Public Law Section
Annual Report
2022-2023
Section Membership
As of June 9th, 2023 the Section has 464 members.
Financial Status
The Section had an account balance of 13,723 as of April 30th, 2023.
CLEs & Events
The Section hosted 9 events in fiscal year 2022-23.
| Program Title | Date | Event Code | CLE Credits | Attendees | Virtual/ In-person/ Hybrid |
| Affirmative Action as it Applies to Government Contracts | 09/30/2022 | 472668 | 1 | 37 | Virtual |
| Election Law Potpourri | 10/28/2022 | 473079 | 1 | 38 | Virtual |
| The Shifting Jurisdictional Landscape in Indian Country: SCOTUS’s Decision in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta | 11/16/2022 | 475064 | 1 | 40 | Virtual |
| West Virginia v. EPA and Judicial Deference to Agencies (with Admin Law) | 01/24/2023 | 478795 | 1 | 83 | Virtual |
| How to be a Successful Attorney in Government Practice | 02/17/2023 | 479728 | 1 | 61 | Hybrid |
| The Informed Practitioner: Academic Freedom and the First Amendment | 03/28/2023 | 482969 | 1 | 43 | Virtual |
| A Series of Unfortunate Events: Planning for and Responding to Natural Disasters in Your Community | 04/24/2023 | 483902 | 1 | 43 | Virtual |
| Social at Lake Monster Brewing | 05/10/2023 | NA | NA | 21 | In-Person |
| The Role of Public Law in the Legislative process | 06/02/2023 | 486117 | 1 | 25 | Hybrid |
Annual Meeting and Election Results
The Section’s Annual Meeting was held on 06/02/2023 and 40 people attended.
The following council members were elected to serve on the Section’s Governing Council from 7/1/2023 to 6/30/2024:
Laurie Beyer-Kropuenske, University of Minnesota-Office of General Counsel
Kathryn Burbank, Rice County Attorney’s Office
Lisa Godon, Hennepin County Attorney’s office
Fatema Haji-Taki, MN Department of Transportation
Ethan Landy, Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry
Sarah McGee, Minnesota State Colleges & Universities
Nancy Norman Sommer, Anoka County Attorney’s Office
Kevin Toskey, City of Bloomington Attorney’s Office
The following officers were elected to serve on the Section’s Governing Council from 7/1/2023 to 6/30/2024:
Co-Chair: Margaret Jacot, Metropolitan Council
Co-Chair: Amber Eisenschenk, League of Minnesota Cities
Treasurer: Cathy Miller, Rice County Attorney’s Office
Secretary: Kate Swenson, Greene Espel, PLLP
Ex Officio Member of the Judiciary
The Honorable Tracy Smith, Minnesota Court of Appeals
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals were to purposefully attract, include, and develop members from all backgrounds, with a particular emphasis on BIPOC practitioners, practitioners in Greater Minnesota, and students and new lawyers. We identified four areas of action items to accomplish our DE&I goals.
(1) Section CLEs. We were attentive to DE&I in all 8 of our section CLEs—in content, presenters, and manner of presentation. One CLE was Affirmative Action as it Applies to Government Contracts and another was The Shifting Jurisdictional Landscape in Indian Country. When planning CLEs, we sought out diverse presenters, and presenters included women and people of color, lawyers from diverse practice areas, and non-metro lawyers. We offered our CLEs online or hybrid form in order to attract participation in Greater Minnesota.
(2) Training. Our DE&I representative attended the MSBA’s training on creating/updating the section’s DE&I statement, and the Public Law Council will review its DE&I statement with that guidance in mind at the start of the upcoming year.
(3) Greater Minnesota. We purposefully sought out and included non-metro presenters in our CLEs, chose at least one CLE topic of particular interest to Greater Minnesota (The Shifting Jurisdictional Landscape in Indian Country), and offered online access to CLEs to encourage participation across the state.
(4) Affinity Bar Association Collaboration. We had hoped to co-sponsor an event with an affinity bar association but did not accomplish that objective.
Other Section Accomplishments
The Section Council also hosted a social event for the section at Lake Monster in May of this year and it continued its volunteer work with Ronald McDonald House, facilitating 4 volunteer cooking events for section members.
Submitted By:
Ethan Landy and Margaret Jacot, Section Co-Chairs
Date: 06/08/2023