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SCCJC CONFERENCE > Speakers
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Richard Dennis Aldrich
Justice Marvin R. Baxter
Prof R. Richard Banks
Jeffery Bleich
Richard Chernick
Justice Ming W. Chin
Prof Jesse H. Choper
Justice Carol A Corrigan
Justice Christine M Durham
Dean Christopher Edley Jr.
Holly J. Fujie
Hon. Ronald M. George
Dane R. Gillette
Victoria J. De Goff
Prof. Deborah R. Hensler
Bonnie R. Hough
John K Van de Kamp
Michael Laurence
Justice Thomas J. Moyer
Hon. Thomas R. Phillips
Nina Rivkind
Michael Rubin
Dean Kenneth W. Starr
M. Sue Talia
Prof Gerald F. Uelmen
Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar
Governor Pete Wilson
Justice Laurie D. Zelon
Justice Richard Dennis Aldrich
Associate Justice
Second Appellate District, Division Three
After practicing law as head of his own law firm for 28 years, Justice Aldrich was appointed to the Ventura Superior Court in 1991 and the Court of Appeal in 1994.
Justice Aldrich received his undergraduate degree from Loyola University of Los Angeles and his JD from UCLA in 1963, the same year he was admitted to the California Bar.
His memberships and professional service include: the California Judicial Council, chair of the Select Committee on Trial Court Coordination, chair of Business Court Study Task Force, chair of the Civil and Small Claims Standing Advisory Committee and the ADR Subcommittee. He chaired the Complex Litigation Task Force and is currently chair of the Court Security Working Group. He is a member of the California Judges Association, American Judicature Society, American Bar Association, Los Angeles County Bar Association, American College of Trial Lawyers, International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the American Board of Trial Advocates.
He has received many honors including: Ventura County Trial Lawyers Association “1992 Trial Lawyer of the Year”, American Board of Trial Advocates California “Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, 1990,” the California Judicial Council’s Distinguished Service Award for 2006.
An educator, he has lectured in Beijing, Shanghai, the Republic of Slovakia and the Czech Republic as well as to many lawyers and judges associations in this country including the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Association, the California Judges Association, World Affairs Council, National Center for State Courts, Center for Judicial Education and Research, the California Trial Lawyers Association and the Association of California Defense Counsel. Since 1992 he has taught the “Civil Settlement Techniques” course at the B.E. Witkin California Judicial College.
Justice Marvin R. Baxter
Associate Justice
Supreme Court of California
Marvin R. Baxter has served as an associate justice of the supreme court of California since January 1991. He is vice-chair of the judicial council of California and chair of its policy committee. Previously, he was an associate justice of the court of appeal, fifth appellate district.
Justice Baxter was appointments secretary to Governor George Deukmejian. He served as the governor’s principal advisor on all gubernatorial appointments. He assisted in the appointment of more than 700 judges.
Justice Baxter was engaged in private law practice in Fresno for 13 years. He commenced his legal career as a Fresno county deputy district attorney. He served as president of the Fresno county bar association and was on the board of directors of the California young lawyers association.
Justice Baxter is a graduate of Fresno State University, the Coro Foundation, and Hastings College of the Law. He was student body president at Fresno state and received the outstanding senior award. Later, he served as president of Fresno state’s alumni association and its trust council. He is a director emeritus of Hastings College of the Law.
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Jeffery Bleich
Partner
Munger, Tolles & Olson
Jeff Bleich (Boalt '89), is a partner at Munger Tolles & Olson LLP and the immediate-Past President of the State Bar of California. He received his B.A. from Amherst and an M.P.P from Harvard before attending Boalt. At Boalt, Mr. Bleich served as Editor-in-Chief of the California Law Review and won the Thelen Prize for Outstanding Student Writing. Following graduation, he clerked for Judge Abner Mikva on the D.C. Circuit, Chief Justice William Rehnquist at the United States Supreme Court, and Judge Howard Holtzmann at an international tribunal in The Hague. In addition to a full trial practice at Munger, Mr. Bleich has taught Appellate Advocacy and four other courses at Boalt Hall, and has argued dozens of matters in appellate courts at every
level. Mr. Bleich successfully argued cases before the California Supreme Court in both 2007 and 2008, receiving unanimous decisions in both cases. In 2007 Mr. Bleich was recognized by the California Lawyer as "Lawyer of the Year" for his appellate work. He is also regularly listed as one of the 100 Most Influential Attorneys in California by the Daily Journal. Mr. Bleich is the Chair of the California State University Board of Trustees, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American law Institute.
