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LAW BRIEFS
Exploring the Future of the Legal Profession
In October, Santa Clara Law and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati hosted a symposium: “Disrupting the Law: The Future of the Legal Profession, Education, and Technology in Silicon Valley.” More than 100 leaders, practitioners, and academics gathered in Charney Hall to discuss the market forces that are changing the law school experience—from pipeline programs to legal degree programs to post-graduation opportunities. At the event, Larry W. Sonsini (above), senior and founding partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, gave a talk on the future of the legal profession. Other speakers included Kellye Y. Testy, president and CEO, Law School Admission Council; Colleen V. Chien and Eric Goldman, professors, Santa Clara Law; Dorian E. Daley J.D. ’86, EVP, general counsel and secretary, Oracle Corporation; Marie Oh Huber, SVP legal affairs, general counsel & secretary, eBay Inc.; Bart Volkmer J.D. ’02, general counsel, Dropbox; and Nicole A. Shanahan J.D. ’14, founder and CEO, ClearAccessIP.
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Busy law students can now grab coffee or a snack to fuel their studies in Charney Hall, thanks to the Side Bar Café, which opened in August. Sponsored by Larry Sonsini, the cafe’s offerings include coffee drinks, sandwiches, snacks, and juices. “I like Side Bar Café mainly because it’s a huge reminder to me that I need to eat when I pass by it before class or on my way to study,” says law student Jessica Miers. “Law school is such an incredible time sink where you bury your head in your books and look up and suddenly it’s midnight. It also destroys the excuse of ‘oh well I don’t have time to go get food’ because it’s literally downstairs.”
KEITH SUTTER
New Side Bar Café Refuels Students for Study
Many Santa Clara Law students attended the Leadership in the Legal Profession symposium, including the student board members of the Santa Clara Law chapter of ChIPs (Chiefs In IP), a 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to advancing women at the confluence of technology, law, and policy. From left: Karin Hjorth, Allison White, Sonya Aggarwal, Lauryn Younge, and Gloria Liang, pictured here with Dorian E. Daley J.D. ’86 (fourth from left), EVP, general counsel and secretary, Oracle Corporation, who was a panelist during the event.
SCU Hosts Symposium on Leadership in the Legal Profession
On March 23, the Santa Clara Law Review and the Association of American Law Schools collaborated to host “Advancing Leadership in the Legal Profession,” a conference exploring leadership education training. One of the first events held in Charney Hall, the conference featured presentations by the President of the American Bar Association as well as leadership experts from around the U.S., including Deborah Rhode, the Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law, director of the Center on the Legal Profession, and director of the Program in Law and Social Entrepreneurship at Stanford University; Hilarie Bass, ABA immediate past president, president of Greenberg Traurig, and a prolific trial attorney; and Barry Posner, co-author of the bestselling book, The Leadership Challenge, and the Accolti Endowed Professor of Leadership at the Leavey School of Business, SCU. More than 100 lawyers, judges, and law students attended the conference.
Conference organizers included Donald Polden, Santa Clara Law professor and dean emeritus, Natalie Parpos, editor-in-chief of the Santa Clara Law Review, and Janelle Fernandes, symposium editor of the Santa Clara Law Review. “The symposium attracted the top legal educators and lawyerleaders in the country to discuss the challenges facing the legal profession and legal education, and we heard some meaningful solutions to those problems,” said Polden. “Lawyers, judges, and educators will benefit immeasurably from the articles published by our Law Review.” For links to talks, visit law.scu.edu/ leadership/advancing-leadership-in-the-legal-profession/.
14th Annual Kasner Symposium Draws More Than 650 Attendees
More than 650 attorneys, accountants, and other estate planning professionals participated in the 14th annual Kasner Symposium, held October 4-5 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Considered one of the premier estate planning conferences and networking events in the nation, this symposium provides an opportunity for those with careers in estate planning to come together to share developments and innovative solutions to challenges in the field. Charles H. Packer J.D./MBA ’80 serves as chair of the event, and speakers included alumni Patrick A. Kohlmann J.D. ’00, Partner, Temmerman, Cilley & Kohlmann, LLP; and Judy Y. Lee J.D./MBA ’89, Partner, Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel; as well as Professor Samuel A. Donaldson, Georgia State University College of Law; Paul S. Lee, Global Fiduciary Strategist, Northern Trust Company; and Vivian L. Thoreen, Partner, Holland & Knight LLP. For more information, visit Kasner.org.
Santa Clara Law Professor Pat Cain (at podium) served as moderator for a Q&A session with, from left, Samuel Donaldson, professor of law, Georgia State University; Akane Suzuki, principal in the Seattle office of Garvey Schubert Barer; Darin Donovan, shareholder in Hopkins & Carley’s family wealth and tax planning group in the Palo Alto office; and Annette Nellen, professor of law and director of San Jose State University’s graduate tax program.
