2023 Annual Awards Celebration

At MJF’s 2023 Annual Awards Celebration, we celebrated pro bono and public service in Minnesota’s legal community. We welcomed keynote speaker Justice Margaret Chutich, who presented in a conversational format moderated by MJF board member Jacob Harris.

We also recognized the winners of our 2023 Outstanding Service Awards. We announced the renaming of the award for the University of Minnesota Law School student to the Plunkett Christenson Law Student Award, honoring our founder Rick Plunkett (1955-2016) and his wife Carol Christenson.

Law Student Award, Mitchell Hamline School of Law – Ryan Boevers
Plunkett Christenson Law Student Award, University of Minnesota Law School – Perry Keziah
Law Student Award, University of St. Thomas School of Law – Noor Dastagir
Advocate Award – Catherine Ahlin-Halverson, Maslon LLP’s UPLIFT Legal Institute for Teens
Direct Legal Service Award – Muria Kruger, Volunteer Lawyers Network
Private Practice Lawyer Award – Erica Holzer, Maslon LLP

Margaret Chutich is an Associate Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court, having been appointed by Governor Dayton in March 2016. She was elected to a six-year term in November 2018. Justice Chutich previously served on the Minnesota Court of Appeals from 2012 to 2016.

Before that, she served as Assistant Dean at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, held various positions at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, prosecuted criminal cases as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota, practiced law privately for five years, and clerked for the Honorable Diana E. Murphy in federal court in the District of Minnesota.

Justice Chutich graduated from the University of Minnesota, studied Croatian at the University of Zagreb, and received her law degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan.

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