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). (12/21/15)
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. (12/08/15)
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. (12/01/15)
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. (11/05/15)
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. (09/18/15)
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. (09/04/15)
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. (08/05/15)
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. (07/27/15)
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. (07/23/15)
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. (06/15/15)
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. (06/11/15)
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. (06/08/15)
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. (05/22/15)
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. (05/21/15)
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. (05/14/15)
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. (01/16/15)
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. (01/13/15)
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. (01/09/15)
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. (12/12/14)
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. (12/08/14)
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. (11/20/14)
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. (11/14/14)
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. (11/07/14)
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. (10/29/14)
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. (10/24/14)
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. (09/19/14)
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. (08/28/14)
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. (08/18/14)
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. (08/15/14)
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.” (08/14/14)
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. (06/25/14)
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. (06/23/14)
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. (06/06/14)
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. (06/04/14)
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. (06/02/14)
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. (04/07/14)
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. (04/03/14)
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. (03/31/14)
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. (02/20/14)
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. (02/03/14)
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.” (01/30/14)
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)