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. (12/19/13)
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. (12/12/13)
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. (11/15/13)
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. (11/12/13)
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. (11/06/13)
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. (10/29/13)
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. (10/25/13)
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. (10/22/13)
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. (09/09/13)
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. (09/03/13)
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. (08/09/13)
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. (08/07/13)
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. (07/19/13)
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.” (07/18/13)
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. (07/17/13)
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. (06/25/13)
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. (06/25/13)
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. (06/25/13)
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. (05/14/13)
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. (05/14/13)
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. (05/14/13)
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. (03/04/13)
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. (02/28/13)
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. (02/14/13)
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. (01/28/13)
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. (01/22/13)
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. (01/08/13)
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. (01/02/13)