September 26, 2016
Law School Community Newsletter

A quarterly newsletter to keep members of the UCI Law community connected

A Note from Erwin

Dear Friends,

As we are well into our eighth year of classes, this is a very exciting and wonderful time at UCI Law School.

First, we welcomed four new full-time faculty members, bringing the number of full-time professors to an all-time high of 48. Professor Reuven S. Avi-Yonah joins us from the University of Michigan, where he has been the Irwin I. Cohn Professor of Law and Director of the International Tax LLM program. He is one of the leading experts in the country in tax law. He will begin teaching at UCI Law in fall 2017. Professor Leah Litman, who was a Climenko Fellow & Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and previously clerked for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court, will teach courses on Constitutional Law, federal courts, and post-conviction justice. Professor Alison Mikkor, who joins us from NYU School of Law and who worked as a litigator for nearly a decade, will teach lawyering skills. Professor Eda Katharine (Katie) Tinto, who was most recently at the Cardozo School of Law and previously worked as a public defender in Los Angeles County, will direct our new Criminal Justice Clinic.

Additionally, Professor Joan Biskupic and Professor Burt Neuborne are joining our school as visiting faculty members. Professor Biskupic is on a one-year sabbatical from her position at Reuters as Editor in Charge, Legal Affairs, and also serves as a legal analyst and U.S Supreme Court biographer for CNN. Professor Neuborne, one of the nation’s foremost civil liberties lawyers, is visiting from the NYU School of Law where he is the Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties and founding Legal Director of the Brennan Center for Justice.

Last spring our students participated in the Law School Survey of Student Engagement, which asks students a variety of questions about their law school experience. Our students reported a 95 percent satisfaction rate with UCI Law and far outpaced respondents at other participating schools in this and many other categories. In particular, our students reported resoundingly that they developed clear career goals, contributed to the welfare of their community, and acquired job or work-related knowledge and skills as a result of their time at UCI Law. This is no doubt in large part due to the role our clinical and pro bono programs play in a student's experience at UCI Law, and it is wonderful to hear they are satisfied with their education, and feel well-equipped as a result of it. 

Finally, our school has been recognized for the employment our alumni are obtaining immediately following graduation. A recent National Law Journal ranking of 2015 alums placed us 2nd in nation in obtaining government and public interest jobs, and 6th in the nation in obtaining federal clerkships.

I hope you enjoy this edition of UCI Law News. As you will read, our students, alumni, faculty and friends continue to achieve a wide range of impressive accomplishments.

Warm regards,

Erwin

In this issue

  • Dedicated Supporters
  • Enriching Our Community
  • Alumni Notes
  • Stellar Students
  • Faculty News
  • In Closing
Upcoming Events

October 7, 2016
"Race and Policing: Defining the Problem and Developing Solutions," featuring UCI Law Profs. Mario Barnes, Jennifer Chacon, Erwin Chemerinsky, Michele Goodwin, Kaaryn Gustafson, Song Richardson and Henry Weinstein
Details

October 19-22, 2016
2016 World Indigenous Law Conference, co-sponsored by the Center on Globalization, Law & Society and Office of Inclusive Excellence, ADVANCE Program for Equity & Diversity, UC Irvine

October 28, 2016
IP and Human Rights Conference with UCI Law Profs. Dan Burk and David Kaye

November 15, 2016
Al Meyerhoff Lecture in Public Interest Law, featuring Pamela S. Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and Co-Director of the Supreme Court Litigation at Stanford Law School

January 30, 2017
UCI Law 2016-17 Moot Court Finals

March 6, 2017
Raymond Pryke First Amendment Law Lecture, featuring Laura Weinrib, Assistant Professor of Law, Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar and Associate Member Department of History at the University of Chicago, Law School

April 7, 2017
Judge Stephen Reinhardt and Ramona Ripston Lecture on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, featuring Stephen B. Bright, President and Senior Counsel, Southern Center for Human Rights

May 12, 2017
Public Service Award Dinner
DEDICATED SUPPORTERS
We recently launched a new national  Civil Justice Research Institute to explore, through interdisciplinary, academically-based and independent research, how the civil justice system can be made more available to everyone seeking relief. T he Institute will be assisted by a prominent national Board of Advisors, chaired by Roman Silberfeld, Executive Board Member of Robins Kaplan LLP. UCI Law has received approximately $1 million in monetary support for the Institute from across the country, led by a $300,000 gift from Bentham IMF, the pioneer and world leader in commercial litigation funding, and a $250,000 gift from Richard Bridgford, Founding Partner of Bridgford, Gleason & Artinian.

