54 minute read
MEET OUR NEWEST FACULTY MEMBERS
FACULTY :: NEW TENURETRACK FACULTY
JOSEPH FISHKIN
Professor of Law
Joseph Fishkin, an expert in election law, constitutional law, and employment discrimination law, joins UCLA Law from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was the Marrs McLean Professor in Law. He also served as a visiting professor at Yale Law School. At UCLA Law, he teaches Election Law, Employment Discrimination Law, a seminar on Direct Democracy, and a Law Through Scholarship course on Law and Economic Inequality.
A political theorist and legal scholar who works on questions at the intersection of law, distributive justice, and political economy, Fishkin wrote the award-winning book Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity (Oxford University Press, 2014) and, with former UCLA Law professor William Forbath, the forthcoming book The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2022). Fishkin’s other writing has appeared in the Columbia Law Review, the Supreme Court Review, and the Yale Law Journal.
He received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University, D. Phil. in politics from the University of Oxford, where he was a Fulbright Scholar, and J.D. from Yale Law School. After law school, he clerked for Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts and was a Ruebhausen Fellow at Yale Law School.
CARY FRANKLIN
McDonald/Wright Chair in Law Faculty Director, Williams Institute
Cary Franklin is a leading authority on civil rights and contemporary legal protections regarding sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and race. She joins UCLA Law from the University of Texas School of Law, where she was the W.H. Francis, Jr. Professor of Law. She also served as the Florence Rogatz Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School. At UCLA Law, she is the faculty director of the Williams Institute and teaches Reproductive Rights and Justice and Law, Gender, and Sexuality. Franklin’s cutting-edge scholarship has been widely published and cited by scholars and courts. The U.S. Supreme Court cited her 2012 Harvard Law Review article, “Inventing the ‘Traditional Concept’ of Sex Discrimination,” in its landmark 2020 Bostock decision. Her work has also appeared in the Michigan Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, the NYU Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal. She earned a B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale University, J.D. from Yale Law School, where she served as an articles editor of the Yale Law Journal, and D.Phil. in English from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She clerked for Sonia Sotomayor, then of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and was a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and a Ribicoff Fellow at Yale Law School.
MARK MCKENNA
Professor of Law Faculty Co-Director, Ziff ren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law
Mark McKenna, an esteemed scholar in intellectual property and technology law, joins UCLA Law from Notre Dame Law School, where he taught for more than a decade, served as the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law, and was the founding director of the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center. At UCLA Law, he serves as a faculty co-director of the Ziff ren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law and teaches torts, among other courses.
McKenna’s core work has been in trademark law, recently focusing on design and questions relating to the boundaries of various forms of intellectual property. He is also engaged in projects relating to the governance of technology, including one that centers “on the meaning of autonomy in a world of predictive algorithms.” McKenna is the author of more than 40 articles and book chapters, as well as the casebooks The Law of Design: Design Patent, Trademark & Copyright and The Law of Intellectual Property.
He earned a B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame and J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where current UCLA Law Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin was his evidence professor. He practiced intellectual property law with the Chicago fi rm Pattishall, McAuliff e, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson.
ANNA SPAIN BRADLEY
Professor of Law Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Anna Spain Bradley, a highly regarded scholar of international law, human rights, dispute resolution, and racism, who has served since 2020 as UCLA’s vice chancellor for equity, diversity, and inclusion, joined the UCLA Law faculty in early 2021 as a professor of law. She came to UCLA from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she was a law professor and the assistant vice provost for faculty development and diversity.
Her research focuses on global understandings of racism and human rights, matters on which she serves as a legal expert to the United Nations. An award-winning author of numerous scholarly works in the fi eld, Spain Bradley’s books include Human Choice in International Law (Cambridge University Press, 2021) and Global Racism (Oxford University Press, forthcoming) and the casebook International Dispute Resolution. She previously practiced international law at the U.S. Department of State and worked on climate policy at the Environmental Protection Agency and on international trade agreements at the Offi ce of the United States Trade Representative.
