Susan Poser ’91 Named Law Dean at Nebraska
Susan Poser ’91 has been appointed dean at the University of Nebraska College of Law, and will assume the post May 15. Currently a law professor at the school and chief of staff and associate to the chancellor, Poser joined Nebraska’s faculty full-time in 1999. She received the law school’s Distinguished Teaching award in 2005, and directs its Kutak Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics. Poser earned both her J.D. and Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program Ph.D. at Berkeley Law, where she served as a visiting professor in 2004. Before entering teaching, she clerked on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and practiced law in Philadelphia. (02/19/10)
Two Berkeley Law Alumni Join Superior Court
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently announced the appointments of David Fields ’88 and Laura Laesecke ’92 to judgeships in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. A partner with Brown, White & Newhouse, Fields has worked in private practice since 2001 after a 10-year stint as assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, where he served as deputy chief of the major crimes section and domestic terrorism coordinator. Laesecke has been a deputy district attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorneys Office since 1992. She has tried more than 30 murder cases, and spent eight years in the office’s Hardcore Gang Unit prosecuting gang members for violent felonies. (02/19/10)
John Walker Lindh’s Father To Speak March 1
On March 1, Berkeley Law will be one of eight sites around the country to host an Amnesty Interational-sponsored event promoting accountability for alleged abuses in U.S.-controlled detention centers. Hosted by the Boalt Alliance to Abolish Torture, the program (12:45–2 p.m. in Room 105) will feature Frank Lindh—the father of John Walker Lindh, who was captured during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for his involvement with Afghanistan’s Taliban army. Over the next few weeks, human rights groups will conduct panels, film screenings, vigils, and letter writing campaigns to push for legislation designed to prevent violations of detainees’ rights. (02/19/10)
Andrea Russi Named BCCJ Executive Director
The Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice (BCCJ) has named Andrea Russi its new Executive Director. Russi, who was serving as BCCJ’s Associate Director, previously spent nearly eight years as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and argued more than 20 cases before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. She replaces BCCJ founding Executive Director David Onek, who will stay on at the center as a part-time Senior Fellow and produce a series of Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast, a joint production of BCCJ and the Berkeley School of Journalism. Also, longtime National Center for Crime and Delinquency President Barry Krisberg has joined BCCJ as a Distinguished Senior Fellow and Lecturer in Residence. (02/04/10)
Obama Re-nominates Judge Edward Chen ’79
President Barack Obama has re-nominated Edward Chen ’79 to serve as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of California. Chen was first nominated by Obama on August 6, 2009, but the Senate did not act upon the nomination during its last session. Under Senate rules, the nomination was returned to the president and could not be considered unless made again by the president. A magistrate judge of California’s Northern District since 2001, Chen was re-nominated to fill a judgeship vacant since April 4, 2008. The Northern District court is authorized 14 judgeships—three of which are currently vacant. More information about Chen’s initial appointment is available here. (02/04/10)
New Exhibition: Berkeley Law in the Cold War
A new exhibition in the law library’s Main Reading Room examines events at Berkeley Law amid the Cold War clash between politics and academic freedom. During the 1949-50 academic year, for example, all university faculty members had to sign a written loyalty oath swearing that they were not members of, nor sympathetic to, the Communist Party. Any faculty member who refused to sign this oath would be summarily fired—regardless of tenure status. A few years later, government agencies regularly checked in with Berkeley Law professors to see if their students expressed “unacceptable” political views in classroom discussions or written class assignments. More information on the exhibit is available here. (02/04/10)
Michael Serota ’10 Pens Op-Ed on Students
Michael Serota ’10 recently wrote an op-ed, published by the Oakland Tribune, urging American students to draw inspiration from their counterparts in Iran. The op-ed, available here, suggests that in the face of current economic and policy challenges in the United States, Americans can channel into their own lives the courage to face adversity seen from televised images of recent Iranian student protests against that country’s Baseej militia. Serota calls those images a powerful reminder that the human spirit “is capable of incredible achievements” and “able to transcend the limits of physical strength or brute force and reach something much greater.” (02/04/10)
Wallace Named BCLB Faculty Co-Director
