17 minute read
STUDENTS EARN BIG NINTH CIRCUIT VICTORIES
CORPS OF APPEALS
Clinic Students Score Big Wins at Ninth Circuit
Appellate Prisoners’ Rights Clinic students Benjamin Levine, Ilse Gomez, Amaris Montes, and Alberto De Diego Carreras
When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit convened over Zoom on May 4, a panel of judges heard oral arguments delivered by several highly skilled advocates — four of whom were UCLA Law students.
“Arguing before the Ninth Circuit was truly a thrill. As someone who intends to pursue appellate litigation, I feel very fortunate to have had my fi rst oral argument experience at such an early stage in my career,” says Alberto De Diego Carreras ’21. As a certifi ed law student in the case of Coston v. Nangalama, he represented an incarcerated person who sued prison medical providers after they abruptly terminated his pain medication. And when the judges delivered their opinion in September, his side prevailed. “Having the opportunity to represent a client and actually achieve their desired result in this way is as gratifying as it gets.”
De Diego Carreras and Amaris Montes ’21 collaborated on Coston v. Nangalama, while fellow students Ilse Gomez ’21 and Benjamin Levine ’21 worked on the case Chaziza v. Stammerjohn. In doing so, they earned the uncommon opportunity to appear before the panel of federal judges before they graduated from law school through UCLA Law’s innovative and intensive Appellate Prisoners’ Rights Clinic.
Launched in 2020 and supervised by Aaron Littman, one of UCLA Law’s Binder Clinical Teaching Fellows, the clinic allows students to work on Ninth Circuit appeals in civil rights cases brought by prisoners who had previously represented themselves. Working with a team of top appellate and civil rights attorneys who served as co-instructors of the clinic — Caitlin Weisberg of McLane, Bednarski & Litt and Emily Cuatto and Barry Levy of Horvitz & Levy — the students probed the district court records, researched relevant case law, drafted multiple briefs, and participated in a half dozen moot courts to prepare for their appearances. “The clinic required an extraordinary amount of work from the students, who took ownership of the cases as joint lead counsel,” says Littman.
For the students, all of whom graduated in May, the work has already paid off .
De Diego Carreras now clerks for Judge Diane Wood of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. He says, “Besides the fact that my writing is that much clearer and more precise, I began my clerkship with a deeper understanding of the inner workings of the courts of appeals because of how much I learned.”
Montes also sees her eff ort in the clinic and her Ninth Circuit argument as a natural lead-in to her work as a Skadden Fellow at Rights Behind Bars, a nonprofi t organization based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to representing incarcerated people. “The work I did with the clinic will allow me to hit the ground running on the appellate work with Rights Behind Bars because I have already learned so much about the appellate process, as well as the substance of prisoner rights cases,” she says.
The success of the Appellate Prisoners’ Rights Clinic was, in fact, the second Ninth Circuit victory for students who worked and learned in a UCLA Law clinic during the fall of 2020.
Also in September, judges delivered their opinion in Garcia v. Los Angeles, in which they affi rmed a trial court’s ruling that the city cannot remove certain possessions of homeless people. The decision was the next big step in a multi-year eff ort involving several law fi rms and nonprofi t advocates. They include UCLA Law alumna Shayla Myers ’08 of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, who argued the matter before the court, and Catherine Sweetser, who serves as the deputy director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights and director of the Human Rights Litigation Clinic. (Lawyers Benjamin Herbert and Michael Onufer of Kirkland & Ellis and Tanya Greene ’09 of McGuireWoods are also lead attorneys.)
Sweetser’s clinic also started in 2020. It focuses on protecting human rights in domestic settings, in matters involving unhoused people, immigrant detention, human traffi cking, consumer fraud, and slave labor. Collaborating with law fi rms and nonprofi ts, students gain invaluable legal skills through research, brief writing, strategizing with practicing attorneys, and more.
In the Garcia matter, students Vincent Liu ’21, Shyann Murphy ’22, and Darren Schweitzer ’21 worked on research and investigation during discovery, met with the client, and prepared arguments for appeal. Murphy, a current 3L, continued on to the advanced clinic in the spring semester and acted as a judge during a moot for Myers.
“It was gratifying to work on something so important,” says Murphy, who plans to continue to represent unhoused people after graduation. “I’m so glad UCLA Law off ers this clinic. I got to see litigation in various stages in very diff erent cases. I was challenged, I learned a ton, and I felt like I grew in ways that will be very helpful as I enter my career.”
