Boalt Hall's faculty, alumni and students are recognized for their contributions to legal issues and society. Because of their expertise, members of the law school's community are frequent newsmakers and commentators in the media. Here we highlight some of the local and national news stories that feature the Boalt community.
UC Welcomes Katrina Refugees The Daily Californian (9/7/05)
When second-year Tulane Law School student Katherine Pettit relocated to Houston last Saturday with a backpack full of clothes, she was sure she would return within the next few days.
But Pettit’s expectations were swiftly swept away as flood waters from Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans last week, wiping out parts of Tulane and most of the city.
“It was really a shock,” Pettit said. “You know at the back of your head that it could be real, but it has never happened before. I woke up one morning (in Houston) and turned on the news, and all of a sudden the city was underwater and we couldn’t go back.”
Pettit is one of nearly 20 displaced students from Tulane Law School who are now starting their semester over at Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley, one of many schools and universities around the nation that are offering temporary enrollment for the fall semester on their campuses. The students will begin class registration this week...
Campuses to take in displaced students Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, CA (9/6/05)
Bay Area colleges are taking unprecedented steps to help students displaced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Campuses across the Bay Area are opening up enrollment for students forced to evacuate their respective Gulf Coast schools following Katrina's destruction. Calls are already coming in from students looking for a temporary place to study and officials are doing everything they can to comply...
"We don't even know what the demand is, we just want to join the nationwide effort to get these students in schools," said Noel Gallagher, senior media relations representative for UC Berkeley. "We just really want to help."
Berkeley is offering as many as 50 open admission slots for undergraduate and graduate students and 20 slots in the Boalt Hall School of Law. Stanford law school has been in touch with Tulane and Loyola and will likely admit as many as five third-year law students. They have yet to decide what to do for undergraduates, though classes don't begin until Sept. 26...
Microsoft Donates $1M to UC-Berkeley Daily Californian, 6/16/05
Microsoft Corp. announced Tuesday that it will donate $1 million to the Boalt Hall School of Law over the next four years to fund legal research on technology.
The donation will annually distribute $250,000 to Boalt's Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, $100,000 of which will be used to support the research of faculty and scholars at the law school.
The remaining $150,000 will be funneled into the Microsoft Fellows program in law technology to fund one post-graduate student researcher each year for the next 10 years.
"This collaboration will enable our employees to discuss important issues facing the technology industry with some of the most respected researchers in the world," said Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel for Microsoft, in a statement.
About two projects proposed by faculty of the center or by affiliated scholars will be sponsored each year. The selection will be by agreement between the center's faculty and Microsoft every spring to discuss the current issues most important for research.
Boalt professors and center co-directors Robert Merges and Pamela Samuelson have been selected to use funds to pursue their research for the 2005-06 term. ...
'The O.C.' star Makes Appearance at UC Berkeley Oakland Tribune, 5/10/05
Chatting it up with George Lucas at Skywalker Ranch in the afternoon, feted by Boalt Hall law students at UC Berkeley in the early evening—it was, in the words of actor Peter Gallagher, "A perfect day."
"There was this model of the X-Wing (starship fighter) near the (Ewok) lake and Storm Troopers mowing the lawn," says Gallagher, who stars as attorney Sandy Cohen on Fox's hit "The O.C."
"OK, maybe there weren't Storm Troopers mowing the lawn, but it was still really cool. ...
The New York native credits UC Berkeley for inspiring him to become an actor.
He was attending a course at Berkeley back in the '70s when Gallagher decided to chuck his economics studies to try his hand at acting. It paid off.
So it was a bit of deja vu when his character, Sandy Cohen, turned out to be a Boalt Hall grad.
Unbeknownst to Gallagher, while "The O.C." was in its first season, a group of Berkeley law students began weekly gatherings to watch the series. That viewing group spawned "The O.C. at Boalt" — the only social club on the law school's campus. The club, in turn, begat the Sandy Cohen Fellowship.
When Gallagher became aware of the group, he threw some "cabbage" at the scholarship and then actually showed up when the group handed out the first scholarship. This is the second year of the scholarship, which is given to a student who will intern at a public defender's office. ...