UCI Law is uniquely situated to create a Civil Justice Research Institute that will lead a new discussion on access to courts. In the 2015 study by University of St. Thomas School of Law, the UCI Law faculty ranked No. 6 in the nation in scholarly impact. UC Irvine is a top research university with strong interdisciplinary programs and well-established scholars in law-related fields across campus, including Social Ecology, Social Sciences, Business, Physical Sciences and Psychology. Topics for research will include issues that influence the growing limits on access to our court system, including (among other topics) inadequate funding of state and federal courts, increased use of compulsory arbitration clauses, restrictions on class action lawsuits and limits on punitive damages.

We are very grateful for our supporters of the Civil Justice Research Institute. We believe that it will have a profound impact on legal scholarship, and will explore how the civil justice system can be made more available to everyone seeking relief.

We also extend our deepest gratitude to John S. and Marilyn Long of the Long Family Foundation for their  $2.75 million donation to the Long U.S.-China  Institute. This gift will help expand interdisciplinary research with the School of Social Sciences and the Paul Merage School of Business, and will allow us to continue to develop an institute focused on developing a stronger, mutual understanding of commerce between the two countries.

We're so thankful to all of our supporters, including Marcia Brandwynne  (right), who turned a lifelong passion for helping others into a successful career as a television journalist, news anchor and producer. For an encore career, she now works as an intern in a low-cost clinic after becoming a marriage and family therapist for people in need of mental health care. It is her philanthropy and dedication to memorializing her late husband Al Meyerhoff's commitment to service as a public interest lawyer that has created her bond with UCI Law. Mr. Meyerhoff was a renowned labor, environmental and civil rights lawyer who dedicated his career to helping under-represented groups. In 2010 Marcia memorialized her late husband’s deep commitment to public service by creating the “Al Meyerhoff Public Interest Fellows” at UCI Law. Since then, Marcia has helped support students annually as they work in non-paying summer public interest jobs for a wide array of public service agencies including the Southern Environmental Law Center, the Alliance for Children’s Rights, and many others. Additionally, the Al Meyerhoff Lecture in Public Interest Law is presented annually at the law school to commemorate his life and contributions and to honor Marcia for her philanthropy.  We are grateful to Marcia for her generosity and for her commitment to supporting UCI Law students’ public interest work.

“I strongly believe in what Al personified, in his commitment to helping people, and I hope this encourages other young people to do the same,” Marcia says. “UCI Law is the perfect place to memorialize his amazing contribution to our society.”

This year's Al Meyerhoff Lecture in Public Interest Law will be given on November 15, 2016 by Pamela S. Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and Co-Director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School. 

ENRICHING OUR COMMUNITY
We are pleased to announce the new  Criminal Justice Clinic.  Under Director Katharine Tinto (right), this core clinic will allow students to zealously represent low-income individuals charged with misdemeanors in state criminal court, as well as work on broader criminal justice reform projects and other related matters. Through these community-based projects and the clinic seminar, students will place their individual client work in the broader context of the local community and criminal justice system.

Student participation in the Pro Bono Program is a significant part of UCI Law’s culture. Ask a UCI Law student or alum about their pro bono experience, and 92 percent of them will be able to tell you what they've done. As a new year begins, the pro bono culture is as strong as ever. Nearly 50 percent of the Class of 2016 graduated with Pro Bono Honors or High Honors, and the current students are equally as excited about pro bono - they've volunteered for positions with more than 50 pro bono projects this semester.