Alumna Honored as One of the Top IP Law Students in the Nation
In October, Santa Clara University School of Law graduate Monica De Lazzari B.A. ’15, J.D. ’18 was named the winner of the annual Past Presidents Award, honoring her as one of the top intellectual property law students in the nation.
The national award is given by the American Intellectual Property Law Education Foundation (AIPLEF) of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) to students who have most excelled in the study of IP law. There are two prestigious awards— the Jan Jancin Award, given to the top student in the nation, and the Past Presidents Award, which is the second
—DEAN LISA KLOPPENBERG
place award in the same category. Santa Clara Law graduates have been honored numerous times by AIPLA since it began giving these awards in 1998. Three Santa Clara Law alumnae have won the Jan Jancin Award: Azadeh Morrison J.D. ’16, Sarah Mirza J.D. ’15, and Linda Wuestehube Kahl J.D. ’10. Nancy Cheng J.D. ’11 won the Past President’s Award.
“How proud we are of this double Bronco, who is an incredibly kind person and was a leader in several student organizations while at Santa Clara Law,” said Santa Clara Law Dean Lisa Kloppenberg. “It is a powerful testament to the strength of our IP program that so many of our graduates have been honored with these prestigious
In October, Lazarri joined the Palo Alto office of Arnold & Porter in the IP practice group.
awards in intellectual property law. I am so grateful to the faculty, staff, alumni, and donors who have worked diligently to make our IP program a robust training ground that continues to be among the best in the nation.”
As a law student, Lazarri was also the recipient of the Emery Merit Scholarship, a scholarship awarded in consideration of a student’s academic success. She was the western regional winner in the Giles S. Rich Patent Law Moot Court Competition, and also was an Academic Support Program fellow. Lazarri holds a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering and biomedical engineering with a minor in art history from SCU, where she was in the University Honors program, on the Dean’s List, and was a member of several honor societies.
“I chose to attend Santa Clara Law because of the positive experience I had during undergrad at SCU,” says Lazarri. “The Law School also has a fantastic high tech law program, and I knew I wanted to pursue a career in IP when I applied to Law School.” She says she was surprised at how approachable the professors were. “I was so intimidated at first—so many of my professors had accomplished amazing feats and were well regarded in their respective fields! They were always willing to provide advice and guidance which was always appreciated.”
In October, Lazarri joined the Palo Alto office of Arnold & Porter in the IP practice group.
Santa Clara Law Launches New Online MLS in Corporate Compliance
Santa Clara Law is taking applications now for the online masters of legal studies in corporate compliance, a new program focused on developing deeper knowledge and understanding of compliance programs, regulations, ethics, privacy, enterprise risk management, and industry best practices. The first students will begin coursework this spring, and the online degree takes a minimum of 12 months to complete.
“We are so excited to launch this new program taught by compliance leaders,” said Sandee Magliozzi, associate dean for experiential learning and clinical professor of law. “It allows us to
—VICKI HUEBNER, DIRECTOR OF ONLINE LEGAL PROGRAMS, SANTA CLARA LAW
respond to an identified industry need in the compliance arena by building a program with practical coursework that combines competency-based skills education with business ethics.”
To create the program, Magliozzi and her team solicited input from some of the top C-level compliance officers, business leaders, and legal professionals in Silicon Valley—the same individuals who also contribute to the program lecture series. Their functional insight will help students build on their existing knowledge of complex rules and regulations to better navigate emerging issues like cybersecurity, harassment, and privacy.
“We are grateful for the leading Silicon Valley compliance experts who provided support and feedback on the programs’ design,” said Vicki Huebner, director of online legal programs. “We welcome any alumni with expertise in corporate compliance to consider participating in the program as guest lecturers.”
A FEW LEADING ALUMNI IN COMPLIANCE
Richard May J.D./MBA ’15 is the senior program manager, ethics and compliance, at Workday. He is an experienced compliance counsel for technology companies. In his work he focuses on operationalizing legal and regulatory requirements and creating effective corporate compliance programs. He has experience leading large, crossfunctional efforts to improve business agility and enable organizational success.
In 2012, he joined Juniper Networks while in law school and served as a legal intern for one year. He returned to Juniper in 2014 as ethics and compliance program manager, and in 2016 he was promoted to ethics and compliance associate manager, legal counsel. Since 2018, he served as ethics and compliance manager and corporate counsel at Juniper, and he left in late 2018 to join Workday.
May earned his J.D. and MBA degrees from Santa Clara University, and a bachelor’s degree in human resource management from the University of Hawaii.
Elizabeth (Hsieh) Lee J.D. ’05 is the global privacy director at McKesson, one of the nation’s largest healthcare services and pharmaceutical distribution companies. Lee is responsible for formulating privacy goals and delivering data protection mechanisms to manage the personal data of the McKesson workforce as well as healthcare consumers.
