHARLIE” M. KIRBY, 70, died Feb. 27, 2021. Survived by his wife, Joanne; son Thomas Kirby (Adrienne Eberhart); sisterin-law Diana Kirby; and nephews Michael (Cindy) and Peter (Nicole).

ROBERT “BOB” J. LAWTON, 70, died July 20, 2021 Survived by his wife, Roxann Cunningham; former wife Barbara Lawton; children Kelly Lawton Rogosheske, Robert Jr. (Lindsay), and Corey; stepson Preston Cunningham; sister Jeanne Ward (Charlie); brother Dr. John Lawton (Mary Jo); six grandchildren; seven nieces; one nephew; and many friends.

IN MEMORIAM

1977

1979

SUSAN J. NIERENGARTEN, 69, died August 15, 2021. Survived by her husband, Hugh; daughters Julia (Jason Buckman) and Kristin (Thomas Harwood); sisters Jane (Paul) Brissett and Cynthia (Steven) Bulwicz; Hugh’s siblings and their spouses; grandchildren, nieces and nephews, cousins, and their children; and many friends.

MARK E. DOUGLASS, 70, died June 21, 2021. Survived by his wife, Ann; son, James; and daughter, Sarah. Douglass worked to protect victims of childhood sexual abuse, speaking out about surviving his own abuse at a time in the 1980s when that was rare.

His advocacy helped change Minnesota law to give adult survivors more time to sue attackers.

1978 RICHARD “DICK” H. KAKELDEY, 71, died Feb. 18, 2021 Survived by his wife, Terry; daughters Anna (John) Kakeldey Cooney and Abigail (Ben Nikolas) Kakeldey; grandchildren Oliver, Sebastian, and Finnegan; sisters Ruthann (George) Jones, Ramona Kunard, Rosalyn (Jim) Grabianowski, and Linda (John) Hoover; sister-in-law Janet Kakeldey; and many nieces and nephews.

RICHARD W. GREEN, 71, died May 15, 2021. Survived by his wife, Pam; three children Zack (Anna), Joe (Claire), and Lindsay (Matt) Dvorak; and grandchildren Brody, Mason, Louise, and Graham.

GERALD “BUCK” A. JANASAK, 67, died on Jan. 22, 2021. Survived by his brother, Don; sisters Mary and Margaret “Peg”; and several nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews.

LORRAINE R. SHERMAN, 92, died Dec. 13, 2021. Survived by her sister, Nora Robell; children Cynthia (Allan Schuster), Norman (Mitzi Dunau) and David (Carey); eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Earl Maus, judge Former Minnesota Judge Earl Maus ’82 died in February 2021 at the age of 67. A lifelong public servant, Maus was Cass County (Minn.) attorney for two decades (’86-07) before being appointed a judge in Crow Wing County, where he served from 2008-19. As prosecutor, he once argued and won a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Maus is survived by his wife of 39 years and met his newest granddaughter in the final two weeks of his life.

Thad Lightfoot, longtime adjunct professor Thaddeus (Thad) Lightfoot, a well-respected and nationally known environmental lawyer who taught for many years at Mitchell Hamline, died unexpectedly in December 2020 at the age of 60. He was a partner at Dorsey & Whitney and was very involved with both the Minnesota State Bar Association and Hennepin County Bar Association.

DONALD J. VENNE, 73, died Nov. 30, 2021. The long-time Anoka County (Minn.) district court judge is survived by his wife, Mary Rose Cossi; daughter Natalie (Scott); brothers-in-law Dennis Cossi (Peggy) and David Cossi (Pat); and many nephews and nieces.

1980 THOMAS “TOM” J. GERMSCHEID, 66, died Nov. 18, 2020.

Survived by his children, Maggie and Nick; siblings Margaret “Peggy” Korman, Diane (Allan) Macho, Maurice (Virginia) Germscheid, and Wayne (Paula) Germscheid; former wife, Joyce Germscheid; and many nieces, nephews, other relatives, and friends.

MARK HALVERSON, 70, a well-known bankruptcy attorney, community activist, train and baseball enthusiast, and blues radio host in Mankato, Minn., died on Nov. 6, 2021. Survived by his wife, Roylene Champeaux; stepdaughter, Anne Hartman; grandchildren, Nick and Cameron; and brother, Dean.

CALVIN “CAL” P. JOHNSON, 65, died Jan. 20, 2021. Survived by his son, Matthew (Jennifer Braun); daughter Cathryn (Callie); grandchildren Nora and Henry; brothers Perry (Betty) and Mike (Karen); sister Diane (Alton) Cottrell; many beloved nieces and nephews; and Marcella LaZebnik.