Spain Bradley earned a B.A. from Denison University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as an executive editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. She clerked for Judge Raymond Finch of the U.S. District Court of the Virgin Islands.
LINDSAY F. WILEY
Professor of Law
Lindsay F. Wiley, a leader in health law and policy, joins the UCLA Law faculty as a professor of law in January 2022. Wiley comes from American University Washington College of Law, where she has served on the faculty for more than a decade and directs the Health Law and Policy Program.
Wiley’s scholarship centers on health care access and public health within the United States and globally. She serves as the United States Rapporteur for the Lex-Atlas: Covid-19 Project, and she co-chairs the Health Justice: Engaging Critical Perspectives in Health Law and Policy Initiative. A widely published author and speaker, she has co-written the books Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (University of California Press, 2016), Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (University of California Press, 2018), and the forthcoming Feminist Judgments: Rewritten Health Law Opinions (Cambridge University Press, 2022). She is a past president of the American Society for Law, Medicine and Ethics and a former member of the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists.
Wiley earned her bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard College and her law degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. She also received a master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. FACULTY :: NEW PROFESSOR FROM PRACTICE
AHILAN ARULANANTHAM
Professor from Practice Faculty Co-Director, Center for Immigration Law and Policy
Ahilan T. Arulanantham joins UCLA Law as a faculty co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy. A preeminent leader in the fi eld, he comes from the ACLU of Southern California, where he ran immigrants’ rights and national security advocacy and litigation since 2004. He has successfully litigated several immigrants’ rights cases, including three arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court, most recently in FBI v. Fazaga, on behalf of Americans of the Muslim faith who were targeted by the federal government for surveillance because of their religion. His numerous accolades include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (“genius grant”) in 2016. He previously worked as an assistant federal public defender in El Paso, Texas, and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He earned a B.A., summa cum laude, from Georgetown University, a B.A. as a Marshall Scholar at the University of Oxford, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
FACULTY :: CENTER AND PROGRAM LEADERSHIP
TALIA INLENDER
Deputy Director, Center for Immigration Law and Policy
Talia Inlender joins UCLA Law as deputy director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy. One of the nation’s leading immigration lawyers and an expert on the rights of people incarcerated by immigration authorities, Inlender comes to UCLA Law from Public Counsel, where she spent 13 years developing and leading eff orts to defend incarcerated immigrants. Most recently, she served as the supervising senior staff attorney with Public Counsel’s Immigrants’ Rights Project. Her work has also included advocacy to expand local and state funding for the representation of immigrants in removal proceedings. Previously, Inlender clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She earned a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
MICHAEL KARANICOLAS
Executive Director, UCLA Institute for Technology, Law and Policy
Michael Karanicolas joins UCLA Law as the inaugural executive director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, a joint endeavor with the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering. He comes from Yale Law School, where he led the Wikimedia/Yale Law School Initiative on Intermediaries and Information, and where he remains an affi liated fellow with the Information Society Project. With more than a decade leading eff orts devoted to better understanding freedom of expression, transparency, and digital rights, Karanicolas is a widely published author and frequent speaker on issues involving new technologies. Previously, he worked at the Centre for Law and Democracy in Nova Scotia, Canada, and consulted with the Open Government Partnership, UNESCO, and Dalhousie University. He earned a B.A. from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, an LL.B. from the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, and an LL.M. from the University of Toronto.