UCI Law students have also continued to be proactive in creating Pro Bono Program clinics and projects where they see a need.  One of the newest projects is the Transgender Name and Gender Change Clinic. The project was born from the work of a dedicated group, including recent alum  Jordan Aiken ’16. Training for volunteers was provided by  Bennett Kaspar ’14, and the ongoing work of the clinic is a collaboration of UCI Law students, led by  Helen Boyer (2L) and  Zackory Burns (2L), along with the LGBT Center in Santa Ana, and a group of dedicated community attorneys, led by  Stephen Hicklin. Mr. Hicklin recently received a Torchbearer Award from the LGBT Center of Orange County due in large part to his work establishing the Name and Gender Change Clinic.

There are several other pro bono projects where UCI Law students continue to provide legal services that were not previously available in Orange County. These projects include Disabled and Elderly Benefits (SSI) clinic; Domestic Violence Declarations; the Education Rights Project; Elder Abuse Restraining Orders; Clean Slate Clinic Expungement Project; Immigration Applications for Undocumented Student Travel Abroad; Innocence Project Collaboration; Saturday Academy of Law; Street Law; Victims of Crime Special Visas (U-Visa); and the Wage Theft Clinic.  

Alumni have played a crucial role in providing pro bono projects and supervision to our students.  This semester the following alums are supervising pro bono projects: Caroline Shurig (’15 with LAF in Chicago); Stefanie Wilson (’14 with Animal Legal Defense Fund); Leah Gasser-Ordaz (’14 CARES) (left); Chris Taylor (’13 IRAP); Namita Thakker (’15 IRAP); Alex Kim (’15 IRAP); and Brooke Weitzman (’14 Criminal Justice Court Watch).

We are also very proud of the continued growth of our  Saturday Academy of Law  program. Since 2009, we've sought to expose a diverse population of local 9th grade students to the legal profession, and offer classes that improve their reading, writing and critical thinking skills. More than 500 students have completed the program since its launch, and we have now expanded to include the Anaheim Union High School District, the Garden Grove Unified School District and the Santa Ana Unified School District. We are excited to see the positive impact this expansion will have on the communities and the legal profession. 

UC President Janet Napolitano recently unveiled the University of California President's Public Service Law Fellowships, a $4.5 million annual public interest fellowship program available to students and recent graduates at the four UC law schools. Each year the program will send about 425 law students into public interest summer jobs, and another 60 recent graduates will receive $45,000 to spend a year working in public interest. 

UCI Law students are working every day to close the justice gap, while using their legal skills to help underserved communities and causes locally and globally. We look forward to what the Class of 2019 will do to continue the tradition of service learning.  
ALUMNI NEWS
We congratulate Christina Zabat-Fran ’12 (right) on her promotion to General Counsel of St. John overseeing all of the legal matters for St. John! In addition to this stellar career accomplishment, she is the Chair of the Corporate Counsel Section and on the Board of Directors for the Orange County Bar Association. This year, the Orange County Business Journal named Christina to its 2016 class of General Counsel Rising Star honorees and its 2016 class of Women in Business honorees. 

In August, Stefanie Wilson '14, a litigation fellow with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, spoke to students about her work with the ALDF as part of the Law School’s Guest Speaker Series. While at UCI Law, Stefanie participated in the National Animal Law Moot Court Competition and was founder and president of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund chapter at UCI Law. She is also currently serving on the UCI Law Alumni Association Governing Council. She is pictured here with Prof. Henry Weinstein. 