Previously, Lee spent three years as corporate compliance and privacy manager at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara, one of the largest not-for-profit health plans. At Kaiser, she managed patient member concerns, privacy investigations, conflicts of interest, compliance audits, and remediation work plans for a medical center with a large acute care hospital and six medical satellite clinics. She has also spent a year as compliance training manager at Apple, where she launched a global compliance training program.
Lee earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from Rice University and her J.D. from Santa Clara Law. She also serves as a board member of the San Francisco Chinatown YMCA.
Jack Yellin J.D. ’81 is associate general counsel and chief compliance officer for The Walt Disney Company and affiliated companies, a position that he has occupied since 2011. He began his career at Disney in 1990 as senior counsel in the Litigation Group. He progressed to senior vice president before assuming his current role as chief compliance officer for the company. Since 1994 he has headed what is today the company’s Global Ethics and Compliance Management group. That group sets the business standards for the company and is responsible, among other things, for anti-corruption and trade control compliance company-wide. Prior to joining Disney, Yellin was an attorney at the international law firm of Simpson Thacher and Bartlett, where he engaged in the general practice of law, including representing the Walt Disney Company as outside counsel.
Yellin earned his bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College, his law degree from Santa Clara Law, and a Master of Laws from the University of California at Berkeley.
For more information or to apply or volunteer, visit compliance.law.scu.edu.
Experienced marketing professional and lawyer Nikki Pope J.D. ’04 has been chosen as the new Managing Director of the High Tech Law Institute (HTLI) at Santa Clara University School of Law.
The HTLI serves as the hub for numerous high tech law specialties at Santa Clara Law, including intellectual property, biotech, and privacy. Founded in 1998, Santa Clara Law’s intellectual property law program is currently ranked as the fourth best in the country by U.S. News & World Report.
Pope practiced law for many years as an associate at Cooley and participated in the Honors Program in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice. Before earning her J.D., she held positions in sales, marketing, and advertising with a number of corporations, including Corning, J. Walter Thompson, Ketchum Advertising, American Express, and Comcast.
“Nikki Pope brings a strong knowledge of high tech law and a keen marketing focus to the role of HTLI managing director,” said Lisa Kloppenberg, dean of Santa Clara University School of Law. “Working closely with our nationally recognized faculty, she plans to engage with Silicon Valley law firms and corporations and continue to position the Law School as a leader in legal education and faculty research.”
“I’m delighted to be back at Santa Clara and excited to be leading the High Tech Law Institute, where law and innovation converge in Silicon Valley,” said Pope. “For a law ‘blerd’ like me, there’s no better place to be.”
Pope graduated from Santa Clara Law with honors as a member of the
—DEAN LISA KLOPPENBERG
Order of the Coif and serving as the senior comments editor of the High Tech Law Journal. She earned a B.A. from Carleton College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Nikki Pope J.D. ’04
She was previously a Teaching Scholar at the Law School from 201012 and stepped in as Interim Executive Director of the Northern California Innocence Project in 2012. Pope has served for many years on the Law School Board of Visitors and the advisory boards for both NCIP and the Center for Social Justice and Public Service.
Tom Lavelle J.D. ’76, who was the managing director from 2016-18, continues to share his expertise with the law school through his work teaching in the Entreprenuers’ Law Clinic.
New Director of External Relations
In August, Kendra Livingston J.D. ’15 joined Santa Clara Law as the director of external relations. “It is wonderful to have Kendra as part of our team,” said Skip Horne, senior assistant dean for external relations, “especially as an alumna of the Law School. I am so grateful for the knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm she brings to the role.”
Kendra says she is thrilled to be back at Santa Clara Law. “Working here again feels like coming home, especially in the Alumni Relations department, where it is my privilege to reconnect with so many of my fellow alumni,” she said.
Livingston has previously worked for the Center for Common Concerns as a legal analyst, the interim assistant director of the Center for Social Justice and Public Service at the law school, as well as outreach associate at Berg Davis Public Affairs. As a law student, Livingston was involved in a variety of activities including serving as senior symposium editor and technical editor of the Journal of International Law and president and communications chair of the International Law Student Association. In addition to her J.D. from Santa Clara Law, Livingston earned a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from U.C. Santa Cruz.
Kendra Livingston J.D. ’15
Farewell to Faculty
Santa Clara Law bid farewell to three longtime faculty members this past summer with gratitude for their combined 60 years of service to the Law School.
Margarita Alvarez
Margarita Alvarez joined the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center’s clinical faculty in 2005. In her 13 years of service, she worked closely with students to equip them with the skills they needed to obtain positive results for clients. Alvarez worked on many cases, including a recent victory for a client that resulted in a $75K attorney’s fee award for the Law Center. “She brought wisdom, calm, and balance to the office,” said Deborah Moss-West, executive director at the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center. “Perhaps most importantly, she has a genuine interest in student success, both personally and professionally, that translates into an exceptional clinical and law school experience. We are thrilled that she returned to the Law Center as a volunteer this fall.”
