News Briefs

Obama Nominates Abrams ’83 to Federal Bench

President Obama has nominated Judge Paul Lewis Abrams ’83 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Abrams has been a magistrate judge with the court since 2002, and serves as a judicial officer in the court’s Conviction and Sentence Alternatives Program. Previously, he spent 14 years as a deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles, acting in a supervisory role from 1992 to 2001. Abrams also directed the Bet Tzedek Legal Services’ Valley Rights Project and was an associate at Jeffer, Mangels & Butler (now Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell).

Student Journal Names Prize for Albiston

The Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice has named a writing prize in honor of Professor Catherine Albiston ’93. The Catherine Albiston Prize for Recent Developments recognizes students who submit pieces for publication in the journal that critically examine the intersection of gender with areas such as race, class, sexual orientation, and disability. Albiston’s own research addresses the relationship between law and social change. An employment law expert with an emphasis on gender and work/family policy, she teaches mainly in the law school’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program.

Pearce ’96 Appointed to Utah Supreme Court

Judge John Pearce ’96 has been appointed to serve as a justice on the Utah Supreme Court. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who made the appointment, said in a statement that Pearce “has proven himself to be an exceptional legal talent in every aspect of his career.” A Utah Court of Appeals judge since 2013, Pearce also chairs the state judiciary’s Standing Committee on Technology and is an adjunct professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. He was general counsel for Utah’s Office of the Governor from 2009 to 2013, and a shareholder at Jones Waldo Holbrook & McDonough from 1999 to 2009.

Clinical Program Names Legal Case Manager

The Berkeley Law Clinical Program has named Olivia Layug Balbarin its new legal case manager. Balbarin had spent the past four years as the Clinical Program’s associate administrator, providing research and teaching support to clinical faculty in the areas of international human rights, technology law and policy, and the death penalty. She earned her law degree in 2010 from Santa Clara University, where she was a founding member and co-president of the Pilipino American Law Society and an Honors Moot Court competitor. During the 2014-15 school year, nearly 200 Berkeley Law students participated in a clinic.

Vafai ’17 Awarded Corporate Law Scholarship

Sohayl Vafai ’17 has received a $10,000 joint scholarship from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) and Robert Half Legal. Open to U.S. citizens interested in corporate law, the scholarship also enables Vafai to work with leaders of the MCCA, which promotes the hiring and advancement of minority attorneys in corporate law practice. Vafai, whose parents immigrated to the United States during the Iranian revolution, earned awards for academic achievement and community service while a student at the University of Maryland. After college, he worked as a paralegal for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Professor to Co-Chair AFL-CIO Council on Race

Berkeley Law Professor Ian Haney-López has been appointed co-chair of the Advisory Council of the AFL-CIO Labor Commission on Race and Economic Justice. The council will advise the new commission as it strives to connect race and class issues over the course of six nationwide hearings during the coming months. A renowned constitutional scholar, Haney-López is one of the nation’s leading experts on racism’s evolution in the United States since the civil rights era. He has authored three books, and his writings have appeared in myriad leading publications, including The New York Times, Politico, and The Nation.

Richardson ’03 Leaves DOJ for Private Practice

Margaret Richardson ’03 is leaving her post as Chief of Staff and Counselor to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to join Covington & Burling. Working in the firm’s global public policy and white collar defense & investigations practices, Richardson will provide strategic advice to clients regarding challenges at the intersection of law and public policy. Before joining Holder’s staff in 2012, she played key roles on President Obama’s 2008 campaign and later joined his presidential transition team. Previously, she worked as a practice director and supervising attorney at Berkeley Law’s East Bay Community Law Center.

BCLT Examines Trends in Cybersecurity Law

The law school’s Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (BCLT) partnered with Morrison & Foerster to present a seminar on current trends and developments in cybersecurity law. The July 23 event at Morrison & Foerster’s San Francisco office featured experts from private practice, government, and academia. Speakers included Assistant United States Attorney Michelle Kane ’00 and BCLT Director of Information Privacy Programs Chris Hoofnagle. Panels examined issues such as civil liability arising from cybersecurity incidents and how private companies facing those incidents should coordinate with government authorities.

Davis Mayor Wolk ’05 to Run for State Assembly

Davis Mayor Dan Wolk ’05 announced he will run for California State Assembly in District 4. A Democrat, Wolk said his priorities would include “fighting for the middle class, growing the local economy, ensuring a resilient water supply, protecting natural resources, and guaranteeing access to quality education for California’s students.” The primary will be held June 7, 2016. Wolk oversees public finance, contracting, and water issues as Solano County’s Deputy Counsel. He has served on the Davis City Council since 2011, and founded the Legal Clinic of Yolo County, a legal services provider for low-income families.

CSLS Welcomes 20 Top International Scholars

A group of 20 top scholars from around the world has joined the Center for the Study of Law & Society (CSLS) this summer. The visiting scholars will take part in the center’s weekly Summer 2015 Speaker Series, which began June 3. This esteemed group includes noted authors, Fulbright Scholars, and a former European Society of Criminology president. Founded in 1961, CSLS is widely hailed as the world’s leading center for research and analysis of the social consequences of law. The Visiting Scholars Program, one of the center’s most vital initiatives, enriches current scholarship and stimulates new research.

Edlin Wins National Antitrust Writing Award

An article co-authored by Berkeley Law Professor Aaron Edlin won the 2015 Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award. The annual award is given to the best antitrust writing that reflects concern for economic justice, dispersing economic power, effectively limiting such power, or federal statutes designed to protect society from anti-competitive activity. “Cartels by Another Name: Should Licensed Occupations Face Antitrust Scrutiny?” notes that licensed professions have increased from 5 percent in the 1950s to about 33 percent today. Edlin says this often bars competition, resulting in higher prices.

Corpion ’13 Wins Miami Young Lawyer Awards

Kristen Corpion ’13 won the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce’s 2015 Rookie of the Year Award, which honors outstanding achievement and innovation. A litigation associate at Greenberg Traurig, Corpion also won the annual Legal Services of Greater Miami’s Legal Eagle Closing Argument Competition. Participants at the event—open to lawyers 40 and younger who have been admitted to the Florida Bar for fewer than seven years—are evaluated by sitting judges and practitioners. Corpion currently co-chairs two Dade County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section committees: the Rainmakers Committee and the Schools Committee.

Brin ’02 Named FTC’s Chief Privacy Officer

Katherine Race Brin ’02 has been named chief privacy officer (CPO) of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The agency’s acting CPO since December 2014, Brin will coordinate efforts to implement and review the agency’s policies and procedures for safeguarding sensitive information. She also chairs its Privacy Steering Committee and Breach Notification Response Team. Previously, Brin served as senior advisor to the FTC’sBureau of Consumer Protection director and as staff attorney in its Division of Privacy and Identity Protection. Before joining the FTC in 2007, she worked for Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr in Washington, D.C.

Lydgate ’10 Nabs Policy Post in Massachusetts

Joanna Lydgate ’10 was recently named Director of Policy for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. Lydgate has worked for Healey, the nation’s first openly LGBT state attorney general, since June 2014. Previously, Lydgate was a law clerk at the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals, and an assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. Before attending Berkeley Law, she worked for two years at the nonprofit Human Rights First on refugee protection issues, and for two years at the Legal Aid Society of New York’s Juvenile Rights Division.

Dasgupta ’16 Named Journal Executive Editor

Berkeley Law student Riddhi Sohan Dasgupta ’16 has been named one of four executive editors of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy’s annual symposium issue. Each year, Harvard selects editors for the symposium issue from a competitive pool of students nationwide. The journal is a leading forum for conservative and libertarian legal scholarship, and its symposium issue is sponsored by the Federalist Society. The author of three books, Dasgupta won the Congressional Gold Medal for Youth at age 22 and has degrees from Columbia, Oxford, and Cambridge.

Lemon ’80 Hailed for Domestic Violence Work

Nancy Lemon ’80, who directs the Domestic Violence Practicum at Berkeley Law, was recently given the American Society of Criminology’s Praxis Award. The annual award honors those who increase the quality of justice for groups that have experienced class, ethnic, gender, racial, and sexual disparities in policing and punishment. Earlier in 2014, Lemon also received the Abby J. Liebman Award from the California Women’s Law Center, as well as the Lady Justice Innovator Award from the Pro Bono Project of Silicon Valley. Lemon pioneered the study of domestic violence in law schools and authored the subject’s seminal textbook.

Pineda ’77 Named One of Most Powerful Latinas

People en Español magazine has named Patricia Salas Pineda ’77 one of the 25 most powerful Latinas of 2014. The highest-ranking Hispanic executive at Toyota North America, the world’s largest automaker, Pineda is group vice president of Hispanic business strategy. She joined Toyota in 2004 as group vice president of corporate communications and general counsel, and later oversaw its national philanthropy efforts. Previously, Pineda spent 20 years at New United Motor Manufacturing, a corporate joint venture between Toyota and General Motors, where she was vice president of human resources, government, and legal affairs.

Connolly ’88 Joins Marin County Supervisors

Damon Connolly ’88 began his elected position this week on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. Connolly has served in several public policy positions, including chair of the Marin Energy Authority’s Board of Directors, vice mayor and city council member in San Rafael, and president of San Rafael’s Dixie School District Board. A certified mediator, he was a partner at Girard Gibbs before starting his own practice in 2008. As a Supervising Deputy Attorney General for California, Connolly prosecuted energy companies that engaged in fraudulent practices. Those efforts resulted in a $1.6 billion settlement, the largest of its kind.

Benson ’69 Named Conservation Local Hero

Ralph Benson ’69 will receive the Bay Nature Institute’s Local Hero Award at a ceremony in March for “extraordinary work on behalf of conservation and environmental education.” In 12 years as the Sonoma Land Trust’s executive director, the organization has increased five-fold in budget, tripled in protected acreage, and doubled in staff. Benson attracted more than $80 million in outside funding for acquiring scenic Sonoma landscapes, and invested major resources into restoring and managing them. Previously, he spent 24 years as general counsel for the Trust for Public Land, one of the nation’s leading conservation groups.

Berkeley Law Names Senior Assistant Dean/COO

Georgia Giatras has been named Berkeley Law’s Senior Assistant Dean and COO effective January 2015. She has led financial planning, operations, and strategic planning for a wide range of academic and private-sector units. Giatras is currently the director of finance and administration in facilities planning and management at the Stanford School of Medicine, overseeing areas such as finance, human resources, and information technology. She has also held management positions in Stanford’s Departments of Comparative Medicine and Gastroenterology, and performed various finance and planning roles at New York University.

Ginsburg ’17 Wins Halloum Negotiation Event

Jared Ginsburg ’17 teamed with Haas School of Business student Jamaur Bronner to win the Halloum Negotiation Competition Nov. 6 at Berkeley Law. The annual event allows Berkeley Law and MBA students to finalize a mock transaction under time pressure. Ginsburg and Bronner represented a fictional startup which had patented a valued technology and was being acquired by Microsoft. Jasmin Varjavan ’16 and Haas student Moe Poonja, which represented Microsoft, took second place. In each round, teams negotiated a purchase price and resolved other complex terms such as a no-shop provision, early termination fee, and CEO replacement.

Stevens ’93, Streeter ’81 Named to Judgeships

Thomas Stevens ’93 and Jon Streeter ’81 were appointed to California judgeships in the Alameda County Superior Court and the First District Court of Appeal, respectively. Stevens is chief of the Oakland branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he served for five years as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Economic Crimes and Securities Fraud Section. Previously, he was a trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice and Skadden Arps. Streeter, who has litigated complex business cases for almost three decades, has been a partner at Keker & Van Nest since 1997. From 1981 to 1996, he worked at Orrick, Herrington and Sutcliffe.

City of Berkeley Elects Alper to School Board

Clinical Professor Ty Alper was elected to the Berkeley Unified School District Board of Education on Nov. 4. The associate director of Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic, Alper finished first among the five candidates with 26.3 percent of the vote. He was elected along with Josh Daniels (25.3 percent) and Karen Hemphill (21.8). Before joining Berkeley Law in 2004, Alper was a staff attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights, where he represented death-row inmates and prisoners in federal class-action litigation. In 2007, he received an Angel Award from California Lawyer for his commitment to pro bono cases.

O’Connell to Help Improve Agency Procedures

Professor Anne Joseph O’Connell, Berkeley Law’s associate dean for faculty development and research, has been appointed to the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). An independent federal agency, ACUS provides nonpartisan expert recommendations for improving government procedures. Those procedures, which include fair and effective dispute resolution and rule-making efficiency, aim to leverage interactive technologies and encourage open communication with the public. ACUS’ membership is composed of innovative federal officials and experts with diverse views and backgrounds from academia and the private sector.

Jorde Symposium Tackles Forgiveness in Law

“Should Law Promote Forgiveness?” was the question posed at this year’s Thomas M. Jorde Symposium. Delivering the Oct. 20 keynote address, Harvard Law Professor Martha Minow examined what place forgiveness has—and should have—in a formal legal system. Berkeley Law Professors Kathryn Abrams and Christopher Kutz served as commentators at the event, co-hosted by the law school and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. The symposium was created in 1996, with the support of Professor Emeritus Thomas Jorde, to generate scholarly discourse on vital legal issues facing contemporary society.

Hiatt ’09 Wins Pro Bono Service Award

Keith Hiatt ’09 has won the President’s Pro Bono Service Award from the State Bar of California. Created in 1983, the award honors those who excel in providing free legal services to low-income clients. A solo practitioner and Ph.D. student in Berkeley Law’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, Hiatt has volunteered hundreds of hours with Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto and the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County. His work has included advocating for safe and healthy housing conditions, defending unlawful evictions, protecting tenants against unlawful landlord behavior, and recovering security deposits.

Robbins Collection Creates Student Award

The Robbins Collection, a leading international center for comparative legal and historical studies, has established the Lloyd McCullough Robbins Award for second- and third-year Berkeley Law students. To become eligible for the award, students need to submit an unpublished research paper on a comparative law or legal history topic of their choice by Jan. 31, 2015. Participants must include Robbins Collection holdings, or the Berkeley Law Library’s foreign, comparative, or international works, as source material for their research. More information about the new award is available here.

Schraub Named First Darling Fellow

David Schraub has been named Berkeley Law’s Darling Fellow, a new annual fellowship funded by a major gift from the Hugh & Hazel Darling Foundation. Schraub will spend a year at the law school and teach Constitutional Law this spring. A 2011 University of Chicago Law School high honors graduate, he taught Anti-Discrimination Law and Constitutional Law at the University of Illinois before clerking for U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Diana Murphy. Schraub then joined Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. He has authored several articles, including one in the California Law Review on “sticky slopes”—when social movements act to block, instead of enable, further policy goals.

Taymor Explains US Corruption Law

Ken Taymor, executive director of the law school’s Berkeley Center for Law and Business, participated in a recent ethics and governance education program for senior-level Indian government officials. The officials—responsible for making policy decisions in areas such as education, health, transportation, and energy—attended the program at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. Taymor’s presentation, entitled “From Corruption to Good Governance: Are There Lessons from Abroad?” discussed key elements of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and described potential problem scenarios.

Ferreira Joins Financial Aid Office

Richard Ferreira has joined Berkeley Law’s Financial Aid Office in the newly created role of Financial Aid Advisor. He will help the office administer financial aid awards and advising services in a more efficient and timely manner. Ferreira is a graduate of Chabot College in Hayward and has nine years of experience as either a financial aid or student services specialist at Chabot and Laney Colleges. Dennis Tominaga, Berkeley Law’s assistant dean of financial aid, said “in the brief time that Richard has been with our staff, he has demonstrated that he’s an enthusiastic, quick learner with initiative.”