Nancy Wallace, a UC Berkeley Haas School of Business professor and chair of its Real Estate Group, has joined the law school’s Berkeley Center for Law and Business (BCLB) as faculty co-director. An expert on real estate investment analysis and finance, Wallace has assisted BCLB researchers on several projects and played a key role in developing a popular real estate development and finance course that enables law and business students to work together. She also co-chairs Haas’ Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics. BCLB, a hub for Berkeley Law’s research and teaching on the impact of law on business and the American and global economies, collaborates regularly with Haas faculty. (01/25/10)
Law Student Shares in Prestigious Film Honor
“The Judge and the General,” a documentary that Amanda Beck ’11 spent two years working on as an assistant producer, has won a prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for excellence in broadcast journalism. The film centers on Judge Juan Guzmán’s investigation and prosecution of human rights violations in Chile during the reign of former dictator Augusto Pinochet—and how Guzmán discovered information that revealed his own role in the tragic events. The prize committee, which lists Beck among 10 people who worked on the documentary, praised it for bringing to light “one of the 20th century’s most notorious episodes” and called it a “beautifully edited film with revealing interviews and astounding archival footage.” (01/25/10)
Su Li: New Empirical Legal Studies Statistician
Dr. Su Li has joined Berkeley Law as its new Statistician in Empirical Legal Studies, and will be available for consultation to all faculty members, research centers, and students engaged in empirical research. Li received her Ph.D. in Sociology and a Master’s in Mathematical Models for Social Science at Northwestern University. An expert in quantitative methodology, she will provide consulting and programming expertise for database management, and assist with procuring data sets and facilitating data use with statistical packages used in the social sciences. Li will also hold weekly open consultation sessions, and assist editors of the California Law Review in reviewing article submissions that involve quantitative empirical analysis. (01/25/10)
APALSA Fellowship Dinner on Tap February 11
Berkeley Law’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA) will host its third annual alumni and public interest fellowship dinner February 11 in San Francisco. APALSA, Berkeley Law’s largest student-run organization, will honor Judge Edward Chen ’79 with its Alumni of the Year Award as well as this year’s Dale Minami ’71 Public Interest Fellowship recipient. The dinner raises funds to help endow the fellowship; candidates are selected for their diverse backgrounds, exceptional academic and professional accomplishments, leadership in community service, and commitment to social justice and public interest work. More information about the dinner and fellowship program is available here. (01/25/10)
Holly Doremus Refutes Part of 60 Minutes Story
Berkeley Law Professor Holly Doremus, an expert on environmental and natural resources law, recently took CBS’s 60 Minutes to task for a December segment it aired about the California water crisis that was flawed by major inaccuracies and omissions. In a post on Legal Planet—a popular blog maintained by Berkeley Law and UCLA Law School faculty—Doremus faulted the news program for accepting “... a tall tale concocted by anti-regulatory interests: that protecting the Delta smelt has economically crippled California agriculture.” Citing an independent report from a University of the Pacific economist, Doremus says that the San Joaquin Valley’s economic downturn was caused by the collapse of the housing market, not water shortages. (01/11/10)
Legal Studies Program Names New Director
Professor Michael Musheno has been named Berkeley Law's new Director of Legal Studies. The Legal Studies Program, an interdisciplinary major for undergraduates in law and legal studies, provides a substantive liberal arts curriculum on law and legal institutions, practices, and discourses. A criminal justice professor at San Francisco State, Musheno has developed and directed legal studies programs both there and at Arizona State. He has already served Berkeley Law as a Legal Studies Program lecturer, a researcher, and a Distinguished Affiliated Scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society. Musheno will be oversee the Legal Studies Program’s daily administration and act as chief faculty adviser to all Legal Studies majors. (01/11/10)
Melissa Murray Receives Junior Faculty Award
Berkeley Law assistant professor Melissa Murray recently received the 2010 Association of American Law Schools (AALS) Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Award. Every year, the Executive Committee of the AALS Minority Groups Section bestows the award on a junior faculty member who has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching, and scholarship. After graduating from Yale Law School in 2002, Murray clerked for Sonia Sotomayor—the newly appointed U.S. Supreme Court Justice—on the U.S 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Murray, who teaches family law and criminal law, focuses her research on the roles that each play in articulating the legal parameters of intimate life. (01/11/10)
Barton Gaut ’62 To Retire From State Bench
