President Biden Taps Jessica Looman ’01 to Lead Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division

President Biden nominated Jessica Looman ’01 to serve as administrator of the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. 

Looman has served as the principal deputy administrator of the Division since January 2021. She previously served as the executive director of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council, representing 70,000 union construction professionals working in 15 construction trades. 

Prior to joining the Council, Looman served as commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Her work in state government in Minnesota also included seven years with the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, first as assistant commissioner and later as deputy commissioner. 

Before her service in Minnesota state government, Looman spent nearly a decade as general counsel for the Laborers District Council of Minnesota and North Dakota. 

Dulce Foster ’98 Sworn in as U.S. Magistrate Judge

was sworn in as U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Minnesota in August. Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz administered the oath of office at the Diana E. Murphy United States Courthouse in Minneapolis. 

Before becoming a U.S. magistrate judge, Foster was a shareholder and former chair of the White Collar and Regulatory Defense Group at Fredrikson & Byron. During her tenure at Fredrikson, she litigated complex False Claims Act and civil business disputes, defended white collar criminal cases, and served as a Criminal Justice Act panel attorney. Foster’s practice also included managing internal and government investigations, developing compliance programs, and conducting anti-corruption due diligence for multi-national corporations. 

Foster was president of the Fredrikson & Byron charitable Foundation, an advisory board member of Children of Incarcerated Caregivers, treasurer of the U.S. District Court’s History Committee, and a member of the Law Firm Antiracism Alliance. She is a former executive board member of the Federal Bar Association’s Minnesota Chapter and former co-chair of its Diversity, Education, and Prisoner Transportation Project Committees. Foster previously served on the Minnesota Law Review Alumni Board, Loan Repayment Assistance Program Board, U.S. District Court–District of Minnesota, Federal Practice Committee of the U.S. District Court, and MSBA Criminal Law Accreditation Committee. 

Foster has devoted significant time doing pro bono work, representing plaintiffs in civil rights and domestic abuse cases, defending indigent clients in criminal cases and helping victims of torture obtain political asylum in the United States. She has volunteered with the Advocates for Human Rights for many years, including work in Nepal to support a school for low-income children and work in Liberia with the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

Before joining Fredrikson & Byron in 2000, Foster served as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tunheim ’80. 

Yemaya Hanna ’22 Honored for Minnesota Justice Foundation Work

Yemaya Hanna ’22, an estate planning attorney with the Maslon firm in Minneapolis, was honored at the Minnesota Justice Foundation’s 2022 Annual Awards Celebration for the impact of her volunteer and pro bono work as a University of Minnesota Law School student. 

Before graduating in May 2022, Hanna served as student director of the Law School’s Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, working with a small team that successfully secured asylum for a Guinean woman who fled persecution in her home country. Hanna also represented immigrants at the Texas-Mexican border as part of the school’s Asylum Law Project for 1L students, and she worked on behalf of an asylum client referred by the Advocates for Human Rights during her term as a summer associate at Maslon.