Memorial Service Planned for O’Neil

A memorial service for Beth Cobb O’Neil, Berkeley Law’s admissions director from 1976-1988, will be held July 19 at 2 pm in the UC Berkeley Alumni House. Online condolences for the family may be left here, and donations to the law school’s Beth Cobb O’Neil Scholarship Fund here. O’Neil, who died May 22, also worked for UC Berkeley’s Educational Opportunity Program, ran the San Francisco Foundation Scholars Program, and was Mills College’s Dean of Admissions. Throughout her career, she pioneered minority admissions policies and worked to find ways to create a diverse student body in the face of challenges to affirmative action.

Mayo ’12 Receives Education Fellowship

Kelsey Mayo ’12 has been awarded a coveted National Academy of Education (NAE) Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. Only 30 fellows—each of whom receives a $25,000 award—were chosen from more than 600 graduate student applications. The fellowship encourages top young scholars to work on education-related issues, and fellows are invited to discuss their work at two NAE meetings in Washington, D.C. A Berkeley Law Jurisprudence & Social Policy Program Ph.D. candidate, Mayo studies education law from a sociological perspective. She focuses on legal environments for school choice and charter schools, and mobilizing educational rights.

Gideon’s Promise Selects Stuckey ’15

Nathan Stuckey ’15 has been accepted to this year’s highly selective Gideon’s Promise Summer Law Clerk Program. Sixteen chosen clerks will assist Southeast public defender offices that partner with Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit which mobilizes and trains advocates to provide indigent clients with quality representation. Stuckey will work this summer at the public defender office in Augusta, Georgia. Gideon’s Promise, which partners with 32 such offices across 13 states, recruits talented law students who want to improve the struggling indigent defense system and who display the traits needed to become a promising public defender.

Adams ’06 Testifies on Welfare Bill

Jill Adams '06 of Berkeley Law¹s Center on Reproductive Rights and Justicerecently testified in support of SB 899. The bill would repeal CalWORKs'Maximum Family Grant (MFG) rule, which denies financial support to babiesborn while their families are receiving CalWORKs basic needs grants. Adamsbased her testimony on a center issue brief that described problems with therule. She noted that multiple studies of states found no clear link betweenfamily caps and reduced childbearing among aid recipients. Adams argued thatpoverty exacerbated by the MFG rule could lead to poorer health and socialoutcomes for children whose basic needs were left unmet.

Omaha Bar Association Honors Bradford ’66

Dana “Woody” Bradford ’66 has received the Omaha Bar Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award. It marks only the eighth time since 2001 that the award has been bestowed. Bradford was honored for his exemplary service to the legal profession, innovative contributions to improving justice, and longstanding commitment to mentoring in the law. A founding member of Bradford & Coenen in Omaha and now the firm’s managing partner, Bradford transitioned from mergers and acquisitions to civil and criminal litigation. He has also served as president of the Nebraska and Omaha Bar Associations, as well as the Urban League of Omaha.

Journal Tackles Forced Workplace Arbitration

The Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law co-hosted a recent symposium entitled “Forced Arbitration in the Workplace.” Academics, practitioners, and other experts examined the forced arbitration of employment disputes and its impact on workplace rights. UC Berkeley Professor Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor, delivered the keynote address: “Why the American Worker is Losing Ground.” Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) general counsel P. David Lopez and Commissioner Jenny Yang discussed efforts to better preserve access to the legal system and how recent court rulings will affect EEOC enforcement.

EBCLC Hires Racial Justice Senior Fellow

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) has hired Sarah Crowley as the Racial Justice Senior Fellow in its Clean Slate Reentry Legal Services Practice. Crowley will lead EBCLC’s new impact litigation project, which seeks to mitigate the lifelong impact of criminal records—a disproportionate percentage of whom come from communities of color—and combat the improper use of criminal history information in employment and licensing decisions. Crowley was a litigator with Gross Belsky Alonso in San Francisco and Neufeld Scheck & Brustin in New York City. She also worked at the Legal Aid Society and Children’s Rights.

Berkeley Law Hosts Religious Law Workshop

Berkeley Law’s Robbins Collection recently hosted a one-day workshop entitled “Implementing Religious Law in Contemporary Nation-States: Definitions and Challenges.” Organized and moderated by Robbins Collection Director Laurent Mayali and Postdoctoral Fellow Lena Salaymeh, the event convened attorneys and scholars from around the world with expertise in Jewish, Catholic, and Islamic legal traditions. Experts presented papers, debated key topics at the intersection of law and religion—such as the state’s role in implementing religious laws—and discussed case studies from Israel, the Arab world, and the United States.

State Bar of California Honors Halloran ’65

Michael Halloran ’65 has received the State Bar of California Business Law Section’s Lifetime Achievement Award, given to a lawyer who has made notable contributions to business law. A partner in Pillsbury’s Corporate & Securities practice, Halloran founded the firm’s Washington, D.C. office in 1979. From 2006 to 2008, he was the SEC’s counselor to the chairman and deputy chief of staff. Halloran also served as group executive vice president and general counsel for Bank of America, where he negotiated, closed, and implemented more than 30 acquisitions—including some of the largest and most complex in the industry.

Home Improvement: Law School Renovations

Recent renovations to Berkeley Law's North Addition have created more space for its Robbins Collection and Visiting Scholars Program. The Robbins Collection is a leading international center for comparative legal and historical studies, and the Visiting Scholar Program provides research space for 75 to 125 scholars at any given time of year. Both programs attract legal historians, fellows, and practitioners from around the world. Kathleen Vanden Heuvel '86, associate dean for capital projects, supervised the work. Berkeley Law has also begun renovations to provide new space for the school's in-house clinics.

M&A Lawyers Lead Intensive Four-Day Course

Top mergers and acquisitions lawyers led an intensive four-day course for Berkeley Law students in January. Richard Climan, a top M&A lawyer in Silicon Valley, and Leo Strine, recently nominated Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, co-taught the course. Students applied their knowledge from previous courses in corporation law and M&A and played the roles of bankers or lawyers advising clients on real-world deals. Ana Amodaj '14 said the course "emphasized the importance of the human dimension in negotiation and business operations, an element that’s often overlooked in the academic setting.”

Boggs ’84 Joins Presidential Committee

Paula Boggs ’84 has been appointed to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The committee advises the White House on cultural issues, supports key cultural programs, and works with federal agencies and the private sector to address policy questions. Boggs was Starbucks Corporation’s executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary from 2002 to 2012. A former vice president at Dell, partner at Preston Gates & Ellis, and assistant U.S. attorney, she served on the White House Council for Community Solutions from 2010 to 2012. The policy expert is also a musician—she's the lead vocalist for the Paula Boggs Band.

Gómez ’08 Tapped for New York Policy Post

Jennifer Gómez ’08 is New York’s new Assistant Secretary for Human Services and Information Technology. She will help oversee several agencies that deliver key services, such as the Office of Children and Family Services and the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Gómez was part of the inaugural class of the prestigious Empire State Fellows program, which trains talented professionals to become New York policymakers. She’s been a lawyer at Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett, a fellow at the NYU School of Law’s Institute for Policy Integrity, and a legislative counsel for the New York City Council’s General Welfare Committee.

Hulse Joins Career Development Office

Kristen Uhl Hulse has joined Berkeley Law’s Career Development Office as associate director for private sector counseling and programs. An attorney with international firm experience, Hulse has an extensive background in law student career and professional development. After working as a career advisor at Georgetown University Law Center from 2009 to 2011, she spent the past year advising LL.M. students at Berkeley Law. Before transitioning to an attorney-counselor role, Hulse worked in the Washington, D.C., and London offices of Dechert LLP, focusing on investment management and aiding the firm’s pro bono and recruitment efforts.

Chien ’02 Tapped for White House IP Post

Colleen Chien ’02 has been named senior advisor for intellectual property and innovation in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. She is taking a leave of absence from her position as associate law professor at Santa Clara University to help coordinate science and technology policy across the executive branch. A renowned patent expert, Chien was recently named one of the 50 most influential people in intellectual property by Managing IP magazine. Before entering academia, she practiced law at Fenwick & West, provided strategic consulting at Dean and Company, and worked as a spacecraft engineer at Jet Propulsion Lab.

Bamberger to Co-Chair Jewish Studies Center

Professor Kenneth Bamberger will co-chair UC Berkeley’s new Center for Jewish Studies and lead its undergraduate program. The center will provide academic offerings, sponsor an annual series of endowed lectures, and host visiting scholars who teach undergraduate and graduate courses. It is also developing a new Designated Emphasis in Jewish Studies for graduate students and a Jewish Studies minor for undergraduates. Bamberger, faculty director of the law school’s Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society, will help foster collaborations with other campus departments and community organizations.

Macias ’11 Joins Berkeley Law Admissions

Nadia Macias '11 has joined Berkeley Law's Admissions Office as an associate director. After graduating from law school, she worked as an immigration lawyer at Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland. Macias represented clients in interviews and court appearances, and conducted community outreach and educational events. While attending Berkeley Law, she worked closely with the Admissions Office as recruitment coordinator for the La Raza LawStudents Association. Macias was also a member of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, the International Human Rights Law Clinic, and the California Asylum Representation Clinic.

Obama Selects Talwani ’88 for District Court

President Obama has nominated Indira Talwani ’88 to the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. If confirmed, she would be the first South Asian justice in the First Circuit. A partner at Segal Roitman in Boston, Talwani focuses on civil litigation and has worked on matters ranging from whistleblower protections under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act to low-wage class actions. Previously, she worked at Altshuler Berzon in San Francisco from 1989 to 1999. Best Lawyers named Talwani one of the nation’s top attorneys in 2013, and last year she was named one of Massachusetts’ top 10 attorneys by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

Center Tackles Tax Audits and Appeals

The Berkeley Center for Law and Business presented a seminar October 17-18 in San Francisco on issues that impact the tax audit process. Held in collaboration with Crowell & Moring, the event was designed to help corporate and tax executives expand their knowledge of key features of the audit process. It also explored ways to improve an audit’s outcome through proper management during both the early stages and the administrative appeals process. Among the speakers were Berkeley Law professors David Gamage, who discussed the Affordable Care Act, and Mark Gergen, who addressed partnership tax matters.

IELE Program Concludes Record Session

Berkeley Law’s International Executive Legal Education (IELE) program recently held a closing presentation ceremony for its 2013 Certificate in American Law program. The five-month program had a record enrollment of more than 300 students in eight legal training areas. UC Berkeley Engineering Professor Ron Gronsky, special faculty liaison to the Chancellor for International Relations, delivered the keynote address. Lawyers and law students from 19 countries participated in the IELE program, including those from leading institutions in China, Poland, Germany, Korea, Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, and Vietnam.

Miles Added to Academic Support Team

Suzanne Miles is Berkeley Law’s new Assistant Director of Academic Support. The Academic Support Program provides curricular advising, skills training, and other assistance for first-year students. A 2005 graduate of Stanford Law School, Miles clerked for Judge Susan Graber on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland, Oregon. Before that she was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, working as a civil appellate coordinator in Portland and as a criminal and appellate specialist in San Francisco. Miles has experience teaching high school and college students, as well as training new attorneys.

Breyer ’66 Joins U.S. Sentencing Commission

The Senate unanimously confirmed the nominations of Charles Breyer ’66 and two other new members of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which establishes sentencing policies and practices for federal courts. It consists of seven voting members, at least three of whom must be federal judges. Breyer has been a federal judge in California since 1998. He was a private-practice lawyer from 1974 to 1997, save for a brief stint as San Francisco’s Chief Assistant District Attorney in 1979. Breyer also worked as an assistant special prosecutor on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force and as a San Francisco assistant district attorney from 1967 to 1973.

Chhabria ’98 Nominated to U.S. District Court

President Obama has nominated Vince Chhabria ’98 as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of California. If confirmed, he would be California’s first South Asian Article III judge and the nation’s fourth. Chhabria is Co-chief of Appellate Litigation and Deputy City Attorney for Government Litigation at the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office, where he has worked since 2005. Previously, Chhabria was a lawyer at both Covington & Burling and Keker & Van Nest. He also clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James Browning, and U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer ’66.

James Mcmanis ’67 Honored As Super Lawyer

James McManis '67 has been named to the Northern California Super Lawyers list for the 10th straight year. A partner at McManis Faulkner in San Jose, he represents Silicon Valley companies on commercial, trade secret, and intellectual property issues. He also represents individuals in civil rights actions, employment disputes, family law matters, and criminal defense. McManis served as Special Master for three different courts in "Technical Equities" cases, which involved the largest securities fraud in California history. He has also been a lecturer at Berkeley Law and president of its alumni association board of directors.

Patricia Donnelly Assumes Top Tech Post

Patricia Donnelly has been promoted to Assistant Dean for Instructional and Information Technology and Services at Berkeley Law. She had been the school’s Director of Information Technology and Services. Donnelly’s new responsibilities include developing the law school’s online education initiatives and providing administrative and business leadership for its technology unit. Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. said she was “a role model” for other units at Berkeley Law and around campus for her commitment to customer service and innovation. He called her a “superb manager, project lead, collaborator, coach, and adviser.”

Governor Brown Appoints John Gioia ’82

Governor Jerry Brown has appointed John Gioia ’82 to the California Air Resources Board. Gioia, who will represent the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, is one of two appointments to the board. He has been on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors since 1999, serving as chair three times. He also chairs the Bay Area Joint Policy Committee and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board of Directors, and is first vice president of the California State Association of Counties. An East Bay Municipal Utility District board member from 1989 to 1998, Gioia also ran his own law office from 1986 to 1998.

Berkeley Law Hosts Privacy Law Scholars

The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology hosted the sixth annual Privacy Law Scholars Conference June 6 at the Claremont Hotel. The event is invitation-only and alternates each year between Berkeley Law and The George Washington University Law School. Invited scholars and practitioners confront emerging privacy issues and work together to forge greater connections between academia and practice. Participants in this year’s conference included worldwide academic experts from the fields of law, economics, philosophy, political science, and computer science; as well as private-sector attorneys, government lawyers, and advocates.

Therese Stewart ’81 Wins ABA Award

Therese Stewart ’81 is one of six honorees to receive the American Bar Association (ABA) Margaret Brent Lawyers of Achievement Award for 2013. Presented annually by the ABA’s Commission on Women in the Profession, this year’s award honors U.S. attorneys for their trailblazing legal achievements. The first openly LGBT president of the Bar Association of San Francisco, Stewart co-founded its School-to-College Program, which provides mentoring and guidance to inner-city high school students to help them prepare for college. Stewart joined the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office in 2002 and serves as Chief Deputy City Attorney.

Tracie Brown ’96 Named to Superior Court

California Governor Jerry Brown has appointed federal prosecutor Tracie Brown ’96 to a Superior Court judgeship in San Francisco County. An assistant U.S. attorney since 2002, Brown co-taught Civil Trial Practice at Berkeley Law during the 2013 spring semester. Before joining the U.S.Attorney’s Office, she was an associate at Cooley Godward Kronish, a law clerk for Judge Margaret McKeown of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and a law clerk and associate at Morrison Foerster. Brown, who earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard, fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Kevin McCarthy.

Nancy Lemon ’80 Wins ABA’s Corbitt Award

Berkeley Law Lecturer Nancy Lemon ’80 has been awarded this year’s Corbitt Award from the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. The annual award recognizes the exceptional service and leadership of an attorney who is working to improve the legal responses to domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. Lemon, the director of Berkeley Law’s Domestic Violence Practicum, has been teaching a seminar on the topic—the first law school one of its kind—since 1988. She received the Corbitt Award May 9 at an ABA conference in San Francisco.

Executive Program Hosts Thai Delegation

Berkeley Law’s International Executive Legal Education (IELE) program concluded a two-week intensive training session on E-Commerce regulations for a delegation of judges visiting from Thailand. The high-ranking Supreme Court and appellate court judges were selected to participate in a national Thai competition; they were honored at a closing ceremony on May 10. Since 2010, IELE has provided year-round programs for more than 500 participants from Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Africa. This also marks the fourth straight year the program has trained members of Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.