'O.C.' Star Gives Award in Spirit of Character at UC-Berkeley The Daily Californian, 5/9/05
A flurry of orange shirts and flashing lights surrounded Simon Hall on Friday night, as hundreds of students prepared for the arrival of "The O.C." star Peter Gallagher.
Gallagher, who plays former Orange County public defender and Boalt Hall School of Law alumnus Sandy Cohen on the show, presented a $5,000 fellowship to first-year Boalt law student Ronnie Lin.
The annual Sandy Cohen Public Defense Fellowship, created two years ago to offset the financial burden of an unpaid internship in the field of public defense, is funded through contributions from Gallagher, Fox Broadcasting Company, and "The O.C." at Boalt, a club for fans of the show.
"Public defense is a noble departure in law, one of public service and indigent defense," Gallagher said in an interview. "This fellowship is something that's encouraging to genuinely provide adequate public defense."
Lin, who will intern at the San Francisco Public Defender's Office this summer, said the fellowship will help his law career by giving him experience in various fields.
"I want to explore and see what's out there," Lin said.
The organization annually selects a recipient for the fellowship based on an essay on the influence of Gallagher's character.
"Ronnie provided the most insight in Sandy Cohen's character and showed the spirit of the show," said Ilona Turner, head of the club. "We felt that he was a great representative of the club." ...
Boalt Improves, Others Slide on List of Top 100 Law Schools The Recorder, 4/4/05
Boalt Hall School of Law has regained 11th place in U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings of top law schools. Boalt came in 11th in 2003, but fell two notches last year after its former dean resigned amid sexual harassment allegations.
A school spokesman called it "good news," and said officials there are "optimistic about further significant progress in light of the ambitious plans being implemented" by the new dean, Christopher Edley Jr., who came from Harvard Law School nine months ago.
Stanford Law School remained third, after Yale Law School and Harvard.
Hastings College of the Law dropped one ranking, to 39th, and McGeorge School of Law tied for 90th.
There was bad news for Santa Clara University School of Law and University of San Francisco School of Law, which after tying for No. 94 last year fell from the top 100 into the third tier. ...
Boalt Expands Public-Interest Fellowship Program Oakland Tribune, 3/9/05
The law school at University of California, Berkeley is making it easier for students to spend their summers working for the common good.
Boalt Hall School of Law will offer a $4,000 fellowship to any qualifying student who wants to pursue public-interest or public-service work during the summer.
Summer jobs in those fields are typically unpaid, and the school in the past has only been able to offer a limited number of fellowships to students.
But a fund-raising campaign initiated by Boalt Hall Dean Christopher Edley will allow the university this year to extend the program to any student who qualifies.
Last year, about 100 Boalt students applied for summer funding, but only about half of them received any money, said Dean of Students Victoria Ortiz.
Ortiz said many students who are interested in public-interest law forgo summer work in the field in favor of paying jobs, sometimes in big law firms but often in areas outside the law. The fellowships will allow students to pursue their interests without worrying how their bills will get paid.
The Boalt Public Interest/Public Service Summer Fellowship Program receives support from a number of law firms.
The San Francisco Office of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood has pledged $20,000 a year toward the new fellowships, and the firm of Brayton Purcell in Novato will increase its support, Boalt officials said. ...
Bye-Bye to the Safety Net East Bay Express, 2/23/05
Sambath Dy, 53, sleeps in the living room of her one-bedroom Oakland apartment. Lining the walls of the small room—she has given over the bedroom to her fifteen-year-old son—are photos of Dy's children and relatives. One faded black-and-white print shows her family in Cambodia, most of whom are long dead, victims of the country's brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Pill bottles line a shelf against the wall and sit in a cluster on the table. According to an evaluation from her welfare file, Dy suffers frequent flashbacks and nightmares from the Cambodian war, as well as a series of medical problems. On the table next to the pills is the small journal where Dy records her blood-sugar levels each morning.
