Professor Failinger honored by Minnesota Women Lawyers

Professor Marie Failinger received this year’s Myra Bradwell Award from Minnesota Women Lawyers at the organization’s annual meeting in May.  The award is presented to a Minnesota Women Lawyers member who “expresses the highest ideals of the legal profession and who possesses the qualities exemplified by Myra Bradwell such as courage, perseverance, and leadership on issues of concern to women.”  In 1892, Myra Bradwell became the first woman to be admitted to the Illinois bar.

Professor Failinger was admitted in Indiana and is currently a member of the Minnesota bar. Formerly a staff attorney with Legal Services Organization of Indiana, she has continued her work on behalf of the disadvantaged as a founding member of the National Equal Justice Library, AALS Poverty Law Section, Law Teachers for Legal Services, American Indian Policy Institute, and MiCAEL (arts and law organization.) She also serves as the editor of the internationally recognized Journal of Law and Religion, as an editorial board member and contributor to the online Journal of Lutheran Ethics, and a founding Board member of Church Innovations Institute and Lutheran Innovations. She has been professionally active in the American Association of Law Schools and Minnesota Women Lawyers, and has served on nonprofit boards or committees on legal services to the poor, adoption, fair housing, medical ethics, children and the law, and human rights issues. She has also taught in the clinical program at Valparaiso University School of Law.

Professor Failinger is also one of the founders of the Infinity Project, which was formed to “increase the gender diversity of the federal bench to ensure the quality of justice in the Eighth Circuit.”  The Infinity Project “believes it is necessary to have a bench that reflects the society as a whole in order that judicial decisions reflect public policy that takes into account differing life experiences and points of view.” 

The Myra Bradwell Award’s presenter, Minnesota Women Lawyers, is an association made up of more than 1,200 attorneys, judges, law students, legal employers and legal professionals dedicated to advancing the success of women attorneys and striving for a just society.