July - August 2002

Posted Aug. 30, 2002

Alumni

Curiosity and concern for an elderly neighbor helped Michael Verbrick, '97, uncover the mishandling of the neighbor's estate by her conservators, according to a front page City Pages article published August 28, 2002. He became concerned when the neighbor's house was apparently sold without being formally put up for sale and when the valuation of the house was dramatically lower than others on the block. Verbrick, who specializes in immigration law, delved into the case and the world of probate law to make certain that his neighbor's best interests were being considered in the sale of her home.

Posted Aug. 27, 2002

Alumni

Regina Chu, '80, became the first Asian-American woman appointed to a district court bench in Minnesota when she was sworn in on Monday in Hennepin County, Minn., according to an Aug. 27 Star Tribune article. At the same time, Steven Pihlaja, '79, also was sworn in as a district judge in Hennepin County.

Posted Aug. 16, 2002

Faculty

Families of Sept. 11 victims who are suing organizations allegedly financing the operations of Al-Qaida will "face challenges in proving strong enough connections between the alleged financiers and Al-Qaida to win the court battle," said Michael Steenson in an Aug. 16 Star Tribune article. He states the families "will have to show a significant enough tie-in between the people who financed [the attacks] and those who committed [them]."

Posted Aug. 13, 2002

Alumni

Rep. Kevin Goodno, '99, recently received the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities’ (CGMC) Legacy Award in recognition of his work in the Minnesota legislature on behalf of Greater Minnesota, including property tax relief for low-wealth cities. The award is given to legislators who have played key roles in helping the CGMC achieve its policy objectives.

As attorney for the city of Hastings, Minn., Shawn Moynihan, '82, recently helped prepare agreements for two new developments in Hastings, according to a July 25 profile in the Hastings Star Gazette. He also serves as prosecutor for Hastings and the city of Rosemount, and is the Vermillion Township attorney.

Posted Aug. 12, 2002

Faculty

Professor Peter Erlinder, who has been following the federal government's case against suspected Sept. 11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, states in a St. Paul Pioneer Press article published on Aug. 9 that the government "must show that Moussaoui agreed to participate in a crime and took at least one tangible step toward furthering that crime." He states that "just establishing a pattern of behavior similar to the hijackers…may not be enough."

Posted July 26, 2002

Alumni

Philip Goldman, '85, was elected president of the Minnesota Intellectual Property Law Association for the 2002-03 year. His achievement was announced in the July 12 issue of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal.

Posted July 25, 2002

Staff

Family-business owners participating in a seven-week course offered by the Centers for Law and Leadership at William Mitchell learned how to recruit and compensate a board of directors and how to define expectations of the board. Kevin Campana, executive director for the center said in the August issue of Twin Cities Business Monthly, "This helped them [family-business owners] see the long-term value of having a board and not doing everything themselves."

Posted July 22, 2002

Faculty

In an opinion piece published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Thursday, July 18, Peter Erlinder discusses the implications of requiring proof of citizenship in order to receive a driver's license in the state of Minnesota. The proposal would "convert every Minnesota license into a national 'citizen identification' card," which "has serious civil liberties implications for all Minnesotans," he wrote.

Posted July 16, 2002

Alumni

Mark Wisser, '91, is representing Major League Baseball's interests in a lawsuit between the Minnesota Twins baseball team and the Metrodome stadium. In a recent development, a judge ruled against the requests of four local news organizations to make public 9,000 documents from the Twins and Major League Baseball. Wisser states in a July 11 St. Paul Pioneer Press story that "the media's inquiring minds may want to know, but that does not turn private documents into public documents."

Posted July 15, 2002

Posted July 12, 2002

Faculty

Balancing scholarship, teaching, and service is not an easy task for law professors, but four professors who make it work are profiled by Sam Magavern in the May/June issue of Bench and Bar of Minnesota. Eric Janus admits in the article that working as co-counsel in a landmark sex offender case while continuing to teach “was certainly not easy to do,” but he felt the case was critical because it involved the “misuse of state power to distort civil commitment to deal with a criminal law problem.”  The case also afforded his students the opportunity to see him argue an appeal before the Minnesota Supreme Court.

A bench trial allows the opportunity to present evidence in a more straightforward manner than in a jury trial, according to Wayne Logan. His comments appeared June 28 in an Owatonna People’s Press story about a murder trial in which the defendant took the unusual step of requesting that a judge, not a jury, decide the case.

“If we’re going to trust voters to choose judges, then we have to trust them with information they need to make that choice,” said Raleigh Levine in a June 28 St. Paul Pioneer Press story by Tom Webb and Patrick Sweeney. The article, “Candidates are allowed to speak to the issues,” discusses the U.S. Supreme Court decision to throw out campaign restrictions that bar judicial candidates from expressing their views on issues. Peter Erlinder weighed in on the debate in the Star Tribune on June 27, saying that “the 5-4 vote shows the tension between the desire to have impartial judges and the voters’ right to know who they are electing.”

According to Peter Erlinder, “the intent of the Miranda warning, which advises people who have been arrested that they have the right to an attorney, and the right to remain silent or stop the questioning, is to eliminate the coercive atmosphere inherent in police interrogations.” His comments, in reference to a 20-year-old case, appeared in a Star Tribune story by David Chanen on July 2.

Students

Stacie McBride, set to graduate from William Mitchell in December, “isn’t your stereotypical beauty-queen candidate,” according to Kay Harvey in a July 7 St. Paul Pioneer Press story. The article, “Behind the Smile,” documents how McBride is using the pageant stage as a platform for her message of ending violence, and how her sister’s brutal murder in 1995 helped motivate her to work toward becoming a criminal prosecutor.

Alumni

The Minnesota Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of Todd Zettler, ’96, who filed a petition to restore an open district judge position on a Scott County ballot in November. Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura had planned to appoint a successor for the current judge, M. Eugene Atkins, ’68, who is set to retire one day before the end of his term. Zettler asserted that the one-day gap is not long enough to allow the governor to appoint a successor. Articles on the ruling appeared on July 4 in both the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Jeff R. Anderson, ’75, an attorney representing two women accusing the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses Church in Annandale, Minn., was quoted about the case in the Star Tribune on July 3. He argues that the church policy to have elders decide who is telling the truth in an abuse allegation is “intimidating, especially to children.”

Janet Dolan, ’76, CEO of Tennant Co., was quoted in two separate Star Tribune articles about the success of the company. In a column by Neal St. Anthony on June 28, she discussed the current status of the company, including the rising share price. And on July 1 Tennant was profiled in the mid-year update story of the Star Tribune 100, a list of the top 100 Minnesota public companies. Tennant makes commercial and industrial floor- and street-cleaning equipment.