Tributes
MANUEL CERVANTES ’80, MINNESOTA WORKERS’ COMPENSATION COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE Manuel Cervantes ’80, who twice
served as a Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals judge, died on March 31 at the age of 70 after a long battle with cancer. After graduating from Minnesota Law, Cervantes worked as an attorney at the AFL-CIO. In 1986, he was appointed to be a judge on the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals. From 1992 to 2002, he served as a referee in Ramsey County District Court, presiding over family, juvenile, and domestic abuse cases. He was later named St. Paul city attorney and served as a state administrative law judge. In 2018, the Minnesota State Bar Association presented Cervantes with the Rosalie E. Wahl Judicial Award of Excellence for his outstanding work as a judge and for improving the state’s quality of justice.
KAO LY ILEAN HER ’94, U OF M REGENT
RICHARD KYLE ’62, FORMER U.S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE
Kao Ly Ilean Her ’94, the first Hmong person elected by the Minnesota legislature to serve on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents, died on May 13 at the age of 52. Her was elected by the legislature to a six-year term in 2019. She was also the first Hmong woman admitted to the Minnesota Bar Association and was a committed activist for Asian Americans and a beloved member of the state’s Hmong community. Her cofounded a number of nonprofits, including Allies for Mentoring Asian Youth, Hnub Tshiab: Hmong Women Achieving Together, the Heritage Center for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, and Dragon Festival on Lake Phalen. She also served as a committee member for Maiv PAC as well as the Heritage Center for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and as a trustee of the Minneapolis Foundation, the Asian Pacific Endowment of the St. Paul Foundation, and the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota.
Former U.S. District Court Judge Richard Kyle ’62 died on June 22 at the age of 84. A lifelong resident of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Kyle earned both his B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Minnesota. During law school, Kyle served as president of the Minnesota Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. After law school, Kyle served as law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge Edward J. Devitt. He then joined the law firm Briggs and Morgan where, with the exception of a two-year stint as Minnesota solicitor general, he practiced until 1992, when President George H.W. Bush nominated him to serve on the U.S. District Court. In 2005, Kyle assumed senior status and continued to carry a full caseload until he retired from active service in 2017. He served as a member of the committee on model jury instructions for the Eighth Circuit and as a member of the judicial conference advisory committee on rules of civil procedure. He also oversaw the remodeling of the Warren E. Burger Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in St. Paul.
FALL 2021
MINNESOTA LAW
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