A small woman with a worn face but still-black hair, Dy found out she had diabetes right around the time she was laid off from her job at an Oakland factory—minimum-wage work that, combined with supplemental welfare payments, had allowed her to support herself and her four children (three of whom have since come of age and moved out). At the same time, she discovered she was no longer eligible for welfare because she had timed out under welfare-to-work rules that limit recipients to five years of aid. Soon, her story would inspire a campaign to change the system, but for the time being, she was out of luck. ...
The hardworking immigrant is practically a case study of the sort of person welfare is designed for—someone who needs help despite her legitimate efforts to live independently. Instead, she has become a poster child for the inequities of welfare reform. Financially speaking, Dy would have been better off not working. At least that's the conclusion advocates at Berkeley's East Bay Community Law Center reached after meeting her. The reason: The welfare checks she got while employed were far smaller than what nonworkers received—some months she took in as little as $60 in aid, while a nonworker in her situation would have gotten up to $700. ...
Cal Football Stadium; Plan Finally in Place for Memorial Face-Lift San Francisco Chronicle, 2/4/05
Chancellor Robert Birgeneau has announced his plan for the long-awaited renovation of Cal's Memorial Stadium—including it in a project that envisions major changes in the southeast corner of the Berkeley campus.
The three-part plan released Thursday outlines broadly defined stadium improvements, a new academic building to be used as a study center for athletes as well as provide additional facilities for the university's business and law schools, and a new plaza area to the west of the stadium.
The announcement does not include any word on cost, the status of fund raising, a working timetable or design specifics—such as the seating capacity of the renovated stadium.
However, it does include some major new developments. The project will be run by a private management firm, and not the university. Improved team facilities for the football program will be incorporated into a major renovation of the west side of the stadium, and not in an expansion, as previously discussed. The university hopes to have an architectural firm hired by early next month.
The new academic commons buildings would be built across Piedmont Avenue from the stadium. It would house the Athletic Study Center, Hass Business School's executive education and MBA programs, and provide additional space for Boalt Hall.
The public plaza is intended, according to a university news release, "to tie together more effectively the stadium side of the road and the main campus." New landscaping and paved plazas would be incorporated into the existing grove of trees to the west of the stadium. ...
Ex-Death-Row Inmate Talks to Law Students San Francisco Daily Journal, 4/12/04
Los Angeles—In 1974, a 23-year-old soldier named William Neal Moore got drunk and tried to break into 77-year-old Fredger Stapleton's Jefferson County, Ga., home to rob him. Stapleton shot at Moore and Moore fired back, killing the elderly man.
Moore confessed to the murder on the advice of his lawyer, who said he wouldn't get the death penalty. He was sentenced to die anyway and spent the next 17 years on death row. ...
Finally, in 1991, under pressure from Mother Teresa, his victim's family and a host of religious leaders impressed with his conversion to Christianity, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles commuted Moore's death sentence and, in short order, paroled him. ...
Last week, he spoke at Southern California law schools and this week he's scheduled to speak at Northern California law schools beginning with Boalt Hall today.
"I try to teach students that the law is about real people. It's not just abstractions and theories. William Neal Moore's case illustrates that," said Stephen B. Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, and a professor at Yale and Harvard law schools. Bright brought Moore to Harvard last year, and has scheduled him to speak at Yale this year.
Bright and other death penalty opponents say Moore's case also shows that the deaths of innocent people aren't the only thing wrong with capital punishment.
"Capital punishment is not just about whether someone is innocent. If that's the only arrow in our quiver, then our quiver is empty," said Elisabeth A. Semel, director of Boalt Hall's Death Penalty Law Clinic and Moore's host today. "There are many hundreds, if not thousands, of people on death row who would not be there if their trial's penalty phase had been presented differently." ...
Star Power at Berkeley San Francisco Chronicle, 3/29/04
As a graduate student more than a quarter century ago in UC Berkeley's top-rated anthropology department, I marveled at the public university's ability to recruit star professors from around the nation.
That experience has led me to wonder why anyone in his or her right mind would accept an offer to teach there today—especially a scholar bombarded with offers from other elite universities—in light of the the state's budget crisis.
