January 2024

Nominations are Open for the 2024 Distinguished Achievement Awards and the Promise Award

The nomination deadline is February 15, 2024. Please do not wait to nominate.

The Distinguished Achievement Awards Dinner was created by the UNM School of Law Alumni Association to celebrate notable accomplishments and dedicated service by lawyers and others in the legal community to the UNM School of Law, the New Mexico legal community, and the greater community inside and outside of New Mexico.

The 2024 awards dinner will take place on October 18, 2024, at 5:30pm, and nominations are now open. To nominate someone you think is deserving please click here.

Thank you to our Sponsors.

UNM School of Law Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project Teaches Constitutional Rights to High Schoolers

UNM law students are helping our local high school students learn the law. Through the Marshall-Brennan Program, law students are paired with high schoolers to educate youth about their constitutional rights. The program originated in 2011 to promote education on topics such as unreasonable searches and seizures, probable cause, and Miranda rights. High school students also practice mock scenarios.

Pictured above from left to right are Scott Turner (2L), Lorena Ortiz (2L), Kelsey Chalay (2L), Celia Raney (2L), Professor Maryam Ahranjani, and Oscar Lorta (2L).

Learn more about the program and its impact here. Click here to view the recent coverage on KOB4.

Professor Maryam Ahranjani

• Featured in a story by KOB4 for the Marshall-Brennan Project, a program that teaches civic education to high school students in culturally-diverse, high-poverty public schools.
• Participated with Professor Emeritus Alfred Mathewson and a group of students in the National Day of Racial Healing that was broadcast on NBC News Now.

Professor Barbara Creel

• Filed a Motion and Brief of Amici Curiae of Native American Budget and Policy Institute (NABPI), Native American Disability Law Center (NADLC), and UNM Law Professors in support of Plaintiff McKenzie Johnson, in the New Mexico Supreme Court in Johnson v. Albuquerque Public Schools and Mary Jane Eastin. Professor Ernesto Longa and Professor Nadine Padilla, along with Sydney Tellez (3L), contributed to research for the brief. 

Professor Scott England

• Serving as a guest lecturer for a new undergraduate course at the University of New Mexico, “Better Call Saul” and the Law. The course is taught by UNM Political Science Lecturer Elliott Schwebach. In fall 2023, Professor England also delivered a guest lecture for Dr. Schwebach's course on Law in the Political Community.

Professor Marc-Tizoc Gonzales

• Filed a Motion and Brief of Amici Curiae of Native American Budget and Policy Institute (NABPI), Native American Disability Law Center (NADLC), and UNM Law Professors in support of Plaintiff McKenzie Johnson, in the New Mexico Supreme Court in Johnson v. Albuquerque Public Schools and Mary Jane Eastin. Professor Ernesto Longa and Professor Nadine Padilla, along with Sydney Tellez (3L), contributed to research for the brief. 

Professor Verónica Gonzales

• Filed a Motion and Brief of Amici Curiae of Native American Budget and Policy Institute (NABPI), Native American Disability Law Center (NADLC), and UNM Law Professors in support of Plaintiff McKenzie Johnson, in the New Mexico Supreme Court in Johnson v. Albuquerque Public Schools and Mary Jane Eastin. Professor Ernesto Longa and Professor Nadine Padilla, along with Sydney Tellez (3L), contributed to research for the brief. 

Professor Vinay Harpalani

• One of two professors invited by the Harvard Law Review Forum to write an essay about the affirmative action cases SFA v. Harvard/UNC. His essay is titled “The Need for an Asian American Supreme Court Justice,” 137 Harvard Law Review Forum 23 (2023). It is available for download here.
• Served as a panelist for the University of Connecticut School of Law's “In Conversation: The Supreme Court” series, for the conversation on the affirmative action cases SFFA v. Harvard/UNC on November 15, 2023.
• Served as an invited paper commentator at the Equality Law Scholars Forum at Boston University School of Law on November 11, 2023.
• Quoted in The Harvard Crimson about Harvard's decision not to release race/ethnic data for its early admissions cycle this year. This is the twentieth time Vinay has been quoted by The Harvard Crimson in the last five years. 

Professor Joshua Kastenberg

• Interviewed by KOB4 for the legal status of Governor Lujan Grisham's recent public health order regarding the limitation on guns. 

Professor Alfred Mathewson

• Participated with Professor Maryam Ahranjani and a group of students in the National Day of Racial Healing that was broadcast on NBC News Now.

Professor Jenny Moore

• Published “Time for Cease-Fire Amid Possible War,” an Op-Ed in the Albuquerque Journal. Professor Moore’s Op-Ed calls for “a cease-fire in Israel’s punishing two-month military operation in Gaza in response to Hamas’ brutal attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.” 

Professor Gabriel Pacyniak

• Published “We can unlock federal funds for our communities,” an Op-Ed in the Santa Fe New Mexican. Professor Pacyniak shares his thoughts on the community impact that the New Mexico Match Act could have if passed in this upcoming legislative session.

Professor Vanessa Racehorse

• Nominated to serve on the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Section on Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples. 

UNM School of Law Alumnus Elected to City Council

Joaquin Baca, a University of New Mexico Master of Studies in Law (MSL) alumnus, was elected to serve on the Albuquerque City Council in 2023. Baca currently serves as City Councilor for District 2, an area that encompasses downtown, Old Town, Pat Hurley, and the entire valley east of the river.

Baca served in the United States military from 2000 to 2005, working in environmental disaster zones, while also attending UNM where he studied environmental science. His development during that period led him to a career in conservation and inspired him to be a proponent of environmental sustainability. In 2010, he began his hydrology career for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, advancing in 2020 to serve as the Water Rights Program Manager at the U.S. Forest Service. From 2017 to 2023 Baca was a Board Director of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District with involvement in several other distinguished nonprofit organizations that promote environmental stewardship.

To aid his career in water rights, in 2013 Baca enrolled in a course at the School of Law to expand his policy knowledge. The course Water Law, taught by Professor Reed Benson, inspired Baca to continue his studies and enroll full-time into the MSL program.

Baca explains that the MSL program, “is a great program and I recommend it to anybody who doesn’t want to be an attorney. It’s a great resource we have here for our community that I’m not sure many other places have.” Baca graduated from UNM with his MSL in 2020.

During his term as a city councilor, he hopes to use his expertise to advocate for Albuquerque by creating a safer community with more sustainable and equitable resources.

Read more about City Councilor Joaquin Baca here.