Minnesota Justice Foundation

Here's a great story about Grace Sawatzke's summer at Colorado’s 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which was partially funded through a Public Interest Law Fellowship (PILF) grant from the MJF student chapter at St. Thomas.

Summer Law Intern: Grace Sawatzke, Colorado’s 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office - Newsroom | University of St. Thomas Second-year law student Grace Sawatzke was exposed to the full spectrum of the criminal justice system this summer as an intern with 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Colorado.

Please join MJF in celebrating the 2024 recipients of MJF's Outstanding Service Awards! Our awards event will be on October 9th and we hope to see you there!

Advocate Award: Jenna Saverynski, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services
Direct Legal Service Award: Sarah K. Moore, Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota
Private Practice Lawyer Award: Clinton E. Cutler, Fredrikson & Byron P.A. and the University of Minnesota Law School’s Bankruptcy Clinic

Plunkett Christenson Law Student Volunteer Awards:
Benna J. Griffin, Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Lizzy Cavanaugh, University of St. Thomas School of Law
Haley Van Steenbergh, University of Minnesota Law School

Event tickets are available here: https://lnkd.in/gvtmrvDt

The t-shirt fundraiser for Public Interest Law Fellowships at St. Thomas is underway! https://secure.touchnet.com/C20237_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=92&SINGLESTORE=true

From Justice North's newsletter - thanks for highlighting our partnership with the Private Attorney Involvement (PAI) program! Great story about matching Sherian and Sue featuring a photo from Sherian's graduation!

Sign-up for Justice North's newsletter is on their website at https://www.justicenorth.org/

Submit your MJF award nominations today! We are accepting nominations for the Outstanding Service Awards that will be presented at MJF's Awards Celebration on October 9, 2024. Nominations may be submitted here. There are six awards: public interest attorney, public interest advocate, pro bono attorney, and one for a student at each of the....

We are accepting nominations for MJF's Outstanding Service Awards now through July 31st. Winners of these awards are celebrated at our Awards Celebration on October 9th. To submit a nomination, please visit https://forms.gle/7WTPstjaKrLXfPV66 We look forward to hearing from you!

2024 Outstanding Service Awards Nomination Form Background The Minnesota Justice Foundation (MJF) Outstanding Service Awards were established in 1991 to recognize our colleagues who have demonstrated a commitment to public interest legal work. MJF offers these awards in recognition of the dedicated service and outstanding achievements of students...

We're excited to introduce the 2024 MJF Summer Fellows! Please click through to learn more about them and where they're working.

Thank you to all the supporters of this program. Donations provide for stipends for the fellows and support the behind-the-scenes work that MJF staff do to keep this program running. https://mnjustice.org/donate-to-mjf/

If you are now interested in hosting a summer fellow in Summer 2025, we'll be accepting host applications in Fall 2024!

Meet the Summer '24 Public Interest Clerkship recipients! This is a program of the Minnesota Justice Foundation Student Chapter at the University of Minnesota. Thank you to all who donated to make this year's clerkships possible!
If you'd like to support this program, please visit: https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/mjf/donate
Here is the Student Chapter's Instagram where they share updates about their work: umn_mjf

April is Volunteer Month in Minnesota! Volunteer lawyers, law students, and other legal workers help increase access to justice in Minnesota, this month and every month. Thank you!

Proclamation available here: https://mn.gov/governor/newsroom/proclamations/

Auctria

The results are in! Target Circle voting helped us receive a
share of Target’s donation. Take a look: https://www.target.com/circle/

Congratulations, Sharon, on the well-deserved award!

2023 Attorneys of the Year: Sharon Jones “It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference,” TV news anchorman Tom Brokaw said. Sharon Jones embodies those words.

Great news from St. Thomas and the Hennepin County Attorney's Office!

"'This project is a great example of the kind of impact that we can have on the community while providing excellent educational opportunities for our students,' [Interim Dean Joel] Nichols said."

Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and School of Law Launch Sentence Review Partnership - Newsroom | University of St. Thomas A new Minnesota law that allows for reducing sentences of incarcerated individuals has led to a new partnership between the University of St. Thomas School of Law and the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office (HCAO).

This is a great article in Minnesota Lawyer about civil legal aid in Minnesota and nationally, including a discussion of historic funding increases in Minnesota through state appropriations, which will help reduce retain legal aid staff by making salaries more competitive with other public employers.

Justice North is highlighted in the article. MJF will have a summer fellow at Justice North this year, as well as at several other Greater MN legal aid offices.

MJF's Summer Fellowship Program provides funding for students to work full time over the summer in public interest law. It is a pathway for law students to get great experience in legal aid, while helping their host programs provide more services, as legal aid programs typically have to turn away about half of eligible applicants for services due to lack of resources.

MJF's Summer Fellowship Program is now open for student applications. Interested students at the three law schools in Minnesota should check Symplicity for more information. A full list of host organizations is available on our website.

Civil legal aid draws greater attention, support The United States spends an estimated $1.345 billion annually to provide free legal aid to people in need, according to the national Legal Aid and Defender Association.

Thank you for the votes you've cast so far for MFJ in the Target Giving Circle program - and there is still time to vote! It's been so fun hearing from people about their votes and we appreciate the support for MJF! This program will be running through the end of the month and we'll update you in January with the results. Thank you!

"Thanking Tuesday"—why we're grateful for you Every year, organizations across the country (and the world!) fundraise for their important missions on Giving Tuesday, held this year on November 28. However, here at GiveMN, we’ve lovingly renamed Giving Tuesday to “Thanking Tuesday”.

Giving Tuesday: How to donate to a charity with purpose and intention : Life Kit Not sure which cause to support or how much to give? Kevin Scally of Charity Navigator has some advice to help you make the right decisions.

Thank you so much for your support on Give to the Max Day through interacting with our posts and donating. With your help, we roughly doubled the number of donors and the total donated amount from last year!

Thank you so much for the donations! We are at 20% of our goal. Could you help us get closer to $3,000? That is about half the cost of a summer fellowship. Community support makes this 40+ year old program what it is and every donation helps. The program was started by MJF’s founder, Rick Plunkett, when he was a student at the University of Minnesota Law School, and hundreds of law students have participated over the years. . This program is a win-win-win, for the students who receive valuable experience and build professional habits of service, for the host organizations that are able to get more mission-driven work done, and for our communities, as receiving free legal services helps our neighbors protect their rights and address their needs. Thank you!

Thank you for supporting MJF on Give to the Max Day!

Thank you for considering MJF in your plans for Give to the Max Day!

Your gift today supports the Summer Fellowship Program, and helps increase MJF's chance of winning prizes (additional $).
The Summer Fellowship Program has been operating for over 40 years.

Hear from one fellow about their experience:
"Overall, this job had an immense impact on my professional development. I had so many opportunities to improve skills that are vital to being a public interest lawyer including researching, writing, talking with clients, summarizing the law in a simplified manner, and collaborating with other lawyers. I also made connections with some of the most passionate public interest lawyers I have ever met. I could not have asked for a better way to develop my professional skills and will be forever grateful for this opportunity."

https://www.givemn.org/organization/Minnesota-Justice-Foundation

Great news for the Public Interest Law Fellowships at the University of St. Thomas School of Law this coming summer! Yesterday during Tommie Give Day, law school donors successfully unlocked a $2,500 incentive from President Rob Vischer and Maureen Vischer!

Show Your Support for MJF this Week! Give to the Max Day is on Thursday, November 16th and Early Giving has begun. Donations support MJF's programming, such as the Summer Fellowship Program. Community support is the key to keeping this program going for over 40 years!