Three new administrators have joined the St. Thomas School of Law:

Amy Klugherz
Klugherz joined the UST School of Law in May.  As director of Career Services, her responsibilities include finding opportunities for St. Thomas law students nationally and internationally and offering counseling to help students decide on their career paths.

Amy Klugherz

A native of Mankato, Klugherz earned her B.A. in history at Creighton University and graduated from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1995.  During law school, she clerked with Southern Minnesota Legal Services, Legal Assistance for Minnesota Prisoners, Schwan’s Corporation and Northwest Airlines.

Following law school, she joined West Group as assistant director and later regional coordinator for the start-up bar review division, West Bar Review.

After leaving West Group, she joined Templeton and Associates as vice president of the Minneapolis office.  In addition to coordinating and performing sales, marketing and management duties, she recruited and placed attorneys and paralegals in the Minneapolis legal community.  She created and presented time-management and career-development seminars to legal professionals.

In 2000, Klugherz joined Today’s Legal Staffing as an operations coordinator in their corporate office in Dallas, Texas.  There she developed national programs and assisted in organic and acquisition growth.

Klugherz said she pursued the UST position because she particularly enjoys helping law students and lawyers find clarity in their career goals.  Also, she has always wanted to work for an institution with a faith-based mission.

She believes in the mission of the law school and how it will benefit the students, the legal profession and the community, she said.

Nora Byrne Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick began her work at St. Thomas in mid-June. As assistant dean for administration at the law school, she reports directly to Dean Thomas Mengler and has primary responsibility for budgeting, data collection, building management and supervision of the support staff. She is a 1984 graduate of the then-College of St. Thomas, where she majored in economics and business administration with an emphasis in finance.  She has an M.B.A. degree from the Anderson School of Management at the University of California-Los Angeles.  Her concentrations were in nonprofit management and arts management.

Nora Byrne Fitzpatrick

Fitzpatrick began her career as a financial management assistant for General Mills Inc. in Minneapolis.  She next accepted a position as deputy director for the Los Angeles Conservancy from 1988 to 1989.  There, among her duties, she developed an annual financial plan in support of the conservancy’s strategic plan and developed a successful campaign that increased total membership by more than 25 percent.

Before coming to St. Thomas, she worked at the University of Southern California for 13 years.  She began as an assistant dean in the School of Fine Arts, became an assistant dean in the Rossier School of Education and then became associate director of the central university’s Office of Budget and Planning.

Fitzpatrick served for six years on the Finance Committee of St. Lawrence Martyr Church.  She was an active volunteer for more than eight years for Nuestro Hogar, a Mother Teresa Missionary Brothers of Charity house serving homeless teenage boys in Los Angeles.

Lisa Montpetit Brabbit
Lisa Montpetit Brabbit began work July 1 as director of the University of St. Thomas School of Law’s Mentor Program.

The program pairs the school’s students with attorneys and judges for an introduction to a wide range of legal tasks; mentors also help students to understand the personal and professional issues they may face as attorneys.

Lisa Montpetit Brabbit

Brabbit, who this year was named one of Minnesota’s top women attorneys by Minnesota Law and Politics magazine, had been named one of the state’s top 25 personal injury lawyers — one of four women so honored — in the magazine’s 2001 peer-based survey. For five years she earned the magazine’s “Super Lawyer” status, an honor reserved for the top 5 percent of the Minnesota’s licensed attorneys.

Brabbit is past president of Minnesota Women Lawyers and serves on its advisory board as well as on the board of governors of the Minnesota Trial Lawyers Association. She previously served on the Minnesota State Bar Association board of governors and has chaired or participated in more than 40 committees, continuing legal education programs and task forces. Since 1995 she also has participated in a variety of mentor programs.

A 1989 cum laude graduate of St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Ind., and a 1992 graduate of William Mitchell College of
Law, Brabbit worked for seven years as a trial attorney with the law firm of Sieben, Grose, VonHoltum, McCoy & Carey. In 1999 she was a founding partner of McCoy, Peterson, Jorstad and Brabbit, a Minneapolis firm practicing in areas of personal injury, product liability and wrongful death.

Martindale-Hubbell, the 130-year-old law directory publisher, recently awarded Brabbit its AV rating after extensive, confidential peer review. AV is Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating and identifies a lawyer with preeminent legal ability; it also reflects expertise, experience, integrity and professional excellence.

Lisa Montpetit Brabbit is married to Bob Brabbit. They live in Woodbury with their two young daughters.

The School of Law

The law school opened in fall 2001 with 120 students.  Founding dean David Link, formerly dean of the University of Notre Dame Law School, agreed to serve at least two years.  Thomas Mengler who was dean of the College of Law at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, succeeded Link as dean of UST’s law school last month.

Classes have been held in Terrence Murphy Hall at 1000 LaSalle Ave. on the university’s downtown Minneapolis campus.  Construction of a $31 million home for the School of Law began in March.  The building site is located on the block south of Terrence Murphy Hall and the structure will be ready for use by fall semester of 2003.

For additional information about the School of Law, visit its Web site, or call (651) 962-4895 or (800) 328-6819, Ext. 2-4895.