Spotlights

Berkeley Law’s extraordinary new class of first-year students includes Zachariah Oquenda ’19, a Truman Scholar and former homeless teen. In a new article, Oquenda describes the struggles his family endured living on a campsite in Illinois, explores the rural housing crisis and offers concrete solutions to address the problem.

When fielding requests for data stored outside the country, should U.S. cloud companies face a heavier compliance burden than their foreign counterparts? Paul Schwartz says no. His new article notes the perils of this approach, and contends it would encourage U.S. customers to store their data with foreign companies.

Robert Bartlett and Justin McCrary counter a common theory of stock market abuse that high-speed traders are gouging investors, as touted in Michael Lewis’ bestseller Flash Boys. Their new study refutes the idea that such traders fail to offer the best price available to customers and exploit those using slower public data feeds.

Thanks to Allen Huang ’15 and Leon Kotlyar ’15, Veterans Law Practicum client Albert Suarez will receive full medical benefits retroactive to 2007. The VA had denied Suarez benefits for PTSD and schizophrenia after his Army discharge in 2000 for behavior issues. But the alums argued that his Gulf War service led to those health […]

Berkeley Law’s Arlene Mayerson ’77 will receive the ABA’s Paul G. Hearne Award for Disability Rights. Directing attorney at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund since 1981, she has advised Congress on legislation such as the Handicapped Children’s Protection Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Professor Jonathan Simon has received an honorary doctorate degree from the Université catholique de Louvain. The award recognizes Simon’s storied career as an analyst of the role of crime and criminal justice in contemporary governance and his “powerful critique” of U.S. incarceration policies.

Victors in a long legal battle, Donahue Fitzgerald partners Andrew MacKay ’98 and Daniel Schacht ’08 have freed the world’s most-played song, “Happy Birthday to You,” from copyright. Warner/Chappell Music, which claimed the copyright, will return $14 million in royalties. This fall, Schacht will co-teach a music law seminar at Berkeley Law.

Professors Robert Merges, Pamela Samuelson and Peter Menell are among the 10 most-cited intellectual property and cyberlaw scholars from 2010 to 2014. Faculty co-directors of the law school’s Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, they fuel an IP program ranked No. 1 among U.S. law schools in 17 of the past 19 years.

Clinical Professor Elisabeth Semel, founding director of the Death Penalty Clinic, received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Bard College, her alma mater. Before joining Berkeley Law in 2001, Semel spent four years leading the ABA’s Death Penalty Representation Project and 20-plus years as a criminal defense lawyer.

Amy Utstein and Sharon Djemal have won Berkeley Law’s Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service. Utsein, who directs the Clinical Program, has strengthened student-faculty bonds and improved office management systems. Djemal has expanded the Consumer Justice Clinic, training more students to assist more clients in need.