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Justice Ming W. Chin
Associate Justice
Supreme Court of California
The Honorable Ming W. Chin was appointed to the California Supreme Court in March 1996. Before being named to the high court, Justice Chin served from 1990 to 1996 on the First District Court of Appeal, Division Three, San Francisco. Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeal, Justice Chin served on the bench of the Alameda County Superior Court. Previously, Justice Chin was a partner in an Oakland law firm specializing in business and commercial litigation. He also served as a prosecutor in the Alameda County District Attorney’s office. Justice Chin earned his bachelor’s degree in political science and law degree from the University of San Francisco. After his graduation from law school, Justice Chin served two years as a Captain in the United States Army, including a year in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star.
Justice Chin chairs the Judicial Council of California’s Court Technology Advisory Committee, as well as the California Commission for Impartial Courts. He frequently lectures on DNA, Genetics and the Courts before, among other organizations, the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division, the State of California’s Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER), the National College of Probate Judges, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court Judicial Education Committee. He serves on the National Academies’ Committee on the Development of the Third Edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence. He is an author of California Practice Guide: Employment Litigation (The Rutter Group 2007).
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Prof Jesse H. Choper
Earl Warren Professor of Public Law and
Former Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law
Jesse Choper served as law clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren of the U.S. Supreme Court following graduation from law school. He taught at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania from 1957 to 1960, and at the University of Minnesota Law School from 1961 to 1965. He joined the Boalt faculty in 1965. Prof Choper has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, Fordham Law School, the University of Milan, Free University in Amsterdam, Autonoma University in Barcelona and the University of New South Wales in Sydney. He served as Boalt Hall's dean from 1982 to 1992.
From 1979 to 1998, Prof Choper was one of the three major lecturers at U.S. Law Week's Annual Constitutional Law Conference in Washington, D.C. He has delivered 20 titled lectures at major universities throughout the country, including the Cooley Lectures at Michigan, the Stevens Lecture at Cornell, the Baum Lecture at Illinois, and the Lockhart Lecture at Minnesota. He has served on the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools, and on the executive council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (of which he has twice been vice president). He was national president of the Order of the Coif and is a member of the American Law Institute. In 1998 he received the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award and the Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction at Boalt Hall in 2006. The Boalt Hall Alumni Association presented Choper with the Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Prof Choper's major publications include the books, Judicial Review and the National Political Process: A Functional Reconsideration of the Role of the Supreme Court, which received the Order of the Coif Triennial Book Award in 1982, and Securing Religious Liberty: Principles for Judicial Interpretation of the Religion Clauses. His recent publications include the tenth edition of his Constitutional Law casebooks; the sixth edition of his Corporations casebook; the second edition of The Supreme Court and Its Justices; "The Political Question Doctrine: Suggested Criteria," in the Duke Law Journal (2005); "Effective Alternatives to Causes of Action Barred by the Eleventh Amendment", 50 New York Law School Law Review 715-728 (2005-2006) (co-author).
Prof Choper received his B.S. from Wilkes University in1957, LL.B. from University of Pennsylvania in1960 and D.Hu. Litt. fromWilkes University in1967.
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Justice Carol A Corrigan
Associate Justice
Supreme Court of California
Justice Corrigan was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2006, she served on the First District Court of Appeal (San Francisco), 1994-2006; the Alameda County Superior Court, 1991-1994 and the Oakland-Emmeryville-Piedmont Municipal Court, 1987-1991. She practiced as a trial lawyer in the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, 1975-1987. She has been an adjunct professor of law at the University of California’s Boalt Hall, Hastings College of Law, the University of San Francisco, the University of Puget Sound, and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. Her J.D. is from Hastings College of the Law. Her B.A. is from Holy Names College.
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Dean Christopher Edley Jr.
