Spotlights

A state law seeks to protect California’s groundwater supply by forming new agencies to manage this precious resource. But it doesn’t offer guidance on how the agencies should function. Berkeley Law’s Holly Doremus and Michael Kiparsky step in with a new study that provides good governance tips to ensure the agencies’ effectiveness.

National Basketball Players Association Exec. Dir. Michele Roberts ’80, the first woman to lead a U.S. professional sports union, spoke at commencement on May 13. Before leading the NBPA, Roberts was a top litigator and public defender in Washington, D.C.—where three of her acquitted clients named children after her.

A new East Bay Community Law Center report reveals stark racial and socioeconomic disparities in California driver’s license suspensions—and arrests—related to unpaid traffic fines and fees. The report notes how racial bias in the state’s policing and courts fuels poverty, homelessness, and family instability.

Prof. Anne O’Connell is a recipient of the 2016 Distinguished Teaching Award, the campus’s most prestigious honor for teaching. The award recognizes teachers that incite intellectual curiosity, engage students thoroughly in the activity of learning, and have a lifelong impact. The awards ceremony is April 21.

The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans program has selected Sharada Jambulapati ’18 as a 2016 fellow. Recipients are chosen based on their potential to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture, or academia. The highly competitive fellowship provides up to $90,000 for graduate studies.

The International Association of Privacy Professionals has awarded Ken Bamberger and Deirdre Mulligan the 2016 Privacy Leadership Award for their book, Privacy on the Ground. The two professors are also delivering a keynote presentation at the association’s Global Privacy Summit in D.C. April 5-6.

The U.S. Commerce Dept. has appointed Sonia Katyal to serve on its inaugural Digital Economy Board of Advisors, which will suggest ways to spur economic growth and opportunity. Katyal and 16 other experts will offer private-sector input for the agency’s economic agenda focused on innovation and the Internet.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Dirks has named Professor Melissa Murray interim dean of Berkeley Law. A faculty member since 2006, she has taught Family Law, Criminal Law, and Constitutional Law and won recognition for her articles on sexual orientation and gender identity law.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has chosen Karim Kentfield ’12 as one of her clerks starting in 2017. A Google software engineer for six years before attending Berkeley Law, Kentfield held two U.S. Court of Appeals clerkships before joining Skadden Arps as a tax attorney in 2014.

National Jurist has named Luke Diamond ’16 a 2016 Law Student of the Year. His many achievements include founding the Consumer Rights Workshop, whose students have helped more than 150 clients, and strengthening the East Bay Community Law Center’s debt-collection litigation defense practice.