Minnesota Lawyer Blog

Minnesota Lawyer is very proud to announce the recipients of our first Unsung Legal Heroes award.

These 25 award recipients represent some the state's most talented and dedicated legal support professionals in the following categories: firm administrator, law librarian, legal marketer, legal secretary and paralegal. The honorees — five in each category — were chosen by Minnesota Lawyer's editorial staff from a substantial number of nominations.

The 2008 Unsung Legal Heroes are:

FIRM ADMINISTRATOR
Mickey Bailey Bowman and Brooke, L.L.P.
Joanne Daubenspeck Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility
Richard Knutson Larkin Hoffman Daly & Lindgren, Ltd.
Mark Thompson 4th Judicial District
Gregg Trautwein Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota

LAW LIBRARIAN
Jennifer Doyle Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, L.L.P.
Carol Florin Ramsey County Law Library
Barbara Golden Minnesota State Law Library
Anne Grande Hennepin County Law Library
Donna Trimble Bowman and Brooke, L.L.P.

LEGAL MARKETER
Jennifer Bridgman Leonard, Street and Deinard, P.A.
Deb Cochran Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.
Elizabeth Lockett Gray Plant Mooty
Janet Nelson Bassford Remele, P.A.
Linda Whalen Sieben, Grose, Von Holtum & Carey, Ltd.

LEGAL SECRETARY
Sharon George Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, L.L.P.
Mari Johnson Halleland Lewis Nilan & Johnson, P.A.
Renee Kleinjan Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Cheryl Nutzmann Gray Plant Mooty
Kimberly Rodrigue Charles A. Ramsay & Associates, P.L.L.C.

PARALEGAL
Lisa Fleck McGrann Shea Anderson Carnival Straughn & Lamb, Chtd.
Geri Krueger Geri's Paralegal Service
Bonnie O'Malley Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Carol Schultz Hennepin County Attorney's Office
Stephanie Vizecky Best Buy

Minnesota Lawyer will publish a special section and host a lunch celebration in September to show our appreciation of this distinguished group.

Only a few days remain to nominate your favorite support staffer for Minnesota Lawyer's first Unsung Legal Heroes award.

We're currently accepting nominations in the following categories:

• Legal Secretary of the Year
• Law Librarian of the Year
• Legal Marketer of the Year
• Paralegal of the Year
• Firm Administrator of the Year

Our editorial staff will choose the honorees later this month, and a lunch celebration for the award recipients will take place in September.

An online nomination form is available here. Deadline is Friday, June 20. Feel free to contact me with questions.

We're hosting our Up & Coming Attorneys lunch celebration today at Hyatt Regency Minneapolis.

We hope to see you there. But if you can't join us, here's a recap of Minnesota's newest legal talent:

David E. Ahlvers Lindquist & Vennum, P.L.L.P.
Lacee Bjork Anderson Special Counsel, formerly The Esquire Group
Kathleen A. Austin Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, L.L.P.
Andrew M. Baese Briggs and Morgan, P.A.
Arthur G. Boylan Leonard, Street and Deinard, P.A.
Anne L. Bjerken Gray Plant Mooty
Christina K. Brusven Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Benjamin Butler Public Defender's Appellate Office
Aimée D. Dayhoff Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.
Kevin M. Decker Briggs and Morgan, P.A.
Tracey Holmes Donesky Leonard, Street and Deinard, P.A.
Erika N. Donner Kuhn Law Firm, P.L.L.C.
Amy R. Freestone Faegre & Benson, L.L.P.
Rachel C. Hughey Carlson, Caspers, Vandenburgh & Lindquist
Lee A. Hutton III Lommen, Abdo, Cole, King & Stageberg, P.A.
T. Nicole James Ameriprise Financial, Inc.
Jennifer G. Lurken Larson • King, L.L.P.
Maggie Mahoney Tobacco Law Center
Kimberly G. Miller Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, L.L.P.
Andrew P. Moratzka Mackall, Crounse & Moore, P.L.C.
Ryan L. Nilsen Bowman and Brooke, L.L.P.
Shanda K. Pearson Bassford Remele, P.A.
Sarah E. Ruter Best & Flanagan, L.L.P.
Jeffrey S. Sieben Sieben, Grose, Von Holtum & Carey, Ltd.
Christopher Wendt Mayo Clinic

You can read more about the 2008 Up & Coming Attorneys in a special section of Minnesota Lawyer on Monday, May 12.