Kinch Hoekstra Receives Mentoring Honor

Berkeley Law Professor Kinch Hoekstra has received the university’s Faculty Award for Outstanding Mentorship of Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs), one of only four faculty members so honored this year. The award is sponsored by the UC Berkeley Graduate Council’s Advisory Committee and the GSI Teaching and Resource Center. Hoekstra, who holds a joint appointment with the Department of Political Science, specializes in the history of political, moral, and legal philosophy. An authority on ancient, renaissance, and early modern political thought, he taught philosophy at Oxford from 1996 to 2007.

Alum Takes Charge of SEC Enforcement Division

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has named Vincente Martinez ’97 Chief of its Enforcement Division Office of Market Intelligence. Created in 2010, the office gathers and evaluates thousands of tips, complaints, and referrals that come into the SEC each year. The Berkeley Law alum said he looks forward to advancing the office’s “meaningful contributions to the protection of investors by further developing our ability to proactively identify risks and ferret out misconduct.” Martinez worked for eight years in the Enforcement Division before leaving in 2011 to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s whistleblower office.

Listenbee ’78 Heads US Juvenile Justice Office

President Obama has named Robert Listenbee, Jr. ’78 as Administrator of the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Chief of the Defender Association of Philadelphia’s Juvenile Unit for 15 years and an attorney there since 1986, Listenbee recently co-chaired U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence. He serves on the policy committees of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the National Center for Juvenile Justice. In 2011, Listenbee won a MacArthur Foundation Champion for Change award for his leadership in reforming Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system.

Jorde Symposium on Money and Politics

“The Corrupting Influence of Money on Politics” was the focus of this year’s Thomas M. Jorde Symposium. Co-sponsored by Berkeley Law and NYU Law’s Brennan Center for Justice, the annual event tackles constitutional law, representative democracy, and governance issues. Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig delivered the Jan. 29 lecture, which drew hundreds of spectators, and Stanford Law Professor Bruce Cain and Duke Law Professor Guy Uriel-Charles provided commentary. The proceedings will be published in an upcoming issue of the California Law Review. Photos of the event are available here, and lecture slides with audio here.

Alum Assumes Major Role at Leading Foundation

Thurman V. White, Jr. '80 has been appointed one of three new directors of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF), a leading global philanthropic group with more than $2.3 billion in assets. SVCF is the largest funder of Bay Area causes and, in partnership with its individual and corporate donors, issues more international grants than any other U.S. community foundation. White is CEO of Progress Investment, an independent, employee-owned investment advisor with $7 billion in assets under management. Prior to becoming CEO in 2004, he served as the firm's managing director, COO, and president.

Frank Fahrenkopf ’65 Leaves Gaming Association

Frank Fahrenkopf ’65, the first president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, will step down at the end of June after more than 17 years at the helm. Fahrenkopf spearheaded an era of rapid growth for the gaming industry. The Berkeley Law alum helped establish the National Center for Responsible Gaming and an industry-wide code of conduct. He also played a lead role in developing a task force that promotes diversity in gaming industry hiring and procurement. Fahrenkopf, who chaired the Republican National Committee from 1983 to 1989, co-chairs the Commission on Presidential Debates, which he co-founded in 1986.

Thomas Henteleff ’68 Receives Leadership Award

Thomas Henteleff ’68 received the Food and Drug Law Institute’s Distinguished Service and Leadership Award, which honors sustained service and contribution to the field of food and drug law. Henteleff, the managing partner at Kleinfeld, Kaplan and Becker, represents clients with an interest in regulations pertaining to drugs, medical devices, foods, dietary supplements, pesticides, and other consumer products. His practice covers the administration and enforcement of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act; the Controlled Substances Act; the Federal Trade Commission Act; and the Lanham Act.

Marci Hoffman Wins Campus Librarian Award

Marci Hoffmann, associate director of the Berkeley Law Library, has received the university’s Distinguished Librarian Award. Given every two years, the award honors individuals who "demonstrate a consistent embodiment of the highest standards of librarianship and whose work enhances the quality of the campus’ intellectual community." Hoffman, who co-developed an international web portal called Electronic Information System for International Law, teaches an international and foreign legal research seminar. She is also general editor of the Electronic Guide to Resources in International Law and the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals.

Renata Hesse ’90 to Lead U.S. Antitrust Division

Renata Hesse ’90 has been named acting head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. She previously led the department’s Networks and Technology Enforcement Section, but left to become partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Washington, D.C. office. Hesse returned to the agency in March 2012 as special adviser for civil enforcement and deputy assistant attorney general for criminal and civil operations. Last year, while at Wilson Sonsini, she oversaw a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) review of AT&T’s $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile. FCC and Justice Department opposition forced the companies to abandon the deal.

Elena Cardona ’85 Takes Top Post in Santa Fe

Santa Fe, New Mexico recently hired Elena Cardona '85 as its new full-time public defender. The Santa Fe City Council voted in August to create the full-time position for its Municipal Court, a marked departure from the city's longstanding practice of contracting for public defender services. Previously, Cardona handled felony cases for the New Mexico Public Defender Department, which takes on about 70,000 cases each year. Cardona's work included representing clients through appeal and post-conviction proceedings.

Orrick Names Mitchell Zuklie ’96 as Chair-Elect

The global law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe has chosen Mitchell Zuklie '96 to become its chairman in January 2014. Zuklie’s selection capped an 18-month process in which Orrick's nominating committee obtained direct input from its 370 partners. Zuklie leads Orrick's Corporate Business Unit and is one of the country’s leading advisers to entrepreneurs, technology companies, and the venture capital community. As a student, he won Berkeley Law's Young Alumni Award in 2011 and served as editor-in-chief of the California Law Review.

Justice Steven Gonzalez ’91 Wins ABA Award

The American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division has given Washington State Supreme Court Justice Steven Gonzalez ’91 its annual Difference Makers award. A former criminal and civil law attorney, Gonzalez regularly provided pro bono representation to disadvantaged clients. He also served as a trial judge on the King County Superior Court, as a top domestic violence prosecutor for the city of Seattle, and as an assistant U.S. attorney. Long active in community affairs, Gonzalez currently mentors students through the Future of the Law Institute.

Henry Hecht Honored for 30 Years of Teaching

Lecturer in Residence Henry Hecht was recently honored for his 30 years at Berkeley Law. The first instructor to teach specific lawyering skills at the law school, Hecht guided its first courses in client interviewing, counseling, and negotiation. Three decades later, professional skills comprise more than 15 percent of Berkeley Law’s academic program, with a significant portion taught by leading practitioners and judges. Hecht is also an independent consultant on legal skills training and co-founder of The Hecht Training Group, a group of attorneys who have each taught lawyering skills for over 25 years.

Brian Walsh ’72 Elected Presiding Judge

Brian Walsh ’72 has been elected Presiding Judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court for the 2013-15 term. Currently the court’s Assistant Presiding Judge, he will take over his new post on Jan. 1. First appointed to the Superior Court in 2000, Walsh worked in private practice and was managing partner at McTernan, Stender, Walsh, Weingus & Tondreau. He also co-directed the Legal Aid Society of Monterey County from 1972-1974. "Having worked closely with Judge Walsh over the past two years, I know that I’ll be leaving the court’s helm in incredibly capable hands," said Presiding Judge Richard J. Loftus, Jr.

Alumna Rejoins Disability Rights Advocates

Shawna Parks ’99 has been appointed co-director of litigation at Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit dedicated to securing the civil rights of people with disabilities. She began her legal career as a legal assistant with the organization in 1994 and returned as a fellow and staff attorney from 2000-2003. Recently, Parks served as legal director for the Disability Rights Legal Center in Los Angeles. She was named a Southern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine from 2006-2009, one of California’s Top 100 Women Litigators by the Daily Journal in 2010, and a juvenile law attorney of the year by California Lawyer in 2011.

Michael Bamberger Honored

Berkeley Law lecturer and attorney Michael Bamberger has received the 2012 Freedom to Read Foundation’s Roll of Honor Award. Bamberger, a staunch defender of free speech legal protections, is a partner at SNR Denton. As general counsel of the Media Coalition, he successfully challenged dozens of federal, state, and local laws that sought to censor material protected by the First Amendment. Author of the 2000 book Reckless Legislation: How Lawmakers Ignore the Constitution, Bamberger is an expert on limited liability companies and partnerships. He has appeared before the U.S. Supreme Court and nine federal courts of appeals.

Claudia Wilken ’75 Named Chief District Judge

Claudia Wilken ’75 has been named chief judge of California’s Northern District. Wilken also served as a Federal Public Defender’s Office staff attorney, a private-practice lawyer in Berkeley, and a federal magistrate judge in the Northern District before joining the U.S. District Court bench in 1993. Some of her major decisions have included limiting but upholding San Francisco’s domestic partners law, overturning California’s term-limits law, and allowing lawsuits against school officials for ignoring sexual harassment against students. A former Berkeley Law lecturer, Wilken will remain in the court’s Oakland division.

Bradley Foundation Honors Edwin Meese ’58

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation awarded a 2012 Bradley Prize to former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese ’58. Meese is the Heritage Foundation’s Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and chairs its Center for Legal and Judicial Studies. He served as U.S. Attorney General from 1985-1988 and Counselor to President Reagan from 1981-1985. Meese also worked for Reagan in various positions during his years as California’s governor, including chief of staff and senior policy advisor. Previously, Meese worked as an Alameda County deputy district attorney, a solo practitioner, and a University of San Diego law professor.

New Chief Financial Officer at Berkeley Law

Kevin Argys has been named chief financial officer (CFO) at Berkeley Law. An expert in UC Berkeley data and reporting systems and financial management functions, he most recently was deputy CFO at the Haas School of Business. Previously, Argys worked as the College of Engineering’s Budget and Data Officer, the campus Business & Administrative Unit’s Budget and Strategic Planning Officer, and the College of Environmental Design’s Budget Planning Coordinator. One of three campus-wide leads for the university’s new Financial Planning and Analysis Outreach Initiative, Argys also chaired the Chancellor’s Staff Advisory Committee.

Professor Robert Cooter Honored in Peru

The Universidad de San Martin de Porres in Lima, Peru, has awarded an honorary doctorate to Berkeley Law professor Robert Cooter. Audience members included the chief justice of Peru and more than 60 judges. The award recognized Cooter’s role in founding the Latin American Law and Economics Association, the importance of his scholarship in Latin America, and his latest book Solomon’s Knot: How Law Can End the Poverty of Nations. Cooter, who has taught at Berkeley Law since 1980, co-directs the school’s Law and Economics Program and is co-editor of the International Review of Law and Economics.

Miguel Marquez ’96 Joins 6th District Court

Governor Jerry Brown has named Santa Clara County Counsel Miguel Marquez ’96 to serve on California’s 6th District Court of Appeals. Marquez is the first Latino justice on the San Jose-based court in its 28-year history, and the first who did not rise from the trial-court bench. Under his direction, Santa Clara was the only county to join the state in its legal battle against cities to abolish local redevelopment agencies, a position backed by the California Supreme Court. The son of Mexican immigrants, Marquez previously worked for the San Francisco Unified School District and San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

Vicki Young ’76 Receives Prestigious Honor

Vicki Young ’76 received the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ most prestigious honor, the Robert C. Heeney Award, July 27 in San Francisco. The annual award recognizes the lawyer who best exemplifies the goals and values of the association and the legal profession. A court-appointed counsel in state and federal courts, Young was given the award at a gala commemorating the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court case establishing the right to counsel. Before entering private practice in San Francisco, Young was a deputy public defender for Sacramento County and a federal public defender.

Legal Studies Students Win Writing Awards

Incoming Berkeley Law student Chase Burton won the Law and Society Association 2012 Undergraduate Student Paper Prize for "Spare the Cell, Spoil the Child: Early History and Philosophy of American Juvenile Justice," which also won UC Berkeley’s Library Prize for Undergraduate Research. Fellow Legal Studies honors student Cathy Wang won the American Sociological Association Sociology of Law Undergraduate Paper Prize for "Effect of Work-Family Policy Design and Culture on Women’s Employment Outcomes and Men’s User Rates." Legal Studies Program Director Michael Musheno supervised Burton; Professor Catherine Albiston ’93 supervised Wang.

Classmates Nominated to Federal Judgeships

President Barack Obama has nominated Jon Tigar ’89 and Fernando Olguin ’89 to federal district court judgeships in California. Tigar was appointed to the Northern District, Olguin to the Central District. Currently a judge for the Alameda County Superior Court, Tigar previously worked as a litigation attorney (at Keker & Van Nest and Morrison & Foerster) and as a public defender in San Francisco. Olguin, the first member of his family to attend college, is now a federal magistrate judge for the Central District. He also worked as a U.S. Department of Justice trial lawyer and is a former partner at Traber, Voorhees & Olguin.

Robert Cooter Lends Insight at G20 Summit

Professor Robert Cooter was part of a high-profile panel chaired by Mexican President Felipe Calderon at the recent G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. Other panelists included the heads of the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, African Development Bank, and World Health Organization. When Chairman Calderon asked Cooter what agenda he'd set for the G20 in the coming years, Cooter replied: "The G20 should build the legal infrastructure for economic growth. Economic analysis identifies the laws that promote growth. Sustained growth comes from creativity, and creativity requires freedom. Freedom is the presence of good laws, not the absence of law. The G20 should legalize economic freedom."

Faculty Duo Wins National Prize

Professors Lauren Edelman ’86 and Catherine Albiston ’93 have won the 2012 Law and Society Association Article Prize for "When Organizations Rule: Judicial Deference to Institutionalized Employment Structures"; co-authors include former Berkeley Law professor Linda Krieger, Virginia Mellema ’87, and Scott Eliason. The article analyzes how deference to organizational structures such as hiring, grievance, and evaluation procedures influence judges’ notions of legality and compliance with anti-discrimination law. Katherine Beckett, chair of the award committee, said the article "promises to make a significant contribution to a variety of disciplines and to socio-legal studies."

Harry Scheiber Receives Berkeley Citation

Professor Harry Scheiber has received a 2012 Berkeley Citation, the highest honor of scholarly achievement awarded by UC Berkeley. Scheiber, who joined Berkeley Law’s faculty in 1980, is a prolific author and a renowned scholar in American legal history and ocean law. He has been chair of the law school’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, director of its Center for the Study of Law and Society, and faculty director of its Sho Sato Program in Japanese and U.S. Law. Currently faculty director of the Institute for Legal Research, Scheiber is an active mentor to junior faculty, law students, and UC graduate students.

Vermont Law Names Marc Miahly ’74 Dean

Vermont Law School has appointed Marc Mihaly ’74 president and dean, effective August 1. Mihaly is currently the school’s associate dean of environmental programs and director of its environmental law center. After graduating from Boalt, where he was editor-in-chief of Ecology Law Quarterly, Mihaly served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Central America. He later worked in the environmental unit of the California Attorney General’s Office and with the San Mateo County Legal Aid Society. In 1980, Mihaly co-founded Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger in San Francisco, one of the nation’s top public interest environmental law firms, and served as its managing partner for 17 years.

Alan Harris ’68 to Lead National Association

Berkeley Law adjunct professor Alan Harris ‘68, a partner at Farella Braun + Martel, has been elected president of the American College of Construction Lawyers. A fellow with the college since 1992, Harris succeeds his Farella colleague Deborah Ballati. The college consists of the top one percent of the construction bar and includes lawyers, professors, and judges from the U.S., Canada, Britain, Australia, and France. A construction lawyer for more than 40 years, Harris has mediated hundreds of disputes as an arbitrator and court-appointed special master and has appeared in Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, and Legal 500 USA.

Dr. Linda Zaruba Starts Work at Berkeley Law

Tang Center psychologist Dr. Linda Zaruba recently began a half-time appointment at Berkeley Law. Zaruba, who has worked at UC Berkeley for 25 years, will help students confront issues such as time management, fear of public speaking, stress, grief, anxiety, and more. As a staff psychologist, she's worked with students from across disciplines and has met with law students at UC and in her private practice. Zaruba is also available to consult with faculty members regarding concerns they may have about a student's well-being.