Jack Desai, founding member of India Association of Minnesota Jagadish “Jack” Desai ’90 died in June at the age of 87. He helped immigrants from his native India acclimate to life in Minnesota as a founding member in 1973 of the organization now called the India Association of Minnesota, which promotes charity, culture, and connections for Minnesotans of Indian origin. He later served on the state’s Bicentennial Commission and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Committee. Desai is survived by his wife, Roswitha; his children Jay (Charlotte) and Sheila; grandsons Griffen, Dylan, and Mason; four siblings; and many nieces and nephews.

MITCHELL HAMLINE LAW

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IN MEMORIAM

MICHELE “MICKIE” P. MCGEE, 66, died May 20, 2021.

Survived by her aunt Jean, (Charles) Krogness; cousins Josie (Ed) Phelps and Kathy (Wade) Campbell; and many great nieces and nephews.

SEAN J. RICE, 68, died Dec. 9, 2020. Survived by his brothers and sisters, Sheila (Pope) Lawson, Maura (Joe) Rice, Brian (JoAnn) Rice, Brenna McShane, Eamon (Amy) Rice; sister-in-law Katie Connolly; adopted brother Antoine; and many nieces and nephews, great-nieces and nephews, and many cousins and friends.

1981 PAUL A. AMPE, 68, died March 19, 2021. Survived by his brother, Peter (Donna); sisters Elizabeth Beckel and Marilyn (Robert Schestak); many nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews; and his loyal secretary of many years, Diane Radens.

MARK R. DECARIA, 70, died Dec. 12, 2021. The former county attorney and district court judge in Utah is survived by his wife, Meri Ploetz DeCaria; daughters Stefanie (Andrew) Wright and Angie (Cole) Panter; brother Joe DeCaria; sisters Elizabeth (Neil) Krutz, Mary Anne DeCaria and Chris DeCaria; and five grandchildren.

JON R. WILSNACK, 65, died Nov. 1, 2020. Survived by his wife, Kathy; daughter Alyssa; sister Patricia (David) Prill; mother-inlaw Alice Kuehn; brother-in-law Richard (Kara) Kuehn; sister-inlaw, Laurie (Mark) Gelhar; and a nephew, and many nieces, greatnieces, and great-nephews.

1982 SUSAN M. COCHRANE, 65, a longtime Hennepin County family court referee and legal advocate for children and the indigent, died on Feb. 13, 2021.

Survived by her husband, Clair Cole; sons Lee, Tom and, Ben; and brothers Mick and Dave.

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1983 GEORGE R. COCHRAN, 85, died March 26, 2021. Survived by his sister, Patsy (Sam) Walker; daughter Jeanne (Andrew Wallace); son, Christopher (Darcy); grandchildren; nieces, and nephews.

LAWRENCE M. ROCHEFORD, 62, died Nov. 27, 2020.

Survived by his wife, Beth Burns Rocheford; daughter Lauren; son David; sisters Michele (Tom) Towle and JoAnn (John) Pastorius; nine nieces and nephews; loving relatives and friends.

1984 GLENDA G. BALDWIN, 81, died June, 27, 2021.

MARGARET ZACK, 77, a longtime Star Tribune courts reporter and union leader who fought for women’s pay equity, died on Oct. 21, 2021.

Survived by her husband, Denis; brothers Bruce and Dan; and many nieces and nephews.

1985 BRYAN K. MCKAMEY, 62, died Feb. 11, 2021.

Survived by Aimée Bissonette; Aliza McKamey; Maureen McKamey; Brian Michor; and Gabi; along with many other family members and friends.

1988 SUSAN E. COOPER, 68, died Nov. 16, 2021. Survived by her brothers, Steven, Bruce (Melodie) and Paul; niece and nephews Rachel (Aaron) Roberts and Ross Cooper; grand-nephew Owen Roberts; and grand-niece Eiden Roberts.

DIANE S. LAGER, 58, died June 29, 2021. Survived by her father, La Verne (Vel Rierson); sisters Deb (Maryellen Paudler), Donna (Steve Jacobsen), Daneen, Darla, and Darcie; brothers David (Cordelia Ramirez) and Dennis (Eileen); six nieces Katie (Alex Pfleging), Kristin, Jenny (René Avalos), Erika, Sofia, and Emma; nephew Ian; and a great-nephew Kit. KATHERINE BURKE MOORE, 65, died Jan. 29, 2021. Survived by her husband, Cliff; daughter Libby; sons Jameson and Riley; grandchildren Frederick, Weston, and Nettie; and loving relatives and friends.