Prior to joining Santa Clara Law, Alvarez had her own firm for nearly 14 years, representing injured workers, and she also served as deputy counsel for Santa Clara County.
Yvonne Ekern
KETIH SUTTER
Yvonne Ekern joined Santa Clara Law in 2003 as an associate clinical professor and a full-time member of the Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing faculty, and she has more than 25 years of experience teaching, including 15 years at Santa Clara Law. In his remarks at her retirement gathering, Michael W. Flynn, associate dean for academic affairs, said: “You have made our lives here better, and leave a legacy of great teaching and mentoring behind you.” For seven years she was the chairperson of the West Valley College Paralegal Program (ABA approved).
Prior to attending law school, she taught high school English and math in California and Missouri. She graduated from the University of Idaho School of Law in 1985. While working in criminal and family law offices, she taught part-time in several Silicon Valley paralegal programs. Among the classes she has taught are Legal Research and Writing, Advanced Legal Research and Writing, Appellate Advocacy, Advanced Legal Research and Writing Using LEXIS, and Legal Analysis. She is the coauthor of Legal Research, Analysis and Writing and Constitutional Law: Principles and Practice.
Jiri Toman
KETIH SUTTER
Jiri Toman is considered to be the founder of international humanitarian law and one of the world’s leading experts on Cultural Property Law. He taught at Santa Clara Law for 20 years, helping to build many international relationships that support students and faculty members. A member of several international associations and on the editorial boards of several journals, Toman has published numerous studies, books, and articles in the fields of international law, human rights, humanitarian law, economic law, disaster relief law, and criminal law.
Prior to joining Santa Clara Law, he taught at the School of Economics and School of Law at Charles University in Prague, the University of Geneva, and was a visiting professor at Santa Clara University, George Washington University, and Université de Franche-Compté in Besançon. He has lectured at the Universities of Birmingham, Cambridge, London, Oxford, Pisa, Uppsala, Virginia, Waseda, and Yale; organized regional seminars on international law and criminal law in Africa and Latin America; and was consultant to several international and regional organizations, including UNESCO, UNDRO, UNCTAD, and the United Nations Center for Human Rights, Council of Europe.
CRITICAL LAWYERING SKILLS
Among the first of its kind in the nation, this new seminar teaches key critical skills for attorney success.
BY ELIZABETH KELLEY GILLOGLY B.A. ’93
In her previous work as a senior manager of attorney training and development at several AmLaw100 firms, Sandra “Sandee” Magliozzi had an up-close view of hundreds of new lawyers—and what they were missing. “I saw that many of these junior associates were missing key skills they needed for success as an attorney,” she says. Magliozzi explained that these key skills, often called “critical skills,” include things such as effective communication, active listening, managing one’s own work, creative problem solving, handling mistakes, team work, and self-development. She later conducted, with several Professional Development Institute co-presenters, a survey of 50 chief talent managers for law firms about the top “lawyer effectiveness factors” they were looking for, and these same critical skills came up again as something the talent managers were seeking.
Magliozzi came to Santa Clara Law in 2006, first as director of professional development and externships. In her current role as associate dean for experiential learning and as a clinical professor of law at Santa Clara Law, Magliozzi helps students gain practical experience in clinics and externships that will help prepare them for their future careers. In 2009, with these critical skills in mind, she created an upper-division class, based on a list of lawyer effectiveness factors (developed by Schultz-Zedeck), to help students in field placements develop these critical skills. “We took that list and started teaching those things in that course,” she says.
Over the past few years, as she has continued to work closely with Dean Lisa Kloppenberg to help best prepare Santa Clara Law students for success, she says she realized that “students needed training in these critical skills earlier in the curriculum to help them succeed and to help them leverage the experiences they were having in and out of the classroom.”
To meet that need, Magliozzi designed an all-new Critical Lawyering Skills seminar, which is among the first of its kind in the nation. She worked with Professor Thiadora Pina, director of externships at Santa Clara Law, to create the list of critical skills to be taught as well as to oversee the program. The first group of 1Ls took this class last Spring, and it is now a required part of the first year of law school at Santa Clara. In the course, students work with a faculty member to engage in a very interactive seminar featuring small group work, scenarios, role playing, and group feedback. “It is really a series of progressive workshops focused on these competencies that students need to be successful,” says Magliozzi. “Students have many opportunities to learn a skill, practice and apply that skill, get feedback, and try it again.” Each section is limited to 15 students to make sure students get lots of hands-on practice with these essential skills.
“New lawyers are most successful when they come to the job with a broad range of legal skills, that comprise the whole lawyer,” says Magliozzi. “This new seminar will be a big help in preparing our students for success—to help them understand these critical skills and why they are important, and then give students ideas to help them continue developing those skills on their own.”