Barry Krisberg Receives Major Criminology Award

Berkeley Law’s Barry Krisberg has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Criminology. The director of research and policy at the Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, Krisberg is a past president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and the Western Society of Criminology. He currently chairs the California Attorney General’s Research Advisory Committee, as well as an expert panel investigating the conditions in California’s youth prisons. Krisberg was recently named in a consent decree to help develop remedial plans and monitor many of the mandated reforms within the California Division of Juvenile Justice.

Vincente Martinez ’97 Assumes Whistleblower Post

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has hired Vincente Martinez ’97 as the first director of its new Whistleblower Office. The office pays awards to individuals who voluntarily provide original information about Commodity Exchange Act violations. Martinez joins the group from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he served as an assistant director in the Division of Enforcement. He also helped establish and run the SEC’s Office of Market Intelligence, which handles collection and analysis of tips, complaints, and referrals from the public, government agencies, and professional organizations.

Laura Heymann ’97 Receives Teaching Award

Laura Heymann ’97 has become the first law professor at The College of William & Mary to win the school’s Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award. Established in 1970, the annual award recognizes a William & Mary faculty member with fewer than 10 years of service who has displayed exemplary personal character, concern as a teacher, and influence on students. Heymann, whose research focuses on copyright and trademark law, teaches Torts to first-year students and intellectual property courses to upper-level students. While a student at Berkeley Law, she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as Book Review Editor on the California Law Review.

Holly Fujie ’78 Joins L.A. County Superior Court

California Governor Jerry Brown has appointed Holly Fujie ’78 to a judgeship in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. An equity partner at Buchalter Nemer since 1991 and an expert in insurance and surety industry litigation, Fujie served as president of the State Bar of California from 2008–2009 and president of the Boalt Hall Alumni Association from 2010–2011. Fujie, named a Southern California Super Lawyer every year from 2004–2011, has received numerous service awards from area bar associations. She often writes articles and gives presentations on issues of litigation, insurance coverage, and diversity in the legal profession.

Karen Tani Wins National Dissertation Award

Berkeley Law assistant professor Karen Tani has won the annual John A. Heinz Dissertation Award from the National Academy of Social Insurance. She will receive $2,500 for the award, which honors outstanding research by new scholars addressing social insurance policy questions. Tani’s dissertation, judged by a five-person committee, tracks the evolution of welfare rights. Committee chair Christine Bishop of Brandeis University praised her “use of primary sources encompassing local variations in the administration of public assistance between 1935 and 1965 to provide an elegant and revealing analysis with far-reaching implications.”

Thomas Klitgaard ’61 Receives Shanghai Award

Thomas Klitgaard ’61 has received the Magnolia Silver Award, the highest honor Shanghai’s Foreign Affairs Office bestows upon foreigners. Klitgaard was the only lawyer to receive the annual award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to Shanghai’s social-economic development and international exchange. A partner at Dillingham & Murphy, Klitgaard was recently a guest professor at Shanghai Economic College, where he led a business management training program for specially selected Chinese managers. He is also an international arbitrator and mediator, and serves on major arbitration panels in Beijing, Hong Kong, and New York.

Wash. Supreme Court Taps Steven Gonzalez ’91

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire has appointed Steven Gonzalez ’91 to serve on the state’s Supreme Court. Only the second Hispanic judge ever named to the high court, Gonzalez will replace retiring Justice Gerry Alexander. Judge Gonzalez has served on the King County Superior Court since 2002, winning reelection in 2004 and 2008. He also worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington and as a domestic violence prosecutor for the City of Seattle. Gonzalez currently chairs Washington’s Access to Justice Board and is co-chair of its Race and Criminal Justice System Task Force.

Henderson Center Student to Aid Commission

Johnny Vasquez, an undergrad assistant at the Henderson Center for Social Justice, has been appointed to the California Student Aid Commission, which gives $1.4 billion yearly to students in financial straits. Vasquez, who himself has received various forms of financial aid, and Ishan Shah of Ohlone College are the commission’s first student members since 2007. The son of a single mother who worked two jobs, Vasquez represents the first generation in his family to attend a four-year university. He has been a legislative liaison in UC student government and a community outreach assistant for the Health Initiative of the Americas.

Alumnus Co-Chairs U.S. Child Safety Task Force

Robert Listenbee, Jr. ’78 has been named co-chair of the Defending Childhood Task Force formed by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. The 13-member task force will hold nationwide public hearings and conduct research about the impact of children’s exposure to violence. Listenbee and co-chair Joe Torre will present their findings and policy recommendations to the Obama administration by late 2012. Chief of the Defender Association of Philadelphia’s Juvenile Unit, Listenbee serves on several boards and committees that advocate for children’s interests. He advises Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett on juvenile justice policy and has participated in assessments of the Indiana and Louisiana juvenile justice systems.

Law School Experts to Examine Campus Incidents

UC President Mark Yudof has appointed former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso ’58 to chair a task force to investigate the Nov. 18 incident in which UC Davis students were pepper-sprayed by police. The task force will review an independent fact-finding report and recommend steps to ensure the safety of peaceful protesters on campus. Yudof also tapped Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. to co-lead a system-wide examination of police protocols and policies as they apply to protests at all UC campuses. Professor Jesse Choper chairs the UC Berkeley Police Review Board, which is investigating the use of police force at the Nov. 9 Occupy Cal protest. The board will submit a report by Jan. 31.

Immigration Immersion Institute

The Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy co-hosted a four-day intensive program in November for working journalists seeking expertise in immigration issues. The program was designed to generate more knowledgeable, in-depth coverage of immigration by providing research- and data-supported insights. Twenty journalists from around the country—selected from nearly 50 applicants—attended the training. Workshops focused on topics ranging from the costs and benefits of immigration to the U.S. economy and immigrants’ role in the national workforce, to immigration enforcement strategies and the ways government handles detention and due process.

BCLT Co-sponsors Advanced Patent Law Institute

The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology will co-sponsor the annual Advanced Patent Law Institute for practicing lawyers at the Four Seasons Hotel in Palo Alto Dec. 9-10. The two-day event includes IP counsel from Apple, Google, and Cisco; practitioners from around the nation; and academics from Stanford and Berkeley Law. Topics include patent reexamination; rule, policy, and process changes at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; and China’s growing influence on intellectual property. Dan Lang ’93 of Cisco Systems will discuss patent reform and planning for changes to come. Other speakers include former Berkeley Law professor and alumni board member Mark Lemley ’91 and Suzanne Michel ’93 of Google.

Student Team Wins Trial Competition Regional

A razor-sharp Berkeley Law team recently won the San Francisco regional round of the American Bar Association’s Labor & Employment Law Student Trial Advocacy Competition. Winners Veliz Perez ’13, Collin Tierney ’14, Ciara Mittan ’13, and Kristen Corpion ’13 will advance to the national finals in Miami Jan. 28-29, 2012. Berkeley Law Director of Professional Skills David Oppenheimer said the team, coached by Carolyn Zabrycki ’08 and Stephanie Clark ’11, “showed levels of poise, polish, and cooperation that are rare among all but seasoned trial attorneys. The judges called our team’s performance in the final round ‘amazing’ and ‘outstanding.’”

Mike Tuchin ’90 Joins Gov Perry’s Finance Team

Texas Governor Rick Perry has named Mike Tuchin ’90 one of five finance leadership team chairs for his presidential campaign in California. Tuchin is a founding member and co-manager of Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff and Stern, a business reorganization law firm. He represents debtors, equity holders, and creditors interested in acquiring assets from troubled companies. His firm clients have included MGM Pictures, Frederick’s of Hollywood, Viacom, Paramount, and CBS. An editor of the California Bankruptcy Journal, Tuchin is a past president and board member of both the Los Angeles Bankruptcy Forum and the Financial Lawyers Conference of Los Angeles.

Mori Rubin ’80 Named to High-Level Labor Post

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has appointed Mori Rubin ’80 to serve as Regional Attorney in the board’s Los Angeles office. In her new position, Rubin will supervise legal cases filed under the National Labor Relations Act in parts of L.A. and six nearby counties. The NLRB conducts elections for labor union representation and investigates and remedies unfair labor practices. Rubin joined the agency as a field attorney in 1980; she was promoted to supervisory field attorney in 2007 and deputy regional attorney in 2008.

Henderson Center to Honor Eva Paterson ’75

Civil rights lawyer and activist Eva Paterson ’75 will receive the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice’s 2011 Trailblazer for Justice Award at an evening reception Oct. 27 at the Oakland Museum of California. President of the Equal Justice Society, Paterson formerly served as executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, helping the organization provide free legal services to low-income individuals and litigate class action civil rights cases. Past award winners include former U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John Doar ’49, former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso ’58, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Sheila Foster ’88 Named Fordham Law Vice Dean

Sheila Foster ’88 has been promoted to Vice Dean at Fordham University School of Law. The former Fordham Law associate dean for academic affairs is also the co-director of its Stein Center for Law and Ethics. Foster, who spent four years as a lecturer and academic support coordinator at Berkeley Law, has received two Ford Foundation grants for her work on environmental justice and urban development and has consulted with many community-based groups in New Jersey and New York on environmental racism. Among her most recent published work is “Integrative Lawyering: Navigating the Political Economy of Urban Development,” (California Law Review, 2007).  

Rabinder Singh ’86 Joins High Court of England

Rabinder Singh (LL.M. ’86) has become the first Sikh and first male from an ethnic minority to be appointed judge at the High Court of England and Wales. In 2004, Singh successfully represented a human rights group against the indefinite detention without trial of non-UK nationals suspected of terrorist activities. The following year, he successfully represented families of civilians killed during the British occupation of Southeast Iraq. Named England’s Barrister of the Year by Lawyer magazine in 2001, Singh has specialized in administrative law, employment and commercial law, European Community law, human rights law, and international law.

Alexa Koenig Awarded Prestigious Fellowship

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has awarded an American Fellowship to Alexa Koenig, a doctoral candidate at Berkeley Law’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. The largest of AAUW’s fellowship and grant programs, American Fellowships are given to top women scholars completing their doctoral dissertations, postdoctoral research, or articles for publication. Koenig’s AAUW fellowship will support her final dissertation, which is based on interviews conducted with former Guantánamo detainees across 13 countries. It examines institutional cruelty in prisons and the interplay of power and resistance in penal settings.

Two Alumni Nominated to Federal Court Bench

President Obama has nominated Judge Evan Jonathan Wallach ’76 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and Miranda Du to the U.S. District Court of Nevada. Wallach is a judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade. He has served as general counsel and public policy advisor to Nevada Senator Harry Reid and attorney-advisor to the Nevada Army National Guard. Wallach served in the Vietnam War from 1970-71 and received a Bronze Star Medal. Du, a partner at McDonald Carano Wilson in Reno, specializes in complex civil litigation and employment law. A refugee of Vietnam who came to the U.S. at age nine, she would be the first Asian Pacific American federal judge in Nevada history, if confirmed.  

Berkeley Law Adds Public Interest Skills Fellow

Tracy Petznick ’11 has been named Berkeley Law’s new Public Interest Skills Fellow. In that role, she will direct the Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects (SLIPS)—public service programs run and staffed by students—and other pro bono and professional skills initiatives. More than 400 Berkeley Law students currently participate in a SLIPS program. As a law student, Petznick was as director of the Advocates for Youth Justice (AYJ), whose programs provide Berkeley Law students opportunities to serve Bay Area youth. She helped lead AYJ’s Juvenile Hall Outreach and Surrogates for Foster Youth projects, as well as its Expulsion Representation Clinic.

Daniel Rodriguez Named Northwestern Law Dean

Former Berkeley Law professor Daniel Rodriguez has been named dean of Northwestern Law School, effective January 2012. Currently a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, Rodriguez is a nationally prominent scholar in administrative law, local government law, and state constitutional law. Before joining the faculty at Texas, Rodriguez spent seven years as dean at the University of San Diego School of Law. There, he expanded the size and stature of the faculty, created interdisciplinary programs and new academic centers, and undertook the school’s first major capital campaign. Rodriguez is a Harvard Law School graduate.

Michael Fitzgerald ’85 Tapped for District Court

President Barack Obama has nominated Michael Fitzgerald 85 to be a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. His impressive career stands as a testament to his formidable intellect and integrity, Obama said in a statement. A named partner at Corbin, Fitzgerald & Athey LLP in Los Angeles since 1998, Fitzgerald works on civil and criminal litigation matters infederal and state courts.He previously worked at the Law Offices of Robert L. Corbin PC from 19951998; and at Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe from 19911995.Between 1988 and 1991, Fitzgerald served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles.

Faculty Duo Write Top Sociology of Law Article

Berkeley Law faculty members Calvin Morrill and Lauren Edelman have won this years American Sociological Association (ASA) Sociology of Law Distinguished Article Award for co-authoring Legal Mobilization in Schools: The Paradoxes of Rights and Race among Youth. Co-authored with Karolyn Tyson and Richard Arum, it was chosen as the nations best sociology of law article published between 2008 and 2010. Morrill directs Berkeley Laws Center for the Study of Law and Society. Edelman, a professor of law and sociology, is associate dean of the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. They will receive the award at the ASA Annual Meeting in August.

Instructor Henry Hecht Elected to New Position

Longtime Berkeley Law lecturer Henry Hecht has been elected as an ex officio member of the Board of Directors for the Practice Board of the U.S. District Court for Northern California.The Practice Board organizes and presents continuing legal education programs for practitioners throughout the district. Hecht, who joined the Berkeley Law faculty in 1983, teaches courses on depositions, interviewing, and negotiations. He is also an independent consultant on skills training for lawyers and co-founder of The Hecht Training Group, a coalition of attorneys who have each taught lawyering skills for more than 20 years.

Frampton Co-directs Rural Poverty Program

Mary Louise Frampton, faculty director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice, will co-direct a program that tackles problems faced by California’s poor rural communities. Working with UC Davis law professor Lisa Pruitt, Frampton aims to develop legal and policy research and advocacy for such communities. Partly funded by the UC Center for Collaborative Research for an Equitable California, the program will cultivate partnerships with community associations and rural nonprofits, train students in methodologies that inform law and policy advocacy, and launch a multi-campus effort to support and invest in rural California.

Jonathan Stein ’13 Named UC Student Regent

Berkeley Law student Jonathan Stein ’13 has been named student regent for the UC Board of Regents for the 2012-13 school year. The 26-member Board of Regents is the governing body for the UC system. Stein will serve as the student regent-designate and participate in board deliberations during the upcoming school year, and will gain full voting privileges when his one-year term officially begins in July 2012. Chosen from a large pool of applicants from across UC Berkeley’s 10 campuses, Stein is working toward a master’s degree from the Goldman School of Public Policy as well as his J.D. from Berkeley Law. He earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard.

Trina Thompson ’86 Joins Obama Commission

President Barack Obama has appointed Alameda County Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson ’86 to the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. An independent body within the executive branch, the council coordinates federal juvenile delinquency prevention programs, and federal initiatives and activities that detain or care for unaccompanied juveniles and that relate to missing and exploited children. Thompson, who presides over Alameda County’s Juvenile Court, was the first African-American woman elected to the county’s Superior Court. She is also a former private criminal defense attorney and county public defender.

Helen Norton ’89 Honored at Colorado Law

Helen Norton ’89 has been named Associate Dean of Research at the University of Colorado Law School, where she received the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008, 2009, and 2011. Her research and teaching focus on constitutional law, employment discrimination, employment law, and torts. Norton has testified before both houses of Congress on civil rights law and policy issues, and was the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s lead agency reviewer as part of the 2008 Presidential Transition. A former California Law Review associate editor, Norton also served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice.

