When Viet-Hanh Winchell is sworn in as a judge at the Washington County Courthouse in Stillwater on Monday, she will be making history.
Winchell, 41, is believed to be the state’s first Vietnamese-American state court judge. It’s fitting that Winchell will assume her new role this month, which is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
“It’s crazy to me that I can be the first anything just because we’re in 2024, but I’m proud to represent the Vietnamese-American community and, of course, just my community in general,” she said. “My parents are over the moon.”
Winchell’s parents, Hoc and Hoa Nguyen, fled Vietnam in 1979 with three of their four children and spent several months in a refugee camp in Thailand before they were sponsored to Minnesota; Winchell, the youngest, was born in Minnesota. The Nguyens came to Minnesota not knowing any English, she said.
“‘I went to law school so that I could be an advocate for those who don’t have a voice,” said Winchell, who grew up in Golden Valley and Plymouth. “That’s why I wanted to be a lawyer.”
Winchell graduated from the University of Minnesota in December 2004 with degrees in French and sociology of law, criminology and deviance. She received her Juris Doctorate from Hamline University in St. Paul in 2008.
Inspired while clerking in district
Winchell’s first job out of law school was clerking for Judge P. Hunter Anderson in the 10th Judicial District, the same judicial district where she will be serving. That’s when her interest in serving on the bench someday was piqued, she said.
“I just saw how thoughtful the judge I was working for was when he made decisions for the people coming before him,” she said. “They always knew what his reasoning was and why he made the decisions that he made. Regardless of whether they liked the decision, they at least understood where he was coming from.”
Winchell worked for a number of law firms, including Gallagher Law Firm in St. Paul; Woods & Thompson in Fridley; and Lawson, Marshall, McDonald & Galowitz in Lake Elmo, which later became Galowitz Olson, before starting her own firm, United Rivers Law Firm, in St. Paul, in 2021.
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Winchell, who served as a member of the Commission on Judicial Selection, said she decided to apply to be a judge because she knows the impact a judge can have on the people who appear before them.
“It’s not just those final decisions that have to be made, like, a big final decision,” she said. “It’s even simpler than that. The example that I have given is a client of mine who was doing everything that they could, but they were still making some mistakes, and they were terrified that their child was still going to be taken away. But at a hearing, the judge simply said, ‘I see you. I know you’re working hard.’ And that’s really all it took for my client … you could physically see this weight lifted off of my client’s shoulders knowing that this wasn’t the end and that their effort was recognized.”
Winchell will be replacing Judge Richard Ilkka in the 10th Judicial District and will be chambered in Stillwater. The district encompasses Anoka, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Pine, Sherburne, Washington and Wright counties.
‘Well known, well respected’
In announcing Winchell’s appointment, Gov. Tim Walz said that she is a “talented litigator whose broad life experiences and commitment to building connections in her community will make her a wonderful addition to the … district.”
Said Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan: “Viet-Hanh Winchell’s commitment to public service and dedication to working towards fair and just outcomes for all will make her a great judge. I look forward to seeing her thrive in her new role.”
Winchell’s appointment was met with cheers by the other judges in Washington County, said Judge Doug Meslow, who has known Winchell for 10 years and will swear her in on Monday morning.
“We are excited that Viet-Hanh is bringing her wisdom and compassion to the bench,” Meslow said. “She’s a well-known and well-respected attorney in Washington County who has represented clients effectively in civil, criminal, juvenile and family cases.”
As the solo practitioner at her law firm, Winchell represented clients in a broad range of criminal and civil matters and also served as court-appointed counsel for parents in child-protection cases and as a neutral in alternative-dispute-resolution matters.
Her community involvement included volunteering with the Parent Teacher Association at her children’s school, providing pro bono legal services and serving on the advisory board of the Tubman Safety Project, and serving as a member of the Washington County Children’s Justice Initiative.
Winchell also served as a member and Minnesota State Bar Association alternative representative for the Minnesota Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and she is the former president of the Washington County Bar Association.
Her selection marks Walz’s 100th appointment to the Minnesota Judicial Branch since taking office in 2019.
“I could not be prouder of the work that we have done to build a bench that is full of highly qualified jurists who are committed to following the rule of law,” Walz said in a statement. “The Commission on Judicial Selection has been instrumental in this work, and I thank them for helping make our judiciary the strongest it has ever been.”
“When we first took office, we committed ourselves to appointing judges who would reflect Minnesota’s full diversity,” Flanagan added. “I am pleased to say that we are delivering on that commitment, and our Judicial Branch now looks more like the communities it serves than ever before.”
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