ROBERT “BOB” D. MILLER, 71, died Oct. 28, 2021. Survived by his daughters, Nicole, Sara (Levi) Davidson, Chelsea, Ashlee and Kaylee; son Charles; sister Shirley (Ken) Schmidt; brother Jerry (Lisa) Miller; four grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

1990 PHILIP G. LEAVENWORTH, 65, died March 17, 2021. Survived by his wife, Phuong Bui; mom Nancy; siblings Dan, Jim, and Katy; nieces and nephews; and the rest of his family and friends.

TIMOTHY A. TYSDAL, 61, died March 20, 2021.

Survived by his wife, Karen; children Kate and Jordan; and siblings Dale, Ryan, Diane, and Paula.

1991 CATHERINE “CINDY” R. MCGRAW-HAFFA, 69, died June 3, 2021. Survived by her husband, Tim Haffa; mother Elizabeth Norris; father-inlaw Dean W. Haffa; sisters Sarita McGraw Williams and Michele Norris-Johnson; special nephew Dwight McGraw; bonus daughter Olivia Keenan; and a host of relatives and friends.

1993 HEIDI M. SCHMID, 54, died June 30, 2021. Survived by her mother, Bobbie; siblings Thomas (Karen Friedl), Sheila (Matthew) Ketcham, Laura (Steven) Schmid-Tyler, and David; nephew and nieces Gabriel, Audrey, and Lucy Ketcham; her special friend, Paul Pearson; and many extended family.

1996 MICHAEL D. FLEMING, 71, a longtime columnist and classical music critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, died May 2, 2021. Survived by his husband, Michael Wegs.

MARK E. MULLEN, 57, died Aug. 27, 2021. Survived by his wife, Robin; children Matthew and Kaitlyn; parents Sharon (Dick) Savageau and Richard Mullen Jr.; sisters Laura (John) Graham and Julie (Darrell) Zimmel; brothers Dick (Jennifer) and Mike (Jamie); step-sister Donna (Todd) Hammer; step-brothers Tim (Karen) Savageau and Dave (Robin) Savageau; and many nieces and nephews.

1998 STEVEN K. DAVIS, 49, died July 24, 2021. Survived by his wife, Yvonne Maddela Davis; children CoCo and Cruz; brother Chris (Camy) Davis and their children; several aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

IN MEMORIAM

2000 ANITA M. WEITZMAN, 69, died Nov. 14, 2020.

2007 TRACY R. PODPESKAR, 43, died Dec. 4, 2020.

Survived by her mother, Mary (“Papa Richie”) Podpeskar; daughters Jordan Skalko and Hayden Skalko; brother Jay Podpeskar; uncle James (Polly) Podpeskar; and the father of her children, Justin Skalko; as well as extended family; and many dear friends.

2011 JESSICA “JESSIE” L. BERNS, 44, died July 10, 2021. Survived by her daughter, Sarah; parents Bernice Berns (Terry Iverson) and Don (Jean) Leiran; her partner, David Shamla; stepsisters Ellen (Scott) Lambert and Heather (Brian) Statz; step-brothers Barry Jensen and Craig Urseth; and many nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.

Jonathan Nixon, recent alum Jonathan Nixon died in January 2021 after complications from sepsis at the age of 36.

A 2016 graduate of Mitchell Hamline, Nixon had enjoyed a successful practice in the years since.

His brother Matt noted Jon always made counsel affordable for people and “was always proud of his accomplishments at Mitchell Hamline.

“He only had positive things to say about his peers in law school.”

Angus McIntosh, student Angus McIntosh II died on June 17 at the age of 64. He was a father and grandfather who came to Mitchell Hamline as a blended-learning student from Colorado. He worked for years in the world of grazing rights for ranchers and was interested in a law degree to be better informed in his work.

He is survived by his wife, Linda, and his extended family.

2016 KONRAD NOBENTRAUTH, 61, died March 12, 2021. A molecular biologist who helped discover the genes that cause hearing loss and obesity, Noben-Trauth earned his J.D. at Mitchell Hamline late in life. Survived by his wife, Nancy Noben-Trauth; brotherin-law Chris Noben; his family in Germany, mother Elfriede; brothers Franz and Bernhard; sister Susanne; niece Christina; nephews Benedikt and Philip.

Steven Guillemette, student Steven Guillemette died on Nov. 14 at the age of 28. He was an avid reader, a scholar, and a board game aficionado. His parents gave permission here to disclose that Steven died by suicide, in hopes of raising awareness and to appeal to everyone to seek help or counseling if you’re feeling hopeless or in despair.

His family started a fund with Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), which works toward the prevention of suicide.

You can contribute at save.kindful.com/named-memorialfunds/steven-allen-guillemette.

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Fostering a career helping families

BY KIRSTY LIEDMAN

M

y legal career is just beginning, but my association with the legal system has been nearly lifelong. Some of my earliest memories were of visiting my father in jail.

