TH E U N I V E R S I T Y of N O R T H D A K O T A S CH oo L of L A W U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Erickson Also inside: Stopping Out to Serve Alumni Fuel Extern Program From The Dean “Our Alumni: Giving Back” From the first day of Orientation Week, our students receive Another significant way in which our alumni give back is their a consistent message about the profession they have chosen. support of the law school. Our adjunct faculty members enable A legal education opens the way to a position of considerable us to offer a wide range of courses even though we have privilege within our society, but that position also carries with one of the smallest faculties in the country. The experience it a responsibility to use their talents in a way that improves the and expertise of our alumni also enrich the education of our communities in which they live. students through special appearances in classes, coaching and judging our advocacy teams and competitions, and The abstraction of the need to give back is made concrete serving as mentors. for our students by the lessons found in the lives of our alumni. We could fill each volume of NORTH DAKOTA LAW The financial support of our alumni and friends is an increasingly with lists of the many ways in which you use the skills and important part of the law school operation. For the fiscal year strengths of your professional training to make a difference. that just ended, the final calculation of the fundraising totaled At our State Bar Association of North Dakota (SBAND) annual in the neighborhood of $700,000. That impressive number meeting in June, the top two awards for contributions to the consists of a number of categories: unrestricted annual giving, law were given to alumni of our law school. Jack Marcil (JD gifts for special projects such as classroom renovation, gifts 1968) received the Distinguished Service Award, honoring the to endowments, and planned or deferred giving plans that many contributions he has made to the profession and to the have matured. public. The contributions made by Jim Leahy (JD 1949) to legal and civic education were recognized through the Liberty Each of those categories is critical. Endowments generate Bell Award. a payout (approximately 4% per year) that is available to the law school to carry out the donor’s purposes in perpetuity. A The professional callings of many of our alumni take them healthy endowment provides the law school with predictable into public sector and public service careers in which their funding for scholarships, faculty support, and programs that day-to-day work exemplifies the spirit of giving back. I think enhance the educational experience. Although endowments of our judges and our lawyers in government agencies, who provide a continuing source of income to the law school, have the public interest as the touchstone against which their annual gifts can be spent immediately to improve our school’s professional decision making and advice is measured. I think quality. Annual giving provides our students, staff and faculty also of those whose practice is in public interest work of with opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable. various sorts, with their dedication to having a positive effect on the lives of the least privileged members of our society. A final point about annual giving: no gift is insignificant.T o put annual gifts in perspective, it might be helpful to recognize that The ways in which our alumni give back to the broader the roughly $85,000 you contributed in annual giving in the society extend well beyond those whose employment is in last fiscal year would require an endowment of $ ,15,000 to public service and public interest work. I think of those who generate an equivalent amount of funding for the law school. volunteer their professional expertise in the representation of When you consider how the law school fits into your charitable clients who cannot afford to hire a lawyer. Three of our alumni, giving plans for the coming year, remember that each Bonnie Humphrey (JD 199) of Minot, Bob Keogh (JD 1971) of dollar you contribute to the annual giving campaign has the Dickinson, and Cynthia Schaar (JD 1990) of Jamestown, were purchasing power of $5 in endowment giving. Another way recognized at this year’s annual meeting of SBAND for the of illustrating the point: doubling the law school’s endowment extraordinary number of pro bono hours they had contributed. would be necessary to have the same impact as the annual I think as well of those who play important roles in the civic giving that we received last year. organizations that contribute to the quality of life. Again at the SBAND annual meeting, the recipients of this year’s Increasing the law school’s endowment is important. We have Community Service Awards include our alumni Mark Butz (JD ambitious plans for addressing our needs, and endowment 1963), Peter Hankla (JD 1991), Daniel Kuntz (JD 1978), Jeffrey growth is an essential part of those plans. But just as vital in Leadbetter (JD 1985), and Brenda Rosten (JD 1997). All of us the law school’s continued advance is sustained growth in our at the law school are also proud of the recognition given to our annual giving. You make a difference! colleague, Professor Margaret Moore Jackson, who received the Community Service Award in our judicial district. N O R T H D A K O T A L A W Contents 4 Departments Judge Ralph Erickson The Case of a Lifetime Opening Statement 2 Spotlight 0 Donor Story 22 10 UND Foundation 23 Externship Program On the Scene 24 Law Alumni Provide Real Life Experience Alumni Profiles 26 News Briefs 29 Faculty Notes 30 14 Laura Bearfield www.law.und.edu Law Student Deployed After 1st-year School of Law Administration Paul LeBel Dean 18 Kathryn Rand Associate Dean Jeanne McLean Law In North Dakota Assistant Dean UND Influencing the Bench and Bar Editor, Rob Carolin Director of Alumni & Public Relations Cover Photo by Chuck Kimmerle University of North Dakota Photographer Vol. 1, Issue , August 007 SUS U mmemmeRR 0 0 7 3 The Case of a Lifetime 4 NORTH DAKOTA L A W The Case of a Lifetime North Dakota U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson, class of 1984, has faced many challenges. At the age of 48, he is a federal judge; he has battled adversity in his personal life and has presided over several high-profile cases including one--the first death penalty case in the state of North Dakota since 1913--that forever changed his life. Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. Trial 1913. The states of North Dakota and Minnesota do not have a On November 22, 2003, Dru death penalty. The Federal Death Sjodin, a University of North Penalty Act was fairly new, with few Dakota student, was abducted cases being tried anywhere in the from a Grand Forks mall parking United States. Additionally, both lot. Her body was later found near the local and national media were Crookston, Minnesota. Alfonso very interested in the case, closely Rodriguez Jr. was charged with following each phase. “You are kidnapping and murdering Sjodin. working under the glare of everyone When Rodriguez was indicted paying attention and it is something in federal court in 2004, it was you have not done before, so that is assigned to Erickson. This was the always kind of scary,” said Erickson. first death penalty trial in the state of North Dakota since 1913. Because the case would be filed in eastern North Dakota, Erickson This had not been Erickson’s first knew the likelihood of the case significant, front-page case. As a being assigned to him was high, so North Dakota State District Judge he immediately began to prepare. in Cass County, he presided over Preparation for a death penalty case the trial of Barry Garcia. Garcia, is very different. He contacted a who was 16 at the time, was judge in Iowa who had experience charged with the 1995 murder of with these cases to talk about Cheryl Tendeland. The difference procedure, attended a weeklong between this and the Rodriguez death penalty seminar, and read case is the potential penalty was everything he could get his hands death. No North Dakota judge on relating to the death penalty and had tried a death penalty case since process. S U mmeR 0 0 7 5 This case took all of Erickson’s time did what they were supposed to it until you have lived through it.” for half a year. He and his clerks do and that no decisions were worked on the Rodriguez trial made before the time to make each For Erickson the trial was a gut Monday through Thursday, and did decision. He ensured the jury was wrenching experience, seeing the catch up work on Fridays. During instructed appropriately on the law suffering by the Sjodin family, the that time, he was grateful for Judge and kept the trial from turning into jurors, as well as that of the mother Daniel Hovland, ‘79, Magistrate Judge Karen Klein, ‘77, Magistrate Judge Alice Senechal, and “I don’t know if I could try that case particularly Judge Rodney Webb, ‘59, who took his non-Rodriguez any better than I did.” case load and carried it for the three months of the trial. Because of a circus. “We will see if, when the and sisters of Alfonso Rodriguez. this, Erickson was able to take some court of appeals gets done, whether “It was the most tragic thing that I time-off after the Rodriguez trial I did it right or not.