CINDY X. LIN
Executive Director, Ziff ren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law
Cindy X. Lin joins UCLA Law as executive director of the Ziff ren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law. With deep experience as a lawyer and executive in the entertainment business, she comes from Sega of America, where she led the company’s North American legal and business aff airs team. During that time, Sega was named Metacritic’s top videogame publisher of the year (jumping from No. 18 the year before) and transformed its Sonic the Hedgehog character into a top entertainment property across games, fi lm, animation, and consumer products. She previously worked at Twentieth Century Fox, negotiating licensing, co-promotion, and brand integration deals for hits including Avatar, Titanic, The Simpsons, and Modern Family. She was also an associate at Morrison & Forester. She earned a B.S. and an M.S. from Stanford University and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. FACULTY :: NEW LECTURERS
ÁNGEL DÍAZ
Lecturer in Law
Ángel Díaz teaches Legal Research and Writing as a lecturer in law. Previously, he worked as counsel in liberty and national security at the Brennan Center for Justice and as an adjunct professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law. He focuses his research and advocacy on the intersection of technology and civil rights and civil liberties. Díaz received his B.A. and J.D. from UC Berkeley, where he was an editor of the California Law Review and the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. As an undergraduate, he taught a course on Cormac McCarthy, the Coen Brothers, and the neo-Western.
GEOFFREY B. KEHLMANN
Lecturer in Law
Geoff rey B. Kehlmann teaches Legal Research and Writing as a lecturer in law. Previously, he taught Appellate Advocacy at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, and was an appellate attorney at Greines, Martin, Stein and Richland. Earlier, he practiced at Sidley Austin and clerked for Judge Harry Pregerson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He received his B.A. from Boston College and his J.D., summa cum laude, from Loyola Law School, where he was an editor of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review. He externed for Judge Dean Pregerson of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
FACULTY :: NEW FELLOWS
DANIEL CARPENTER-GOLD
Shapiro Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy
Daniel Carpenter-Gold is a fellow at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and will co-teach the Environmental Law Clinic in Spring 2022. Previously, he was a staff attorney in the equitable neighborhoods practice area of TakeRoot Justice, which provides legal, research, and policy support to communitybased organizations in New York City to dismantle racial, economic, and social oppression. Before that, he held fellowships at the Natural Resources Defense Council and New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. Born and raised in rural Maine, he received a B.A. from Columbia University and J.D. from Harvard Law School.
HEATHER DADASHI
Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy
Heather Dadashi is a fellow at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. She earned a B.A. from UC Berkeley and a J.D. from UCLA Law with a specialization in environmental law in 2021. During law school, she was a legal fellow at Los Angeles Waterkeeper and a legal intern at the California Offi ce of the Attorney General in the Natural Resources Law Section and the California Coastal Commission. She also served as a senior editor of UCLA Law’s Journal of Environmental Law and Policy.
GREGORY DAVIS
Williams Institute/Critical Race Studies Richard Taylor Law Teaching Fellow
Gregory Davis is the Richard Taylor Law Teaching Fellow for 2021-23 and teaches Critical Race Theory. His research lies in affi rmative action, discrimination, empirical legal studies, and critical race theory. Previously, he was a quantitative researcher at Facebook, where he worked on product development and user research. He received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Morehouse College, a J.D./M.A. in law and Afro-American studies from UCLA, where he was the editor-inchief of the Dukeminier Awards Journal of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Harvard University.
SAPNA KHATRI
Sears Clinical Law Teaching Fellow on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Law and Policy
Sapna Khatri joins the Williams Institute from the ACLU of Illinois. There, as a staff attorney with the Women’s and Reproductive Rights project, she worked on a range of reproductive health and justice issues, including religious refusals to reproductive healthcare and the connection of crisis pregnancy centers to faith-based medical providers. And as advocacy and policy counsel, she focused on privacy, technology, and surveillance matters. She earned a B.J. and a B.A. from the University of Missouri and a J.D. from Washington University School of Law, where she was recognized as the Public Service Student of the Year. EMMANUEL MAULEÓN
Bernard A. and Lenore S. Greenberg Legal Scholar Fellow
Emmanuel Mauleón is the Bernard A. and Lenore S. Greenberg Legal Fellow and teaches courses on critical race theory and sexuality. He worked on issues involving surveillance, white nationalist domestic terrorism, and hate crime policy as a fellow at New York University School of Law’s Policing Project and the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program. He earned a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design and a J.D. from UCLA Law, where he was an editor of the UCLA Law Review and the Chicanx Latinx Law Review. He clerked for Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn ’01 of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
ANDRIA SO
Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy
Andria So is a fellow at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. She earned a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was an editor of the NYU Review of Law and Social Change. During law school, she conducted research and analysis for environmental impact litigation at the California regional offi ce of Earthjustice, and she participated in NYU’s Environmental Law Clinic. She also worked for organizations that addressed domestic violence, HIV in low-income communities, homelessness, and bail.
CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN THE SPOTLIGHT: RESPONDING TO NATIONAL CONVERSATION
As critical race theory (CRT) came under misguided attack throughout 2021, UCLA Law professors, including the foremost experts in the fi eld, were in high demand from members of the media and others who were trying to make sense of the controversy.
In response, those faculty members set the record straight on what CRT is — and isn’t — and reframed the conversation around the established principles that have driven their work for decades.
UCLA Law is home to the fi rst and only law school-based Critical Race Studies program in the country, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. It hosts many pioneering CRT academics. Over the past year, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Cheryl Harris, Laura E. Gómez, LaToya Baldwin Clark, and other faculty members lent their voices to correct the inaccuracies and push back on the attacks against critical race theory through stories and interviews by the Washington Post, the AP, NBC News, Vox, Marketplace, MSNBC, Th e Nation, Vanity Fair, and Th e New Yorker.
Th is fall, the program’s faculty members turned their attention to a comprehensive, forward-looking initiative that is designed to respond to attacks on CRT and preserve its value in education and the understanding of the law. Th is project will provide a publicfacing database that tracks anti-CRT actions and legislation by various state and local offi cials, launch a far-reaching strategic communications plan that pushes back against politically motivated attacks, and engage lawmakers and community leaders to better understand the role that CRT can play
in building a fair and equal society.
It is work that builds on the trailblazing work of the program’s core faculty members, which goes back decades. For example, Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality in her 1989 University of Chicago Legal Forum article “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Th eory and Antiracist Politics,” and Harris, UCLA Law’s vice dean for community, equality and justice, wrote the 1993 Harvard Law Review article “Whiteness as Property,” which is a landmark in critical race theory scholarship. Jerry Kang’s 2005 article “Trojan Horses of Race,” also in the Harvard Law Review, was crucial in incorporating analysis of implicit bias into law, and Gómez’s 2020 book, Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism, analyzes contemporary
Cheryl I. Harris Jerry Kang LaToya Baldwin Clark Noah Zatz
attitudes about Latino identity in the context of historical constructions of, and debates about, race and ethnicity.
Th e program’s new project thus aligns with its founding principles, which strive to use legal scholarship to create a more equitable world.
“Identifying and uprooting racism is central to building a multiracial democracy,” says Noah Zatz, 2021-22 faculty director of the Critical Race Studies program. “Th is research will help chart a path toward a legal system that refl ects those values, including in First Amendment jurisprudence.”
“Identifying and uprooting racism is central to building a multiracial democracy. Th is research will help chart a path toward a legal system that refl ects those values, including in
First Amendment jurisprudence.”
NOAH ZATZ, 202122 FACULTY DIRECTOR OF THE CRS PROGRAM
BRINGING GLOBAL LEADERSHIP TO UCLA AND THE NATION
Th e pandemic shift to online programming allowed the Promise Institute for Human Rights to coordinate impactful speakers across time zones, schools, and indeed, continents, including a national address to law students by Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and former president of Chile, on March 31.
Th e event, “Th e Human Rights Challenge,” was part of Executive Director Kate Mackintosh’s vision when she joined the institute in 2018. Her aim was to see a network of universities cooperating on larger initiatives with greater impact.
“I was keen to connect with our peers across the nation to create a space to cross-pollinate ideas, innovations, advocacy, and resources for the next generation of human rights lawyers,” Mackintosh says. “It led to this network, and together we were able to engage High Commissioner Bachelet.”
Th e network includes human rights programs in the law schools at American University, Columbia University, Georgetown University, NYU, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, Rutgers University, and Yale University.