After a 47-year legal career, Judge Barton Gaut ’62 of the California Court of Appeal’s Fourth Appellate District will retire at the end of February. In 12 years at the Court of Appeal, Gaut authored about 1,900 opinions. Previously, he spent 33 years at Best Best & Krieger, specializing in complex civil trial and appellate litigation, and two years as a Riverside County Superior Court judge. A past president of the Riverside County Bar Association, Gaut was a regular Best Lawyers of America entry in business litigation. Manuel Ramirez, the presiding justice of Gaut’s court, describes him as “hardworking, productive, and always available … principled but open to a different perspective.” (01/11/10)
Calvin Morrill to Lead Law School’s Center for the Study of Law and Society
Calvin Morrill, a visiting professor in Berkeley Law’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy program this past school year, was named director of the law school’s Center for the Study of Law and Society. A top expert in ethnography and generally qualitative methods, Morrill recently chaired UC Irvine’s Department of Sociology and was co-director of its Center for Organizational Research. He was also a professor of sociology, business, and criminology, law & society at the school. (01/01/10)
Jeffrey Smith ’88 Named Santa Clara County Executive
Soon after approving one of its darkest budgets in years, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors chose Jeffrey Smith ’88 as its new county executive. As executive director of the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center and Health Centers, Smith has overseen Contra Costa County’s general acute care hospital, outpatient clinics, and detention health services for county jail and juvenile facilities. Previously, he served as a Contra Costa County supervisor and Martinez city councilman. (01/01/10)
Two Berkeley Law Grads Named to California Court of Appeal
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently appointed three judges to the California’s First District Court of Appeal, including two Berkeley Law alumni: Terence Bruiniers ’73 and Robert Dondero ’70. Bruiniers had been a Contra Costa Superior Court judge since 1998, before which he was a principal for Farrand, Cooper & Bruiniers and an Alameda County deputy district attorney. Dondero had been a San Francisco Superior Court judge since 1992, before which he was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Justice Department and a deputy district attorney in San Francisco. (01/01/10)
Helene Kim to Lead New International Program
Helene Kim has been named the first executive director of Berkeley Law’s new International Executive Legal Education Program. Her extensive legal and management experience includes stints working at the Great Wall Law Firm in Shanghai and with McKinsey & Co. in Seoul. Kim also co-founded an organization that developed an online learning application that provides college preparatory counseling and cross-border foreign language learning instruction through real-time video-conferencing. A graduate of Harvard Law, Kim served on then-Senator Barack Obama’s Asian-American Pacific Islander Leadership Council during his presidential campaign in 2008. (01/01/10)
IP Faculty Rated Nation’s Best by Recent Poll
A recent informal poll conducted by University of Chicago Law School professor Brian Leiter ranked Berkeley Law’s intellectual property faculty as the best in the nation. More than 300 people cast votes in the poll, which asked participants to rank listed faculties “in terms of their scholarly distinction in the areas of intellectual property and Cyberlaw.” Berkeley Law’s intellectual property group—Amy Kapczynski, Peter Menell, Robert Merges, Pamela Samuelson, Suzanne Scotchmer, Paul Schwartz, Talha Syed, and Molly Van Houweling—was rated first among faculty units from 24 law schools. (01/01/10)
Miller Institute Files Third-Party Intervention
The Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law has submitted a third-party intervention to the European Court of Human Rights on Kaos GL v. Turkey. The case raises questions regarding states’ obligations to protect rights of sexual expression for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people under the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The institute partnered with two human rights organizations in drafting the intervention, which argues that open-ended and vague obscenity clauses that restrict freedom of expression are incompatible with global understandings of sexual expression as a basic right. Drafters included Miller Institute senior fellow and lecturer in residence Alice Miller, and Berkeley Law students Janaki Gandhi ’10 and Celeste Kaufman ’10. (01/01/10)
Raymond Ocampo, Jr. ’76 Wins Diversity Award
Raymond Ocampo, Jr. ’76 will receive a Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. Commission chair Fred Alvarez called Ocampo “a tireless champion of diversity throughout his career” and “a vocal leader during a time when silence about inequities was the professional norm.” Ocampo was the first minority director of Hastings College of Law’s Legal Educational Opportunity Program. Later, as Oracle Corporation’s general counsel, he required outside counsel to assign women and minorities to company cases. After retiring from Oracle, Ocampo co-founded the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology in 1997 and was executive director for two years. (01/01/10)
