Hannah Mangen (right) stands with her mother Rachel Montpetit (left) as she graduates from Berkeley Law School.
NEW ULM – New Ulm native and graduate Hannah Mangen spent May 10 graduating from one of the most prestigious law schools in the country.
After three years of schooling and internships, Mangen received her diploma from Berkeley Law at University of California – Berkeley. She said she had always wanted to go into law school and had always been told she would be good at it because she liked to argue. It was her experiences as a child and in undergrad at the U of M that solidified her path.
“I was living and working in Minneapolis during the 2020 summer uprisings in Minneapolis,” Mangen said. “I think that catalyzed me to want to work in criminal legal reform. I also grew up with a parent in prison. That informed my desire to work with people who are incarcerated, which is what I ended up doing.”
Mangen said her undergrad experience at the U of M was a major stepping stone to her future career. Coming from the rural community of New Ulm, she said there were major cultural and background differences.
“I was exposed to so many different kinds of people and life experiences,” Mangen said. “A lot of folks that I have met out here in undergrad weren’t exposed to what rural America is like. What living in a town with a large farming community and a lot of factory work is like.”
With these differences in mind, Mangen said she realized she had a lot to teach others as they had to teach her.
Without any major financial support, Mangen said she knew she had to get into one of the major law schools for her investment to pay off. She said she was thankful Berkeley approved her right away and had a reputation for supporting pro bono public service work, which Mangen was looking to get into.
Mangen spent her summers in Berkeley working with the Uncommon Law, Phillips Black, and the Habeas Corpus Resource Center organizations.
Uncommon Law works on parole opportunities for prisoners serving indeterminate life sentences, where they serve a certain amount of years and are then eligible for parole. Phillips Black and the Habeas Corpus Resource Center work on mitigating the sentences of those on death row to life in prison.
From working with prisoners through these organizations, Mangen said she came away with two things.
First, she believes that people’s access to free will is a lot more constrained than we believe. Mangen said people often have a series of narrow choices in front of them and this causes people to react far more than they purposefully choose.
Second, she believes that all people are worth saving and capable of change under the right conditions.
“I think all people are worth trying to intervene in helping them understand and see a path away from violence as a tool,” Mangen said. “Those people who then find themselves moving away from violence. They gain that insight, recognize how they’ve been reacting to their fear-based way of looking at the world or trauma they’ve had for decades and never thought about and did anything about.”
She said it is important to note that when it comes to making change, they need to take accountability for what they did. This is not only in the form of expressing shame and regret for their actions, but putting in the work and change to take full responsibility for their actions and make things right.
“You can feel bad, and you can hate yourself, but none of that does your victims any good,” she said.
After graduating from Berkeley, Mangen said she has a position lined up with the Habeas Corpus Resource Center to continue working on the cases of people on death row. She is also studying for the bar, which she said is the most difficult task in her life.
Mangen said her experiences in New Ulm have given her the perspective of someone from rural America in a densely populated San Francisco area where many have never experienced that.
“There’s a lot of problems that exist in rural America that the folks that I went to school with here had never been exposed to or thought about,” Mangen said. “Lack of resources, lack of access, things like that. I think that perspective has helped me be able to connect with clients in a more real, genuine, and authentic way.”
Mangen said she is very grateful for her upbringing in small-town Minnesota and the unique perspective and experiences it gave her.
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