Success in Service: Students Earn Top Public Interest Fellowships
Continuing UCLA Law’s proud commitment to public service and public interest legal work, a total of 10 students earned highly competitive public interest fellowships in 2020-21.
“We are so proud of our students for earning these leading fellowships, which will help them launch their careers as impactful public interest lawyers,” says Karin Wang, executive director of UCLA Law’s David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy. “It is gratifying that these honors recognize what we at the law school have always known: UCLA Law students are supremely prepared to go out into the world and make a diff erence as thoughtful and capable attorneys – especially in communities of color or elsewhere that the need is the greatest.”
Skadden Fellowships
Nicole Hansen ’21, Amaris Montes ’21 and Anusha Ravi ’21 received Skadden Fellowships, among the most prestigious and competitive awards for public interest law students. UCLA Law ranks among the Nicole Hansen
top four law schools in the country for graduating students who garner Skadden Fellowships, and this marked the third consecutive year, and fourth year out of the past fi ve, in which three UCLA Law students were Amaris Montes so honored. Hansen is working at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C., engaging in advocacy and litigation in several Western states to advance Native Americans’ equal opportunity to participate eff ectively in Anusha Ravi nontribal elections by improving access to in-person voting and boosting representation through redistricting. Montes has joined Rights Behind Bars in Washington, D.C., where she investigates conditions and litigates on behalf of children detained in the four local immigration detention centers in the nation’s capital region, focusing on children with disabilities and their mental health needs. And Ravi is at A Better Balance in Nashville, Tennessee, where she enforces the new Tennessee Pregnant Workers Fairness Act by providing direct legal services to low-wage workers of color and collaborating with healthcare providers and others to educate workers on their rights under the law.
As this article was going to press, three more UCLA Law students earned 2022 Skadden Fellowships. Read about them at law.ucla.edu. Equal Justice Works Maya Chaudhuri ’21, Shaunita Hampton, and Idalmis Vaquero ’21 garnered Equal Justice Works fellowships, in which they work for two years in a community with unmet legal needs. Chaudhuri is at the Texas Fair Maya Chaudhuri Defense Project in Austin, Texas, where she works to bring transparency to hearings where people can be jailed for being unable to pay cash bail or fi nes. Hampton was set to join Legal Aid of San Mateo County in Redwood, California, where she will work Shaunita Hampton with residents to gain aff ordable and fair housing. And Vaquero earned a position with Communities for a Better Environment in Huntington Park, California, where she will work to defend families against environmental contamination in east and southeast Los Idalmis Vaquero Angeles. Gideon’s Promise Hayley Hofmann ’21 and Joseph Yankelowitz ’21 won fellowships through the Gideon’s Promise Law School Partnership Project, which places graduates in public defender offi ces around the country to off er superior legal representation to low-income individuals in the criminal justice system. Hofmann was placed with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy in Stanton, Kentucky. Yankelowitz earned a position with the Mecklenburg County Public Defender in Charlotte, North Carolina. Justice Catalyst Melodie Meyer ’20 and Ming TanigawaLau ’21 received Justice Catalyst fellowships, which allow recent graduates to apply their legal skills to boost people who have been denied equal access to justice. Meyer is working at the Yurok Tribe’s Offi ce of the Tribal Attorney in Klamath, California, where she is serving as an advocate for indigenous communities that have been negatively impacted by climate change. Tanigawa-Lau has joined the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, where she is working with more than 100,000 asylum seekers to achieve systemic reform in the asylum process.
Hayley Hofmann
Joseph Yankelowitz
Melodie Meyer Ming Tanigawa-Lau
Tribal Clinic Develops Toolkit to Help Indigenous Peoples Assert Their Rights
Students and faculty members in UCLA Law's Tribal Legal Development Clinic have created the "Tribal Implementation Toolkit," which will assist Indian country leaders as they address Indigenous and human rights through tribal lawmaking. The toolkit, developed in collaboration with students and attorneys at the University of Colorado Law School and the Native American Right Fund, or NARF, supports and implements the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The toolkit is available for free to the public and stands as an invaluable resource for tribal leaders and communities to implement the key aims of the 2007 U.N. Declaration. The Declaration is a far-reaching, aspirational document recognizing that Indigenous Peoples have a wide array of rights, including self-determination, equality, property, culture, religious freedom, health, and economic well-being, among others. The Declaration also calls on states to undertake legal reform that will remedy past violations and ensure current protections for Indigenous Peoples’ rights going forward. “The work of the UCLA students was incredibly valuable to this project,” says John Echohawk, executive director of NARF. “Not only did they bring exceptional research and writing skills to the work, their commitment to and passion for human rights eff orts made them wonderful collaborators and colleagues.”