KEITH SUTTER
First-year law student Erika Skeels, who was among the inaugural group to take the course, raves about her experience, saying “it is vital to our future success that we learn these skills.”
“In most of our law school classes, we focus on legal analysis, legal writing, issue spotting, and advocacy skills,” she says. “But I think that we often forget that the most crucial part of being a lawyer is understanding how to interact with people. The Critical Lawyering Skills seminar teaches us these skills and, through role play, reminds students that this profession is one designed to be of service to others.”
Skeels says the course taught her many important skills, such as an awareness of body language and how to ask open-ended questions, that serve her in all parts of her life. “I was surprised by how many of the skills I actually internalized and find myself using on a daily basis,” she says. “I think that we often forget that the most crucial part of being a lawyer is understanding how to interact with people. The Critical Lawyering Skills seminar teaches us these skills and, through role play, reminds students that this profession is one designed to be of service to others.”
—ERIKA SKEELS, SANTA CLARA LAW FIRST-YEAR STUDENT
Keith Wattley J.D. ’99 says his opportunity as an Obama Fellow is helping him focus on the bigger picture for UnCommon Law, including fundraising, outreach, and “developing and talking more about our own story— both our individual stories and our organizational story.”
OBAMA FOUNDATION
EXPANDING UNCOMMON LAW
As one of 20 inaugural Obama Fellows, Keith Wattley J.D. ’99, founder of UnCommon Law, is learning how to bring his successful model to even more people.
BY ELIZABETH KELLEY GILLOGLY B.A. ’93
In 2006, Keith Wattley J.D. ’99 founded and became executive director of UnCommon Law, a non-profit law firm based in Oakland that provides counseling and legal representation for California prisoners serving life terms with the possibility of parole. “We’re proving what’s possible when we get past the stereotypes and labels about who is in prison for violent crimes and deal with the actual people involved,” Wattley said in an interview on the Obama Foundation web site.*
Wattley and his team at UnCommon Law work with people in prison to help them understand and address the personal traumas that contributed to their crimes, and through doing so, demonstrate to the parole board that they can safely be released. After doing this deep work with the clients, an UnCommon Law attorney or bar-certified law student represents them in their administrative hearings, thus greatly improving their chances of being paroled. The results have been profound, with an overall success rate of more than 60 percent in individual hearings, compared with the California average of 20 to 25 percent. In this past year alone, the UnCommon Law success rate has surpassed 80 percent.
The UnCommon Law method is undoubtedly successful, but how could Wattley scale his work and bring it to more people? That is where the idea to apply for the Obama Fellowship was born.
For the inaugural Obama Fellowships (obama.org/fellowship/), more than 20,000 people from 191 countries applied, and Keith Wattley was one of 20 Obama Fellows selected. “It has been a very exciting opportunity and process, and a remarkable group of people to work with,” he says. “The people at the Obama Foundation are nice, generous, and compassionate, and the other fellows—each one is really inspiring. I was surprised during our first gathering by how quickly
we were able to bond. It happened naturally and really quickly. Each one of us recognizes something about ourselves in the others.”
The two-year fellowship includes weeklong gatherings twice a year as well as ongoing support from the Obama Foundation, including mentoring and networking help. Wattley attended the first gathering in April 2018 and looks forward to the next one in November. At the gathering, he says, the fellows participated in workshops with world experts in areas such as leadership development, executive leadership training, and storytelling. They also attended other networking events and began some group projects. “While the foundation doesn’t provide us with a financial award, they give us valuable tools and important building blocks,” says Wattley. can we work to support you to take your work to the next level?’”
Being honored as an Obama Fellow has turned a national spotlight on Wattley and UnCommon Law, which is a big benefit in and of itself for any small non-profit. “Exposure makes a big difference, and while it has helped to open up some new pathways to funding, it has also introduced me to a funding conversation that I was not part of before,” says Wattley. “I am learning how much our work fits right into the larger national conversation about meaningful reform of the criminal justice system—which is short on ‘justice’—and about how we provide one solution for funders seeking to support those changes.”
The fellowship is also helping Wattley make some difficult choices in his work with UnCommon Law. He loves his first-person contact with clients, and in the past, he has spent 4-5 days a week in prisons. But now he sees that will need to change. “One of the biggest opportunities and challenges for the fellowship for me was that I knew there would be a need for me to get out of the prisons. As critical and essential as that work is, it doesn’t provide me the opportunity to connect with others” who could help bring this work to more people in need, he says.
Wattley and his team will train new advocates to do work directly with clients. “That is why I pursued this opportunity because I knew that is what we needed to do,” says Wattley. “Scaling means we could make our model available to thousands more people, and we can only do that effectively if we can train scores of others in what we do.” Meanwhile, Wattley will zoom out to the organization’s big picture, focusing on fundraising, outreach, and “developing and talking more about our own story—both our individual stories and our organizational story.”