The Honorable William H. Orrick, Jr. Distinguished Chair and Dean
UC Berkeley School of Law
Christopher Edley, Jr. assumed the Deanship of U.C. Berkeley Law School in 2004 after 23 years as a Harvard Law professor, where he was founding Co-Director of The Harvard Civil Rights Project. From 1999-2005, he served as a congressional appointee on the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He served as the Assistant Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff during the Carter Administration and the Associate Director of the Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton Administration. In 2006, he was named to a national nonpartisan commission created to conduct an independent review of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Dean Edley’s academic work is primarily in the areas of civil rights and administrative law. His publications include Not All Black and White: Affirmative Action, Race and American Values and Administrative Law: Rethinking Judicial Control of Bureaucracy. He is currently on the Division Committee on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation and of The Century Foundation, a board director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, the Council of Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At UC Berkeley, he is founder and faculty-Co-Director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity, a multidisciplinary think tank.
Dean Edley received his B.A. degree in 1973 from Swarthmore College, his J.D. degree in 1978 from Harvard Law School and his M.P.P. from Harvard University in 1978.
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Holly J. Fujie
President, State Bar of California and
Vice President, Buchalter Nemer
Holly Fujie, ’78, is a litigation Shareholder in the Los Angeles-based law firm of Buchalter Nemer. In September she was sworn in as the 84th President of the State Bar of California. Ms. Fujie serves on the Boards of the State Bar Foundation, the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, the Federal Bar Association (LA chapter), Bet Tzedek (a legal services provider) and the BHAA, the Advisory Board of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Los Angeles, and is Treasurer of the Chancery Club.
She is a member of LACBA’s Committee for Diversity in the Profession, was a member of the Pipeline Commission of the State Bar, which has as its goal increasing the number of women and minorities at the highest levels of the profession, and a member of the Editorial Board of Goal IX, a publication of the ABA’s Commission for Diversity in the Profession. She serves as Senator Dianne Feinstein’s representative on the Bi-Partisan Judicial Advisory Committee, which selects candidates for nomination to the U.S. District Court bench for the Central District of California, and served on Senator Feinstein’s Judicial Advisory Committee during the Clinton Administration. Holly was Deputy General Counsel to the Rampart Independent Review Panel, and speaks frequently on diversity, litigation and work balance issues.
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Hon. Ronald M. George
Chief Justice of California
Chief Justice George is a 1961 graduate of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a 1964 graduate of Stanford Law School. From 1965 to 1972, he served as a Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice, where he represented the State of California in six oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court, two of which involved arguing in support of the constitutionality of the death penalty, and appeared in numerous cases before the California Supreme Court, including the prosecution of Sirhan Sirhan for the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy. In 1972, he was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court by Governor Reagan, in 1977 to the Los Angeles County Superior Court by Governor Brown, Jr., in 1987 to the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District by Governor Deukmejian, in 1991 to the California Supreme Court by Governor Wilson as an Associate Justice (confirmed in 1994 by the voters for a 12-year term), and in 1996 as the 27th Chief Justice of California (confirmed in 1998 by the voters for a 12-year term). On the Superior Court, he served as Supervising Judge of the Criminal Division and presided over People v. Buono (the “Hillside Strangler” case) from 1981 to 1983, thereafter serving for three years on civil assignments in that court. In 1982, he was elected President of the California Judges’ Association.
As Chief Justice of California, he chairs the Judicial Council of California and the Commission on Judicial Appointments, and co-chairs the California-Federal Judicial Council. Chief Justice George has authored numerous publications and has lectured at numerous educational programs. Among the recognitions he has received are the American Bar Association’s John Marshall Award (2007), the American College of Trial Lawyers Samuel E. Gates Award (2007), the Legal Writing Institute’s Golden Pen Award (2007), the American Judicature Society’s Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence (2006), Consumer Attorneys of Calif. Justice of the Year Award (2006), Burton Reform in Law Award (2006), the State Bar of California’s Bernard Witkin Medal (2005), Public Counsel’s William O. Douglas Award (2004), the James Madison Freedom of Information Award, Society of Professional Journalists (2003), the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence (2002), the Judge Learned Hand Award (2000), the Foundation of the State Bar’s Justice Award (2000), the American Judicature Society’s Herbert Harley Award (1998), and the St. Thomas More Law Society’s Medallion Award (1997). He served as President of the Conference of Chief Justices and Chair of the National Center for State Courts Board of Directors in 2003-04, and is a member of the steering committee of the Georgetown University Law Center’s Sandra Day O’Connor Project on the State of the Judiciary.
