For the second year, the Minnesota Justice Foundation (MJF) will host its 2021 Annual Awards Celebration online! Join MJF at 4:30pm on Wednesday, October 27, and hear from Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Natalie Hudson and the 2021 Outstanding Service Award winners. The event will kick-off with music by Larry McDonough at 4:00pm.
Every year since 1991, MJF has honored the work of public interest attorneys, private pro bono attorneys, advocates, and law students whose commitment to Minnesotans with low-incomes shines as a beacon of hope and embodies the very best of our profession.
This year, MJF is pleased to present its 2021 Direct Legal Service Award to Kathy Klos, staff attorney at Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM).
Klos began her immigration career in 1997 working at Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay, WI as an immigration counselor and then as an accredited representative until 2004. She attended the University of St. Thomas School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2007. Klos was awarded the John R. Roach Fellowship for pursuit of a career in public interest and received the UST Living the Mission Award. She was involved in the St. Thomas chapter of MJF each year, and was co-chair her 3L year. During her first summer of law school, she received an MJF clerkship at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM). Klos worked as a staff attorney at Centro Legal, Inc. in St. Paul, MN for two years and then started at ILCM in 2009, opening ILCM’s satellite office in Worthington, MN.
Over the years as a staff attorney at ILCM, Klos has worked on various case types and supervised ILCM’s rural offices, intake, and pro bono programs. But her greatest joy has been helping individuals and families navigate the complex legal immigration system, and in the process, getting to know people from all over the world who have come to call Minnesota their home.
MJF’s 2021 Advocate Award goes to Gregg Trautwein, administrator at Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota - Moorhead. Trautwein graduated from Moorhead State University in 1980 with a degree in accounting, and within a week began his career with Northwest Minnesota Legal Services, now known as Legal Services of Northwest Minnesota (LSNM). He had no idea what legal aid was all about, and certainly wasn’t expecting the program to be targeted for elimination by the federal government the following year. Fortunately, legal aid survived, receiving “just” a 25% reduction in funding, and within a couple of years, funding from the state has filled this gap.
In the late 80’s, with a wife and two small children to support, and a legal aid salary that wasn’t quite enough to survive on, he began preparing income tax returns in the evenings and on weekends, while also taking and passing the CPA exam. It was during this time that LSNM began to transition from a purely “judicare” program, to a combination judicare/staff attorney program, adding attorneys to their administrative office in Moorhead, while opening branch offices in Bemidji in 1989, and Alexandria in 1992. In 2003, in addition to his job at LSNM, Trautwein “temporarily” took on the role of financial administrator at Anishinabe Legal Services, to combine financial resources. This lasted 15 years!
Today, LSNM is a thriving program reaching clients wherever they may be, with three staffed offices, a Judicare/PAI component, several remote/virtual advocate offices, 59 legal kiosks throughout NW Minnesota, and a traveling Justice Bus. For Trautwein, it’s been a very satisfying career to have been a part of this, knowing he can eventually “walk off into the sunset,” with LSNM continuing to meet the needs of low-income clients for years to come.
Also to be honored at the 2021 MJF celebration are Private Practice Pro Bono winners Jerry Blackwell, Blackwell Burke P.A., Steven Schleicher, Maslon LLP, and Lola Velazquez-Aguilu, Medtronic, for their pro bono work on the prosecution team for the trial of Derek Chauvin. Law Student awards go to Samantha Prins (University of St. Thomas School of Law), Brigid Kelly (University of Minnesota Law School) and Brenda Pfahnl (Mitchell Hamline School of Law). Register for the awards celebration.
