Founding Editor in Chief

As the founder, Pablo Sartorio ’10 envisioned a journal that would encompass current issues facing the Latino community while providing a forum for anyone interested in these issues.

Pablo’s interests in serving the community have been evident since he began his studies at William Mitchell College of Law. He volunteered over 600 hours of service through the Minnesota Justice Foundation; most of those hours were provided to the Latino community. Pablo successfully obtained the support of the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association (MHBA) as a founding partner, together with William Mitchell College of Law, creating the Law Raza Journal, one of five journals with a Latino focus in the country. Pablo strengthened relationships among Latinos in the four Twin Cities law schools by encouraging students to attend events at all schools.

Serving as a regional president for the Law Student Division in the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) for almost three years, Pablo has been actively involved in gathering support for the 2010 HNBA Convention, which will be held in the Twin Cities in September. After participating in the HNBA’s moot court Competition, he was instrumental in securing funds for the participation of Latino students in the future. Pablo is the coach for this year’s team.

Previously, Pablo served as a certified student attorney for the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office and Washington County Attorney’s Office. He also cooperated with the National Institute of Trial Advocacy during its attorney training courses. In the summer of 2009, he interned with Judge Elizabeth H. Martin ’80 in the 10th Judicial District Court.
pablo.sartorio@alumni.wmitchell.edu

Editor in Chief

Duchess Harris is a third year law student and an associate editor of Litigation News. Prior to attending law school, she earned degrees in American history and Afro-American studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. She was granted a doctorate in American studies from the University of Minnesota and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the law school’s Institute on Race and Poverty, advised by John A. Powell in 1997. 

In 1998, Harris joined the faculty at Macalester College. She earned tenure in 2004 and served as department chair from 2003-2005. In 2007, she was admitted to William Mitchell College of Law as a William Mitchell Fellow.  In the spring of 2009, she was awarded a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship allowing her to take an 18-month leave of absence from Macalester to complete her law degree.

In July 2009, she published two books, Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton (Palgrave Macmillan) and an edited volume with Bruce Baum, Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity (Duke University Press). The Bush Fellowship encourages recipients to create positive change in their communities. She hopes to enhance the William Mitchell community as the Editor- in-Chief of Law Raza Journal, the first online, interactive, race-and-the-law journal in the country.
Miriam.Harris @wmitchell.edu

www.duchessharris.com
For more about Duchess Harris and her books.

Faculty Advisor

Professor J. David Prince
David.Prince @wmitchell.edu

Advisory Board

Hon. Paul Anderson, Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court

Willow Anderson '02, William Mitchell College of Law Adjunct Professor; Rossi Cox Vucinovich & Flaskamp Associate

Tamara Caban-Ramirez, Caban-Ramirez Law Firm

Sam Hanson '65, Briggs & Morgan Shareholder and Director; former Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court

Hon. Helen Meyer '83, Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court

Hon. Elena Ostby, Ramsey County District Court

Peter Reyes '97, Cargill Senior Intellectual Property Lawyer

Maj. Peter Swanson, U.S. Army Reserve, Judge Advocate General's Corps; TCF Financial Corporation Vice President and Corporate Counsel

Hon. Edward Toussaint Jr., Chief Judge, Minnesota Court of Appeals

 

Editors

Natalia Darancou is a second-year law student at William Mitchell College of Law. Prior to attending law school, Natalia earned a degree in philosophy from the University of Texas at El Paso.

After her first year of law school, Natalia worked for a transactional lawyer in Texas, where she worked with clients and underwriters of various banks to help finalize the closing of real estate transactions. She is currently a certified student attorney with the Immigration Law Clinic, representing low-income clients in administrative proceedings before the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Natalia.Darancou @wmitchell.edu

Craig Green is a second-year law student at William Mitchell College of Law. Craig currently works as a law clerk in the Rice County Attorney’s Office in Faribault, Minn., attending and supporting initial appearance, omnibus, and parole violation hearings. Craig is also the leader of the legislative task force of the Child Advocacy Coalition at William Mitchell. The Task Force is working to amend statutes focused on criminal sexual conduct and malicious punishment of a child.