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Dane R. Gillette
Chief Asst. Attorney General
State of California
Dane Gillette is the Chief Assistant in charge of the Criminal Division at the California Attorney General’s Office, a position he has held since January 2007. From 1992 to 2007 he served as the Attorney General’s statewide capital case coordinator. Gillette graduated from Occidental College in 1972 and from Hastings College of Law in 1975, and joined the Attorney General’s Office in 1975. In addition to his position as Chief Assistant, Gillette is Chair of the California Crime Laboratory Review Task Force, serves on the Judicial Council’s Criminal Law Advisory Committee, and is on the board of directors and a past president of the Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation (AGACL). During his career Gillette has represented the state on numerous occasions before the California Supreme Court and United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and twice before the Supreme Court of the United States. He lectures regularly on issues pertaining to capital litigation and federal habeas corpus and has received awards for excellence from the Attorney General’s Office, the California District Attorney’s Association, and AGACL.
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Victoria J. De Goff
Partner, De Goff & Sherman
Vicki De Goff is a partner in the civil appellate firm of De Goff and Sherman. She has handled hundreds of appeals throughout the state, and has written and lectured extensively on appellate matters emphasizing effective advocacy. She is a former president of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the Edward J. McFetridge America Inn of Court in San Francisco. She has also long been a member of the highly selective American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. Over the years, three Chief Justices of California have appointed Vicki to important appellate-related committees including the Advisory Committee to the Supreme Court on Publication of Court of Appeal Opinions (2005-2006), the Appellate Indigent Defense Oversight Advisory Committee (1995-2007) and the Advisory Committee to the Judicial Council regarding the Implementation of Proposition 32 (1984). Vicki was invited to serve on the Advisory Board to the Witkin Legal Institute at its creation in 1997 shortly after Bernie's death and in that capacity has run the statewide Roger J. Traynor Appellate Advocacy Moot Court Competition for the last decade. Vicki is also currently a member of the Advisory Council for the Thelton J. Henderson Center for Social Justice and an officer of the Center for Youth Development Through Law here at Boalt.
Vicki received her J.D. from the University of California Berkeley, School of Law in 1972, Order of the Coif.
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Prof. Deborah R. Hensler
Judge John W. Ford Professor of Dispute Resolution
And Associate Dean for Graduate Studies
Stanford Law School
Prof. Deborah Hensler teaches courses on alternative dispute resolution, complex litigation, the legal profession, the use of policy analysis in the law and empirical research methods for socio-legal studies. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Prof. Hensler was Director of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice (ICJ), a faculty member of the RAND Graduate School and a faculty member of the University of Southern California Law School.
Prof. Hensler's research focuses on dispute resolution in ordinary and complex civil litigation. She is the lead author of CLASS ACTION DILEMMAS: PURSUING PUBLIC GOALS FOR PRIVATE GAIN (2000), has written extensively about asbestos litigation, and has published numerous research monographs and journal articles on alternative dispute resolution, class actions, multi-district litigation, mass torts, and compensation for personal injury in the U.S. She has appeared before judicial, legislative and executive agencies at the state and federal level in the U.S. and consulted with bench and bar committees and task forces in the U.S., Latin America and Asia regarding a broad range of tort liability and civil procedure issues. In December 2007 she and Christopher Hodges hosted an international conference on the globalization of class actions and group litigation, which was held at Oxford University and co-sponsored by Stanford Law School and the Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies.
Prof. Hensler received her Ph.D. in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973, and her A.B. from Hunter College summa cum laude in 1963. She has served as a director of the American Arbitration Association and the American Judicature Society and is currently a member of the Rand Institute for Civil Justice Board of Overseers. In 2002, Prof. Hensler was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences and received the Robert McKay Law Professor Award from the Torts and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association.
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Bonnie R. Hough
Managing Attorney
Center for Families, Children & the Courts
Bonnie Rose Hough is the Managing Attorney with the California Administrative Office of the Court’s (AOC) Center for Families, Children & the Courts, where she has been employed since 1997. She serves as Committee Counsel to the Judicial Council’s Task Force on Self-Represented Litigants and also is staff to the Elkins Family Law Task Force. Her unit coordinates the California Courts Self-Help Website (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/ selfhelp) which provides over 900 pages of legal and procedural information and referrals and has been translated into Spanish (www.sucorte.ca.gov); oversees grant funds for court based self-help centers and legal services programs and works to develop educational materials for judges and court staff to assist them in handling cases with self-represented litigants. She also assists the Family and Juvenile Law Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council in drafting family law rules and forms.
