Minnesota Lawyer
Robin Wolpert, 2016-2017 president of the Minnesota State Bar Association, says she hopes to transform the state bar association by focusing on the next generation of lawyers and increasing diversity in the profession.
She calls herself an “all-in lawyer,” and says her number one trait is grit, sheer determination.
Wolpert will undoubtedly use that trait to implement her motto: “Making MSBA work for everyone, with no one left out.”
Wolpert, of Sapientia Law Group, says the statement means following the bar association’s strategic plan while paying close attention to all constituencies, including new lawyers who need a strong foundation for success, law students who need support to ensure a good launch into the field, members of minority and affinity bars whose interests are sometimes underrepresented and attorneys outside the Twin Cities whose concerns are her special responsibility as the bar’s representative to Greater Minnesota.
She is working to build two-way bridges to the next generation and to diverse lawyers. Wolpert calls diversity inclusion a business imperative. She talks of dispensing wisdom to younger attorneys and law students while seeing through their eyes to better understand their needs and to benefit from their creativity and innovative outlooks.
“As long as we have strong bridges to our next generation lawyers and diverse lawyers, we will continue to disrupt ourselves and generate the power we need to address the issues that face us individually and as a profession,” Wolpert says.
She has had a varied career and says she has loved what she has done.
Wolpert clerked at the Minnesota Supreme Court; served as a corporate counsel at 3M in the area of compliance; was a partner at Greene Espel litigating in the areas of constitutional law, government liability and white collar crime; served as a prosecuting attorney; and, now, at Sapientia she is a legal strategist, litigator and appellate lawyer.
Before she practiced law, she taught at the University of South Carolina and Georgetown University.
Wolpert also has master’s and Ph.D. degrees in political science.