Jordan Aiken ’16 (right) received the prestigious Equal Justice Works Fellowship, sponsored by Greenberg Traurig, LLP. In this role, Jordan will help alleviate health challenges faced by low-income transgender individuals. Jordan is launching her project at Bet Tzedek, a nonprofit organization that provides free legal advice and representation to low-income residents of Los Angeles. Equal Justice Works Fellowships allow law school graduates to design innovative projects that positively impact vulnerable communities around the country. Winners are selected based on quality of their proposed project, leadership abilities and demonstrated commitment to public interest.
Three alums from the class of 2016 are participating in the Gideon’s Promise Law School Partnership Program, the most of any law school in the nation. Gideon’s Promise seeks to inspire and train legal professionals to provide the highest quality defense representation to the indigent in the Southern United States. Aaron Adams is working in Lafayette, La. as part of the 15th Judicial District Public Defender’s office; Leigh Dickey is working in her hometown of Memphis, Tenn. in the Shelby County Public Defender’s office; and Elizabeth Tissot is working in Birmingham, Ala. in the Jefferson County Community Law Office. Through the program, UCI Law will fund the trio’s fellowship for up to one year, after which Gideon’s Promise will secure the alums a full-time position at a public defender’s office.
The UCI Law Alumni Association sponsored Summer Socials to connect alumni with students across the nation. Events were held in the District of Columbia, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York City, Orange County, Portland, San Francisco and San Diego. 
STELLAR STUDENTS
This year, we welcomed 143 first-year students -- our largest first-year class ever!  Applications for the incoming first-year class rose 31 percent and our incoming class comes from 80 undergraduate institutions, 25 states and the District of Columbia, and five countries outside the U.S. We now have 357 students across our three classes. 

Our students continue to impress locally, nationally and globally. Some of the most recent awards and honors by our students are listed here, including the inaugural Outstanding Student Scholarship awarded to Jiaxiao Zhang '17 from the Howard T. Markey Intellectual Property Inn of Court, an Orange County-based American Inn of Court focused on Intellectual Property Litigation and dedicated to upholding the standards of the legal profession, practicing law with dignity and respect, and encouraging respect for our system of justice.
The UCI Law student organization International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) (right) was recognized with three awards at the end of last academic year by the University. Out of more than 600 registered student organizations at UC Irvine, IRAP received the most awards on campus, including the Most Outstanding Graduate Organization, the Most Outstanding International Organization and Alexis Federico '16 was recognized as President of the Year. The UCI Law chapter of IRAP is associated with the international organization, and allows students to help refugees from the Middle East and North Africa in applying for resettlement to safer countries. In January 2016, the  UCI Law IRAP chapter sent three law students to do pro bono work in Beirut, Lebanon .
Zackory Burns '18 was named the  2016 M. Katherine Baird Darmer Equality Scholarship winner at the OC Lavender Bar Association 6th Anniversary Party this summer. The annual scholarship is named after the late Chapman Law Professor Darmer, a passionate advocate for LGBT equality, and is given to students who share her vision of a just society and a progressive Orange County. Zackory is currently the co-chair of the Transgender Name and Gender Marker Change Clinic launched by UCI Law students to serve the legal needs of the transgender population in Orange County.

UCI Law students in our VA Benefits Pro Bono Project with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP successfully appealed a Board of Veterans' Appeals decision that denied service-connected benefits to a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of his military service in Iraq in 2006.

Finally, UCI Law students participating in our pro bono Clean Slate Clinic successfully expunged five drug-related misdemeanor sentences from a local woman's record. Judge James H. Poole said on the record that the motion stood out as being exceptionally well-crafted, and granted it despite an objection from the city attorney.  
FACULTY NEWS
Thank you to all who joined us in July for our 6th annual Supreme Court Term in Review, moderated by Prof. Rick Hasen. The event - which also featured Robert Barnes of The Washington Post; Robert J. Bashman of the Law Offices of Howard J. Bashman and author of the How Appealing Blog; Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, Prof. Kaaryn Gustafson; and Dahlia Lithwick of Slatereviewed key cases from the October 2015 term. More than 700 people attended the event, with many more tuning in to our livestream.  You can recap the event in video, news, photos and social media here, and also as a part of our UCI Law Talks podcast.   
   

Also available on our UCI Law Talks podcast is a preview of the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term, featuring Visiting Professor Joan Biskupic and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky ; as well as a discussion with UC Chancellor  Howard Gillman  and  Dean Erwin Chemerinsky  on  freedom of speech  on college campuses. The discussion comes in part from experiences Gillman and Chemerinksy had in teaching a freshman seminar on the subject, and the duo are turning their findings into a book, expected in 2017. 

We are a couple short months away from electing a new president. You can follow Prof.  Rick Hasen and other faculty’s commentary on voting rights, campaign donors and everything else Election Law from one convenient  page

Congratulations to Prof.  Rick Hasen and Adjunct Prof. Mark Rosenbaum, who were both named to the Daily Journal's annual list of the "Top 100 Lawyers in California." 