Gwendolyn Leachman ’11 Claims Two Awards

Gwendolyn Leachman ’11, a doctoral candidate in Berkeley Law’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, has won two recent honors. The National Science Foundation (NSF) issued a grant for her dissertation titled "Institutions and Dominance within Social Movements: How Legal Strategies Shape the Agendas of Movements for Social Change," and she also received a UC Dissertation Year Fellowship. The NSF grant provides funds for dissertation-related expenses, and the UC grant provides living expenses. In 2009, Leachman won the national Law Students Association Graduate Paper Prize for "Who Frames the Message? Counter Movements and Public Perception of Social Movements’ Legal Agendas.".

Summer LL.M. Program Kicks into High Gear

Berkeley Law’s Summer LL.M. Program has begun its third year with 54 incoming students from 28 countries, and 36 returning students from 18 countries. The program offers an LL.M. degree after two consecutive summer sessions of 10 weeks each. It attracts practicing lawyers for whom it would be difficult to attend a full academic-year program, and currently includes attorneys from several top international firms. "We’ve been able to add several courses to our curriculum, making it richer than ever, and we have once again been fortunate to get a great lineup of faculty to teach," said Professor Andrew Guzman, the law school’s Associate Dean for International and Executive Education.

Terry Leach ’85 to Direct UC Health Center

Terry Leach ’85 has been named director of the UC Center for Health Quality and Innovation. She was interim executive director of the center, which supports innovations at the UC health campuses that can transform the way Californians’ health needs are addressed, since it opened in October. Leach spent eight years working on health policy, and has taught the subject at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. As a lawyer, she spent several years representing hospitals and medical staffs. Leach was also a public health nurse in Spanish-speaking communities in California’s Central Valley, helping patients with chronic diseases learn how to care for themselves at home.

Warren Institute Looks at Low-Wage Workers

A new report by Berkeley Law’s Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy offers insights for policymakers, advocates, unions, and scholars seeking to better protect the rights of low-wage migrant workers. Because the way low-wage labor migration to the United States is structured often encourages abuse, advocates assert that immigrants and resident workers would benefit from greater mobility and full, enforceable workplace rights. The report, available here, explores the extent to which the European Union free movement regime has delivered on promises for new nationals doing low-wage work in Great Britain, and how similar efforts could be achieved in the U.S.

Allison Hartry ’12 Wins National Writing Prize

Allison Hartry ’12 has won the Sarah Weddington Writing Prize for New Student Scholarship in Reproductive Rights. Hartry earned the $750 top prize for “Birthright Citizenship and Reproductive Justice in Immigration Detention Centers.” She wrote the article in Professor Kristin Luker’s Reproductive Rights class last fall, and honed it during an independent study with Professor Leti Volpp. It marked the first time a Berkeley Law student has won this national award, and Hartry’s article will be published in a forthcoming volume of the New York University Review of Law and Social Change. The competition’s theme was “Beyond the Books: Realizing Reproductive Rights in Real Lives.”

Richard Andrews ’81 Chosen for District Court

President Barack Obama has nominated Richard Andrews ’81 to serve on the U.S. District Court in Delaware. Andrews has been Delaware’s State Prosecutor since 2007 and oversees the state justice department’s criminal division, which includes about 190 lawyers, investigators, social workers, paralegals, and others. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Delaware from 1983 to 2006, during which time he served as Chief of the Criminal Division, First Assistant U.S. Attorney, and acting U.S. Attorney. The nomination, which requires Senate confirmation, will first be sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee for its approval and then on to the full Senate for a vote.

Legal Planet Named a Top Environmental Blog

LexisNexis has named Legal Planet, maintained jointly by Berkeley Law and UCLA School of Law faculty, as one of the top 50 environmental law and climate change community blogs for 2011. Legal Planet was one of just six blogs in the Academic/Educational category. LexisNexis describes it as “a collaboration of academic giants” that uses the schools’ legal scholars and think tanks to provide insight on energy and environmental law and policy. The blog analyzes Supreme Court decisions, regulatory actions, and legislation that impacts water resource management, toxic waste disposal, renewable energy, air quality, land use, and other issues.

Obama Names Anuj Desai ’94 to Key Position

President Barack Obama has named Anuj Desai ’94 to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, an independent agency within the U.S. Department of Justice which adjudicates claims of U.S. nationals against foreign governments. A Chinese Studies expert, Desai has been an associate law professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School since 2001 and a visiting professor in China and Taiwan. He has practiced law at the firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, was among the American arbitrators at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague, and clerked for two federal judges. At Berkeley Law, Desai was editor-in-chief of the California Law Review.

JSP Program Students Win National Awards

Two students from the Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP) Program have received national honors. Shauhin Talesh won the Law and Society Association’s Graduate Student Paper Prize for “How Organizations Shape the Meaning of Law: A Comparative Analysis of Dispute Resolution Structures and Consumer Lemon Laws.” Talesh had won best graduate student paper awards from the American Political Science Association (twice) and American Sociological Association. Keramet Reiter received a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation for “The Most Restrictive Alternative: The Origins, Functions, and Ethical Implications of Supermax Prisons, 1976-2010.” .

Two Students Receive Jim Fahey Fellowships

Tia Canlas ’11 and Heather Warnken (J.D. ’09, LL.M. ’11) will receive Berkeley Law’s Jim Fahey Safe Homes for Women Fellowship. Each gets a $1,000 award and will be honored at an upcoming ceremony. Candidates are chosen based on their commitment to ending domestic violence against women, academic excellence in relevant courses, and financial need. A criminal defense attorney, Fahey argued People v. Humphrey in 1996 before the California Supreme Court, which held that expert testimony of Battered Women’s Syndrome should be considered for a defendant’s actual belief that her life was in danger—and for the reasonableness of that belief.

Death Penalty Clinic Garners Major Award

Berkeley Law’s Death Penalty Clinic will receive this year’s Abolition Award from Death Penalty Focus (DPF), a large nonprofit dedicated to eradicating capital punishment. Clinic director Elisabeth Semel and associate director Ty Alper will accept the honor at DPF’s annual awards dinner May 12 in Beverly Hills. The event, which draws numerous celebrities, will also recognize two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank for her performance in “Conviction,” Southern Center for Human Rights President and Senior Counsel Stephen Bright, DPF Executive Director Lance Lindsey, television director/producer Tommy Schlamme, and the sisters of St. Joseph of Orange, CA.

Ramona Martinez Given Townsend Fellowship

Reference librarian and Boalt Express manager Ramona Martinez has been awarded a Townsend Library Fellowship for the coming academic year. The Townsend Fellowship is the longest running program of UC Berkeley’s Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities. Each year, one fellowship slot is held for a campus librarian whose research proposal is chosen by the center. Martinez, whose research focuses on the early history of California Supreme Court case reporting, will attend weekly meetings with the other Townsend Fellows. They consist of graduate students and both junior and senior faculty who are working on individual projects.

Amelia Miazad ’02 Returns to Berkeley Law

Amelia Miazad '02 has been named Executive Director of the law school's Advanced Degree Programs Office, which oversees its LL.M. and J.S.D. degree programs. Miazad had been a senior counsel at Hanson Bridgett in San Francisco, where she gained extensive trial and project management experience. Born in Afghanistan, Miazad is active in legal development and policy issues relating to that country and has been closely involved with the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law's "Rule of Law" project on Afghanistan. Miazad is also a board member of the Boalt Hall Alumni Association.

Two First-Year Students Named Soros Fellows

Diana Rashid '13 and Homaira Hosseini '13 have been awarded Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Each year, 30 fellows—all children of immigrants—receive up to $90,000 to help cover two years of tuition and other educational and living expenses at a U.S. graduate school. The program was created in 1997 to recognize the contributions New Americans have made to American life, and in gratitude for the opportunities the U.S. afforded the donors and their family. Fellows are selected on the basis of merit, with an emphasis on creativity, originality, initiative, and sustained accomplishment in annual national competitions.

Research Center Weighs in on SEC Rulemaking

The Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB) recently submitted comments on the “Proposed SEC Rulemaking Regarding Exemption for Venture Capital Funds.” One pivotal element of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is its mandate that most private fund advisers register under the Investment Advisers Act. The Dodd-Frank Act, however, specifically exempted venture capital funds from this registration requirement. BCLB’s submitted comments on the SEC’s proposed implementing rules, which would significantly expand the scope of the Investment Advisers Act, are available here.

Justin McCrary Pinpoints Test Irregularities

Berkeley Law assistant professor Justin McCrary is one of three economists to conduct a statistical analysis for a Wall Street Journal study of the high-school Regents test, a prerequisite for graduating in New York. They estimated that 3 to 5 percent of students who received passing grades for the main Regents exams in June 2009 actually failed the tests. In New York City, the figure jumped to between 5 and 10 percent. McCrary and his colleagues have published a paper on its findings, which heighten suspicion that some high-school teachers—who score their own students’ tests—push borderline scores into the passing category.

Symposium Eyes Financial Regulatory Reform

On March 11, the Berkeley Business Law Journal (BBLJ) and Berkeley Center for Law and Business will host a symposium, “Financial Regulatory Reform: Dodd-Frank and Beyond,” at the Bancroft Hotel. Speakers from UC Berkeley will join other scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to address issues arising from the legislative and regulatory response to the financial system’s collapse: securitization, consumer protection, and capital access for early stage, growth-oriented businesses. The proceedings will be published in a special BBLJ issue. For more information, contact Phyliss Martinez at 510 642-0532.

Marie Gilmore ’86 Elected Mayor of Alameda

Marie Gilmore ’86 has begun her first term as mayor of Alameda, Calif. Alameda’s first African American woman city council member, Gilmore has held leadership positions there for more than 15 years. Gilmore, the daughter of immigrant parents from the Caribbean island of Dominica, chaired Alameda’s Recreation Commission and led the Alameda Planning Board. A former litigation attorney who practiced labor and employment law in San Francisco, Gilmore won the mayoral election by 13 percent over the first runner-up. She is married to Berkeley Law classmate Rod Gilmore ’86, a business attorney and college football sportscaster for ESPN.

Poetry Fair Use Best Practices Guide Released

Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic co-director Jennifer Urban ’00 is one of four experts who have helped the Poetry Foundation publish “Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry.” The Code aims to spur poetic innovation and distribution by clarifying fair use and anticipating potential clearance issues. Devised for the poetry community, it clarifies proper uses of copyrighted materials in new and old media and instructs poets, teachers, and scholars about the opportunities and limitations of fair use to help prevent permissions conflicts. The publication can be downloaded for free at www.centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use.

Dave Frohnmayer ’67 Honored by Law Review

The California Law Review (CLR) has chosen Dave Frohnmayer ’67 as its Alumnus of the Year. He will be honored at CLR’s annual banquet on April 14. Frohnmayer was President of the University of Oregon from 1994–2009 and previously was dean of its law school, where he remains on the faculty. A national prize-winning author on the U.S. Constitution, Frohnmayer has also served as Oregon’s Attorney General and was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives. As attorney general, he argued and won six of seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court—the most cases and best record of any contemporary state attorney general.

Panel to Dissect Paid Family and Medical Leave

Faculty members Ann O’Leary ’05, Gillian Lester, and Stephen Sugarman of the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security will discuss their proposals and key issues in the area of work-family policy on Feb. 10 (3:30-5 p.m., Goldberg Room). In December, the center issued a report with the Georgetown Law Center to explore the best policy model in the United States—one of the few developed countries that does not provide workers universal paid family and medical leave benefits. Their report asserts that such leave increases the economic security of workers and the well-being of children, elderly adults, and disabled workers.

Josh Wall ’86 Takes Over Massachusetts Parole Board

Josh Wall ’86 has been named interim executive director of the Massachusetts Parole Board, and reportedly will soon become chairman of the board. He is charged with examining the board’s practices and establishing stricter policies for overseeing offenders serving life sentences who are at high risk of reoffending—and who have been convicted of the most serious crimes. A prosecutor at the Suffolk Country District Attorney’s Office since 1993, Wall was described by Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley as possessing “a profound commitment to justice, the deepest empathy for victims, a proven record as a reformer, and unassailable credentials protecting the public safety.”

Law School Sponsors Arbitration Internship in Beijing

The Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB) is sponsoring a summer internship at the Beijing Arbitration Commission. Established in 1995, the commission offers services in arbitration, mediation, and other dispute resolution procedures. It has accepted more than 15,000 cases since its creation in 1995, with parties coming from such jurisdictions as the United States, England, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. The internship provides a chance for students to broaden their knowledge about Chinese dispute resolution mechanisms and legal practice. Applications are due on January 24, 2011. More information is available here.

Stuart Brotman ’78 Joins State Department Committee

Stuart Brotman ’78 has been appointed to the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy. Comprised of senior-level officers who represent a broad range of expertise, the 43-member committee advises the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information on major economic, social, and legal issues in the field. A lecturer at Harvard Law School and president of the global consulting firm Stuart N. Brotman Communications, Brotman teaches telecommunications at Harvard Law and was its first research fellow in Entertainment and Media Law. He has authored more than 300 articles on communications information and entertainment law.

Obama Names Paula Boggs ’84 to New Council

Paula Boggs ’84 has been appointed to the newly-created White House Council for Community Solutions. The 25-member council will advise President Obama on the best ways to mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses, and government to work more effectively together to solve community needs. It will also enlist non-profit, private, and philanthropic sector leaders to push forward key policy goals; provide strategic input to help the federal government promote greater innovation and cross-sector collaboration; and honor those making a notable impact in their own communities. Boggs, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary of Starbucks, has served on the boards of several philanthropic organizations.

Third-Year Student Given Skadden Fellowship

Berkeley Law student Sushil Jacob ’11 will receive a prestigious Skadden Fellowship to establish the Green-Collar Community Clinic (GC3) at the East Bay Community Law Center. GC3, which launches this fall, will provide free legal and business consulting services to low-income entrepreneurs who wish to form green-collar ventures in their communities. In doing so, it will bring together law, business, and other UC Berkeley graduate students to help clients create green-collar community-based projects.  Examples of ventures GC3 would support include solar panel installation, home weatherization, green home cleaning, biodiesel-related auto-mechanic and gas-station services, and sustainable landscaping.

Kevin Quinn Named Univ. of Scranton President

The Reverend Dr. Kevin Quinn ’88 has been named president of the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He is now a professor of law at Santa Clara University, where he also serves as Executive Director of the Ignatian Center for Jesuit Education. Quinn’s scholarship focuses on ethical issues in health care, and he has also published many book chapters and journal articles on issues of contemporary culture, bioethics, and genetics. Prior to joining the Santa Clara law faculty in 2007, Quinn taught at Georgetown University, first as an assistant professor in 1994 and then as a professor of law in 2000. He entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1973 and was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1985.

Four Alumni Named to Superior Court Posts

Four Berkeley Law graduates were recently appointed to California Superior Court judgeships. Andrea Flint, appointed in Santa Clara County, has been a deputy public defender for that county since 1997. Leland Davis, appointed in San Mateo County, has been a sole practitioner since 2003 and previously was a deputy public defender in San Francisco and a trial attorney for Hunter and Anderson. Russell Kussman and Robert Willett were appointed in Los Angeles County. Kussman has been a founding partner of Kussman and Whitehill since 1988, while Willett has served as an associate, partner, vice chair, and vice chair emeritus for O’Melveny and Myers since 1974.

Gregory Gordon to Aid Cambodian Prosecutors

University of North Dakota (UND) law professor Gregory Gordon ’90 is in Cambodia to train prosecutors preparing for the trial of top surviving leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. An internationally known expert on the prosecution of war crimes and genocide, Gordon heads UND’s Center for Human Rights and Genocide Studies. Part of his focus will be to improve the trial advocacy skills of both Cambodian and international prosecutors involved in the trial. A former war crimes prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the U.S. Department of Justice, Gordon has previously conducted post-civil war justice assessments in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.