Minnesota Lawyer today unveiled its newly revamped website. It's got a much fresher, cleaner look. I suspect there will be some initial glitches, but it will ultimately be much more user-friendly for visitors. Let us know what you think. You can reach me by e-mail at mark.cohen@minnlawyer.com.

It's been just about six months since we started this blog, which is a collaborative venture of the entire Minnesota Lawyer editorial staff.

By having multiple bloggers, we expose you to the differing personalities and voices of our staff. I personally like to think of it as a band. You've got Barbara Jones on drums, Michelle Lore on keyboard, Dan Heilman on guitar and Michael Krieger on bass. Every now and again they let me bang on a cymbal or two. In any event, it is an honor to play in such company.

As we celebrate our half birthday (six months is like 12 months in "blog years"), I thought I would provide this thread in case anybody has any thoughts or comments about this blog that he or she would like to share. And if you don't, do not blame us if we just give you more of the same. ;0)

Minnesota Lawyer celebrates its 10th anniversary in September. However, our history with the legal community in Minnesota stretches back well before our 1997 starting date.

Since 1938, Finance and Commerce, Inc. -- the company that publishes Minnesota Lawyer -- has been providing attorneys in the state with the full-text of Minnesota appellate decisions through its weekly Appellate Courts Edition.

But our history even goes back further than that. Finance and Commerce has published court notices and covered the Twin Cities business community since 1887, when the state of Minnesota was a sprightly 29.

In any event, Minnesota Lawyer is pleased to serve the state's legal community with our weekly newspaper, website, blog and related products. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we do producing them.

Yesterday, more than 200 people gathered in the Nicollet Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Minneapolis for Minnesota Lawyer’s annual luncheon honoring the region’s top young attorneys. The Up and Coming Lawyers event is a bit different from other events that pay tribute to the cream of the legal profession in that none of the honorees have been practicing law for more than 10 years.

While that doesn’t guarantee any degree of wetness behind the ears (the eldest honoree was 43), it does mean these folks are brimming with the kind of enthusiasm and zest that can be hard to find among more experienced folks in any field, not just law.

All 20 honorees spoke with sincerity and wit about the people and places that got them to this point in their careers; a few speeches had to be cut short when their presenters became overcome with emotion. This was not just another rubber-chicken lunch where trophies were handed out; it was an occasion that demonstrated the future of the legal community in Minnesota is in good hands.

You can read about this year’s Up and Coming Attorneys in a special section included in next week’s Minnesota Lawyer. Meanwhile, congratulations to this year’s honorees:

Amy K. Amundson, Rider Bennett, L.L.P.
Dawn R. Bakst, Ramsey County Attorney’s Office
Harleigh E. Brown, Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
Patrick R. Burns, American Arbitration Association
Clayton W. Chan, Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.
Carrie A. Daniel, Graco, Inc.
Aaron W. Davis, Patterson, Thuente, Skaar & Christensen, P.A.
Gloria L. Contreras Edin, Centro Legal, Inc.
David Galle, Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, L.L.P.
Jennifer K. Huelskoetter, Bowman and Brooke, L.L.P.
Saran B. Jenkins, Legal Rights Center
Christopher A. Johnston, Johnston | Martineau, P.L.L.P.
Brian M. Meloy, Leonard, Street and Deinard, P.A.
Tamika R. Nordstrom, Blackwell Burke, P.A.
Sarah L. Oquist, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
Lori D. Semke, Flynn, Gaskins & Bennett, L.L.P.
Amy M. Sieben, Foley & Mansfield, P.L.L.P.
Mathew A. Soberg, Krekelberg, Skonseng & Hastings, P.L.L.P.
John T. Soshnik, Dorsey & Whitney, L.L.P.
Aaron D. Van Oort, Faegre & Benson, L.L.P.