Surya Saxena
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INSIDE: Awards for groups and individuals 2019 October 2019 • www.minnlawyer.com Your Event. Your Museum. Hosting exceptional experiences since 1915. Mia offers indoor and outdoor event spaces Contact Mia’s Events for parties, weddings, corporate meetings, and Team: 612.870.3135; receptions in the heart of Minneapolis. [email protected] Letter from the Editor t’s up to us to demonstrate what’s possible, says Cornell Moore. The Dorsey lawyer, like the other recipients of this year’s Diversity and Inclusion Awards, means it and lives it. That’s what makes it so fulfilling to Minnesota ILawyer to bring you, for the third year, a roster of attorneys and judges who demonstrate what’s possible. Some of the possible achievements are philosophical or psychological. That may include helping lawyers and law firms get past their fear of the “other,” bringing race equity into different areas of work, forging relationships and creating a culture that supports excellence, accomplishment and diversity. Some of the possible achievements are about the big picture. That may be the demographics of the judiciary, the collateral consequences of crime, and taking care of the pipeline through mentoring, training and educational scholarships. And some are at the nuts-and-bolts level, like getting billable hour credits for diversity work, opening up the practice to foreign lawyers, providing free online education, or increasing summer clerkships. It’s also the daily nuts- and-bolts work of attending committee meetings, keeping relationships going, watching out for one’s own implicit biases and reaching out to elected officials and candidates. That may be a long list (and there’s more), but it demonstrates what’s possible, and Minnesota, thanks to our honorees, has it all. Minnesota Lawyer is honored to recognize our inspiring examples of diversity and inclusion. 2019 —Barbara L. Jones, editor Note: Honoree photos were taken at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER Bill Gaier - 612-584-1537 EDITORIAL CREATIVE Editor Designer Wendy Martin Barbara L. Jones - 612-584-1543 Photography Associate Editor Bill Klotz Jeffrey Sjerven - 612-584-1575 EVENT MANAGER Special Sections Editor Kelsey Broadwell - 612-584-1534 David Bohlander - 612-584-1527 ADVERTISING Contributing Writers Advertising Account Executives Betsy Carlson, Scott Carlson, Holly Dolezalek, Dan Emerson, David Seawell - 612-584-1545 Dan Heilman, Frank Jossi, Elizabeth Millard and Todd Nelson Scot Wallace - 612-584-1544 www.minnlawyer.com Minnesota Lawyer | 3 2019 Honorees Traci Bransford ................................................................... 6 Cargill................................................................................. 8 Dayton Judicial Selection Team ....................................... 10 Ami ElShareif ................................................................... 12 Amran Farah .................................................................... 13 Christopher Fowlkes ........................................................ 14 Mark Gordon .................................................................... 16 Judge JaPaul Harris ........................................................ 17 Cam Hoang ..................................................................... 18 The Infinity Project ........................................................... 20 Irene Kao ......................................................................... 21 Ellie Krug ......................................................................... 22 Judge LaJune Thomas Lange* ........................................ 24 Inti Martínez-Alemán ....................................................... 25 Cornell Moore* ................................................................. 26 Melissa Muro LaMere ...................................................... 28 Arleen A. Nand ................................................................ 30 Roshan N. Rajkumar ....................................................... 32 Aarik Robertson ............................................................... 34 Jorge Saavedra................................................................ 36 Sapientia Law Group PLLC ............................................. 38 Surya Saxena .................................................................. 40 Summra Shariff ................................................................ 42 Lola Velazquez-Aguilu ..................................................... 44 Judge Wilhelmina M. Wright ............................................. 