Being honored as an Obama Fellow has turned a national spotlight on Keith Wattley and UnCommon Law, which is a big benefit in and of itself for any small non-profit. “Exposure makes a big difference, and while it has helped to open up some new pathways to funding, it has also introduced me to a funding conversation that I was not part of before,” says Wattley.
“The first gathering was much more about us as people than it was about our organizations, which was refreshing, and it had all of us recognize and start to face the challenges that had us sign on for this fellowship,” he explains. “Each of us has our own pathway for taking our work to the next level, so I found it very helpful to identify some potential barriers and start working through them.”
“In addition, we get an executive coach for the whole two years of the fellowship,” he added. “They help us create a road map to get from here to wherever we intend to have our organizations be in a few years. The idea is that the Obama Foundation is recognizing people who have created an organization with value and that makes a difference, and they are helping us scale those efforts. It is unlike most fellowship opportunities in that they are not asking us to work for the Obama Foundation; instead they are asking: ‘How Looking Back at Law School
As Wattley looks back on his Santa Clara Law story, he says his experience was deeply shaped by his professors. “Margaylanne Armstrong, Cookie Ridolfi, Ellen Kreitzberg, and Margaret Russell were all especially supportive,” he says. “They supported me there and since I left there. These professors were all consistently pro-student in a way that doesn’t always happen in law school, and they really got to know us.”
“My experience at Santa Clara Law was also made really special by the opportunities I pursued
outside of the classroom, including in the first year when I volunteered in the workers’ rights clinic,” he says. “I had a supportive environment with top-quality attorney mentors, especially Michael Gaitley. That great experience introduced me to the practical application of the things we were learning in the classroom, and it made law school worth it and make sense to me.”
During his law school education, Wattley also had an internship at a drug and alcohol treatment center that was run by a formerly incarcerated person. “That opportunity made it all real for me,” he says. “I always had to have that kind of balance. The law school stuff that seemed like either not real or not connected to everyday experience—I had to balance that with what is immediate and real.”
And that brings Wattley circling back to his own work. “We call ourselves UnCommon Law for many reasons, and one of them is because we do law a little differently here,” he explains. “It’s not a traditional law practice. I am much more of a counselor than a lawyer in my job. It is a fit for me.”
To law students, Wattley has some advice: “It is important for people—as they build their resumes and amass credentials—to look for what it is that they are really meant to do, and do what feels right to you, even if it’s something no one else is doing.”
*For a detailed interview with Wattley, visit obama.org/fellowship/keith-wattley-interview/
Keith Wattley J.D. ’99 works with other Obama Fellows at the first gathering in April 2018.
BY ELIZABETH KELLEY GILLOGLY B.A. ’93 | PHOTOS BY KEITH SUTTER
Seven people—Santa Clara Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor, John M. Sobrato, Dean Lisa Kloppenberg, Howard and Alida Charney, SCU President Michael Engh, S.J., and Zoe Lofgren—held six pairs of scissors and together cut the ceremonial ribbon at the dedication on October 12. Mikaela Burkhardt (far left) and Kayleigh Chevrier, co-presidents of the Santa Clara Law Student Body Association, held the ribbon.
CHARNEY HALL DEDICATION
More than 500 students, faculty and staff, community members, and special guests gathered in the Mabie Grand Atrium on October 12 to cut a ceremonial ribbon and officially dedicate the Howard S. and Alida S. Charney Hall of Law. Santa Clara University School of Law broke ground on Charney Hall on August 17, 2016, and, after just 565 days of construction, the school began to move in on March 5, 2018.
The 96,000 square foot, eco-friendly building will serve up to 650 J.D. and 100 non-J.D. students. With flexible learning spaces and sophisticated classroom technology, Charney Hall will
help Santa Clara Law continue to evolve its programs and offerings to keep pace with changes in the legal field, while continuing to support a highachieving student body and attract exceptional faculty.
Lead donors Howard S. Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77 and his wife, Alida Schoolmaster Charney were both in attendance, along with son, Tristan Charney MBA ’06. Howard Charney co-founded the $3 billion company 3Com in 1980, and 12 years later founded Grand Junction Networks, which was acquired by Cisco in 1995. Until his recent retirement, he served as senior vice president in the Office of the President and CEO at Cisco, contributing to the company’s strategy and direction and also advising businesses, governments, and educators around the world in implementing critical Internet technologies to improve organizational effectiveness.