Ballot Results Impact Venture Capital Industry

Through its Venture Capital Research Network, the Berkeley Center for Law and Business and National Venture Capital Association have published a detailed analysis of how the November election results will impact the venture capital industry. From defeating Proposition 23 in California to a Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, voters across the country changed the political landscape, and the implications will be significant for venture capital firms and portfolio companies. The analysis, available here, also examines key issues for 2011, such as tax policy, energy, healthcare reform implementation, FDA and patent reform, and oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Conference Examines Regulatory Takings Issue

Berkeley Law recently hosted the 13th Annual Conference on Litigating Regulatory Takings Challenges to Land Use and Environmental Regulations. Co-sponsored by Vermont Law School and the Georgetown University Law Center, the day-long event convened top scholars and practitioners to discuss cutting-edge issues raised by recent and pending court cases and new regulatory initiatives. They addressed issues such as the current state of eminent domain law in California, standards for determining government liability for alleged breaches of contracts, takings questions raised by sea level rise and other consequences of climate change, and recent takings cases involving regulations of water use.

Ioana Petrou ’93 Named to Superior Court Bench

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Ioana Petrou ’93 of Oakland to a judgeship in the Alameda County Superior Court. Since 2004, Petrou has been an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, where she was both chief of major crimes and criminal health care fraud coordinator. Previously, Petrou served as counsel for O’Melveny and Myers and was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Prior to that, she was an associate for Foley and Lardner from 1995 to 1999 and for Proskauer Rose from 1994 to 1995. Petrou will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Morris Beatus.

David Oppenheimer Co-Authors New Book

Director of Professional Skills David Oppenheimer has co-authored a book entitled “The Great Dissents of the Lone Dissenter,” which examines the dissenting opinions of former California Supreme Court Justice Jesse W. Carter. From 1939–1959, Carter’s solo dissents often defended civil rights, civil liberties, and labor rights. The book presents essays on many of them and includes the text of actual dissents, demonstrating Carter’s passion against racial discrimination and the hysteria over loyalty oaths. Co-written by Allan Brotsky, a law professor emeritus at Golden Gate University, the book also includes an essay by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Brennan on the role of dissenting opinions.

Prospective Students Gain Insight in Online Fair

Berkeley Law recently participated in a pioneering virtual online fair that enabled prospective students to learn about various law school programs without having to travel, or even leave their home or office. Admission personnel from several law schools described their programs and curricula, shared insight on choosing the right school, and discussed law school requirements, application and admission procedures, and financing. Potential students were able to participate in a live question and answer session, to communicate with the law school representatives of their choice, and to arrange for future one-on-one communications. The event was sponsored by Concord Law School of Kaplan University.

Port of Los Angeles Appoints Chris Cannon ’86

The Port of Los Angeles has appointed Christopher Cannon ’86 as its new Director of Environmental Management. He has more than two decades of experience in the environmental services industry and has worked at the Port for several years as a consultant, recently helping to manage the implementation and daily operation of its Clean Truck Program. In Cannon’s new role, he will be responsible for balancing commerce and growth with ecological sustainability at the nation’s busiest container port. His background in environmental regulations includes managing multi-jurisdictional environmental review and technical permitting projects, and working extensively with regulatory agencies and public officials.

Varty Defterderian Wins ‘Virtual’ Writing Prize

Recent graduate Varty Defterderian '10 was one of five category winners in the inaugural Virtual Worlds Legal Writing Competition, sponsored by Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. Defterderian won $500 for the best paper in the Agreements & Policies for Virtual Worlds category for her entry, “Freedom of Virtual Speech.” The competition was open to law students interested in how emerging, powerful technologies are provoking novel legal issues for users and businesses. Judges selected a best paper in each category, including a best overall paper, with the winners picked by Pillsbury lawyers based on originality of thought, persuasiveness of argument, and overall writing quality.

Kate Jastram Tackles Australian Asylum Debate

Lecturer in Residence Kate Jastram ’86 recently returned from Australia, where she participated in an asylum forum at the University of New South Wales’ law school in Sydney. The debate is available here. Jastram was quoted in an Australian Financial Review news article about the event, a Q&A-style panel discussion with renowned international refugee law experts. A senior fellow at Berkeley Law’s Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, Jastram served as a legal advisor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1991–2001 in Geneva and Washington, D.C. After graduating from Boalt, she practiced immigration and nationality law in San Francisco and directed a pro bono asylum program in Minneapolis.

Recent Patent Conference Honors Robert Merges

Indiana University recently hosted a conference on the impact of a transformative article co-authored by Berkeley Law Professor Robert Merges. At Patent Scope Revisited: Merges & Nelson’s ‘On the Complex Economics of Patent Scope,’ 20 Years After, scholars discussed the dramatic changes in patent law since 1990. The article showed that patent scope determinations had tremendous significance to the patent system, but had attracted little economic analysis. Merges and co-author Richard Nelson illuminated how such decisions affect technological development, asserting that the law should preserve competition for improvements. Merges concluded the conference with a presentation on his article and the modern patent system.

Ann O’Leary ’05 Helps Drive Alzheimer’s Report

Ann O’Leary’05, executive director of the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security, contributed a chapter and provided the academic anchor to the newly released “Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Takes on Alzheimer’s.” Maria Shriver and the Alzheimer’s Association issued the report, which describes a major epidemic for which American women, government, business, and families are ill-prepared. On October 17, O’Leary joined Shriver on CNN’s This Week with Christiane Amanpour, kicking off a network-wide series on the scope, costs, and impact of Alzheimer’s. The next day, O’Leary spoke on the topic at a Center for American Progress panel in Washington, D.C.

Virginia Phillips ’82 Halts ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

California district court judge Virginia Phillips ’82 recently declared unconstitutional the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law governing gay and bisexual members of the U.S. military. Her opinion described the law as a violation of First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and Fifth Amendment guarantees of substantive due process. Since 1993, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has restricted the military from efforts to discover closeted gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members or applicants—while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual individuals from military service because “it would create an unacceptable risk” to the military’s “high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion.”

EBCLC Project To Serve Oakland Middle Schools

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) will help provide legal assistance to children and families in five Oakland public middle schools in partnership with “Elev8 Oakland,” a national program offering educational, health, and family support services. EBCLC has hired a full-time staff attorney to supervise Berkeley Law students involved. More than 85 percent of students at the Elev8 Oakland schools live in poverty and face challenges such as violence, safety concerns, drugs, health problems, and parents with low levels of education and high levels of unemployment. All five schools have Academic Performance Indexes well below California’s target of 800.

Angela Bradstreet ’80 Named Superior Court Judge

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed California State Labor Commissioner Angela Bradstreet ’80 to be a San Francisco Superior Court judge. Bradstreet worked for Carroll, Burdick & McDonough in San Francisco from 1981-2007, including two two-year stints as a firm-wide managing partner, before being named state labor commissioner. A former president of California Women Lawyers and the Bar Association of San Francisco, Bradstreet won a 2003 Diversity Award from the State Bar of California for working to eliminate the glass ceiling for women lawyers and to prohibit judges from belonging to organizations that discriminate against gays and lesbians.

Maya Rupert ’96 Wins Opinion Writing Award

Maya Rupert ’96 has won a 2010 Excellence in Journalism Award from the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA). She was honored for her L.A. Watts Times column “I Believe in America,” available here, on repealing the military’s Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell policy. Founded in 1990, NLGJA consists of journalists, media professionals, educators, and students working from within the news industry to foster fair and accurate coverage of LGBT issues. Earlier this year, Rupert left the Los Angeles office of Sidley Austin in Los Angeles to become a federal policy attorney at the National Center for Lesbian Rights in Washington, D.C.

Law School Friend William Coblentz Dies at 88

William Coblentz, a major supporter of Berkeley Law, died September 13 at age 88. He was senior partner of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, whose $500,000 contribution in 2008 established The William K. Coblentz Civil Rights Endowment Fund to foster student and faculty research related to racial and ethnic justice. Repeatedly listed in Best Lawyers in America, Coblentz specialized in land use and development, real estate law, and complex business transactions. A director, trustee, regent, and counselor of numerous public entities, charities, businesses, foundations, and families, he chaired the UC Board of Regents, received UC Berkeley’s prestigious Berkeley Citation Award, and was recently named co-chair of Berkeley Law’s I. Michael Heyman Project.

Nan Joesten ’97 to Co-Chair ABA Annual Meeting

Farella Braun + Martel partner Nan Joesten ’97 has been appointed co-chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) 2012 Annual Meeting in Chicago. She previously co-chaired both the ABA Section of Litigation’s Woman Advocate Committee and Mentoring Subcommittee. A former Boalt Hall Alumni Association president, Joesten won the 2007 UC Berkeley Foundation Trustee’s Citation Award for outstanding service to Berkeley Law, and will receive the law school’s annual Young Alumni Award October 1. Her complex litigation practice emphasizes intellectual property matters, including patent and trademark disputes, trade secret misappropriation cases, and technology-related litigation for U.S. and international companies.

Mallika Kaur ’09 Awarded Harvard Fellowship

Mallika Kaur ’09 has received Harvard’s Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, given annually to one individual from across the university. Selected from an applicant pool spanning all Harvard graduate schools, Kaur is the co-founder and coordinator of the Kashmir Initiative at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. The initiative, which began in spring 2009 and recently appointed an advisory board, promotes inclusive security and democracy in Indian-administered Kashmir by fostering research and creating an interdisciplinary dialogue with students, academics, policymakers, Kashmiris, and non-Kashmiris. The Sheldon Fellowship will support Kaur’s travel, study, and writing on gender issues in Kashmir.

Supreme Court Triumph for Beth Stephens ’79

Beth Stephens ’79 has helped win a U.S. Supreme Court case in favor of Somali civilians seeking damages for torture and other human rights abuses. Stephens was second chair at oral argument in Samantar v. Yousuf, in which her clients sought to hold accountable Mohamed Ali Samantar, Somalia’s former defense minister who now lives in Virginia. Samantar claimed immunity under a U.S. statute on the grounds that he committed the acts on behalf of his government, but the Court held that the statute does not protect individual foreign government officials. A professor at the Rutgers School of Law-Camden, Stephens is a board member at the Center for Justice and Accountability, which can now pursue its case against Samantar.

Obama Taps Theodore Olson ’65 for New Role

President Obama has appointed Theodore Olson ’65 to the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, which aims to improve the efficiency, adequacy, and fairness of procedures by which federal agencies conduct regulatory programs and administer grants and benefits, among other functions. A partner at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher in Washington, Olson was U.S. Solicitor General from 2001-2004. He has won more than 75 percent of his cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, and recently received a winning verdict for the plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, in which a federal judge ruled that Proposition 8—the California ballot measure prohibiting same-sex marriage—was unconstitutional.

Martinez Joins Cities with Surveillance Cameras

Martinez, California is installing six surveillance cameras to monitor crime, joining neighboring cities Pinole, Pittsburg, and Brentwood in using cameras to track criminal activity. A study of surveillance cameras in San Francisco last year by Berkeley Law’s Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic has influenced their implementation in other jurisdictions. While San Francisco’s cameras had no discernible effect on homicides, drug dealing, prostitution, or vandalism, property crimes dropped significantly near camera locations. Martinez’s cameras will monitor high-crime public areas and feed live images to a police station computer screen so dispatchers can zoom in if they see something suspicious.

Robert McNulty ’65 Receives John Parr Award

Robert McNulty ’65 has won the 2010 John Parr Award, given by the American Chamber of Commerce for outstanding individual leadership in advancing regional stewardship of metropolitan areas. An experienced civic strategist, McNulty has spent 35 years working to enhance communities across North America. In 1977 he founded Partners for Livable Communities, a national nonprofit organization that helps restore and renew living areas. McNulty, who has worked in more than 400 communities, helped put together and support new regional leadership groups in 20 cities. He also writes articles on urban strategies for publications such as the Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and California Monthly magazine.

San Diego Legal Icon Alec Cory ’39 Dies at 95

Alec Cory ’39, who was instrumental in the financing and development of many areas throughout San Diego County, built one of its top law firms (Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch), and founded the city’s Legal Aid Society, died on July 27. He was 95. During a legal career that spanned more than six decades, Cory was one of Berkeley Law’s most generous supporters and established a summer fellowship and scholarship fund that both assist students with a demonstrated interest in public service or public interest law. The Barbara and Alec Cory Scholarship Fund annually supports two students—one male and one female—for their entire three years at the school.

Three Grads Tapped for State Superior Courts

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Carlos Vazquez ’88 and Yvette Verastegui ’93 to Los Angeles County Superior Court judgeships, and Cheri Pham ’90 to a judgeship in the Orange County Superior Court. Vazquez has been a deputy district attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office since 1988. Verastegui has served as a deputy alternate public defender for the Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defenders Office since 2001, and previously was a deputy public defender in two counties. Pham has been a deputy district attorney for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office since 1997 and has experience in public and private practice.

UC Regents OK Online Degree Pilot Program

The University of California’s Board of Regents recently endorsed a pilot program to develop and test a fully online undergraduate degree program at the school. They largely concurred with Berkeley Law Dean Christopher Edley, Jr., the plan's leader, that such a program could save the university considerable money while expanding access to students far from campus. Despite earlier warnings from some instructors that a UC online degree program could damage the university’s credibility, several regents countered that UC has the ability and incentive to create the nation’s first highly selective, Web-based degree program for undergraduates.

Alan Brayton ’76 to Claim ABA Justice Award

The American Bar Association (ABA) Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section will soon honor Alan Brayton ’76 with its Pursuit of Justice Award, which recognizes lawyers and judges who have shown outstanding merit and who excel in providing access to justice for all. The award will be presented August 6 during the ABA’s annual meeting in San Francisco. Brayton, a founding and senior partner of Brayton Purcell, has gained national acclaim as a leading lawyer representing victims of asbestos-related disease. A U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, he spent 12 years on active duty, including seven as a judge advocate.

Incoming Student Granted National Fellowship

Charlynn Weissenbach, who will attend Berkeley Law in the fall, is this year’s recipient of the $2,500 Catherine Wills Coleman fellowship from Mortar Board, a top national honor society recognizing college seniors for outstanding achievement in scholarship, leadership, and service. A recent San Diego State graduate, Weissenbach was Mortar Board’s co-chair of philanthropy in 2009, led a book drive to benefit the children of an autism support group, and raised awareness about autism on campus. Weissenbach, the first member of her family to attend college, was also president of the Pre-Law Society and a member of several honor societies.      

Wayne Brazil ’75 Authors Key Campus Report

Professor in Practice Wayne Brazil ’75, chair of UC Berkeley’s Campus Police Review Board, authored a recent report on how campus police and administration handled the November 20 protests to UC budget cuts that resulted in the occupation of Wheeler Hall and 46 arrests. The report, available here, portrays campus administrators and police commanders as not fully prepared for such a large demonstration. It includes in-person interviews with more than 25 witnesses and a review of relevant documents and some 140 YouTube recordings of what happened. “It is meticulous in dealing with the evidence, balanced and reasoned in its judgments, and modest and respectful in tone,” says law professor Stephen Bundy ’78.

Ethan Elkind Op-Ed Targets Mortgage Insurers

A San Jose Mercury News op-ed by Ethan Elkind, Berkeley Law’s Climate Change Research Fellow, criticizes mortgage insurance giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for obstructing a program to finance climate change solutions and promote clean energy. Available here, the op-ed describes how the program helps homeowners pay for the upfront costs of environmentally friendly upgrades through municipal bonds and property tax bill assessments. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have threatened to prohibit mortgages on properties with this assessment because foreclosures result in property tax liens taking priority over the mortgage—meaning the government would get repaid first with the bank receiving the remainder.   

Diverse Summer Projects for BCLB Fellows

Four student fellows are pursuing summer research projects sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Business. Aria Safar is studying private commercial dispute resolution in China while interning at the Beijing Arbitration Commission. Doctors David Goetz ’12 and Asher Benjamin Hodes ’12 are examining how advances in genetic and stem cell sciences may affect regulation of assisted reproduction technologies and how FDA oversight will impact the business and science of individualized stem cell therapies, respectively. Dr. Matt DalSanto ’11 is expanding on his previous research on how states use interstate compacts to finance and develop public infrastructure.   