Prior to joining the AOC, she was in private practice in family law. She was also a co-founder of the Family Law Center, a nonprofit legal services organization in Marin County, and served as its executive director for six years. Ms. Hough received a J.D. from Hastings College of the Law, and an M.P.A. from San Francisco State University. She is a fellow with the Harvard Law School’s Bellow-Sacks project. She is the recipient of the Faye Stender Award from California Women Lawyers, Opening Doors to Justice Award from the Public Interest Clearinghouse, Dale Sipes Spirit of Justice Award and the Public Service Award from Central California Legal Services.
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John K Van de Kamp
Of Counsel at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP and
Chair, California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice
John K. Van de Kamp is Of Counsel at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, resident in the Los Angeles office. In a governmental career spanning some 30 years, he has served as U.S. Attorney for California’s Central District, Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, the Central District's first Federal Public Defender, Los Angeles County District Attorney (75-83) and California Attorney General (1983-1991). Joining Dewey Ballantine LLP in 1991 he served as Chair of its Litigation Department, and has been involved in litigation ranging from insurance disputes to the representation of the Sultan of Brunei.
He was President of The State Bar of California (2004-2005). Since 2006, most of his time with the firm has been spent on arbitration and mediation (working through ADR Services and AAA). In 2007 he was appointed by the California Attorney General as its Monitor of the Getty Trust.
He served as the Chairman of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice (2005-2007) and presently serves on the ABA Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions.
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Michael Laurence
Executive Director, Habeas Corpus Resource Center
Habeas Corpus Resource Center, a California Judicial Branch agency was created in 1999 to provide representation to death-row inmates in state and federal habeas proceedings.
Since 1987, Mr. Laurence has provided representation to death row inmates throughout the country in state and federal courts. He has represented death-row inmates in a dozen evidentiary hearings, and argued cases before the California Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Laurence was also counsel of record in class actions challenging lethal gas as an execution method and the application of various portions of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
Mr. Laurence graduated from U.C. Davis Law School in 1985, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review and was awarded the Order of the Coif. He clerked for the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson, Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Following his clerkship, Mr. Laurence was a Fellow at the Earl Warren Legal Institute at the U.C. Berkeley School of Law, and a Criminal Justice Research Consultant with the Office of the California Attorney General. Between 1988 and 1995, Mr. Laurence was the Director of the Death Penalty Project of the ACLU of Northern California.
Mr. Laurence also served as a member of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which the California Senate created to examine the causes of wrongful convictions and to make recommendations to ensure the fair administration of criminal justice in California.
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Justice Thomas J. Moyer
Chief Justice
Supreme Court of Ohio
Since becoming Chief Justice of Ohio in 1987 Thomas J. Moyer has worked to ensure the impartiality of judges and to improve the methods for selecting judges in Ohio. He has worked with all interested parties to develop legislative proposals and judicial rules to increase the reporting requirements for contributions made to judicial campaigns and increase the minimum professional qualifications required of judicial candidates. In 2003 he invited judges, lawmakers, lawyers, and representatives of civic, business and labor groups to a statewide forum that produced recommendations to lengthen the term of office for judges, increase the minimum requirements to be a judicial candidate and to require the disclosure of contributions made to outside groups that participate in judicial campaigns. Chief Justice Moyer was a member of the American Bar Association Commission on State Judicial Selection Standards. He currently serves as chair of the Task Force on Politics and Judicial Elections for the Conference of Chief Justices and on the board of directors of the Justice At Stake campaign, a national movement to support fair and impartial courts.
Chief Justice Moyer received his law degree from The Ohio State University in 1964. Before becoming Chief Justice, he served eight years as a judge of the Court of Appeals of Franklin County, four years as Executive Assistant to the Governor of Ohio, and eight years in the private practice of law in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1987, at the 300th Ohio State University commencement, he was recognized as one of forty outstanding alumni of the University. In 1991, the Ohio State Bar Association presented Chief Justice Moyer with its highest award, the Ohio Bar Medal, for his service to the profession.
