Ann Marie Hanrahan

Congratulations to Ann Marie Hanrahan, Children’s Law Center of Minnesota (CLC)’s Volunteer of the Month. Ann Marie is Associate General Counsel at 3M, and has been a volunteer attorney for CLC since 2004. In that time she has represented a total of seven foster clients for CLC.  In all of her work, Ann Marie has shown exceptional dedication to her clients and unfailing willingness to fight for their rights. In April 2010, Ann Marie succeeded in the second appeal of CLC client N.Y.B’s expulsion from Anoka Hennepin School District. These appeals became necessary when Ann Marie’s CLC client N.Y.B. was expelled from school for one year following an altercation with another student in December of 2006. Ann Marie has been working on overturning N.Y.B’s expulsion decision ever since the expulsion took place in February of 2007. In 2008, the Court of Appeals remanded the matter, instructing the school board to supply sufficient information about its reasoning for the child’s expulsion in order to allow the appellate court to review the decision. The school board provided additional explanation of the reasoning behind its decision to expel N.Y.B., but included in the explanation additional grounds for the expulsion which N.Y.B had never been given notice of or opportunity to respond to. The expulsion violated N.Y.B.’s  due process rights and was therefore reversed by the Court of Appeals in their April 2010 Decision. CLC is thrilled with this historic decision, and commends Ann Marie and everyone who volunteered their time working on the appeal. More information regarding the appeal and its history are available on in A MN Court of Appeals Victory.

Ann Marie was also recently awarded the 2009 Outstanding Service Award for a Private Practice Lawyer from the Minnesota Justice Foundation, for her representation of foster children, and her outstanding pro bono work for Children’s Law Center. Congratulations Ann Marie!