Judith Kleinberg ’71 Takes New Leading Role

Former Palo Alto mayor Judith Kleinberg ’71 has joined the Knight Foundation as its San Jose and Silicon Valley program director. The foundation seeks to “advance journalism in the digital age” and improve communities through programs such as grants to charities and projects nationwide, awards for digital journalism experiments, and journalism training programs. The chief executive of several award-winning non-profits, Kleinberg began her career as a lawyer and broadcast journalist. She was the first employee and served as vice president, chief operating officer, and general counsel for InSTEDD, which promotes using technology to respond to humanitarian disasters and diseases.

Santa Clara County Taps Miguel Márquez ’96

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently appointed Miguel Márquez ’96 as county counsel. He had been serving as acting county counsel since July, when his predecessor joined the Obama Administration. Márquez, previously an assistant counsel in the 59-attorney office, has worked on such issues as elder abuse, childhood obesity, and federal benefits for the disabled. Along with the San Francisco city attorney's office, Márquez recently secured Medi-Cal coverage for children in the juvenile justice system to receive psychiatric care. Prior to joining the county, Márquez served as general counsel for the San Francisco Unified School District.    

Vermont Law School Tenures Two Alumni

Vermont Law School (VLS) has granted tenure to Professors Mark Mihaly ’75 and Mark Latham ’89. Mihaly, one of the nation's leading environmental law attorneys, is associate dean of the VLS environmental law program and director of its Environmental Law Center. He co-founded Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger in San Francisco and was its managing partner for 17 years. Latham specializes in environmental issues that arise in corporate and commercial real estate transactions and brownfields redevelopment. He was a partner and chair of the environmental practice group at Gardner, Carton, and Douglas (now Drinker, Biddle and Reath) before joining VLS in 2005. 

Robert O’Neil Leads Professors’ Association

Robert O’Neil, a former Berkeley Law professor who chaired UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate Committee on Academic Freedom, was named general counsel of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) for 2010–12. His duties will include advising the organization, preparing amicus briefs, and monitoring legal developments in higher education. An expert on academic freedom and the author of several books, O’Neil is the founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and a former president of the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin system. This marks his third different term as AAUP general counsel. 

Hilda Chan ’12 Receives ABA Fellowship

Hilda Chan ’12 was one of four law students to receive a summer fellowship from the American Bar Association’s John J. Curtin Justice Fund Legal Internship Program. Chan will intern in San Diego at the Supportive Parents Information Network, a grassroots anti-poverty organization that defends safety-net programs through community organizing, direct legal services, and policy-based advocacy. The Curtin Justice Fund, managed jointly by the ABA’s Commission on Homelessness and Poverty and Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, provides students with a $2,500 stipend to work with legal organizations serving the homeless and low-income clients.

New Director for Entrepreneurship Program

Rob Majteles has joined the Berkeley Center for Law and Business as director of its Entrepreneurship Program. A lecturer at Berkeley Law and UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Majteles is the managing partner of Treehouse Capital LLC, an area investment firm. He is a frequent lecturer, speaker, and panelist on topics such as board governance, investment process and methodology, entrepreneurial strategic planning, and metrics-driven business model execution. Prior to launching Treehouse, Majteles was chief executive officer of three technology companies, an investment banker, and a mergers and acquisitions lawyer.     

Robert Yeh ’12 Awarded Diversity Fellowship

Dr. Robert Yeh ’12 has received one of three diversity fellowships awarded to first-year law students each year by the law firm Fish & Richardson. Yeh, who received a Ph.D. in chemistry at UC Berkeley, and the two other recipients were selected from a pool of more than 280 candidates. He will receive a $5,000 academic scholarship, mentoring by a principal of the firm, and a paid 2010 summer associate position at its Southern California office. Fish & Richardson, which specializes in intellectual property (IP) strategy and counseling, IP litigation, and business litigation, has received several national honors for its IP work.

Berkeley Law Foundation Funds LGBT Project

Daniel Redman ’08 has been awarded a Berkeley Law Foundation (BLF) grant to help fund the LGBT Elder Advocacy Project at the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco. Redman’s project aims to educate LGBT elders about their rights, design LGBT-inclusive policies for institutions that serve elders, and litigate on behalf of this population. BLF also doubled its number of summer grants this year, and student recipients will soon work at nonprofit organizations such as the National Center for Youth Law, Cambodian Organization for Research and Development, Employment Law Center, and Drug Policy Alliance Office of Legal Affairs.

Empirical Legal Studies Fellows Announced

The Center for the Study of Law and Society and Berkeley Empirical Legal Studies (BELS) program announced their 2010-11 BELS graduate fellows. The 11 fellows—six from Berkeley Law’s Jurisprudence & Social Policy Program—were chosen from doctoral, JD, and JSD students engaged in theoretically-informed, empirical research projects that investigate the origins, dynamics, and consequences of law and law-related social institutions. Fellows receive $1,000, share workspace, and conduct monthly workshops to present and discuss research. The JSP fellows are Gwendolyn Leachman, Larisa Mann, Jamie Rowen, Douglas Spencer, Christina Stevens, and Shauhin Talesh.

Wayne Barsky ’83 Receives Learned Hand Award

Wayne Barsky ’83 has received this year’s Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish Congress (AJC), given annually to a leader who has played a significant role in bettering the community and promoting human rights. A partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and co-chair of the firm’s 125-lawyer intellectual property practice group, Barsky chaired and is still a member of the executive committee and board of directors at Public Counsel Law Center, the nation’s largest pro bono law office. He also served on the Association of Business Trial Lawyers’ Board of Governors and as a Judge Pro Tempore in Los Angeles Superior Court.

New Fellow Joins Professional Skills Program

Inna Vinogradov ’09 has joined Berkeley Law’s Professional Skills Program as a public interest fellow. She will coordinate and support the work of the Student-Initiated Legal Services Programs, formerly known as the first-year clinics, which attracted more than 200 first-year students this school year. Vinogradov has worked at Alameda County District Attorney’s Office in Oakland, San Francisco’s Office of Citizen Complaints, and Legal Community against Violence, a public interest law center dedicated to preventing gun violence. While a student at Berkeley Law, she gained experience at the East Bay Community Law Center, Asylum Representation Clinic, and Berkeley New Business Counseling Clinic.

Tamar Gubins ’09 Pushes to Update Privacy Law

Tamar Gubins ’09 has published an op-ed in the Daily Journal, California’s largest legal news provider, asserting that electronic privacy law is badly outdated. A technology and civil liberties policy associate at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Gubins notes that the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA)—created to protect the privacy of electronic communications and personal information from inappropriate government or third-party demands—was written before many modern technologies existed. The op-ed, available here, describes how Internet users and businesses are affected by inadequate legal standards and offers suggestions to help make the ECPA compatible with today’s digital world.

New Student Organization Offers Peer Counseling

Law Students for Law Students (LSLS) is a new student organization dedicated to providing support for law students through peer counseling and wellness programming. Students who have received training in basic counseling techniques, interpersonal skills, and crisis intervention are now offering free, confidential counseling services to their peers in the form of 30-minute appointments. While it is considered neither therapy nor a substitute for professional counseling, peer counseling is widely used in academic and community settings as a complement to professional resources, and peer counselors often provide referrals to community resources. More information is available here.

Obama Taps Melinda Haag ’87 for U.S. Attorney

President Barack Obama has nominated Melinda Haag ’87 to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California. A partner at the San Francisco office of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe since 2003, Haag works in the firm’s white collar criminal defense and corporate investigations group, which handles cases involving antitrust violations, environmental crimes, and health care fraud. She previously headed the San Francisco U.S. Attorney’s Office White Collar Crime Unit and was deputy chief of its General Crimes Unit. If the Senate confirms her appointment, Haag would become the first woman to hold the position in San Francisco since Annette Adams from 1918–1920.

Samuelson Clinic Drafts Smart Grid Comments

The Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic has submitted formal comments regarding the California Public Utility Commissions’ Smart Grid Rulemaking. Filed on behalf of the Center for Democracy & Technology, the comments urge the commission to build strong privacy protections into the Smart Grid, and to issue privacy-protecting regulations. New smart meters installed in California homes can reveal detailed information on household activities such as sleep, work, and travel habits—a radical departure from traditional monthly manual readings. Four students worked with clinic fellow Jennifer Lynch ’05 and co-director Jennifer Urban ’00 to draft the comments.

Berkeley Law Trio Named 2010 Skadden Fellows

Angela Turner ’10, Shira Wakschlag ’10, and Meredith Desautels ’08 have been named Skadden Fellows for 2010. The Skadden Fellows program, described by the Los Angeles Times as “a legal Peace Corps,” supports graduating law students and judicial clerks who wish to devote their professional lives to providing legal services to underserved members of society, including the poor, elderly, disabled, and those deprived of their civil or human rights. Turner ’10 will work for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, Wakschlag for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, and Desautels for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Felicity Hannay ’75 Named to New Federal Post

Felicity Hannay ’75, a former Colorado deputy attorney general who spent three decades focused on water and resource law, has been appointed U.S. Commissioner on the Upper Colorado River Commission. Hannay served as deputy attorney general for natural resources and the environment from 1999–2004 under then-Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar, now U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Created in 1948, the Upper Colorado River Commission oversees water allocations for the river’s upper basin states: Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico. A partner at Davis Graham & Stubbs in Denver, Hannay was editor-in-chief of Ecology Law Quarterly during her time at Berkeley Law.

Phil Isenberg ’67 on Delta Stewardship Council

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Phil Isenberg ’67 to the seven-member Delta Stewardship Council (DSC), which was created in legislation sponsored by State Senator Joe Simitian ’77 last year to address problems with the vital state water system. The DSC will work to develop a plan to help restore and enhance the Delta ecosystem and ensure water supply reliability. President of Isenberg/O’Haren Government Relations, Isenberg was Sacramento’s mayor from 1975–1982 and served in the California State Assembly from 1982¬1996. He chaired the California Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force from 2004–2006, and the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force from 2007–2008.

California Lawyer Honors Sky Stanfield ’05

California Lawyer magazine has named Sky Stanfield ’05 Attorney of the Year in its environmental category. An associate at Farella Braun + Martel, Stanfield shared the award with Farella partner David Lazerwitz for their victory in Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which helped protect California’s Mojave desert from off-highway vehicle impacts. Part of a pro bono legal team, Stanfield and Lazerwitz represented seven of the 11 plaintiff environmental organizations. Their case demonstrated that governmental designation of off-highway vehicle routes in part of the California Desert Conservation Area violated both the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and National Environmental Policy Act.  

Center Works to Avoid Cap-and-Trade Fraud

Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment is among a group of organizations working with California regulatory officials to develop policies and recommendations for establishing a broad carbon market oversight and enforcement program. California is the only state with a climate-change law that mandates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and policymakers are pushing to ensure that state, regional, or federal cap-and-trade initiatives have maximum protection from fraud and manipulation. A new oversight and enforcement program may soon be included in California’s cap-and-trade proposal, and will likely help shape federal legislation and regulations.  

Samuelson Clinic Site Offers Free Sample Briefs

Berkeley Law’s Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic has created and now oversees BriefBank, a free online database of sample briefs donated by legal scholars and partner organizations. A community-supported resource designed to help researchers who already have significant knowledge of the legal domain, BriefBank collects and redistributes briefs in the area of law, technology, and public policy—a concentrated collection that allows the site to provide a depth of information not presently available in disparate competing systems. The Samuelson Clinic is responsible for BriefBank’s system administration and staff support.

Center Tackles Energy-Efficient Mortgages

The Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB) will play a key role in a government-funded project aimed at incorporating energy efficiency into commercial mortgage underwriting. BCLB Faculty Co-Director Nancy Wallace and advisory board member Dwight Jaffee, with colleagues at the Haas School of Business, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Department of Civil Engineering, have received a $760,000 U.S. Department of Energy grant to develop a protocol and prototype tool that explicitly factors energy efficiency metrics into valuation and underwriting. BCLB’s contributions will include identifying commercial lease terms and lien enforcement rules and procedures that may impact that process.

Susan Poser ’91 Named Law Dean at Nebraska

Susan Poser ’91 has been appointed dean at the University of Nebraska College of Law, and will assume the post May 15. Currently a law professor at the school and chief of staff and associate to the chancellor, Poser joined Nebraska’s faculty full-time in 1999. She received the law school’s Distinguished Teaching award in 2005, and directs its Kutak Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics. Poser earned both her J.D. and Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program Ph.D. at Berkeley Law, where she served as a visiting professor in 2004. Before entering teaching, she clerked on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced law in Philadelphia.

Two Berkeley Law Alumni Join Superior Court

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently announced the appointments of David Fields ’88 and Laura Laesecke ’92 to judgeships in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. A partner with Brown, White & Newhouse, Fields has worked in private practice since 2001 after a 10-year stint as assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, where he served as deputy chief of the major crimes section and domestic terrorism coordinator. Laesecke has been a deputy district attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office since 1992. She has tried more than 30 murder cases, and spent eight years in the office’s Hardcore Gang Unit prosecuting gang members for violent felonies.

John Walker Lindh’s Father To Speak March 1

On March 1, Berkeley Law will be one of eight sites around the country to host an Amnesty Interational-sponsored event promoting accountability for alleged abuses in U.S.-controlled detention centers. Hosted by the Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture, the program (12:45–2 p.m. in Room 105) will feature Frank Lindh—the father of John Walker Lindh, who was captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for his involvement with Afghanistan’s Taliban army. Over the next few weeks, human rights groups will conduct panels, film screenings, vigils, and letter writing campaigns to push for legislation designed to prevent violations of detainees’ rights.

Andrea Russi Named BCCJ Executive Director

The Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice (BCCJ) has named Andrea Russi its new Executive Director. Russi, who was serving as BCCJ’s Associate Director, previously spent nearly eight years as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and argued more than 20 cases before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She replaces BCCJ founding Executive Director David Onek, who will stay on at the center as a part-time Senior Fellow and produce a series of Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast, a joint production of BCCJ and the Berkeley School of Journalism. Also, longtime National Center for Crime and Delinquency President Barry Krisberg has joined BCCJ as a Distinguished Senior Fellow and Lecturer in Residence.

Obama Re-nominates Judge Edward Chen ’79

President Barack Obama has re-nominated Edward Chen ’79 to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of California. Chen was first nominated by Obama on August 6, 2009, but the Senate did not act upon the nomination during its last session. Under Senate rules, the nomination was returned to the president and could not be considered unless made again by the president. A magistrate judge of California’s Northern District since 2001, Chen was re-nominated to fill a judgeship vacant since April 4, 2008. The Northern District court is authorized 14 judgeships—three of which are currently vacant. More information about Chen’s initial appointment is available here.  

New Exhibition: Berkeley Law in the Cold War

A new exhibition in the law library’s Main Reading Room examines events at Berkeley Law amid the Cold War clash between politics and academic freedom. During the 1949-50 academic year, for example, all university faculty members had to sign a written loyalty oath swearing that they were not members of, nor sympathetic to, the Communist Party. Any faculty member who refused to sign this oath would be summarily fired—regardless of tenure status. A few years later, government agencies regularly checked in with Berkeley Law professors to see if their students expressed “unacceptable” political views in classroom discussions or written class assignments. More information on the exhibit is available here.         

Michael Serota ’10 Pens Op-Ed on Students

Michael Serota ’10 recently wrote an op-ed, published by the Oakland Tribune, urging American students to draw inspiration from their counterparts in Iran. The op-ed, available here, suggests that in the face of current economic and policy challenges in the United States, Americans can channel into their own lives the courage to face adversity seen from televised images of recent Iranian student protests against that country’s Baseej militia. Serota calls those images a powerful reminder that the human spirit “is capable of incredible achievements” and “able to transcend the limits of physical strength or brute force and reach something much greater.”