But phone calls to Harvard and elsewhere have convinced me that Berkeley's power to attract stars from elite East Coast colleges, which began with a vengeance in the 1960s, is undiminished—for now.
The best known recent recruit is Harvard law professor Christopher Edley, who'll become dean of the Boalt Hall School of Law on July 1—the first African American to occupy the post. ...
But Boalt Hall's Dean-elect Edley is not as convinced that UC's budget crisis is a passing storm—a concern that gave him pause about coming here. "I was not simply interested in coming to maintain Boalt's excellence," he told me. "My interest is in building its pre-eminence beyond dispute." The budget crisis, he now says, "jeopardizes those ambitions."
His concerns are echoed by UC President Robert Dynes, who says he is "scared stiff" about the longer term outlook, not only for attracting faculty, but for retaining those already here. Because of dwindling resources, it's becoming increasingly difficult to match offers stars receive from other universities with far deeper pockets. "We are stretching our resources in a way that is making me extremely nervous -- I mean, really nervous. We can't go on much longer like this.''...
As Edley grimly puts it, "UC is on a lofty plateau, but the precipice is in sight."
Atheist's Point Well-Taken in Pledge Case Dry Run Oakland Tibune, 2/20/04
Berkeley—The atheist who's trying to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that making public school students recite or sit through the Pledge of Allegiance with the words "under God" is unconstitutional argued his case Thursday to a learned panel of legal experts.
And he won. Sort of.
Most of the panel at the University of California, Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law's moot court competition seemed to agree with Dr. Michael Newdow that letting public school teachers lead daily recitations of the pledge as it's now written violates the First Amendment's vow that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." ...
New Boalt Dean Meets, Greets UC Berkeleyan News, 2/18/04
At an informal town-hall meeting last week, Christopher Edley, Jr., the incoming dean of Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law, was welcomed with a standing ovation, T-shirts, and flurry of questions from students. ...
Though he won’t officially start as dean until July 1, Edley has already hit the ground running. Taking the podium in a suit paired with white jogging shoes, he turned the standing ovation into a joke. “Yes, I’ve got an expectations problem,” he said, before proceeding to lay out his vision for change at Boalt.
The backbone of that vision is a very ambitious fundraising campaign to make up for dwindling state support. Edley said that his only moment of “buyer’s remorse” since taking the job in December was learning of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut funding for higher education while steeply raising fees for graduate students. ...
Boalt students seemed just as excited about their new dean after the Town Hall as they had been before. “The law can be very conservative, and what’s great about Edley’s appointment is that he represents change,” said second-year law student Daniel Hutchinson. “He seems committed to addressing the problems, and interested in hearing what the students have to say.” ...
Christopher Edley Jr., the newly appointed dean of Boalt Hall School of Law, has long been a high-profile advocate of affirmative action. At Harvard Law School, he founded an ambitious civil rights program. As a member of President Bill Clinton's administration, he was a key figure in formulating the "mend it, don't end it" policy. So it's only natural that on the Berkeley campus, where support for affirmative action remains strong despite its rejection by California voters, some of its advocates may hope Edley will become their new political champion. If so, says Edley, they will be disappointed. "I obviously have a view, but my academic mission is to generate evidence, insight, and well-trained leaders, not to wage political campaigns," he says.
Edley has an ecumenical view of this polarizing issue. "There are plenty of principled reasons to oppose race-sensitive affirmative action," he says. He refuses to demonize opponents of the policy; some are close friends. Tom Campbell, the dean of the business school, has known Edley since their days working together on the Harvard Law Review, but disagrees with his friend about affirmative action. According to both, Campbell helped convince Edley to take the job. So did UC regent and affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly. "Ward was a big supporter of mine in getting this job and worked hard persuading me to accept it," Edley says, "despite the fact that we've disagreed sharply and debated each other from C-Span to the Oval Office." Connerly told the Boston Globe that Edley is simply the best man for the job.