Other special guests at the dedication included the mayor of Santa Clara, Lisa M. Gillmor; notable law school alumni Leon Panetta B.A. ’60, J.D. ’63, chair, the Panetta Institute for Public Policy as well as former CIA Director, former U.S. Secretary of Defense, White House Chief of Staff, and long-time member of the House of Representatives; Zoe Lofgren J.D. ’75, congresswoman of the 19th district; Justice Edward Panelli J.D. ’55, retired California Supreme Court Judge and his wife, Loma; as well as John Ottoboni B.A. ’69, senior legal counsel and chief operating officer of Santa Clara University; John M. Sobrato B.A. ’83, chair of the SCU Board of Trustees; Father Michael Engh, S.J., President of Santa Clara University; and the past 3 deans of Santa Clara Law: Gerald Uelmen, Mack Player, and Don Polden. Maya Younes J.D. ’18 opened the ceremony with an invocation and a moment of silence in honor of the Ohlone people, who had lived on the land where the new building stands.
While Santa Clara University provided more than 60 percent of the $58 million dollars in building costs, the Charney’s $10 million lead gift is the largest in the history of Santa Clara Law, and it “jumpstarted this building,” said Ottoboni in his remarks. Other major donors included the William and Inez Mabie Family Foundation, headed by Ron Malone J.D. ’71 and his wife, Sara, and Yeoryios C. Apallas; as well as the Fremont Bank Foundation, under the leadership of Terrance Stinnett J.D. ’69 and Michael Wallace MBA ’75; and Paul and Barbara Gentzkow.
“With this amazing investment in the law school by the University, our alumni, and friends, along with a lot of hard work by many of the people in this room, we are reaping the good harvest,” said Dean Lisa Kloppenberg. “Our yield of admitted students has improved, the quality of our student body is high, and morale is high. We are experiencing a special moment of momentum at Santa Clara Law, thanks to each of you who has made that possible.”
Before officially blessing the building, SCU President Michael Engh S.J., said “this is a place where a Jesuit law school should be because of the values, ethics, and commitment to justice that is part and parcel of the whole school experience.”
“For more than a century, Santa Clara Law has met the changing and ever more complex legal needs of this region…[from] the agricultural region of the Valley of Heart’s Delight, all the way up to what we call it now, Silicon Valley, the world’s foremost innovation center,” Engh said. “The School of Law’s vision is exemplified by the Howard S. and Alida S. Charney Hall of Law, designed to promote the highest levels of
“With this amazing investment in the law school by the University, our alumni, and friends, along with a lot of hard work by many of the people in this room, we are reaping the good harvest. Our yield of admitted students has improved, the quality of our student body is high, and morale is high. We are experiencing a special moment of momentum at Santa Clara Law, thanks to each of you who has made that possible.”
—DEAN LISA KLOPPENBERG
Right (from top left):
Maya Younes J.D.
’18 opened the ceremony with an invocation and a moment of silence in honor of the Ohlone people, who had lived on the land where the new building stands.
Leon Panetta B.A.
’60, J.D. ’63 spoke at the ceremony, saying that Charney Hall was “a wonderful commitment to the future by investing in education.” Right (lower): SCU President Michael Engh S.J., blessed the building with the help of lead donor
Howard S. Charney
MBA ’73, J.D. ’77.
In her remarks, Dean Lisa Kloppenberg expressed her deep gratitude to the Charneys as well as to the many other donors who supported the dream of a new building. integrated learning, research, and collaboration. Because of their great generosity, this enables the school to respond to the sweeping changes in legal education and practice.”
In her remarks, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren said she always loves returning to the Law School, and that she is grateful for the education she received there. “Not only did we have great classes and inspiring professors, there was an ethical component to the instruction that we received at this University that continues to this day,” she said. She added that she looked forward to seeing what will emanate from this building, including what she called the “troopers for the enforcement of the rule of law.”
Howard Charney began his remarks with gratitude for all those who contributed to the building’s campaign, with a special tribute to his wife, Alida. He went on to compare the Law School to the Mission Santa Clara, which, he said, “is built in furtherance of certain principles. Its core principles are equity and justice, fairness, and respect for others. It teaches those principles through the means of stories.”
“This is the home of the Law School but it is also a temple built in furtherance of certain principles,” said Charney. “This temple bears an uncanny resemblance to that temple. This temple rests on the principles of equity and justice, fairness and respect for others. This temple uses stories to teach its messages—we call them cases.”
“I used to think the Law School was a vocational school…bolted on the side of the University, but that is really not so,” explained Charney. “I have now come to realize that the Law School is totally consistent with the values and underpinnings of this University perhaps as much or maybe more so than many of the other colleges or schools that comprise this institution. It is quite integral to Santa Clara University.”
“Our collective dream is that we are going to look back in five years or 10 years and we have achieved much greater national and international renown. The best students will want to come and study here. The best faculty will want to teach and write here,” said Charney. “This is a process of continuous improvement.”
Leon Panetta contrasted his own “Bergin Hall generation” with the “Charney Hall generation,” saying that his generation faced many challenges, but perhaps none so difficult as those that will be faced by the Charney Hall generation.
“Charney Hall marks not just a new Law School for Santa Clara, but in many ways, it marks a new era for the future, a new and very challenging era for the students that go here,” Panetta said. “My sense is that the generations that come out of Charney Hall are going to face issues that go to the very core of this nation.”