Bachelet’s speech refl ected on many threats to human rights around the world and how the next wave of rights defenders can be successful. Regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, she spoke about “inequalities and discrimination which the virus has made apparent” and how they do not just harm individuals. “Th ey create shock waves which ripple across the whole of society,” she said. “To recover from this damage, the root causes must be addressed … [as] a matter of justice … and also [as] a way to super charge our recovery.”
Th e talk was an important opportunity for UCLA Law students. “Th e chance to engage with a global leader in human rights is invaluable for emerging human rights lawyers,” Mackintosh says. “Th ey hear fi rsthand what the work looks like at the U.N. and international level, and they can use these insights to frame their career paths.”
Michelle Bachelet
GENERATING POWERFUL NEW THINKING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The role of corporations in human rights is undeniable, and the 2021 symposium, International Human Rights and Corporate Accountability, was a who’s who of lawyers putting corporate human rights accountability and legal leadership in the spotlight. With opening remarks from Michael Fakhri, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to panel discussions on human traffi cking in the food supply chain, the corporation as a global superpower, digital surveillance and privacy, sanctions, and more the symposium was a wellspring of cutting edge thought leadership.
“A wide variety of corporations continue to expand their operations and infl uence in such a way that they have the power to drastically improve human rights,” says Catherine Sweetser, deputy director of the Promise Institute and a symposium organizer. “The path forward for human rights includes corporations and we are excited by the possibilities in this space.”
A DIGITAL INVESTIGATIONS LAB IS BORN
In keeping with their mission to empower the next generation of human rights lawyers and leaders, the Promise Institute launched its Human Rights Digital Investigations Lab. The lab will train students in Open Source Investigation Techniques (OSINT) — a methodology involving gathering, analysis, and verifi cation of digital materials.
“Our goal is to protect human rights and train attorneys capable of working in any environment,” says Jess Peake, assistant director of the Promise Institute. “Increasingly, that means digitally. This specialized training furthers students’ career options and the mission of human rights work.”
The lab is the result of a collaboration between UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center and UC Santa Cruz’s Research Center for the Americas. Funding was provided by the University of California Multicampus Research Programs and Initiatives grant, and will support continued expansion of the labs across the campuses. S. Priya Morley (bottom, left) has joined the Promise team, serving as Racial Justice Policy Counsel and expanding the institute’s capacity to address work at the intersection of race and indigeneity with human rights. The 2021-22 academic year also brought a new faculty director, Stephen Gardbaum (bottom, right). And core faculty member and UN Special Rapporteur on Racism, E. Tendayi Achiume (top), received the inaugural Alicia Miñana Chair in Law.
LOWELL MILKEN INSTITUTE STAYS THE COURSE BY SHIFTING GEARS
The 2020-21 academic year was challenging for everyone, including law students, faculty, and the business law community, but the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy succeeded in adapting its traditional suite of programs to an online format, introducing new programs to meet the unique moment presented by the pandemic, and by launching the new Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofi ts (see story, page 12).
Stephen Bainbridge Iman Anabtawi James Park
COVID-19 AND BUSINESS LAW
The institute’s popular Business Law Breakfast series on the UCLA campus became the online COVID-19 and Business Law series: programs for law students, faculty and the business law community focused on how the pandemic aff ected corporate governance, bankruptcy practice, and the role of the general counsel. Events included:
•“Should Boards Have Duties to Stakeholders?
Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis,” featuring
UCLA Law Professor Stephen M. Bainbridge, the William D. Warren Distinguished
Professor of Law; David A. Katz, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and
Jeff rey M. Lipshaw, Professor of Law at
Suff olk University Law School. They were moderated by UCLA Law professors Iman
Anabtawi and James Park.
•“COVID’s Eff ect on Restructuring, Bankruptcy, and Finance,” featuring UCLA Law Professor
Dan Bussel, who is also a partner at KTBS
Law LLP; Sheri Bluebond, judge of the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California; and Michael Benn, a partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. The moderator was UCLA Law Professor Jason
Oh, the Lowell Milken Chair in Law.