A Coup For Boalt Hall San Francisco Chronicle, 12/12/03
Tapping Christopher Edley to head the University of California at Berkeley law school is an impressive coup that at once cements the university's commitment to scholastic excellence, helps promote diversity and should invigorate flagging faculty morale. ...
Edley, 50, brings a record of impeccable character and unassailable academic stature to the campus as a nationally respected academic and an undeniable force for social equity. A former White House counsel on affirmative-action policies, Edley is a founder of Harvard's Civil Rights Project, a multidisciplinary research and policy think tank of leading legal and social science scholars on racial politics and justice. It's an institute of high intellectual standards that Edley will now have a chance to replicate at Berkeley.
Edley's presence ushers in an era of great academic promise and should aid efforts to recruit other top-notch scholars.
His selection underscores the university's resolve for excellence.
Harvard Scholar to Lead California Law School New York Times, 12/11/03
Berkeley, Calif. — The University of California, Berkeley, has selected Christopher Edley Jr., a law professor at Harvard University and a Clinton administration official, as the dean of the Boalt Hall School of Law. …
Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl said Professor Edley, in addition to his duties as dean, would establish a "West Coast expression" of the highly regarded Civil Rights Project at Harvard. ...
Professor Edley, a founder of the Civil Rights Project, said the offer to reinvent the research center at Berkeley made it easier to leave Harvard, where he has taught since 1981 and has become a leading voice in civil rights law.
"I tried to withdraw from this dean search, citing my deep commitment to the Harvard Civil Rights Project," Professor Edley said in a telephone interview. "And the committee's response was that I should come to Berkeley and build a West Coast Civil Rights Project, because California is ground zero on issues of race and ethnicity. That was an extremely persuasive argument." ...
The Recorder Highlights Diversity of Term's Supreme Court Clerks A November 3rd article in The Recorder focuses on the diversity of the new crop of Supreme Court law clerks, which includes four Boalt Hall alumni.
Profesor Jesse Choper notes that four is a record for the law school and applauds the court for expanding its horizons beyond the ivy league.
During this term, Pratik Shah '01 is clerking for Justice Stephen Breyer; Neil Siegel '01 is clerking for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Diane McGimsey '02 is clerking for Justice Clarence Thomas; Sambhav "Sam" Sankar '00 is clerking for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
S.F. Daily Journal Features Mark Lemley A cover story in the May 9 edition of the San Francisco Daily Journal profiled Boalt professor Mark Lemley '91. The article highlights Lemley's scholarly contributions to intellectual property law as well as his role as an expert in antitrust issues.
Among the highlights of Lemley's career discussed in the Daily Journal are his role in the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. as well as the publication of his landmark book, IP and Antitrust Law. The article also covers Lemley's current research, a study of patent valuation, which will help litigators and transactions attorneys determine how to price companies and their IP assets.
S.F. Daily Journal Names Boalt Professor and Alumni to Top 20 Lawyers Under 40 List The San Francisco Daily Journal includes Boalt Professor Deirdre Mulligan and alumni Christopher Arriola ’95, Tracy Edmonson ’88, Richard Howell ’89, and Allison Leopold Tilley ’88 in their 2003 list of the top 20 lawyers under 40. The list is compiled each year to highlight 20 California lawyers who have accomplished remarkable feats early in their careers.
The Daily Journal recognized Mulligan for her work at the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic. As director of the clinic since its inception in 2001, Mulligan directs students on issues ranging from privacy and free speech on the Internet to open-source software and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Arriola, deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County was included not only for his work in the D.A.’s office, but also in recognition for his successes as chair of the judicial committee of La Raza Lawyers Association of California. Edmonson, who specializes in packaging high-yield debt deals, is acknowledged for her accomplishments as a partner at Latham & Watkins. In selecting Howell, the Daily Journal notes that the Rutan & Tucker litigation partner has not lost a case in 12 years. Finally the paper recognizes Leopold Tilley, a Silicon Valley corporate partner at Pillsbury Winthrop who, in addition her impressive work in Silicon Valley, also serves as co-head of the firm’s India practice team.