Wallace Named BCLB Faculty Co-Director

Nancy Wallace, a UC Berkeley Haas School of Business professor and chair of its Real Estate Group, has joined the law school’s Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB) as faculty co-director. An expert on real estate investment analysis and finance, Wallace has assisted BCLB researchers on several projects and played a key role in developing a popular real estate development and finance course that enables law and business students to work together. She also co-chairs Haas’ Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics. BCLB, a hub for Berkeley Law’s research and teaching on the impact of law on business and the American and global economies, collaborates regularly with Haas faculty.

Law Student Shares in Prestigious Film Honor

“The Judge and the General,” a documentary that Amanda Beck ’11 spent two years working on as an assistant producer, has won a prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcast journalism. The film centers on Judge Juan Guzmán’s investigation and prosecution of human rights violations in Chile during the reign of former dictator Augusto Pinochet—and how Guzmán discovered information that revealed his own role in the tragic events. The prize committee, which lists Beck among 10 people who worked on the documentary, praised it for bringing to light “one of the 20th century’s most notorious episodes” and called it a “beautifully edited film with revealing interviews and astounding archival footage.”

Su Li: New Empirical Legal Studies Statistician

Dr. Su Li has joined Berkeley Law as its new Statistician in Empirical Legal Studies, and will be available for consultation to all faculty members, research centers, and students engaged in empirical research. Li received her Ph.D. in Sociology and a Master’s in Mathematical Models for Social Science at Northwestern University. An expert in quantitative methodology, she will provide consulting and programming expertise for database management, and assist with procuring data sets and facilitating data use with statistical packages used in the social sciences. Li will also hold weekly open consultation sessions, and assist editors of the California Law Review in reviewing article submissions that involve quantitative empirical analysis.

APALSA Fellowship Dinner on Tap February 11

Berkeley Law’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) will host its third annual alumni and public interest fellowship dinner February 11 in San Francisco. APALSA, Berkeley Law’s largest student-run organization, will honor Judge Edward Chen ’79 with its Alumni of the Year Award as well as this year’s Dale Minami ’71 Public Interest Fellowship recipient. The dinner raises funds to help endow the fellowship; candidates are selected for their diverse backgrounds, exceptional academic and professional accomplishments, leadership in community service, and commitment to social justice and public interest work. More information about the dinner and fellowship program is available here.    

Holly Doremus Refutes Part of 60 Minutes Story

Berkeley Law Professor Holly Doremus, an expert on environmental and natural resources law, recently took CBS’s 60 Minutes to task for a December segment it aired about the California water crisis that was flawed by major inaccuracies and omissions. In a post on Legal Planet—a popular blog maintained by Berkeley Law and UCLA Law School faculty—Doremus faulted the news program for accepting “... a tall tale concocted by anti-regulatory interests: that protecting the Delta smelt has economically crippled California agriculture.” Citing an independent report from a University of the Pacific economist, Doremus says that the San Joaquin Valley’s economic downturn was caused by the collapse of the housing market, not water shortages.

Legal Studies Program Names New Director

Professor Michael Musheno has been named Berkeley Law's new Director of Legal Studies. The Legal Studies Program, an interdisciplinary major for undergraduates in law and legal studies, provides a substantive liberal arts curriculum on law and legal institutions, practices, and discourses. A criminal justice professor at San Francisco State, Musheno has developed and directed legal studies programs both there and at Arizona State. He has already served Berkeley Law as a Legal Studies Program lecturer, a researcher, and a Distinguished Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society. Musheno will be oversee the Legal Studies Program’s daily administration and act as chief faculty adviser to all Legal Studies majors.

Melissa Murray Receives Junior Faculty Award

Berkeley Law assistant professor Melissa Murray recently received the 2010 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Award. Every year, the Executive Committee of the AALS Minority Groups Section bestows the award on a junior faculty member who has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching, and scholarship. After graduating from Yale Law School in 2002, Murray clerked for Sonia Sotomayor—the newly appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice—on the U.S 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Murray, who teaches family law and criminal law, focuses her research on the roles that each play in articulating the legal parameters of intimate life.

Barton Gaut ’62 To Retire From State Bench

After a 47-year legal career, Judge Barton Gaut ’62 of the California Court of Appeal’s Fourth Appellate District will retire at the end of February. In 12 years at the Court of Appeal, Gaut authored about 1,900 opinions. Previously, he spent 33 years at Best Best & Krieger, specializing in complex civil trial and appellate litigation, and two years as a Riverside County Superior Court judge. A past president of the Riverside County Bar Association, Gaut was a regular Best Lawyers of America entry in business litigation. Manuel Ramirez, the presiding justice of Gaut’s court, describes him as “hardworking, productive, and always available … principled but open to a different perspective.”

Calvin Morrill to Lead Law School’s Center for the Study of Law and Society

Calvin Morrill, a visiting professor in Berkeley Law’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy program this past school year, was named director of the law school’s Center for the Study of Law and Society. A top expert in ethnography and generally qualitative methods, Morrill recently chaired UC Irvine’s Department of Sociology and was co-director of its Center for Organizational Research. He was also a professor of sociology, business, and criminology, law & society at the school.  

Jeffrey Smith ’88 Named Santa Clara County Executive

Soon after approving one of its darkest budgets in years, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors chose Jeffrey Smith ’88 as its new county executive. As executive director of the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and Health Centers, Smith has overseen Contra Costa County’s general acute care hospital, outpatient clinics, and detention health services for county jail and juvenile facilities. Previously, he served as a Contra Costa County supervisor and Martinez city councilman.  

Two Berkeley Law Grads Named to California Court of Appeal

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently appointed three judges to the California’s First District Court of Appeal, including two Berkeley Law alumni: Terence Bruiniers ’73 and Robert Dondero ’70. Bruiniers had been a Contra Costa Superior Court judge since 1998, before which he was a principal for Farrand, Cooper & Bruiniers and an Alameda County deputy district attorney. Dondero had been a San Francisco Superior Court judge since 1992, before which he was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Justice Department and a deputy district attorney in San Francisco.

Helene Kim to Lead New International Program

Helene Kim has been named the first executive director of Berkeley Law’s new International Executive Legal Education Program. Her extensive legal and management experience includes stints working at the Great Wall Law Firm in Shanghai and with McKinsey & Co. in Seoul. Kim also co-founded an organization that developed an online learning application that provides college preparatory counseling and cross-border foreign language learning instruction through real-time video-conferencing. A graduate of Harvard Law, Kim served on then-Senator Barack Obama’s Asian-American Pacific Islander Leadership Council during his presidential campaign in 2008.

IP Faculty Rated Nation’s Best by Recent Poll

A recent informal poll conducted by University of Chicago Law School professor Brian Leiter ranked Berkeley Law’s intellectual property faculty as the best in the nation. More than 300 people cast votes in the poll, which asked participants to rank listed faculties “in terms of their scholarly distinction in the areas of intellectual property and Cyberlaw.” Berkeley Law’s intellectual property group—Amy Kapczynski, Peter Menell, Robert Merges, Pamela Samuelson, Suzanne Scotchmer, Paul Schwartz, Talha Syed, and Molly Van Houweling—was rated first among faculty units from 24 law schools.

Miller Institute Files Third-Party Intervention

The Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law has submitted a third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights on Kaos GL v. Turkey. The case raises questions regarding states’ obligations to protect rights of sexual expression for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The institute partnered with two human rights organizations in drafting the intervention, which argues that open-ended and vague obscenity clauses that restrict freedom of expression are incompatible with global understandings of sexual expression as a basic right. Drafters included Miller Institute senior fellow and lecturer in residence Alice Miller, and Berkeley Law students Janaki Gandhi ’10 and Celeste Kaufman ’10.

Raymond Ocampo, Jr. ’76 Wins Diversity Award

Raymond Ocampo, Jr. ’76 will receive a Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. Commission chair Fred Alvarez called Ocampo “a tireless champion of diversity throughout his career” and “a vocal leader during a time when silence about inequities was the professional norm.” Ocampo was the first minority director of Hastings College of Law’s Legal Educational Opportunity Program. Later, as Oracle Corporation’s general counsel, he required outside counsel to assign women and minorities to company cases. After retiring from Oracle, Ocampo co-founded the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology in 1997 and was executive director for two years.

Obama Taps Michael Mundaca ’92 For Tax Post

President Barack Obama has nominated Michael Mundaca ’92 to be Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. Mundaca served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton Administration and returned in 2007 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs. Before that appointment, he was a partner for over five years in the international tax services group of Ernst & Young’s tax department in Washington, D.C. Mundaca also worked for more than five years in the Treasury’s Office of the International Tax Counsel, and served as the department’s Senior Advisor on Electronic Commerce. While a student at Berkeley Law, Mundaca was senior executive editor of the California Law Review and member of the Order of the Coif.

Harini Raghupathi ’06 Takes Aim at ‘Sheriff Joe’

Harini Raghupathi ’06, a Skadden Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project, recently co-authored a complaint against “Sheriff Joe,” Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, and Maricopa County (AZ). The complaint is challenging the arrest and detention of Julian Mora and his son Julio Mora, legal U.S. residents who were arrested while driving down a public roadway and taken to the site of an immigration raid by Sheriff’s Office deputies. It also alleges racial profiling and violating constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law and prohibition of unreasonable seizures.

State Supreme Court Coming to Berkeley Law

Berkeley Law will host a full-day special outreach session of the California Supreme Court on November 3 in Booth Auditorium. For the ninth consecutive year, the Court will hear oral arguments outside chambers as part of its community outreach efforts. The whole Boalt community is invited to attend; cases to be argued and links to the briefs will be made available in early October.

Jonathan Simon ’87 Joins Popular Faculty Blog

Professor Jonathan Simon ’87 recently signed on as a regular contributor to PrawfsBlawg, a popular law blog written by various law school faculty members, for the balance of the academic year. The Associate Dean of Berkeley Law’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program and faculty co-chair of the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice, Simon had been a guest blogger with PrawfsBlawg.

Michael Posner ’75 Nominated to High-Ranking State Department Position

President Barack Obama has nominated Michael Posner ’75 for Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the U.S. Department of State. Now president of Human Rights First, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Posner has traveled to more than 50 countries on behalf of that organization and others like it. In particular, he has promoted the rights of refugees and displaced people, and pushed for stronger industry standards to ensure fair labor conditions in global manufacturing supply chains.  

John Phillips ’69 to Chair White House Fellowships Selection Group

John Phillips ’69 has been named 2009-10 chair of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, which recommends candidates for the leadership development and public service program that includes Jason Snyder ’02 among this year’s 14 members. Phillips founded the Center for Law in Public Interest in 1971 and was its co-director for 17 years. Corporate fraud lawsuits filed by his firm, Phillips and Cohen, have returned $4 billion to the government. Over the past decade, he has been named among the National Law Journal’s “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.”  

Laurel Fletcher Takes Over at International Journal

Laurel Fletcher, director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, has been named Co-Editor in Chief of the peer-reviewed International Journal of Transitional Justice. Berkeley Law will serve as a sponsoring institution for the journal, published three times a year by Oxford University Press; the co-sponsor is the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa. Fletcher seeks to bring prominent scholars and practitioners to the law school to engage with students and faculty, host topical workshops and symposia, and help establish Berkeley Law as a leader in transitional justice.

Jawwad S. Khawaja ’75 Joins Supreme Court of Pakistan

Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, who earned his LL.M. from Berkeley Law in 1975, has been appointed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Khawaja served on the Lahore High Court for eight years before resigning in protest during Pakistan’s 2007 constitutional crisis. He then joined the Lahore University of Management Science faculty as head of its Law and Policy Department. An expert on constitutional law, legal reform and policy, and commercial laws, Khawaja has decided many cases involving issues of first impression. Several of his judgments have been reported in law journals and are included in Pakistani law curriculums. His research on improving Pakistan’s quality of justice has targeted institutional reforms to deliver prompt and inexpensive redress to litigants, and gathering accurate data from court records to ascertain causes for delay in deciding cases.

James McManis ’67 Named President of the Boalt Hall Alumni Association

James McManis '67 has succeeded Nan Joesten '97 as president of the Boalt Hall Hall Alumni Association. Jim has been a member of the alumni board since 2002, and among his many leadership roles on campus, he served previously as chair of the reunion campaigns (2007) and chair of the Boalt Hall Fund (2005). New members to the BHAA Board of Directors include Greg Broome '90, Gail Dolton '86, Hector Huezo '08, John Kuo '88, Mark Lubin '77, Jay Shafran '63, Gail Title '70, Diane Yu '77 and Mitchell Zuklie '96.

Thai Judges Visit Berkeley Law

The Judiciary of Thailand is sending 35 judges to Berkeley Law from June 8th to 19th to study consumer protection laws. They are taking a customized course designed and taught by Professor Kenneth Bamberger as part of the International Program for Judicial Studies. The program, organized and run by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, strives to increase the knowledge and experience of judiciaries worldwide, thereby promoting the rule of law. For more information on the International Program for Judicial Studies, visit the Miller Institute's website: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/index.htmlcenters/the-miller-institute-for-global-challenges-and-law/.

Robert Barr Named Top IP Specialist

Berkeley Center for Law and Technology Executive Director Robert Barr has been named one of Intellectual Asset Management's IAM 250. The magazine's list identified "individuals who are regarded as world class IP strategists by their peers." This is the first time the magazine has compiled a list of top of IP specialists.

Thai Judges Visit Berkeley Law

The Judiciary of Thailand is sending 35 judges to Berkeley Law from June 8th to 19th to study consumer protection laws. They are taking a customized course designed and taught by Professor Kenneth Bamberger as part of the International Program for Judicial Studies. The program, organized and run by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, strives to increase the knowledge and experience of judiciaries worldwide, thereby promoting the rule of law. For more information on the International Program for Judicial Studies, visit the Miller Institute's website: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/index.htmlcenters/the-miller-institute-for-global-challenges-and-law/.

Robert Barr Named Top IP Specialist

Berkeley Center for Law and Technology Executive Director Robert Barr has been named one of Intellectual Asset Management's IAM 250. The magazine's list identified "individuals who are regarded as world class IP strategists by their peers." This is the first time the magazine has compiled a list of top of IP specialists.

Dinah Shelton ’70 Makes History at Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

On June 4, Dinah Shelton ’70 became the first American woman elected Commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Voted in by the Organization of American States General Assembly, Shelton—a leading authority on international law and a prize-winning author—will begin serving her four-year term in January 2010. The seven-member commission reviews and investigates human rights cases within the framework of the inter-American system’s legal instruments. A professor at George Washington University Law School, Shelton was nominated for the commissioner position by the Obama Administration on March 3. A former visiting lecturer at Berkeley Law, Shelton has been a human rights consultant to the United Nations and Council of Europe and has assisted major health and environmental organizations. A Vice President of the American Society of International Law, she sits on the board of several nongovernmental organizations concerned with human rights, including the rights of indigenous peoples.

Obama Nominates Berkeley Law Alum for DOJ Post

President Obama has nominated Berkeley Law alum Christopher Schroeder '74 to be assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy. Schroeder is currently the Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies, and director of the Program in Public Law at Duke University. Schroeder was editor of the California Law Review when he was at Berkeley Law. Read more at the White House web site.

Clinton, Lavrov and Berkeley Law Student Rebecca Callaway

Berkeley Law student Rebecca Callaway (center) takes notes during a recent meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Conference on Afghanistan at the Hague. Callaway is a field placement student working at the U.S. Embassy in the Hague. Photo by Krister Evenhouse www.efg-design.nl

Keady ’08 Named Student Services Advisor

Trish Keady ’08 has joined Berkeley Law’s Student Services team as its student advisor. In her new role, Keady will provide academic and personal advising and counseling for Berkeley Law students. Last year, she worked as the law school’s Public Interest Skills Fellow and played a key role in promoting the Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects. Before that, Keady was an attorney in the San Francisco office of Sedgwick LLP, an international trial and litigation law firm. As a law student, she was active with the East Bay Workers Rights Clinic and also worked at the East Bay Community Law Center.