Table of Contents
Features
How Berkeley Law’s faculty and students are extending and defending them, at home and around the world.
Connection & Camaraderie
Members of the law school community relish returning to campus and reuniting with classmates and colleagues.
Finding Their Voice
Driven leadership, dedicated alumni coaches, and skilled students fuel our thriving Advocacy Competitions Program.
Column
Berkeley Law’s commitment to “advancing the rule of law and to advancing freedom and equality.”
Sections
Nuggets from the School Community
A $5 million award for environmental work • Dean Chemerinsky’s book of the year honor • Innovative alliance helps Ukrainian lawyers • Sensational student summers • Filing the first cyber war crimes charge • Banner year of lectures and symposia • An en-deer-ing photo caption contest • Alumna lands Supreme Court fellowship • Math and science help in the courtroom • Death Penalty Clinic’s anniversary plan • Clinical Program names new co-directors • Student takes lead role to fight fast fashion • Berkeley Law’s soaring podcast platform • Dedicated duo take the reins at two centers • A prime student opportunity in federal court • Addressing racism while advancing equity
Forefront
Leadership in Research, Service, & Education
Six new faculty faces • Expanding tech law access • Changing the judicial clerkship narrative • Exploring the nexus of art, law, and finance • New program aids Native American students • Happy birthday to some trailblazing groups
Fast Forward
Powerful Student Action Figures
Study Hall
Selected Faculty Scholarship
Advancement
Updates from Development & Alumni Relations
Class Notes
All in the Alumni Family
Table of Contents
Features
How Berkeley Law’s faculty and students are extending and defending them, at home and around the world.
Connection & Camaraderie
Members of the law school community relish returning to campus and reuniting with classmates and colleagues.
Finding Their Voice
Driven leadership, dedicated alumni coaches, and skilled students fuel our thriving Advocacy Competitions Program.
Column
Berkeley Law’s commitment to “advancing the rule of law and to advancing freedom and equality.”
Sections
Nuggets from the School Community
A $5 million award for environmental work • Dean Chemerinsky’s book of the year honor • Innovative alliance helps Ukrainian lawyers • Sensational student summers • Filing the first cyber war crimes charge • Banner year of lectures and symposia • An en-deer-ing photo caption contest • Alumna lands Supreme Court fellowship • Math and science help in the courtroom • Death Penalty Clinic’s anniversary plan • Clinical Program names new co-directors • Student takes lead role to fight fast fashion • Berkeley Law’s soaring podcast platform • Dedicated duo take the reins at two centers • A prime student opportunity in federal court • Addressing racism while advancing equity
Forefront
Leadership in Research, Service, & Education
Six new faculty faces • Expanding tech law access • Changing the judicial clerkship narrative • Exploring the nexus of art, law, and finance • New program aids Native American students • Happy birthday to some trailblazing groups
Fast Forward
Powerful Student Action Figures
Study Hall
Selected Faculty Scholarship
Advancement
Updates from Development & Alumni Relations
Class Notes
All in the Alumni Family
From the Dean
Advancing Rights
Across the world, there has been a rise in authoritarian governments, which are taking away fundamental rights to freedom of speech, due process, and reproductive choice. Thirty years ago, after the fall of the Soviet Union, democracies were emerging in many countries. Now it is frightening to see the turn towards authoritarian regimes.
As a law school, Berkeley Law is deeply committed to advancing the rule of law and to advancing freedom and equality. Although, of course, there are disagreements among our faculty and students about what this should mean and how to achieve it, there is strong agreement that it is our role — as
faculty, as students, and as an institution — to advance justice.
In Brief
A Transformative Award
The distribution stems from class actions filed after 2015’s “dieselgate” exposed how Volkswagen installed illegal “defeat devices” in roughly 11 million vehicles to cheat emissions tests. The company and three of its subsidiaries reached a settlement in May, capping one of the costliest corporate scandals in history.
Fighting Fast Fashion
Sensational Summers
Fortifying the Scholarly Community
In the SCOTUS Fab Four
Full Steam Ahead
Forefront
Leadership in Research, Service, & Education
Fresh Faces
“Maintaining and enhancing our excellence requires continuing to recruit truly top faculty,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says. “We had an extraordinary year in hiring.”
The new crop — two senior scholars, three junior faculty, and a clinical professor — study a broad range of topics. But all say they’re delighted to put down roots at the law school, which has made 28 faculty hires since 2017.
Power Platform
Our Berkeley Center for Law & Technology expands access and builds community
Just since the start of the year, BCLT held its 10th Privacy Law Forum, its first Advanced Life Sciences Institute, a packed symposium on the push to force companies to make their products serviceable by consumers rather than only technicians or engineers, and its annual Berkeley-Tsinghua Conference on Transnational Intellectual Property Litigation.
Also, the David E. Nelson ’59 Memorial Lecture featured center co-founder and renowned Berkeley Law Professor Robert Merges. He discussed IP’s impact on research and development and the economics of licensing transactions, after which a job fair helped students connect with practitioners.