Obama Taps Michael Mundaca ’92 For Tax Post
President Barack Obama has nominated Michael Mundaca ’92 to be Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy. Mundaca served in the Treasury Department during the Clinton Administration and returned in 2007 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs. Before that appointment, he was a partner for over five years in the international tax services group of Ernst & Young’s tax department in Washington, D.C. Mundaca also worked for more than five years in the Treasury’s Office of the International Tax Counsel, and served as the department’s Senior Advisor on Electronic Commerce. While a student at Berkeley Law, Mundaca was senior executive editor of the California Law Review and member of the Order of the Coif. (01/01/10)
Harini Raghupathi ’06 Takes Aim at ‘Sheriff Joe’
Harini Raghupathi ’06, a Skadden Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project, recently co-authored a complaint against “Sheriff Joe,” Sheriff Joseph Arpaio, and Maricopa County (AZ). The complaint is challenging the arrest and detention of Julian Mora and his son Julio Mora, legal U.S. residents who were arrested while driving down a public roadway and taken to the site of an immigration raid by Sheriff’s Office deputies. It also alleges racial profiling and violating constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law and prohibition of unreasonable seizures. (01/01/10)
State Supreme Court Coming to Berkeley Law
Berkeley Law will host a full-day special outreach session of the California Supreme Court on November 3 in Booth Auditorium. For the ninth consecutive year, the Court will hear oral arguments outside chambers as part of its community outreach efforts. The whole Boalt community is invited to attend; cases to be argued and links to the briefs will be made available in early October. (11/01/09)
Jonathan Simon ’87 Joins Popular Faculty Blog
Professor Jonathan Simon ’87 recently signed on as a regular contributor to PrawfsBlawg, a popular law blog written by various law school faculty members, for the balance of the academic year. The Associate Dean of Berkeley Law’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program and faculty co-chair of the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice, Simon had been a guest blogger with PrawfsBlawg. (11/01/09)
Michael Posner ’75 Nominated to High-Ranking State Department Position
President Barack Obama has nominated Michael Posner ’75 for Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the U.S. Department of State. Now president of Human Rights First, formerly the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Posner has traveled to more than 50 countries on behalf of that organization and others like it. In particular, he has promoted the rights of refugees and displaced people, and pushed for stronger industry standards to ensure fair labor conditions in global manufacturing supply chains. (11/01/09)
John Phillips ’69 to Chair White House Fellowships Selection Group
John Phillips ’69 has been named 2009-10 chair of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, which recommends candidates for the leadership development and public service program that includes Jason Snyder ’02 among this year’s 14 members. Phillips founded the Center for Law in Public Interest in 1971 and was its co-director for 17 years. Corporate fraud lawsuits filed by his firm, Phillips and Cohen, have returned $4 billion to the government. Over the past decade, he has been named among the National Law Journal’s “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America.” (11/01/09)
Laurel Fletcher Takes Over at International Journal
Laurel Fletcher, director of the International Human Rights Law Clinic, has been named Co-Editor in Chief of the peer-reviewed International Journal of Transitional Justice. Berkeley Law will serve as a sponsoring institution for the journal, published three times a year by Oxford University Press; the co-sponsor is the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa. Fletcher seeks to bring prominent scholars and practitioners to the law school to engage with students and faculty, host topical workshops and symposia, and help establish Berkeley Law as a leader in transitional justice. (11/01/09)
Jawwad S. Khawaja ’75 Joins Supreme Court of Pakistan
Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja, who earned his LL.M. from Berkeley Law in 1975, has been appointed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Khawaja served on the Lahore High Court for eight years before resigning in protest during Pakistan’s 2007 constitutional crisis. He then joined the Lahore University of Management Science faculty as head of its Law and Policy Department. An expert on constitutional law, legal reform and policy, and commercial laws, Khawaja has decided many cases involving issues of first impression. Several of his judgments have been reported in law journals and are included in Pakistani law curriculums. His research on improving Pakistan’s quality of justice has targeted institutional reforms to deliver prompt and inexpensive redress to litigants, and gathering accurate data from court records to ascertain causes for delay in deciding cases. (06/26/09)