The eff ort was supported by a 2019 gift of more than $1.3 million from the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians to fund the clinic and help strengthen legal institutions across Indian country by developing model legal systems and practices that can be adopted by Native Nations.
“The toolkit provides guidance for tribes on how to implement the Declaration wholesale into tribal law, as well as how to approach some of the subject matters in tribal law,” says Lauren van Schilfgaarde ’12, UCLA Law’s San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Tribal Legal Development Clinic Director. “As we developed the toolkit, we focused on elevating tribal law as an avenue for implementing the Declaration’s call for indigenous and human rights.”
Under the direction of van Schilfgaarde and others, several students participated in the project, including UCLA Law’s Elena Aguirre ’21, Ryann Garcia ’21, and Hershini Gopal ’21.
Clinic members and their partners designed the toolkit specifi cally to enable Indigenous Peoples to fully enjoy all of the human rights and fundamental freedoms that are recognized in the U.N. Charter, as well as the right to be free from any kind of discrimination. The toolkit off ers leaders a blueprint to incorporate the Declaration into their tribal codes, resolutions, or agreements to address issues including language revitalization, land recovery, and child welfare.
Angela Riley Lauren van Schilfgaarde
Judge Rand Schrader Pro Bono Program Launches
UCLA Law has launched the Judge Rand Schrader Pro Bono Program. It brings all of the school's existing pro bono opportunities under one umbrella, allowing UCLA Law to better meet the growing need for pro bono legal representation to address Grace Meng social challenges in Los Angeles.
The program is named for UCLA Law alumnus Judge Rand Schrader, Class of 1973 (see story, page 78), a pioneering attorney. Schrader lived his life as an openly gay man when doing so could result in being denied admission to the bar. He created the nation’s fi rst LGBT law student group while a student at UCLA Law and he was the fi rst openly gay attorney in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s offi ce. Later, he was one of the fi rst openly LGBT judges in the United States. “His courage and convictions inform the ethos of the school’s longstanding commitment to public service, in particular on behalf of the most vulnerable parts of the Los Angeles community,” says Brad Sears, the Associate Dean of Public Interest Law.
“I am thrilled to launch this program,” says Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin. “It is an incredible addition to our school and will create a framework for our students to engage in new kinds of transformative work. I am also tremendously pleased that the program will honor an amazing alumnus of our school.”
The genesis of the funding that supports this new program was initiated by a bequest from the late Jesse Dukeminier, a beloved property professor at UCLA Law for many decades, and his partner, David Sanders. The Bohnett Foundation, founded by Rand Schrader’s surviving partner David Bohnett, provided the funding to bring the initiative to scale. Other donors to the new program include Aileen Adams, Michael Fleming, Dean Hansell, Shawn Kravitz, Meyer and Renee Luskin, Burt Pines, Rob Saltzman, and Cathy Unger.
The program’s inaugural director is Grace Meng. Meng joins the law school from Human Rights Watch, where she has been associate director in the U.S. program. As associate director, Meng has been a researcher, advocate, and writer focused on the rights of immigrants in the United States. A former immigration law practitioner, Meng is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.
“My pro bono experiences changed my life, and I’m excited to support the talented students at UCLA Law in fi nding pro bono work they can be passionate about and pursue throughout their careers,” says Meng.
The launch of the Pro Bono Program coincided with the launch of the school’s Public Service Challenge, a new UCLA Law tradition than invites students, faculty and staff to commit to two hours of pro bono service in a ten-day period. During the fi rst two challenges, over 500 members of the law school community logged more than 1,600 hours of community service.
Three UCLA Law students were honored with the inaugural Susman Godfrey Prize, which recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of law students of color across the nation. Regina Campbell ’23, Kaysie Gonzalez ’23, and Galyn Sumida-Ross ’23 together made up a quarter of all 2021 winners. UCLA Law was home to the largest number of honorees, who came from an array of top law schools. The prize was launched this year, according to Susman Godfrey, “as part of the fi rm’s ongoing commitment to enhancing diversity in the legal Regina Campbell Kaysie Gonzalez Galyn Sumida-Ross profession and with the goal of increasing the pipeline of diverse attorneys interested in civil trial litigation.” Students of color in their fi rst or second years of law school were nominated by their professors or administrators, and they were selected after participating in virtual interviews with lawyers at the fi rm. They earned $2,500 and an off er of a Summer 2022 clerkship at any of the fi rm’s offi ces.