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Hon. Thomas R. Phillips
Partner, Baker Botts LLP, Texas and
Former Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Texas
Thomas R. Phillips, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas from 1988 - 2004, is now partner in the Austin office of Baker Botts, LLP. A graduate of Baylor University and Harvard Law School, Phillips clerked for Justice Ruel C. Walker of the Supreme Court of Texas. He practiced law in the trial department of the Houston office of Baker & Botts until 1981, when he became a district judge in Harris County. After leaving the Supreme Court, Phillips was a distinguished visiting professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston and SMU Law School in Dallas. Among his many awards, Phillips has recently received the 2007 Justice Award from the American Judicature Society, the Harry L. Carrico Judicial Innovation Award from the National Center for State Courts in 2005, the First Annual Professionalism in Law Award from the Burton Awards for Legal Achievement in 2004, and the Price Daniel Distinguished Public Service Award from Baylor University in 2004. Phillips was President of the Conference of Chief Justices in 1997-1998 and a member of the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform in 2005, the Federal-State Jurisdiction Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 1989-1996, and the American Bar Association Commission on the 21st Century Judiciary from 2002-2003. He was an advisor to the American Law Institute Federal Judicial Code Project from 1996-2001 and a director of the American Judicature Society from 1989-1995 and 1999-2005.
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Michael Rubin,
Partner
Altshuler Berzon LLP
Michael Rubin is a partner in the San Francisco law firm of Altshuler Berzon LLP, where he specializes in complex civil litigation and class actions, particularly on behalf of workers and labor unions. A graduate of Brandeis University and Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Rubin served as a law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. of the United States Supreme Court, Chief Judge James R. Browning of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Charles B. Renfrew of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California before joining Altshuler Berzon in 1981.
Mr. Rubin has argued numerous cases involving the permissible scope of mandatory pre-dispute arbitration agreements, including Gentry v. Superior Court, 42 Cal.4th 443 (2007); Armendariz v. Foundation Health Psychcare Svcs., 24 Cal.4th 83 (2000); Circuit City Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105 (2001); and Duffield v. Robertson Stephens & Co., 144 F.3d 1182 (9th Cir. 1998). He has also represented parties in arbitrations and has served as an arbitrator in individual and class arbitrations.
In 2002, Mr. Rubin was named a “California Lawyer of the Year” by California Lawyer Magazine, and in 2003 he was a co-recipient of the “Trial Lawyer of the Year” Award from the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for his role in the Marianas sweatshop litigation. A recent inductee into the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, he has for several years been listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” for labor and employment law, in San Francisco Magazine as a “Super Lawyer” for appellate practice, and in Lawdragon Magazine as one of the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America,” one of the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America,” and one of the “Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in America.” Mr. Rubin regularly lectures on development in California and federal employment law and other topics.
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Dean Kenneth W. Starr
Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean &
Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law
Dean Starr is admitted to practice in California, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. In the 1970's, he clerked for The Honorable David W. Dyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, and for Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.
While in private practice, he was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In addition to working in the private sector, he has served
as Counselor to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, Solicitor General of the United States, and Independent Counsel on the Whitewater matter. As Solicitor General, he argued twenty-five cases before the Supreme Court.
Dean Starr is a member of numerous professional organizations and boards, including the American Law Institute, the Supreme Court Historical Society, and the American Inns of Court. An enthusiastic writer and scholar, he has authored many law review articles. His best-selling book, First Among Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life was published in 2002.
Dean Starr's areas of expertise are constitutional law, federal courts, federal jurisdiction, and antitrust. He teaches Current Constitutional Issues and Civil Procedure.
He received his A.B. from George Washington University in 1968, M.A. from Brown University in 1969 and J.D. from Duke University in 1973.
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M. Sue Talia
Family Law Specialist
Law Offices of M. Sue Talia, California
M. Sue Talia is a certified family law specialist based in Danville, California. After 20 years in complex family law litigation, she limited her practice in 1998 to private judging of family law cases. She is a nationally recognized expert on limited scope representation, and the Chair of the Limited Representation Committee of the California Commission on Access to Justice, a member of the California State Bar’s Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and numerous other organizations dedicated to improving access to justice by developing creative delivery models for legal assistance. She travels frequently to speak and teach on the subject.
She is the author of two books, How to Avoid the Divorce from Hell (and dance together at your daughter’s wedding) (second edition 2006) and Unbundling Your Divorce: How to Find a Lawyer to Help You Help Yourself. She also has just published a new e-book, Everything I Needed to Know I Learned After Law School.
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Gerald F. Uelmen
Professor of Law and
Director, Edwin A. Heafey Jr. Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy
As a Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown, Professor Uelmen did indigent criminal defense work while earning a LL.M. degree. He returned to California to serve in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, prosecuting organized crime cases. In 1970, he joined the faculty of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, where he taught Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Trial Advocacy, Legal Ethics, and Counseling and Negotiation.