James McManis ’67 Named President of the Boalt Hall Alumni Association
James McManis '67 has succeeded Nan Joesten '97 as president of the Boalt Hall Hall Alumni Association. Jim has been a member of the alumni board since 2002, and among his many leadership roles on campus, he served previously as chair of the reunion campaigns (2007) and chair of the Boalt Hall Fund (2005). New members to the BHAA Board of Directors include Greg Broome '90, Gail Dolton '86, Hector Huezo '08, John Kuo '88, Mark Lubin '77, Jay Shafran '63, Gail Title '70, Diane Yu '77 and Mitchell Zuklie '96. (06/25/09)
Thai Judges Visit Berkeley Law
The Judiciary of Thailand is sending 35 judges to Berkeley Law from June 8th to 19th to study consumer protection laws. They are taking a customized course designed and taught by Professor Kenneth Bamberger as part of the International Program for Judicial Studies. The program, organized and run by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, strives to increase the knowledge and experience of judiciaries worldwide, thereby promoting the rule of law. For more information on the International Program for Judicial Studies, visit the Miller Institute's website: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/index.htmlcenters/the-miller-institute-for-global-challenges-and-law/. (06/10/09)
Robert Barr Named Top IP Specialist
Berkeley Center for Law and Technology Executive Director Robert Barr has been named one of Intellectual Asset Management's IAM 250. The magazine's list identified "individuals who are regarded as world class IP strategists by their peers." This is the first time the magazine has compiled a list of top of IP specialists. (06/10/09)
Thai Judges Visit Berkeley Law
The Judiciary of Thailand is sending 35 judges to Berkeley Law from June 8th to 19th to study consumer protection laws. They are taking a customized course designed and taught by Professor Kenneth Bamberger as part of the International Program for Judicial Studies. The program, organized and run by the Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, strives to increase the knowledge and experience of judiciaries worldwide, thereby promoting the rule of law. For more information on the International Program for Judicial Studies, visit the Miller Institute's website: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/index.htmlcenters/the-miller-institute-for-global-challenges-and-law/. (06/10/09)
Robert Barr Named Top IP Specialist
Berkeley Center for Law and Technology Executive Director Robert Barr has been named one of Intellectual Asset Management's IAM 250. The magazine's list identified "individuals who are regarded as world class IP strategists by their peers." This is the first time the magazine has compiled a list of top of IP specialists. (06/10/09)
Dinah Shelton ’70 Makes History at Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
On June 4, Dinah Shelton ’70 became the first American woman elected Commissioner of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Voted in by the Organization of American States General Assembly, Shelton—a leading authority on international law and a prize-winning author—will begin serving her four-year term in January 2010. The seven-member commission reviews and investigates human rights cases within the framework of the inter-American system’s legal instruments. A professor at George Washington University Law School, Shelton was nominated for the commissioner position by the Obama Administration on March 3. A former visiting lecturer at Berkeley Law, Shelton has been a human rights consultant to the United Nations and Council of Europe and has assisted major health and environmental organizations. A Vice President of the American Society of International Law, she sits on the board of several nongovernmental organizations concerned with human rights, including the rights of indigenous peoples. (06/09/09)
Obama Nominates Berkeley Law Alum for DOJ Post
President Obama has nominated Berkeley Law alum Christopher Schroeder '74 to be assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy. Schroeder is currently the Charles S. Murphy Professor of Law and Professor of Public Policy Studies, and director of the Program in Public Law at Duke University. Schroeder was editor of the California Law Review when he was at Berkeley Law. Read more at the White House web site. (06/01/09)
Clinton, Lavrov and Berkeley Law Student Rebecca Callaway
Berkeley Law student Rebecca Callaway (center) takes notes during a recent meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Conference on Afghanistan at the Hague. Callaway is a field placement student working at the U.S. Embassy in the Hague. Photo by Krister Evenhouse www.efg-design.nl (05/05/09)
Keady ’08 Named Student Services Advisor
Trish Keady ’08 has joined Berkeley Law’s Student Services team as its student advisor. In her new role, Keady will provide academic and personal advising and counseling for Berkeley Law students. Last year, she worked as the law school’s Public Interest Skills Fellow and played a key role in promoting the Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects. Before that, Keady was an attorney in the San Francisco office of Sedgwick LLP, an international trial and litigation law firm. As a law student, she was active with the East Bay Workers Rights Clinic and also worked at the East Bay Community Law Center. (09/16/03)