Professor Denise Roy
It can be bittersweet to leave a place before you’re ready, something Professor Denise Roy has now done twice in her career. The first time was in 1991, as Roy made the decision to add the title “professor” to her repertoire. Now, she faces the same emotions when, after spending 33 years teaching law students, she will be retiring from Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
The timing is right for this stage of her career, and Roy will be looking forward to having a more reasonable life balance and schedule. Even so, she admitted about the change: “It’s such a difficult decision, and I’m still getting used to it.”
Before coming to the school, Roy worked as tax counsel and legislative assistant for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, was an associate in private practice, and clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit. In 1991, she was thriving in Washington, D.C., when a conversation with a friend would uproot her life.
“A friend of mine had received an offer to teach from William Mitchell but couldn’t take it because of her husband’s job. We were out bowling, talking about it, and I said, ‘Tell them about me,’” recalled the Minneapolis native. “It was that spur-of-the-moment. I hadn’t really thought about it and wasn’t ready to leave D.C. Maybe part of me knew I wanted to get home eventually, and this was the way to do it.”
Despite her initial unease about leaving a job she loved—determining changes that should be made to tax law and seeing the legislative process firsthand—she settled into William Mitchell College of Law as an assistant professor, a move which quickly proved to be the right one. She hasn’t regretted it for a second, and one year turned into 33 quite naturally. Mitchell Hamline’s reputation as a trailblazer in non-traditional law education and its commitment to continually improving were attractive qualities.
“Being a school of working people is one thing I feel really created an identity for the school. We’re able to meet students where they are and the challenges they’re having, with families, with jobs,” she said. “Our students also make a more active and rich learning environment. They bring their backgrounds into the classroom, they’re more actively engaged, and they understand more of how the law works in the world and its significance.”
She also appreciates that Mitchell Hamline is an institution that values teaching and innovation. Roy has always loved the classes she has taught and the ability to follow the subjects she is passionate about, such as feminist jurisprudence.
“Teaching is endlessly interesting, with endless opportunity for growth and change—not just in the classroom, but in the whole package of responsibilities. There are so many ways you can do something new so the job never gets boring.”
Some of those opportunities for Roy included serving as executive director of the Consortium for Innovative Legal Education, co-president of the Society of American Law Teachers, and president of the Fulbright Association Minnesota chapter. She was the first woman chair of the Minnesota State Bar Association Tax Section Council and has been honored by the MSBA with the President’s Award and the Tax Section Distinguished Service Award.
“All the interesting things I’ve been able to do in this position are only possible because of all the support I’ve received over the years. I value that a lot.”
This support was especially evident when Roy had ideas to create two courses from scratch, and Mitchell Hamline gave her the opportunity to do so.
She headed to Indonesia in 2000 as a Fulbright Scholar for both teaching and research. In 1998, Indonesia had deposed its president, who had held the country in the tight grip of a three-decade-long dictatorship. Roy stepped into a nation ripe and eager for discussions about democracy, and, she noted, “taxation is an important piece of democratic infrastructure.”
Building on her teaching and research work in Indonesia, once she returned Roy created a comparative law course titled “Lawyers: Opponents of Democracy?” which explored lawyering in the U.S., France, and Indonesia. “The course focused on the basic question of whether work to promote justice—which is very clear in the job description of a lawyer—includes work to promote democracy,” she said.
She also created a Tax Planning Clinic after wanting to build a transactional clinic option for students who weren’t interested in being litigators. In the clinic, students gained foundational, real-world experience doing pro bono work for charities. Students always loved the class, Roy recalled, as they became engaged in the passions of their clients, supporting people with disabilities, East African immigrants, midwives, and much more.
This focus on real-world experience led to another significant role during Roy’s time at Mitchell Hamline: director of the externship program. When the school needed a new director in 2016, she was the obvious choice, having previously developed the externship program at the U.S. Chief Tax Counsel’s Office in St. Paul.
“I really enjoy working 1:1 with students to help them figure out what they can do to move forward with their careers that still fits with their life. That has been a big part of why I’ve enjoyed the externship director role so much.”
Roy’s retirement is not a final goodbye to Mitchell Hamline. She hopes to continue supporting the externship program as she fully transfers the director role to Erica Strohl on September 1. She is currently abroad as part of the Mitchell Hamline Comparative Business Law program in London, and she plans to return to teach her favorite course—Business Entity Tax—next spring. Still, she will miss working with her staff, faculty, and board colleagues, helping students learn and find professional satisfaction in their careers, and singing the personal expenses ditty in Income Tax.
Despite its bittersweet nature, this next phase of Roy’s career brought a smile to her face as she talked about the freedom and opportunities in store. “I am excited about retirement. It’s fun to think about.”
Roy is one of three faculty members stepping down from teaching at Mitchell Hamline this year. Judge James Morrow ’78 is also retiring, and Professor James Coben is stepping down from full-time teaching to focus on the DRI Skills Lab.
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