•“How General Counsels Are Dealing with COVID,” featuring Stephanie Kyoko
McKinnon, general counsel at Skydance,
Rick Runkel ’81, general counsel and corporate secretary at Synopsys, and Brian
Woram, Executive VP and General Counsel at KB Home. UCLA Law Professor Jason Oh moderated again.
NEW PROGRAM LAUNCHED: FOUNDERS SPEAKER SERIES
The pandemic presented students and alumni with multiple challenges. At the same time, UCLA Law students and graduates are trained to confront and work through diffi cult situations. Recognizing that the times called for a little inspiration from UCLA Law alumni who have faced signifi cant challenges, the Lowell Milken Institute created the new Founders Speaker Series. The series invites UCLA Law alumni who have founded a business or other signifi cant venture to tell their stories, describing the problems they faced and how they succeeded. A success in its fi rst, pandemic-inspired year, the Founders Speaker Series will now continue even after the challenges of COVID-19 have passed, creating opportunities for dialogue and action.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF GAMESTOP: SHORT SQUEEZES, ROBINHOOD AND THE ATTACK ON THE ‘WALL STREET ELITES’
The pandemic wasn’t the only event dominating global headlines, or business news, in the past year. One major story was the curious, compelling case of GameStop. In January 2021, the retailer of video games, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise was at the center of dramatic events in the stock market. Its stock price increased 1,500% over the course of two weeks. During that time, the investing public was learning about Robinhood, the subreddit wallstreetbets, Elon Musk’s viral tweet about Gamestonk, the consequences of short squeezes on those with short positions, and those who were driving up the stock.
Weeks later, the Lowell Milken Institute hosted UCLA Law professors James Park and Andrew Verstein to make sense of what had happened and what it meant, and could still mean, for the stock market, and for investors and securities regulation.
UCLA Law places students and graduates with law fi rms and employers throughout the country and the world, but the school has a special interest in law fi rms in Los Angeles and Southern California generally. Professor James Park’s recent report "Los Angeles Law Firms Before and After Recessions," is a follow up to his 2018 report "Law Firms in Los Angeles After the Financial Crisis." Both reports received wide press coverage, and last spring the Lowell Milken Institute hosted a panel to discuss the timely question of how law fi rms fare in recessions. Park was joined in the discussion by Professor Eli Wald, Charles W. Delaney Jr. Professor of Law, Sturm College of Law, University of Denver, and Richard Kolodny, CEO and founder, the Portfolio Group, one of the country’s leading legal search and placement fi rms.
NEW FACULTY CO-DIRECTOR
Professor Andrew Verstein will serve as the faculty co-director of the Lowell Milken Institute alongside Jason Oh, the Lowell Milken Chair in Law.
UCLA Law’s new Center for Immigration Law and Policy announced its presence in the national conversation on immigration issues with a major conference last spring, “Immigration Policy in the Biden Administration: Th e First 100 Days and Beyond.” Th e virtual gathering drew more than 1,000 participants from around the world for more than 14 hours of panels over three days in April and May.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) were among the featured guests at the event organized by Distinguished Professor Hiroshi Motomura and Professor from Practice Ahilan Arulanantham, the faculty co-directors of the center.
“Th is event was an uncommon convening that brought together immigration academics and key people from the worlds of advocacy and government in probing conversations,” says Motomura, who is one of the nation’s top scholars in immigration law and policy.
Th e conversation with Sec. Mayorkas was extraordinary, as it is highly unusual for a sitting Homeland Security secretary to appear in a detailed and substantive conversation with a professor and attorney representing immigrants.
In that wide-ranging and detailed discussion, which aired live on C-SPAN, Mayorkas, who immigrated from Cuba as a child, discussed a range of important policy issues with Arulanantham, including the treatment of children at the border, sanctuary cities, and racism in the immigration enforcement system. Th eir spirited but respectful conversation should serve as a model for how people can productively discuss their disagreements in the immigration context and elsewhere. “It’s an honor to speak with everyone and participate with Ahilan and the wonderful center here at UCLA,” Mayorkas said.
