The Dakota County Law Library currently offers one monthly Continuing Legal Education session via Zoom. The Zoom presentation will require you to pre-register. If you are interested in attending the session, please contact the law library at least 24 hours ahead of the program. We cannot guarantee that you will receive a response to your email if it is received after that time frame.
If you are interested in attending future CLEs, please indicate this as well and your name will be placed on a list to receive monthly notifications about upcoming CLEs.
If you only contact the law library asking for information to attend a specific CLE, you will not be placed on the email notification list.
Upcoming sessions
Immigration Pardons
Jan. 16, noon-1 p.m.
Pardons are a useful, and often underutilized tool for fixing criminal-related immigration issues. In this session, attorney Nico Ratkowski of Ratkowski Law PLLC will discuss his experiences in submitting successful pardon applications with the Minnesota Board of Pardons on behalf of immigrant clients. The discussion will include a brief analysis of what exactly pardons can fix, what they cannot fix, and will seek to provide attendees with tips for success and pitfalls to avoid, while also emphasizing the crucial role that prosecutors and judges play in the pardon investigation process. The panelist will also discuss recent trends at the Board of Pardons stemming from the somewhat recent appointment of the new Chief Justice Natalie Hudson, who took over from Chief Justice Lorie Gildea as one of the three Pardon Board members.
The panelist will address recent policy and rule changes relevant to the Board of Pardons petition process that went into effect in July 2024. Time permitting, the panelist might touch on the important differences between pardon remedies, clemency remedies, and postconviction remedies from an immigration-centric perspective.
Presenter bio
This month's CLE presenter is Nico Ratkowski, an attorney based in St. Paul. Ratkowski is the owner and managing attorney of Ratkowski Law PLLC. Ratkowski's principal areas of practice are immigration, criminal defense and civil rights. In 2021, Ratkowski helped one of his immigrant clients obtain the first pardon in more than 35 years that was granted to someone who was currently on probation. Since then, Ratkowski has built a thriving pardon practice in Minnesota, helping numerous noncitizens obtain pardons and then guiding them through the rest of their immigration process.
If interested, you can
register through Microsoft Teams. If you have any questions, please contact the Law Library at 651-438-8080 or email margaret.meehan@co.dakota.mn.us.