Legal Aid honors 44-year career of Attorney and Deputy Director Ann Cofell

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: (St. Cloud, Minn.) — The coming week will mark the last in the career of Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s longest-serving Deputy Director, Ann Cofell. Cofell will close out her 44-year career, serving lowest-income, vulnerable and marginalized clients residing throughout Stearns County and 48 nearby counties, Friday, Aug. 9.

From a career-start as staff attorney with MMLA in St. Cloud and throughout her ensuing 41-year tenure as deputy director — overseeing operations in St. Cloud, Willmar and surrounding rural communities — Cofell has continued to carry a caseload.

This means she directly counseled and represented clients in poverty, clients with disabilities and clients who are survivors of violence and sexual trafficking. Doing so as a member of leadership is a rarity for a deputy director. Perhaps rarer still and unparalleled are highlights of her illustrious career:

• Ann Cofell, born and raised in St. Joseph, Minn., joined Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid Aug. 9, 1980, fresh out of law school and rapidly ascended to the rank of deputy director in 1983.
• Ann is a member of the Minnesota Judicial Selection Commission. She holds sacred the responsibility of ensuring candidates, selected for consideration to the bench in the 7th judicial district of Minnesota, possess highest integrity and legal knowledge.
• Ann is an innovator, exemplified by her pioneering role in establishing the Stearns County Felony Domestic Violence Court in 2008 to prioritize victim safety and offender accountability.
• Ann has represented clients in 49 of Minnesota’s 87 counties.
• Ann’s extraordinary breadth of cases is apparent in the MMLA classification system. Her cases represent 51 of 65 legal problem codes, ranging from housing to sexual trafficking to domestic violence to bankruptcy to social security to public utilities.
• Ann has helped clients obtain 21,231 nights of safe housing. This is more than 58 years!
• By conservative estimates, Ann has directly helped 15,012 people throughout her career.
• Verifiable data points, collected over the last 10 years, confirm Ann has directly handled 1,597 cases; directly helped 2,093 adults and 1,319 people under 18 — for a decade impact of 3,412 people.
• She has garnered $473,737.31 in legal benefits on behalf of clients.
• She has increased access to justice for countless clients, many in rural Minnesota, by leading Legal Aid’s Justice Bus work.

Former Executive Director Jeremy Lane muses, “Ann rolls up her sleeves. Not one to tell people what to do, she asks how she can help you do your job better. She exemplifies what it means to be a servant leader.”

Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Sarah Hennesy marvels, “Ann is a rare transformational leader. Her example is so honest, so moral. She has the utmost respect for every member of her staff. Her door is open.”

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Media contact:
Lisa Ramirez (she/her)
Communications Manager
Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid
612.746.3641 | lramirez@mylegalaid.org