Changing the Clerkship Narrative
Soon after finding out, he also learned that Black people held just 4% of federal clerkships among 2019 law school graduates, while whites held 79%. In this 2022-23 term, of Berkeley Law’s 87 clerks working across 30 states and territories, roughly a quarter are people of color and over half are women.
“We’re proud of that diversity,” says Director of Judicial Clerkships Anna Han. “Representation in the legal profession — and especially in the judiciary and among judicial staff — is critical to eliminating bias and improving access to justice.”
Oliver just began a two-year federal clerkship for Chief Judge Miranda Du ’94 at the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, and will then clerk for Nevada Supreme Court Justice Lidia Stiglich.
Breaking New Ground
The recent inaugural Berkeley Art, Finance, and Law Symposium explored the frontiers of the high-end art world — where NFTs of cartoon apes fetch a $2 million price tag and a boom in bidders from around the globe pushed the spring art auction season into the stratosphere.
Hosted at SFMOMA by the Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB), the unique event brought together lawyers, art dealers, academics, business leaders, critics, and movers and shakers from the tech world into the museum’s bright and high-ceilinged galleries.
Door Opener
New program helps cover tuition and service fees for in-state Native American students
But she also knew the school needed to do more, because the Professional Degree Supplemental Tuition (PDST) makes up the bulk of law students’ costs: $21,334 per semester for in-state residents, on top of the $5,721 tuition per semester. All UC professional school students pay PDST, which is set by the UC Regents.
“We agreed that it’s important to make this education accessible, but also immediately recognized that PDST would remain a significant impediment,” Theis-Alvarez says. “We felt the only way to honor the intention was for Berkeley Law to also offset PDST.”
Pioneering
Anniversaries
Throughout Berkeley Law, students have access to trailblazing organizations with a meaningful history and a lasting impact. Here are four that recently celebrated milestone birthdays:
Center for the Study of Law & Society (60th)
- First center of its kind that has had more than 300 visiting scholars from across the world working on criminal justice and law and society issues
- Supports empirical research on vital issues at the intersection of law and society in contemporary and historical contexts
- Challenges conventional legal and policy wisdom and seeks to reframe legal decision-making and discourse
- Called “without a doubt the premier law and society research center in the world” and “a magnet for scholars all over the world whose international influence is incalculable” by past Law and Society Association presidents Howard Erlanger and Lawrence Friedman
Rights
At such a moment, the rule of law — and the role of the law — has rarely felt so important. And Berkeley Law’s faculty and students are answering the call.
Rights
At such a moment, the rule of law — and the role of the law — has rarely felt so important. And Berkeley Law’s faculty and students are answering the call.
Who Bears Responsibility for Refugees?
Stepping Forward
Defending the vulnerable
Connection & Camaraderie
It means learning in a place where legal education giants like Jesse Choper and Melvin Eisenberg (below) have helped train generations of new lawyers. Sharing in the jubilation of milestone achievements — those of classmates and close friends as well as your own (see Commencement at Long Last). Drawing purpose from meaningful relationships and working together to change things for the better (see Reconnected). Challenging yourself on a big stage (see May It Please the Court) and collaborating for a cause (see Navigating New Terrain).
It means championing excellence, community, and public mission.
Finding Their Voice
Finding Their Voice
Finding Their Voice
pencer Pahlke ’07 vividly remembers his exuberance colliding head-on with reality.
“Back in law school I was very interested in mock trial, but there were limited opportunities,” he says. “We had maybe 10 students on teams, one or two coaches. We went to a couple competitions, and there were no internal competitions. Our program wasn’t designed to be a player on the national stage.”
The semester after Pahlke graduated, two Berkeley Law students participating in a local tournament asked if he could help out — both prior coaches had left the program.
“I said yes, we had a ton of fun, and we won the competition,” Pahlke recalls. “That made me realize that even though I’d just graduated, I could play a role in building this. I’m so glad they asked me to coach. It really changed the course of my life.”
Negotiation Sensations Vault Berkeley Law to Celestial Heights
hese days, the law school negotiation stars seem to shine brightest in Berkeley. Last semester, two student trios from Berkeley Law’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Team won major negotiation competitions — one national and one international.
Brandon Dailey ’24 and Kavya Dasari ’23 planned to visit Athens for The Negotiation Challenge, a prestigious annual competition among top law and business schools worldwide. When COVID-19 quashed that plan, they used the setback as motivational fuel and won the 50-team competition on Zoom.
“I hoped to learn and get exposed to different kinds of negotiation styles, and the competition did not disappoint,” Dasari says.
First Time’s the Charm: Appellate Newcomers Dominate Their Debut
n a good day, you meet expectations. On a great day, you exceed them. On a spectacular day, you turn them into a faint speck in your rear-view mirror.
For Berkeley Law’s team at this year’s Roger J. Traynor California Appellate Advocacy Moot Court Competition — Julia Bennett ’23, Elle Mahdavi ’23, and Fatima Ladha ’23 — dazzling final results validated diligent preparation.
First place for best oral argument in the final round? Check. The Excellence in Appellate Advocacy Award for highest combined oral argument scores in the first two rounds? Check. The Gisnet Mandell Award for best brief? Check. The Geoffrey Hall Wright Award for Bennett as best oralist? Checkmate.
