Deposition Skills
Building Trial Skills
Welcoming Polish Judge Igor Tuleya to deliver the 2024 Oscar & Amelia Fode Memorial Law Lecture was an impactful and memorable event. The talks by Walter Echo-Hawk and Erica Thunder, our Northern Plains Indian Law Center’ s distinguished Indian Law speakers for 2024 and 2025, were also notable. There are many, many more events that could be mentioned, and we are looking forward to welcoming Governor( and UND Law Alum) Kelly Armstrong as our commencement speaker in May.
Over the past three years, we went from unranked in the U. S. News, to a ranking of 168 for 2024 and a 161 ranking in 2025. In addition, we rose from unranked in the legal writing rankings to 32nd in 2024 and 17th in 2025. Finally, we were ranked 26th on the inaugural list of law schools with the most graduates holding federal clerkships.
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Deposition Skills
June 21 – 22
Building Trial Skills
June 23 – 26
These successes are not based on the work of the dean, but on the collective efforts of faculty and staff. Throughout my time at UND, I have worked to rebalance our governance efforts to be more inclusive of faculty and staff. For example, we now have a curriculum committee that reviews and approves all new courses and an active staff council. Shared governance is a collective responsibility where input matters and decisions must be made with adequate information, avenues for sharing feedback, and opportunities for collaboration. Together we can and have made difficult decisions that have moved UND Law forward. We made the difficult decision to reaffirm our status as a singular tenure-track faculty where everyone has the same status. We worked very hard to determine whether and how to section our first-year class to increase our enrollment to 100. In doing so, we are limiting required classes to 50 instead of 85 students to provide a better learning environment for our students.
I am confident our progress will continue. The process is underway to select the next dean. The search committee is developing a search description, and the plan is to hold interviews early in the fall with a new dean starting in 2026. We also have a process underway to select an interim dean who will start July 1. One interim dean candidate has been announced: Associate Dean Brad Myers. I will be available to support both our interim and new dean in their transitions. Whomever is selected as our next dean will have a terrific opportunity to continue our progress. It
Mitchell Hamline School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota
Led by Judge Cynthia McCollum, Carver County District Court
National Institute for Trial Advocacy
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Additional programs are available online and in major cities across the country. Visit www. nita. org / calendar.
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has been a busy three years, and I hope everyone is proud of our accomplishments. I know I am. Thank you for your kindness, your friendship, and your support of UND Law.
20 THE GAVEL