Prior to attending law school, Craig worked as staff writer for the House Public Information Services Office at the Minnesota House of Representatives. During the 2007–2008 Session, Craig attended committee meetings covering crime, commerce, public safety, and local government issues. For more than 20 years, Craig worked as an actor, writer, and director in New York and Los Angeles, also earning degrees in theatre from the Ohio State University and the University of California, San Diego.
Craig.Green @wmitchell.edu

Greta E. Hanson is a second-year law student at William Mitchell College of Law. She is the fall 2009 CALI Award winner for Immigration Law: Immigration and Citizenship Law. Prior to attending law school, Greta earned a degree in sociology from Colorado College and completed graduate seminar work at the New School for Social Research in New York City where she focused on international development issues. She spent two years in Brazil working for an international development agency and two years in Portugal working on a rural development project sponsored by the European Union.

Since returning to the United States, Greta has been involved in refugee and immigrant resettlement and advocacy programs with the City of Minneapolis, the Children’s Defense Fund, and local non-profits. For the past four years, she has worked for a small immigration law practice where she has had the opportunity to work closely on asylum, family adjustment, and naturalization petitions, as well as a plethora of other immigration issues. Greta is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and actively involved in advocating for the Latino community in Minnesota.
Greta.Hanson @wmitchell.edu

Andrew T. Poole is a third-year law student at William Mitchell College of Law. Prior to attending law school, Andrew earned degrees in economics and Spanish from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Andrew is a member of the Latino/a Law Student Association and is currently the treasurer. After his first year of law school, Andrew worked for Thomson Reuters where he published many new online tutorials to teach law students cost-effective legal research in various areas of law. During the summer of 2009, Andrew was a certified student attorney with the Eau Claire County (Wis.) District Attorney’s Office.

As a certified student attorney, he represented the State of Wisconsin at bond hearings, arraignments, pre-trial conferences, preliminary hearings, and trials. In addition to his career as a law student, Andrew has been working on a commission in the United States Army Reserves from the University of Minnesota Reserve Officer Training Corps. Recently, the judge advocate general has approved Andrew for appointment as a judge advocate. After graduation, Andrew plans to serve as a legal assistance officer at the 214th Legal Support Organization at Fort Snelling. There he will provide legal services to Army Reserve units throughout Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In addition, Andrew intends to practice civil litigation.
Andrew.Poole @wmitchell.edu

Siobhan Tolar is a second-year law student at William Mitchell College of Law. She is a member of the Black Law Students Association Executive Board and a student ambassador. Before attending law school, Siobhan worked at Target headquarters in Minneapolis, Minn. Target is the nation’s second largest retailer employing roughly 300,000 team members with three operating divisions: Headquarters, Stores, and Supply Chain Distribution Centers. Siobhan was a member of the Diversity Team created to drive company-wide diversity recruiting, retention, development, communication, and measurement.

Her responsibilities included experienced diversity recruiting strategies and implementation, as well as undergraduate diversity internship strategies and programming for the entire company. Before her role on the Diversity team, Siobhan was a full-time intern in the Pay and Benefits Department where, among other accomplishments, she designed, planned, and implemented the department’s first annual Vendor Day, an initiative that still exists today.

Siobhan graduated from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, with a degree in English Literature. Prior to graduating from the university, Siobhan attended Hampton University in Virginia, one of the nation’s first and most prestigious historically black universities. Originally from St. Paul, she is a proud graduate of Cretin-Derham Hall High School.
Siobhan.Tolar @wmitchell.edu

Robert T. Trousdale is a second-year law student. Robert graduated magna cum laude from Saint Louis University in 2007. He earned a degree in political science, with minors in criminal justice and theology. 

In the spring of 2007, Robert was accepted into the WorldTeach volunteer teaching program, based at the Center for International Development at Harvard University. Robert spent his first year out of college teaching English at a local university in Machala, Ecuador. 

In 2008 Robert was admitted to William Mitchell College of Law. During his first year, he participated in the Exploring Justice program at the Stillwater prison and volunteered as a Street Law teacher. The summer after his first year, Robert worked as a certified student attorney with the Rochester public defender.

His exposure to Catholic social teaching during his college years sparked a passion for social justice.

In fall 2009, he was the CALI award winner for the Race and the Law Seminar.  Robert is looking forward to being an active participant in Law Raza’s interactive discussion of race, power, and the law.
Robert.Trousdale @wmitchell.edu