He also served as associate dean for two years and maintained an active part-time criminal defense practice, participating in the defense of Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers trial and successfully challenging the murder conviction of Gordon Castillo Hall. He served as dean at Santa Clara from 1986 to 1994. In 1994 to 95, he served on the defense team for the trial of People v. O.J. Simpson.
Prof Uelmen’s areas of specialization are criminal law, evidence, criminal procedure, seminar in drug abuse law, advanced criminal procedure.
He has served as president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and Santa Clara County Bar Association Law Foundation. In 1984, he won the ABA Ross Essay Prize. In 1996, he authored a one-actor play on the life of William Jennings Bryan, which has been produced in Omaha, Chicago, and Santa Clara.
Professor Uelmen received his B.A. from Loyola Marymount, J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center
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Kathryn Mickle Werdegar
Associate Justice
California Supreme Court
Judicial Experience: The Honorable Kathryn M. Werdegar was appointed to the California Supreme Court by Governor Pete Wilson on May 3, 1994. Prior to her elevation to the Supreme Court, she served on the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco.
Education: Justice Werdegar commenced her law studies at the University Of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she was first in her class and the first woman to be elected editor-in-chief of the California Law Review. She completed her law studies at George Washington University, where she graduated first in her class. She received her B.A. (with honors) from the University of California at Berkeley.
Career Highlights: Before her appointment to the bench, Justice Werdegar’s career highlights included service with the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.; director of the criminal law division of California Continuing Education of the Bar; senior staff attorney with the California Court of Appeal and the California Supreme Court; and professor and Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Publications: Justice Werdegar has written law review articles, monographs, model codes, and chapters in legal texts for practitioners. Her publications have addressed such issues as the relationship between the courts and private alternative dispute resolution, the value of diversity in the judicial system, and California criminal procedure.
Professional Activities and Associations: Justice Werdegar is a board member of the California Supreme Court Historical Society. She is a member of the American Law Institute, the National Association of Women Judges, the California/Nevada Women Judges Association, the California Judges Association, and the Boalt Hall Alumni Association.
Honors and Awards: Among other honors, Justice Werdegar is the recipient of the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall) Citation Award (Boalt Hall’s highest honor), the George Washington Law Alumni Association Distinguished Public Service Award, and the Roger J. Traynor Appellate Justice of the Year Award. In 2000, she was appointed Regents’ Lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley.
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Justice Laurie D. Zelon,
Associate Justice
California Court of Appeal Second Appellate District
Ms. Zelon is past President of the Los Angeles County Bar Association. She is a past member of its Board of Trustees, and past Chair of its Federal Courts Committee, its Judiciary Committee, its Access to Justice Committee and its subsection on Real Estate Litigation. She is past Chair of the Lawyer Representatives from the Central District of California to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. She has been active in the American Bar Association and served as Chair of the Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Public Service Responsibility, as a member of the Consortium on Law and the Public, and as Chair of its national Law Firm Pro Bono Project. From 1994 to 1997, she was Chair of the Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants. She was the California State Delegate to the House of Delegates, and currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors. She also served as a member of the Ethics 2000 Commission. She is past Chair of the California Commission on Access to Justice. She also holds memberships in the Women Lawyers’ Association of Los Angeles and the California Women Lawyers Association. She has spoken at numerous seminars and conferences concerning pro bono, public services, and legal education. She was the 1993 Recipient of the William Reece Smith, Jr. Special Services To Pro Bono Award, the 1999 Recipient of the Charles Dorsey Award from the National Legal Aid & Defenders Association, and the 2000 recipient of the Loren Miller Legal Services Award from the State Bar of California. She was the first recipient, in February 2000, of the Laurie D. Zelon Pro Bono Award, given by the Pro Bono Institute of Washington, D.C.
Ms. Zelon received her B.A. degree in 1974 from Cornell University with distinction in all subjects, and her J.D. degree in 1977 from Harvard Law School. She was admitted to the California Bar in 1977. Ms. Zelon joined Morrison & Foerster as a partner in 1991 where, prior to her appointment to the Superior Court in 2000, she had an active litigation practice, involving scientific and technical issues, fiduciary obligations, and other complex commercial disputes. Prior to joining Morrison & Foerster she was a partner at Hufstedler, Kaus & Ettinger.
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