ST. PAUL, MN - The Commission on Judicial Selection announced today that it is recommending six candidates for consideration to fill three vacancies in Minnesota’s Second Judicial District. The vacancies will occur upon the retirement of the Honorable Shawn M. Bartsh, the Honorable John H. Guthmann, and the Honorable Robyn A. Millenacker.?These seats will be chambered in St. Paul in Ramsey County.

Jessica Bierwerth: Jessica Bierwerth is an assistant county attorney in the Dakota County Attorney’s Office, where she handles adult criminal appeals and civil commitments. She previously handled child protection and adult criminal prosecution matters. Bierwerth’s community involvement includes serving on the board of directors of Merrick Community Service on St. Paul’s Eastside. She previously volunteered with the Junior League of St. Paul, Minnesota Women Lawyers, and as a high school mock trial judge.

Stacy Deery Stennes: Stacy Deery Stennes is a partner at Conlin Law Firm, LLC, where she represents people who have been injured due to negligence, medical malpractice, and defective products. Her community involvement includes serving on the Minnesota State Bar Association Assembly, coaching high school mock trial, mentoring law students and new lawyers, and volunteering with Children’s Law Center and Open Arms Minnesota. Deery Stennes’s community involvement has included serving as the former president of the Minnesota Association for Justice and a founding member of their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity committee. She is also a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Katharine Hannaher: Katharine Hannaher is the director of policy and law at the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She previously worked as the director of legal services at Volunteer Legal Services of Central Texas and as an assistant public defender in the territory of American Samoa and the Fourth Judicial District Public Defender’s Office. Hannaher?was also a law clerk for the?Honorable Tony Leung and the Honorable Anne McKeig on the Fourth Judicial District. She also consults for Gender Justice in St. Paul, serves on the Minnesota Crime Victims Reimbursement Board, and is an active PTA parent in St. Paul Public Schools.

Jessica Palmer-Denig: Jessica Palmer-Denig is an administrative law judge at the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings. She was previously a trial attorney at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an assistant attorney general with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, and an attorney at Dorsey & Whitney LLP. Palmer-Denig’s community involvement includes serving as the vice president of the Ramsey County Bar Foundation and as a member of the board of directors of the Ramsey County Bar Association. She is a founding co-chair of the bar association’s Youth Civics Initiative, which provides programming and support for civics education in Ramsey County’s schools. She previously served on the St. Paul Mayor’s Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities and volunteered as a community mediator.

Cory Tennison: Cory Tennison is a senior assistant attorney in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, where he specializes in sentencing, contested probation violations, and law clerk supervision. He previously worked as a trial attorney specializing in child abuse prosecution for that office. Tennison represents the office on the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice’s Reducing Revocations Challenge committee. His community involvement includes serving as a New Brighton Parks & Rec youth soccer coach and an adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline, where he has taught criminal procedure and constitutional law.

Der Yang: Der Yang is the founder and managing attorney of Village Lawyer, a general practice firm located in the Hmong Village on St. Paul’s East Side that focuses on family law and criminal defense. She is also an adjunct professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law where she teaches civil dispute resolution, civil procedure, and family law. Yang was previously an assistant public defender in the?Seventh Judicial District Public Defender’s Office and a special public defender in the Sixth Judicial District Public Defender’s Office. She serves as chair of the Advocacy Committee for the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library, as a volunteer attorney for the Volunteer Lawyers Network, as a youth mentor with the Yang Wameng Association of Minnesota, and a competition brief and moot court judge at Mitchell Hamline School of Law and the University of Minnesota Law School.

For more information about the judicial selection process, please visit the Governor’s Judicial Appointments webpage.