A meth lab exploded in the basement of my childhood home when I was 12. As I sat in the police car with my brother, I watched my father be arrested. I was also watching any hope for a “normal” life fade away. I wasn’t present when my mother was arrested a few days later.

The following years were a parade of multiple foster homes; visits to prisons; interviews with child protection workers, doctors, newspapers, and law enforcement; and attending conferences, hearings, and trials—all while supporting my two younger siblings and being the new foster kid at school.

My priority became protecting and advocating for my siblings, but I never seriously considered becoming a professional advocate. The stats weren’t in my favor: Foster kids living in poverty with parents battling addiction don’t get higher education degrees.

A

Life in the Law

Only about 50 percent of former foster youth graduate high school, compared to the national average of nearly 90 percent.

Only three percent earn a college degree and less than one percent earn degrees beyond that.

The child welfare system is stretched beyond capacity and places too many poor and Black and Brown children in foster care who could be kept at home safely. Children are shuffled between institutions and foster homes, further traumatizing families. These failures are why those education percentages are so low and why as many as 70 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have also been in the child welfare system.

I’m lucky. I graduated high school in the care of my biological parents. But the addiction, poverty, mental illness, and lack of health care, positive mentors, and education—they don’t disappear. They continue to follow me. I spent several years of my young adulthood searching for a purpose before realizing my gift: School came natural to me, and I always had a passion for advocating for children and families. After earning a bachelor’s in social work, I realized law school was something I could do.

I learned I was pregnant just after being accepted to Mitchell Hamline—how’s that for clarifying my purpose around children and families? I started law school 20 weeks pregnant, knowing I was breaking the cycle for my daughter.

I pursued a child welfare certificate with my J.D. and had opportunities to work with staff at the school to help create programs to assist first-generation students—like me— navigate the challenges and barriers.

As it happens, I also graduated law school last year 20 weeks pregnant! My second daughter was born just days after I learned I passed the bar exam.

Now that I have wrapped up maternity leave (without having to study contract and property law!), I have begun my dream legal career as a family law attorney at Gjesdahl Law—a firm focused on compassionate legal service to family members in times of crisis, need, or transition.

In some ways, my journey is just beginning; in other ways, this is simply the next chapter—a chapter fueled by my love for my girls and a desire to make the law better for so many people.

KIRSTY LIEDMAN ’21 is an associate attorney at Gjesdahl Law in Moorhead, Minnesota.

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Photograph provided by KIRSTY LIEDMAN

New scholarship honors Lena Olive Smith

BY ALLISON BURKE

L

ena Olive Smith, born in 1885, was known for her courage and tenacity.

In the years before law school, she demonstrated she was already prepared to challenge bias and discrimination.

Whether it was organizing a demonstration in a segregated theater in Minneapolis or working in fields dominated by men, Smith didn’t let fear keep her from doing what was right. A few days after graduating from Northwestern College of Law (a predecessor school of Mitchell Hamline) in 1921, she became the first Black female lawyer in Minnesota. She remained the only Black woman attorney in the state until 1945.

Lena Smith changed lives and her community by fighting for justice. Her willingness to challenge discrimination didn’t begin in law school, but it led her there. Her access to law school wasn’t simply a matter of one person receiving an education. It also meant she used that education to protect and defend members of her community and gave her clients the rare experience of being

represented by someone who looked like them.

Who gets to go to law school matters.

That is at the center of Mitchell Hamline’s story. Our institutional history is founded in having been an opportunity—often the only opportunity—for our students to attend law school. The financial burden of law school is a critical barrier to access. Doing all we can to remove the financial barrier for students with need is an important part of our commitment to equity.

The Lena Smith Scholarship is a new opportunity to provide tuition relief to students with financial need. We invite you to join us in building this fund.

Lena Smith changed her own life, and the lives of many clients and neighbors, because she had access to legal education.

By supporting this scholarship, you are

supporting access to legal education and providing opportunity to a new generation of lawyers who want to change lives and the world around them.

To give to the Lena Smith Scholarship Fund, scan the QR code. Thank you for your support! mitchellhamline.edu/lena

Nonprofit Org. U.S. Postage

PAID Twin Cities, MN Permit No. 1300

875 Summit Avenue St. Paul, MN 55105-3076

“I’m used to doing the right thing without regard for myself.

Of course, battles leave their scars, but I’m willing to make the sacrifice.”

Lena Olive Smith, who graduated 100 years ago from a Mitchell Hamline predecessor school and became the first Black woman to be a licensed attorney in Minnesota.

She spent her life and career fighting discrimination.

Follow us on Social Media Facebook: @MitchellHamlineSchoolofLaw Twitter: @MitchellHamline Instagram: @MitchellHamline LinkedIn: Mitchell Hamline School of Law 01935 2022-02