Arielle S. Wagner ’16 Elected President of MAIBA

Arielle S. Wagner ’16 was elected president of the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association for the 2020-21 year. Founded in 1991, MAIBA is a nonprofit organization of American Indian attorneys, law students, and officers of tribal courts, and is committed to building and maintaining relationships with Twin Cities urban Indian organizations and the 11 tribal communities in Minnesota.

Wagner is currently an associate at Lockridge Grindal Nauen in Minneapolis, where she concentrates her practice in the firm’s antitrust, data breach, and tribal government representation groups. She is an enrolled member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa in northern Minnesota.

Rachel Kitze Collins ’14 Elected Chair of MSBA’s Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Section

Rachel Kitze Collins ’14 was elected chair of the Minnesota State Bar Association’s Environmental, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Section for the 2020-21 year. Collins has served on the ENRE section since 2016.

The ENRE section sponsors seminars and other events to keep members up to date with developments in these fast-changing legal fields.

Collins is currently an associate at Lockridge Grindal Nauen in Minneapolis, where she practices primarily in the firm’s environmental and business law groups, representing public entities and businesses in complex, high-profile litigation involving environmental, constitutional, and contract law in federal and state court.

Julie Allyn ’95, Maximillia Utley ’08, and Terri Yellowhammer ’95 Appointed to Hennepin County District Court Bench

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has appointed Julie Allyn ’95, Maximillia Utley ’08, and Terri Yellowhammer ’95 to serve on Minnesota’s 4th Judicial District bench.

Allyn serves as an assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota. Previously, she served as an assistant Hennepin County attorney and a Minnesota assistant attorney general. She is also an adjunct professor at the Law School.

Utley is a senior assistant Hennepin County attorney. In this role, she is a supervising attorney in the Juvenile Prosecution Division, where she has been involved in several office initiatives to increase the use of juvenile diversion and reduce disparities in the justice system. She previously served as the president of the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers

Yellowhammer is the American Indian community relations development manager for Hennepin County. In this role, she guides the county on effective partnering with tribal communities in the Twin Cities and on reservations in Minnesota on a range of issues, including the overrepresentation of American Indian children in the child protection system. Previously, she represented indigent clients in adult and juvenile child protection cases at the Indian Child Welfare Law Center, was a White Earth Nation Tribal Court judge, and was a Minnesota assistant attorney general.

All three seats will be chambered in Minneapolis.

Kyle Kroll ’16 Named MSBA’s Outstanding New Lawyer of the Year

The Minnesota State Bar Association’s New Lawyers Section has named Kyle Kroll ’16 as the 2019-20 recipient of its Outstanding New Lawyer of the Year award. Kroll, who serves as an adjunct legal research and writing professor at Minnesota Law, is an associate with Winthrop & Weinstine. His complex commercial litigation practice includes class action, antitrust and unfair competition, false advertising, intellectual property, and utilities matters.

Kroll is involved in numerous bar-related and civic activities for the MSBA, Hennepin County Bar Association, and the city of Minneapolis.