“What really stands out about UCLA Law is not only the brilliant students and faculty but the incredibly supportive and encouraging community. That’s why I think UCLA’s students were able to stand out amongst some of the brightest law students in the country,” says Campbell, who has served as co-president of UCLA Law’s trial team and a Susman Godfrey 1L Diversity Fellow.
Sumida-Ross is a student in UCLA Law’s Epstein Program for Public Interest Law and Policy and has earned a fellowship through the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and the Inner City Law Center. “I appreciate that Susman Godfrey created a diversity prize that is open to students like myself who are committed to pursuing a career in public interest law,” she says.
“I am honored to receive the Susman Godfrey Prize alongside my outstanding friends, Regina and Galyn. We owe special gratitude to Professor LaToya Baldwin Clark. The fact that three of her students were selected for this prize is a testament to how she champions her students inside and outside of the classroom,” says Gonzalez, who credits Baldwin Clark for welcoming her to the law school and supporting her application for the prize.
“I am so proud of Kaysie, Regina, and Galyn for winning this award,” Baldwin Clark says. “This honor is a testament to the work they have already begun during their law school careers – and to the impact they will make as UCLA Law alumnae.”
Five Professors Earn Faculty Chair Appointments
E. Tendayi Achiume Kimberly Clausing Cary Franklin Máximo Langer Jason Oh
Five UCLA Law professors, including leading scholars in human rights, tax law, law and sexuality, international law, and criminal justice, received appointments to faculty chairs in 2021. Three of the chairs were being fi lled for the fi rst time.
Faculty chairs acknowledge the distinction of the law school’s outstanding professors and are made possible by the incredible generosity of UCLA Law’s alumni and friends. UCLA Law has 70 full-time faculty members and 36 endowed chairs.
Professor E. Tendayi Achiume was appointed as the inaugural holder of the Alicia Miñana Chair in Law. She is an authority in and driving force behind UCLA Law’s renowned work in international human rights, critical race studies, and public interest law. She has also served since 2017 as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. In 2020, she won UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the Eby Award for the Art of Teaching and this year was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (see story, page 33). The term chair was established through a gift made by alumna Alicia Miñana ’87 and her husband, Rob Lovelace, who together made the founding donation to UCLA Law’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy.
Professor Kimberly Clausing was appointed to the Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy. She joined UCLA Law in January from Reed College, where she was the Thormund A. Miller and Walter Mintz Professor of Economics. Her research studies the taxation of multinational fi rms, examining how government decisions and corporate behavior interplay in an increasingly global world economy. In February, Clausing was sworn-in as a deputy assistant secretary at the treasury department (see story, page 6). She is the inaugural holder of the Zolt Chair, which was established in 2019 with gifts from 34 UCLA Law alumni, friends, and faculty members in honor of Zolt’s distinguished career at the law school.
Professor Cary Franklin joined UCLA Law in 2021 as the McDonald/Wright Chair of Law. A leading authority on civil rights and contemporary legal protections regarding sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and race, Franklin serves as the faculty director of the Williams Institute. She came to UCLA Law from the University of Texas School of Law, where she was the W.H. Francis, Jr. Professor of Law. Her cutting-edge scholarship has been cited widely, including in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Bostock v. Clayton County decision in 2020. The McDonald/Wright Chair was founded in 2007 with a gift from John McDonald and Rob Wright to support the Williams Institute’s research.
Professor Máximo Langer was appointed to the David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Chair in Law. A member of the UCLA Law faculty since 2003, he is a leading authority on domestic, comparative and international criminal law and procedure, regularly lecturing on the subjects in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. Langer directs the Transnational Program on Criminal Justice. He also serves as the president of the American Society of Comparative Law. Established in 1987 by UCLA Law alumnus, entrepreneur and philanthropist David Price ’60 and his then-wife Dallas, the Price Chair was most recently held by UCLA Law dean and Ralph and Shirley Shapiro Professor of Law Jennifer L. Mnookin.
Professor Jason Oh was appointed to the Lowell Milken Chair in Law as its inaugural holder. A member of the UCLA Law faculty since 2012 and the faculty co-director of UCLA Law’s Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy, he is an authority in tax policy and public fi nance. His record of scholarship and policymaking features multiple publications, media appearances, and testimonies before Congress. Oh also serves on the board of directors of the National Tax Association. The Lowell Milken Chair in Law was endowed in 2020 with a gift to support the career development of an emerging leader in the tax or business law areas.