46 *Legacy honoree 4 | Minnesota Lawyer www.minnlawyer.com Custom CONGRATULATIONS 2019 Diversity REPRINTS & Inclusion Share your good news as an impressive work of art! A custom framed reprint attractively preserves your professional accomplishments for display at work or home. Framing materials are carefully selected to complement any décor. minnlawyer.com We Now O er THOUSANDS $269 8.5 x 11 framed finish size is 16” x 18.5” Dayton2019 Judicial Selection Team COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL SE of Promotional Products LECTION Every Minnesota governor has a Commission on Judicial Selection that works to screen an Sheehy d recommend candidates for and th e rest of the commission had to not only re appointment to the bench. But not every commi cruit, screen, and interview potential judges, but they also had - es racial diversity in the judiciary by 93 percent andssi genderon increa s- to work with anity bar associa tions such as the women’s, diversity by 35 percent. Hispanic, and black bar associations to develop a much more e commission under Go diverse pipeline of qualied candidates. v. Mark Dayton did just that. When more than half By t he en (55 percent) of the judges2017 on the bench d, diversity on the bench had increased consid 2019 retired dur ing the commissio erably. e re were also - 2019 n’s tenu many rsts: the rst female African mission an opportunity to carry out there, governor’s that gave mandate: the c om Irene Kao - American, Native American, and openly gay Supreme Court to create a j Christopher LEAGUE OF MINNESOTA CITIES udiciary that better reected the demographics of justices; the rst Latino Court of Appeals judge; and the rst the state. Hmong judge e law is a second career for Irene Kao. But in some ways, in state history. she’s still in her rst real career: social justice. Her eorts to- It also gave the commission a big job to do. “at created a Sheehy hopes that the Committee’s work will continue to Fowlkes ward bringing diversity and inclusion to the legal profession workload that no commission had ever faced,” says Lee Shee show that diversity-inclined mindset. “Maintaining that de are the strongest manifestation of that career. hy, chair of the commission. During the governor’s tenure, the- BARNES & THORNBURG Kao’s rst professional job, as a multicultural coordinator mographic diversity requires constant attention,” he says. - at the University of New Hampshire, was in higher education 49-member commission interviewed more than 1,000 can administration. But she found ways to pursue social justice Growing up in Milwaukee, Christopher Fowlkes was only objectives within it. didates, and lled 175 vacancies within the 75-day window - en Kao went to law school. Since then, she has worked mandated by the statute. —Holly Dolezalek 5 when he formed the ambition to become an attorney. His to help make the judicial pipeline for Minnesota’s bench a bit business-owner father was the client of an African American more diverse. attorney who had graduated near the top of his Harvard Law She was on the board and later president of the Minnesota Asian Pacic American Bar Association, where she created School class. “He had opportunities to go to big Wall Street - the association’s judicial selection committee and helped set rms, but chose to open his own shop in Milwaukee and be up a rigorous endorsement process for candidates. She also helped create and run boot camps for Asian lawyers who came very successful helping small business people like my were interested in being judicial candidates. “Our job as an father.” organization was to provide necessary resources that result Fowlkes came to the University of Minnesota on a football in successful judicial candidates,” Kao said. “Sometimes can- 10 | Finance & Commerce didates are qualied, but aren’t familiar with the process [of scholarship and graduated from the U of M law school in being nominated], and so they come across as unqualied.” www.finance-commerce.com 1998 to achieve his dream. - Today, Kao is incoming president of the Innity Project, which works to make the Minnesota bench more gender-bal- Colleagues say he has become a major force in advocat anced. She’s also intergovernmental relations counsel for the ing for diversity, reaching out to traditionally disadvantaged - League of Minnesota Cities. “Racial inequities are an un- - fortunate part of the history of government,” she said. “e groups to help others follow in his path. Fowlkes has spear League helps cities analyze how race equity can be incorpo- headed a variety of programs and other events with the ob - rated in to their work, so they can operate the best for all jective of increasing the number of deserving, diverse indi residents.” —Holly Dolezalek viduals — especially women and minority candidates — at - Twin Cities law rms. He’s also active in recruiting and at tracting diverse talent to the Twin Cities. $299 Fowlkes, who became a hiring partner at Barnes in 2016, is planning to expand