Attorneys of the Year demonstrate collegiality, quality

We’ve got a bumper crop of Attorneys of the Year, not that we don’t have one every year. But this year we have five outstanding examples of camaraderie and collegiality – trial teams that took on big cases and succeeded, suing powerful entities like the Kingdom of Norway, the Veteran’s Administration and the Archdiocese of Duluth. We have individuals and pairs of lawyers who represented children, the indigent, the injured, the cheated and defrauded, the infringed upon and the vulnerable immigrant. We have a prosecutor and some public defenders. We have two United States Supreme Court victories.

The nominations were vetted and chosen by five attorneys, who have previously been honored as attorney of the year, and Minnesota Lawyer thanks them – there was a lot to read about excellent lawyers and difficult choices to make.

This is the sixth year that Minnesota Lawyer presents the Circle of Excellence to those recidivist lawyers who have been an Attorney of the Year previously. We also present the 8th annual Outstanding Service to the Profession award. This award recognizes a group of attorneys for a career’s worth of service on behalf of the legal profession.

The 16^th Annual Attorney of the Year ceremony is at 5 p.m. on February 18, 2016 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis. Please join us to celebrate the legal profession.

Attorneys of the Year:

Individuals

John Arechigo – Arechigo and Stokka, LLP
Alana Bassin – Bowman and Brooke LLP
Paul W. Chamberlain – Chamberlain Law Firm
Glen Drew – Volunteer Lawyers Network
Yvonne Flaherty – Lockridge Grindal Nauen P.L.L.P.
Julia Hillel – Children’s Law Center of Minnesota and Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, Child Protection Division
Anne M. Honsa – Honsa & Associates PA
Jocelyn Knoll – Dorsey & Whitney
Kara Lynum – Lynum Law Office, PLLC
Daniel W. McDonald – Merchant & Gould P.C.
Thomas F. Nelson – Stinson Leonard Street
Kathleen Flynn Peterson* – Robins Kaplan LLP (COE)
Bahram Samie – Office of the United States Attorney, District of Minnesota
Brandon Thompson – Robins Kaplan LLP
Lauri Traub – First District Public Defender (COE)
Michael W. Unger – Minnesota State Bar Association (COE)
David Wilson – Wilson Law Group
Leatha G. Wolter – Meagher & Geer, P.L.L.P.