Fast Forward
Blowing the Whistle on Workplace Harassment
While working at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters in Washington, D.C. — ironically as the program manager of its first anti-harassment unit — he describes senior officials pressuring him to lie to Congress about a sensitive issue.
Blowing the Whistle on Workplace Harassment
While working at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) headquarters in Washington, D.C. — ironically as the program manager of its first anti-harassment unit — he describes senior officials pressuring him to lie to Congress about a sensitive issue.
A Fervor for Election Protection
“As a lawyer, I can help advocate and fight for a more representative democracy — where everyone’s voice can be heard at the ballot box,” Wayment says.
A Fervor for Election Protection
“As a lawyer, I can help advocate and fight for a more representative democracy — where everyone’s voice can be heard at the ballot box,” Wayment says.
Building a Non-Toxic Space for Latino Gun Owners
“Latinos had been the target of a horrific terrorist attack by a white nationalist and I knew that many Latinos were going to start exploring the prospect of armed self-defense,” he says. “My fear was that they would be walking into an environment that was hostile and would only make our communities less safe.”
Building a Non-Toxic Space for Latino Gun Owners
“Latinos had been the target of a horrific terrorist attack by a white nationalist and I knew that many Latinos were going to start exploring the prospect of armed self-defense,” he says. “My fear was that they would be walking into an environment that was hostile and would only make our communities less safe.”
Study Hall
Award-
Winning
Excellence
Faculty Honors:
From trailblazing scholarship and extraordinary teaching to visionary leadership and meaningful mentoring, Berkeley Law faculty members have been festooned with a bevy of prestigious national and campus-wide honors this year.
Advancement
New Leader Brings Experience, Enthusiasm, Expertise
Familiarity with UC Berkeley? She joined the law school from the university’s School of Social Welfare, where she served as assistant dean for development and external relations.
Familiarity with the legal education world? Alexander spent almost a decade as director of development at UC Irvine School of Law, and before that nearly 20 years at UCLA School of Law, where she was director of financial aid.
Familiarity with Berkeley Law’s senior administrative leadership? She worked closely with Dean Erwin Chemerinsky on major fundraising during his time as Irvine Law’s founding dean, and was hired at UCLA in 1989 with Charles Cannon, now Berkeley Law’s senior assistant dean and chief administrative officer.
Alexander assumed her new role in June. She recently discussed her vision for alumni engagement with Andrew Cohen, Transcript’s managing editor.
Our Community Constellations
Honoring the Legacy of a Beloved Professor
When he died in December 2021 after a long struggle with kidney cancer, Karen Carlson, his wife of 50 years, wanted to help pass along a source of support he’d enjoyed: summer stipends. The new Stephen Sugarman Public Interest Endowed Fellowship is funded by family, friends, colleagues, and former students to support Berkeley Law’s Summer Fellowship Program.
The larger program supports J.D. students who are completing a summer of qualifying public interest or public sector work. The Sugarman fellowship is earmarked for students working on education equity issues, like Shane Gilbert ’24, one of two inaugural recipients.
Class Notes
1962
Brian Landsberg has authored a new book, Revolution by Law: The Federal Government and the Desegregation of Alabama Schools. Published by the University Press of Kansas, it is the third in a trilogy about the work of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
1973
William Capps, a partner at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Mitchell, was again named one of the 500 most influential people in the Los Angeles business community by the Los Angeles Business Journal. This is his fourth consecutive year on the list.
1982
Kerry White and his brother Terry White published For The People: A True Story of the Los Angeles Criminal Justice System by Two African American Prosecutors. The book recounts high-profile cases they came across over their 30-year careers, including the O.J. Simpson trial, the Rodney King beating, the UCLA body parts scandal, and other dramatic cases involving celebrities, human trafficking, drug mafias, and serial killers.
2005
Gregory Novotny was named co-chair of Fox Rothschild’s taxation and wealth planning department. A partner in the firm’s San Francisco office and a transactional attorney, his practice centers on sophisticated tax strategies and he advises on tax planning, entity formation and restructuring, succession planning, and mergers and acquisitions.
Parting Shot
What would a more just world look like?
Topics in Season 1 include:
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on Twitter at @MoreJustPod.
Fall 2022, Volume 59
Assistant Dean, Communications
Alex A.G. Shapiro
Managing Editor & Senior Writer, Communications
Andrew Cohen
Creative Direction
Laurie Frasier
Original Design & Layout
Arnaud Ghelfi, l’atelier starno
Contributing Writers
Gwyneth K. Shaw
Sarah Weld
Contributing Photographers
Jim Block
Rachel DeLetto
Brittany Hosea-Small
Darius Riley
Email: updates@law.berkeley.edu
Phone: 510.642.1832
U.S. Mail: University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
Development & Alumni Relations
224 Law Building
Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
Visit www.law.berkeley.edu
Twitter & Instagram: @BerkeleyLaw
Facebook: UCBerkeleyLaw
Transcript is published by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law Communications Department.