A Coup For Boalt Hall San Francisco Chronicle, 12/12/03
Tapping Christopher Edley to head the University of California at Berkeley law school is an impressive coup that at once cements the university's commitment to scholastic excellence, helps promote diversity and should invigorate flagging faculty morale. ...
Edley, 50, brings a record of impeccable character and unassailable academic stature to the campus as a nationally respected academic and an undeniable force for social equity. A former White House counsel on affirmative-action policies, Edley is a founder of Harvard's Civil Rights Project, a multidisciplinary research and policy think tank of leading legal and social science scholars on racial politics and justice. It's an institute of high intellectual standards that Edley will now have a chance to replicate at Berkeley.
Edley's presence ushers in an era of great academic promise and should aid efforts to recruit other top-notch scholars.
His selection underscores the university's resolve for excellence.
Harvard Scholar to Lead California Law School New York Times, 12/11/03
Berkeley, Calif. — The University of California, Berkeley, has selected Christopher Edley Jr., a law professor at Harvard University and a Clinton administration official, as the dean of the Boalt Hall School of Law. …
Chancellor Robert M. Berdahl said Professor Edley, in addition to his duties as dean, would establish a "West Coast expression" of the highly regarded Civil Rights Project at Harvard. ...
Professor Edley, a founder of the Civil Rights Project, said the offer to reinvent the research center at Berkeley made it easier to leave Harvard, where he has taught since 1981 and has become a leading voice in civil rights law.
"I tried to withdraw from this dean search, citing my deep commitment to the Harvard Civil Rights Project," Professor Edley said in a telephone interview. "And the committee's response was that I should come to Berkeley and build a West Coast Civil Rights Project, because California is ground zero on issues of race and ethnicity. That was an extremely persuasive argument." ...
The Recorder Highlights Diversity of Term's Supreme Court Clerks A November 3rd article in The Recorder focuses on the diversity of the new crop of Supreme Court law clerks, which includes four Boalt Hall alumni.
Profesor Jesse Choper notes that four is a record for the law school and applauds the court for expanding its horizons beyond the ivy league.
During this term, Pratik Shah '01 is clerking for Justice Stephen Breyer; Neil Siegel '01 is clerking for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Diane McGimsey '02 is clerking for Justice Clarence Thomas; Sambhav "Sam" Sankar '00 is clerking for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
S.F. Daily Journal Features Mark Lemley A cover story in the May 9 edition of the San Francisco Daily Journal profiled Boalt professor Mark Lemley '91. The article highlights Lemley's scholarly contributions to intellectual property law as well as his role as an expert in antitrust issues.
Among the highlights of Lemley's career discussed in the Daily Journal are his role in the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. as well as the publication of his landmark book, IP and Antitrust Law. The article also covers Lemley's current research, a study of patent valuation, which will help litigators and transactions attorneys determine how to price companies and their IP assets.
S.F. Daily Journal Names Boalt Professor and Alumni to Top 20 Lawyers Under 40 List The San Francisco Daily Journal includes Boalt Professor Deirdre Mulligan and alumni Christopher Arriola ’95, Tracy Edmonson ’88, Richard Howell ’89, and Allison Leopold Tilley ’88 in their 2003 list of the top 20 lawyers under 40. The list is compiled each year to highlight 20 California lawyers who have accomplished remarkable feats early in their careers.
The Daily Journal recognized Mulligan for her work at the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic. As director of the clinic since its inception in 2001, Mulligan directs students on issues ranging from privacy and free speech on the Internet to open-source software and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Arriola, deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County was included not only for his work in the D.A.’s office, but also in recognition for his successes as chair of the judicial committee of La Raza Lawyers Association of California. Edmonson, who specializes in packaging high-yield debt deals, is acknowledged for her accomplishments as a partner at Latham & Watkins. In selecting Howell, the Daily Journal notes that the Rutan & Tucker litigation partner has not lost a case in 12 years. Finally the paper recognizes Leopold Tilley, a Silicon Valley corporate partner at Pillsbury Winthrop who, in addition her impressive work in Silicon Valley, also serves as co-head of the firm’s India practice team.
