Mingling and Memories at Citation Award Dinner Three of Boalt's most distinguished citizens were celebrated during a festive evening at the annual Citation Award Dinner in San Francisco on May 4. Professor Sandy Kadish received the Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award, Kathi Pugh '90 received the Young Alumnus Award, and Werner Wolfen '53 received the Citation Award.
Sandy Kadish, the Alexander F. and May T. Morrison Professor of Law, Emeritus, joined the Boalt faculty in 1964. He served as dean from 1975 to 1982. Kadish has been a Guggenheim Fellow and president of both the American Association of University Professors and the Association of American Law Schools, as well as vice president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2000, Kadish and his wife, June, established the Kadish Center for Morality, Law & Public Affairs to promote research on moral and philosophical issues in law and public life. He is also a founder of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy program at Boalt and his scholarship and publications continue to influence the criminal law field.
A leading criminal law scholar, Kadish was humble and home-spun in his acceptance remarks. He quipped that receiving a lifetime achievement award usually means that "one is not exactly in mid-flight anymore," but he said he's grateful for his good health and many enduring friendships. In the same vein, he also told of a handyman in his home recently who studied the many framed photos in Kadish's den before asking, "Hey man, who were you?"
Young Alumnus Award winner Kathi Pugh has dedicated her career to community service. Partially paralyzed due to a teenage skiing accident, she has focused her career on championing the rights of disabled and disadvantaged clients. She has served on and chaired disability rights committees for the ABA, the California State Bar, and the Bar Association of San Francisco.
As a Boalt student in 1988, Pugh was a cofounder of the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), now one of the nation's preeminent poverty law clinics. After earning a joint MBA/JD degree from the Haas School and Boalt, Pugh joined Morrison & Foerster as an associate in the Labor & Employment Department. Today, Pugh is the firmwide pro bono counsel.
In Pugh's acceptance speech, she remembered her days as a student activist pushing for greater faculty diversity. She told of participating in a protest in former dean Jesse Choper's office. As the group practiced its protest chant on Boalt's front stairs, Pugh wheeled herself around the back of the building to use the elevator. The doors opened, and she rolled into the dean's office—alone.
She said Choper looked up over his glasses and said, "May I help you?" She hesitated, and he said, "Look, there's an angry mob outside, so you better sit over there in the corner to be safe." She finally stammered, "But I'm part of that angry mob!"
The evening concluded with Werner Wolfen being toasted as the recipient of the Citation Award, the Boalt Hall Alumni Association's highest honor.
Wolfen was born in Berlin and came to the U.S. as a refugee from Nazi Germany. He earned a degree in business from UC Berkeley in 1950 and, after graduating from Boalt three years later, went to work for Irell & Manella in Los Angeles. He went on to help build the firm into one of the premier law firms in California. Wolfen concentrated his practice on tax and entertainment law and some of his clients included A&M Records, Herb Alpert, Jerry Moss, and the Carpenters.
Since retiring from practice in 1998, Wolfen founded a venture capital firm. He and his wife, Mimi, also serve on the cabinet for the Campaign for Boalt Hall and they have offered significant financial support to Boalt and its International Human Rights Law Clinic.
The evening was highlighted with short films of each award recipients' life and work. Click on the award winners' photos to play the videos. You can also browse the Citation Award Dinner photo gallery.
(6/5/07)