Contributing to UCI Law's No. 6 ranking among U.S. law school faculties for scholarly impact in 2015, the  IP faculty at UCI Law have written treatises, monographs, casebooks and articles that are regularly referenced by courts and relied upon by legislatures and other scholars. Be sure to check out their most recent scholarship  here.

Dean  Erwin Chemerinsky , Adjunct Prof.  Mark Rosenbaum , and alumna  Alisa Hartz  '12 are serving as co-counsel in  a lawsuit  seeking equal access to literacy for Detroit schoolchildren. 

Our faculty was honored with numerous awards and distinctions recently. Dean Chemerinsky was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; Prof. Omri Marian was named National Reporter for Congress of the European Association of Tax Law Professors; Prof. Stephen Lee was elected to the American Law Institute; Prof. Michele Goodwin won the Outstanding Faculty Award from Law Students for Reproductive Justice;  Prof. Elizabeth Loftus received the 2016 Isaac Asimov Science Award from the American Humanist Association; Prof. Gregory Shaffer won the inaugural John Jackson Prize from the Journal of International Economic Law for an article on the WTO and subsidies; and Prof. Christopher Leslie won Best Private Enforcement Article from the American Antitrust Institute.

A recent ranking by Brian Leiter listed our faculty the  9th highest percentage  of “most-cited” tenured faculty. Also from Brian Leiter’s rankings, Prof. Dan Burk was ranked the 3rd most-cited Intellectual Property & Cyberlaw faculty;  Dean Chemerinsky  was ranked the 2nd most-cited Constitutional & Public Law faculty, and the 2nd most-cited  law professor in the U.S.; Prof. Bryant Garth was ranked 9th most-cited Law & Social Science faculty; Prof.  Christopher Leslie  was ranked the  6th most-cited  antitrust faculty; Prof. Carrie Menkel-Meadow was ranked a "highly-cited" faculty in law and social science;  and Prof.  Gregory Shaffer  was ranked  20th most-cited  International Law faculty. You can view all of our faculty's most recent scholarship here
Prof.  Olufunmilayo Arewa  wrote about the  exploitation of cultural appropriation , and participated in the "Diversity in Investing/Investing in Diversity"  panel  at the North American Securities Administrators Association. Prof.  Alejandro Camacho   contributed  to the Environmental Law Institute debate among experts on species conservation, and co-authored an opinion piece on how administrative agencies  respond to change .  Prof . Catherine Fisk  wrote on  education reform  and the need for great teachers, and is  serving as co-counsel  in a gender discrimination class action. Prof.  Michele Goodwin  co-authored a piece on the  impact of adult mass incarceration  on children and communities, and served on a  PBS panel  discussing whether organs should be sold. Prof.  David Kaye , UN Special Rapporteur on the freedom of opinion and expression, conducted  an official visit  to Japan to explore media issues, and later held a  press conference  on his findings. Prof.  Omri Marian on Bloomberg Law discussed the European Commission's decision to fine Apple Corp. $13 billion Prof.  Carrie Menkel-Meadow  wrote about  online dispute resolution  and its relationship to ADR, as well as the  history of ADR.  Prof.  David Min   presented testimony  at a hearing on bank settlement agreements and appropriations powers in front of the House Financial Services Committee. Prof. Katherine Porter was recognized for playing a  pivotal role  in leading the mortgage lender Special Monitor program. Prof.  Robert Solomon  discussed a LA County measure to  tax marijuana  to help combat homelessness. Prof.  Jane Stoever   wrote an op-ed  on firearms and domestic violence. Prof.  Song Richardson   spoke about implicit bias  in an ABA series attempting to eliminate bias in the justice system. 
IN CLOSING...
We close by once more congratulating our Class of 2016. Please be sure to view the highlights of commencement through videos, photos and social media.

The class joins the illustrious group that is UCI Law alumni. Together they are a group of thought leaders, public servants, advocates and conduits for change. 

Not too far behind in their footsteps is the class of 2019, whose orientation program in August 2016 can be recapped  here. We again welcome them to our wonderful community. 
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