“We are in the middle of Silicon Valley. This is an area of tremendous innovation and tremendous creativity, but that kind of innovation and creativity has to be tied to a set of values. This Law School, being in the center of Silicon Valley, has to provide that foundation for the future of high technology.”
“This is a wonderful commitment to the future by investing in education, and I thank all of the contributors to this,” said Panetta.
Seven people—Santa Clara Mayor Lisa M. Gillmor, John M. Sobrato, Dean Lisa Kloppenberg, Howard and Alida Charney, SCU President Michael Engh, S.J., and Zoe Lofgren— held six pairs of scissors and together cut the ceremonial ribbon. Those gathered were then invited to explore the new building, which had several food and drink stations throughout as part of the celebration.
To watch a video of the dedication ceremony, visit law.scu.edu.
Above left: John Ottoboni B.A. ’69, senior legal counsel and chief operating officer of Santa Clara University, thanked Howard Charney for his donation, which he said “jumpstarted the building.” Above right: Three former deans were in attendance, including, at left, former dean Mack Player, here with his wife, Jeanne, and former dean Don Polden and his wife, Susie. Lower photo: Howard and Alida Charney shared the dedication stage with several other special guests.
ABOUT HOWARD CHARNEY
Howard S. Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77
co-founded the $3 billion company 3Com in 1980, and 12 years later founded Grand Junction Networks, which was acquired by Cisco in 1995. Until his recent retirement, he served as senior vice president in the Office of the President and CEO at Cisco, contributing to the company’s strategy and direction and also advising businesses, governments, and educators around the world in implementing critical Internet technologies to improve organizational effectiveness.
Over his career, Charney has overseen the development and expansion of key technologies that have helped build the global Internet as it exists today. He helped grow Cisco’s two-tier distribution business to more than $2.4 billion and helped turn fast ethernet and low-cost switching into fundamental, global Internet technologies.
A licensed patent attorney, Charney has served as a board member for several technology companies. He serves as a trustee of Santa Clara University, and has been an adviser to Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship, including funding a professorship and serving on its advisory board and executive committee.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA and J.D. from Santa Clara University. His son, Tristan, is a 2006 MBA alumnus from Santa Clara.
BY DEBORAH LOHSE | PHOTOS BY ADAM HAYS
When faced with a risky opportunity, “balance the magnitude of the upside against the severity of the downside,” and be willing to take the risk, former Cisco senior vice president Howard S. Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77, urged the Class of 2018 of Santa Clara University School of Law.
Charney, who co-founded 3Com and Grand Junction Networks, spoke at the commencement ceremony on May 19, in the University’s Mission Gardens. He spoke just months after the opening of the new Law School bearing the Charney name, the Howard S. and Alida S. Charney Hall of Law, built with a foundational $10 million donation from the Charneys.
“There are many things in our lives that are simply unknown, and unknowable,” he said, quoting from a former colleague.
Charney recalled several key turning points in his career when he had to assess “the calculus of risk”—leaving engineering to go into antitrust law at Memorex; going into and then leaving intellectual property law; and deciding to join his former fraternity brother from MIT, Robert Metcalf, in founding the ethernet-creation company 3Com. In each case, he said, he determined that no matter how dire the downside, he would have choices. So he took the risks. And in the case of 3Com—which became a $3 billion company—“the risk paid off, handsomely,” he said. “What I had exchanged was my legal career for money. And lots of it,” he said to laughter from the audience.
“The sun is rising on your careers,” he said to the graduates. Whether serving the poor, opening a solo practice, working for a large firm, or joining a startup, “you will have to make choices just like I did,” he said. “If the downside risk is zero or low, and the upside is great, what do you do? You take the risk.”
Taking risks “is what my life has been about,” said Charney, who received an honorary doctor of law degree at the event.
A licensed patent attorney, Charney has served as a board member for several technology companies and is a trustee for Santa Clara University. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA and J.D. from Santa Clara University. His son, Tristan, is a 2006 MBA alumnus from Santa Clara.
Of the 216 graduates, 67 graduates received certificates in various areas of high-tech law; another 19 received certificates in public-interest and social-justice law; eight specialized in international law and 10 in privacy law.
Prior to the ceremony numerous outstanding graduates received awards, including: • Natalie Parpos was the Mabie Outstanding Graduate Award based on academic performance, scholarly activities, leadership and service roles at the law school and in the community. • Jonathan “Jojo” Choi received the Dean’s Leadership Award for exemplifying the school’s motto of “lawyers who lead” and serving other students, the school, and community. • Maya Younes received the John B. Bates, Jr. Dispute Resolution Award, established in 2017 and given in recognition of the student’s coursework, publications, performance, and service related to the field of dispute resolution.
Taking risks “is what my life has been about,” said Howard S. Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77, who spoke to graduates and received an honorary doctor of law degree at the event.
