Spotlights

Professors Saira Mohamed and Bertrall Ross are among 21 winners of the annual Berlin Prize, semester-long residential fellowships given to top scholars, writers, composers, and artists from the U.S. Mohamed will explore the military obligation to disobey illegal orders, and Ross will probe competing conceptions of self-government that culminated in the 15th Amendment. 

The all-time 250 most-cited legal scholars, based on a multi-metric analysis of articles in a law-focused online database, ranks four past and present Berkeley Law professors among the top 17. HeinOnline’s list includes Orin Kerr (5th), Dean Erwin Chemerinsky (17th), and five other current faculty members.

The new issue of Transcript, our biannual magazine, is arriving in mailboxes this week. Content includes our cover feature on the visionary tech-law work that made Berkeley America’s top-ranked law school in the field, a photo essay revealing different aspects of the Berkeley Law experience, stories on extraordinary faculty, students, and alumni, and plenty more.

Professor Emeritus and renowned legal scholar Malcolm Feeley is among nine UC Berkeley faculty members who were elected this year to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Founded in 1780, the prestigious organization recognizes America’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders.

Works co-written by Profs. Adam Badawi (Is There a First-Drafter Advantage in M&A?) and Steven Davidoff Solomon (The New Titans of Wall Street: A Theoretical Framework for Passive Investors) are among Corporate Practice Commentator’s Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2019. Berkeley Law faculty have made the list five times in the past two years.

Prof. Prasad Krishnamurthy urges California Gov. Gavin Newsom to modify existing contracts to give residents financial relief amid COVID-19. His Mercury News op-ed calls for a temporary moratorium on nonpayment actions for auto, housing, student loan, and credit card debt, and says that while no debt would be forgiven, borrowers could delay payments.

Six Berkeley Law alumni were named to the Hollywood Reporter’s 2020 list of entertainment’s top 100 lawyers: Harold Brown’76, Scott Edelman ’84, Patti Felker ’83, Bruce Gellman ’91, Cliff GIlbert-Lurie ’79, and Michael Schenkman ’90. Only three other law schools had more graduates on the annual compilation.

COVID-19 canceled spring break pro bono service trips for dozens of Berkeley Law students, but that hasn’t slowed their purpose. Lee Ann Felder-Heim ’21 planned to assist immigrant women and their children at a detention facility in Texas, but instead worked remotely providing (in Spanish) release and other vital information to detainees.

Berkeley Boosts Shorts, a new Executive Education series starting March 23, offers half-hour free daily webinar conversations over two weeks with leading voices in law and business. It will explore the financial crisis and its impact on the legal profession, M&A, Federal Reserve, regulation, short-selling, insurance, law schools, and more. Register here.

Ken Alex, head of Berkeley Law’s Project Climate, has been awarded the Order of Merit by Germany’s Baden-Wurttemburg state (its top prize). It honors Alex’s lead role in creating a partnership between the state and California and in building the Under2 Coalition, a global network of 220-plus governments dedicated to ambitious climate action.