06/24/2026
Our LL.M. graduates go on to do amazing things - including earning their JD degree at Minnesota Law, too! Congratulations, Min Soo!
Experience working at a charter school led Min Soo Son ’26, LL.M. ’22, from corporate law to immigration defense. As Son got to know his students and their families in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood — many of whom were Karen refugees — he kept encountering the same problem. Their immigration status was unstable, and legal help was out of reach.
“I felt I could truly understand what they were going through,” he says. “At some point, I realized I had a strong feeling inside me that I wanted to practice immigration law in Minnesota.”
Son registered as a pro bono attorney, began taking cases at the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota (ILCM), and applied to transfer to the University of Minnesota Law School’s J.D. program. When Son learned about the Law School’s Saeks Public Interest Residency Program, in which students work full-time during their 3L year for a nonprofit or government agency and have a guaranteed, full-time, paid legal position with the same organization the year following graduation, he didn’t hesitate to apply.
Now a 3L J.D. student, Son works on ILCM’s community defense team, handling detained removal proceedings.
“I focus on the case and people in front of me, and in a chaotic world, I’m thankful that I can be a part of the small role helping families through difficult moments,” Son says. “My colleagues and I hear painful stories. Each story is really challenging, but it also becomes a strong motivation to continue this work.”
Read more about Son’s journey from LL.M. to J.D. in the spring 2026 edition of Minnesota Law magazine: z.umn.edu/bdqv
