Visiting Assistant Professor of Law Elizabeth Bentley was appointed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals by Governor Tim Walz. Bentley joined the Law School full-time in 2022, having previously served as an adjunct professor in the clinics. She has taught 1L constitutional law and she founded the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic, which has already filed briefs in courts around the nation, including the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Before joining the faculty, she was an appellate attorney at Jones Day and Special Counsel to Senator Amy Klobuchar and the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. She previously served as a law clerk to Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the Supreme Court of the United States, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Judge Jed S. Rakoff on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She has served on the executive committee of the Minnesota Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, on the Appellate Practice Section Council of the Minnesota State Bar Association, and on the Federal Practice Committee of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. She will depart the Law School in August to begin her service on the bench.

Professor Linus Chan, James H. Binger Professor of Clinical Law, was named a Minnesota Attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the group category for his participation in “Immigration Attorneys for Driver’s Licenses for All” in collaboration with the Immigrant Law Center and several partner attorneys. Governor Tim Walz signed “Driver’s Licenses for All” into law last spring and the law went into effect on October 1, 2023. Chan directs the Detainee Rights Clinic and is an expert in immigration law. 

Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Regents Professor; Robina Chair in Law and Public Policy, and Society; and faculty director of Minnesota Law’s Human Rights Center, was appointed Honorary King’s Counsel by His Majesty King Charles III. The Lord Chancellor conferred the honor at a March ceremony in Westminster Hall, London. This appointment recognizes her decades-long work supporting the peace process in Northern Ireland, advancing human rights protection in England and Wales, and serving as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, including for the victims of terrorism.

Professor Amy Monahan, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and the Melvin Steen & Corporate Donors Professor, was named to The Commonwealth Fund Task Force on the Future Role of Employers in the U.S. Health System. This year-long national task force will convene thought leaders and other experts to examine the changes needed to improve employees’ access to timely, affordable healthcare coverage. The task force aims to build consensus on market incentives and regulatory changes needed to enhance health coverage in the workplace, ensure access to affordable health care, and improve population health and care delivery. She is a nationally recognized expert in employee benefits, healthcare law, and health insurance law. 

Professor Alan Rozenshtein was granted tenure, pending approval by the Board of Regents at the end of the academic year. Rozenshtein first came to Minnesota Law as a visiting professor in 2017. He joined the faculty as an associate professor of law in 2019. He is a senior editor at Lawfare, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Scholars Strategy Network, and a visiting faculty fellow at the University of Nebraska College of Law. He was previously an affiliate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. He is a constitutional scholar and an expert in cybersecurity law and national security. 

Professor Daniel Schwarcz, Fredrikson & Byron Professor of Law, has received the University of Minnesota’s 2023-24 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education. This honor is awarded to exceptional candidates whom their college has nominated for excellence in graduate and professional education. Schwarcz has also won the University of Minnesota Law School's Stanley V. Kinyon Teacher of the Year Award three times since joining Minnesota Law. He teaches a range of courses, including torts, contracts, insurance law, health care regulation and finance, health insurance law, regulation of financial institutions, commercial law, introduction to law for undergraduates, law and artificial intelligence, and judicial opinion writing. 

Four Minnesota Law Faculty Awarded Kommerstad Faculty Imagination Fund Grants

Minnesota Law’s 2024-25 Kommerstad Faculty Imagination Fund grants have been awarded to Professors Claire Hill, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin & Alan Rozenshtein, and Paul Vaaler. 

Claire Hill, James Krusemark Chair in Law, will receive funding to host a conference next year on The New Behavioral Law and Economics. 

Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, KC (Hons), Regents Professor and Robina Chair in Law Public Policy Robina, and Alan Rozenshtein, associate professor of law, will receive funding to collaborate in convening senior editors of both Just Security (where Ní Aoláin is an editor) and Lawfare (where Rozenshtein is an editor). 

Paul Vaaler, John and Bruce Mooty Chair in Law and Business, will receive funding to support his empirical research project on why medium-sized, regionally based law firms in the U.S. are “hollowed out” of mid-level associate attorneys critical to regional firm survival and success.

Professors Daniel Schwarcz, Amy Monahan, and Kristin Hickman in Top 25 Downloaded Papers on SSRN for 2023

Minnesota Law Professors Daniel Schwarcz, Fredrikson & Byron Professor of Law and Distinguished University Teaching Professor; Amy Monahan, Distinguished McKnight University Professor and the Melvin Steen & Corporate Donors Professor; and Kristin Hickman, McKnight Presidential Professor in Law, Distinguished McKnight University Pofessor, and Harlan Albert Rogers Professor in Law, were ranked among the top 25 downloaded papers on SSRN for 2023. They were ranked #7, #18, and #22, respectively.