Sen. Padilla joined Motomura in a broad discussion. “Immigration is very personal to me,” Padilla said. “I am the proud son of immigrants from Mexico. My parents, like so many others, came to this country in search of a better life.”
Th eir conversation also marked an unusual and important milestone in transparency, as Motomura probed the senator’s positions on a number of important topics, including legislation involving border and naturalization issues and how immigration impacts jobs and critical industries, from farming to technology. “No state has more at stake in immigration policy than the state of California,” said Padilla, who was born and raised in Los Angeles. “California is home to a quarter of the country’s foreign-born population, and immigrants are clearly critical not just to society in general but to our economy.”
Sen. Alex Padilla Hiroshi Motomura
Arulanantham Argues at U.S. Supreme Court
Professor from Practice and faculty co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy Ahilan Arulanantham presented oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court this fall in the case of FBI v. Fazaga. This was his third argument before the Court.
In Fazaga, Arulanantham advocated on behalf of Sheikh Fazaga, Ali Malik, and Yasser AbdelRahim; three Muslim Americans who were secretly surveilled by the FBI because of their religious beliefs in 2006 and 2007, while living in Orange County, California. His presentation centered on the argument that the plaintiff s’ religious freedom claims should be allowed to proceed. A lawyer for the government disagreed, arguing that the religious freedom claims should be dismissed because, to defend itself, the government would have to disclose information about the operation that would put national security at risk, even if disclosed only to the judge in camera.
To prepare for his appearance, Arulanantham — who is also a former assistant federal public defender and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, commonly known as a “genius grant” — relied on the advice and expertise of many members of the UCLA Law community. Several faculty members participated in moot courts, including one that took place before an audience of students, where he practiced his oral argument.
“[This case] is extraordinarily important for several reasons,” he said. “It’s a chance to hold the government accountable for discrimination that has gone on ubiquitously against Muslim Americans for the last 20 years. It’s also very important for people interested in NSA spying and other sorts of mass warrantless surveillance.”
FACULTY MENTORSHIP HELPS GRADUATES LAUNCH LEADERSHIP CAREERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment faculty members go beyond the classroom to support students’ career development, off ering intensive mentorship to shape students’ academic path and help them earn competitive externships, fellowships, and early career positions.
Recent graduates have taken on jobs at the U.S. EPA, the California Attorney General’s Environment Section and Bureau of Environmental Justice, and the California Natural Resources Agency. This year, graduates joined leading legal nonprofi ts, including Environmental Defense Fund and Earthjustice, and private fi rms like Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger and Latham & Watkins.
Two graduates were awarded fellowships this year to work on environmental justice issues in the Los Angeles region with nonprofi t Communities for a Better Environment: Idalmis Vaquero ’21 is an Equal Justice Works Fellow, and Gabriel Greif ’21 is a Public Service Law Fellow, supported by the UC President and the Emmett Institute.
Students in UCLA Law’s environmental law clinics this year engaged with policymakers and communities to improve government responses to climate change and industrial pollution.
Now in its third year, the California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic provides hands-on training in the state legislative process. Last fall, students worked alongside legislators and their staff to develop new legislation to help the state adapt to climate change, with a focus on the risks posed by wildfi res and sea-level rise. A wildfi re bill co-authored by clinic client Sen. Henry Stern included the student team’s policy ideas for addressing neighborhood-level responses to wildfi re risk in Southern California. The bill was passed and signed into law this summer.
This spring, students in the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic worked closely with aff ected community members and Communities for a Better Environment, an environmental justice nonprofi t, to advocate for better protections against the harmful impacts of lead pollution from the former Exide industrial recycling facility. Students spoke at a hearing for California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, asking the state to clean up contaminated parkways in Los Angeles. Based in part on the students’ advocacy, DTSC agreed to do more to assess community needs and priorities for the cleanup. This work is the latest of several clinic projects over the past 15 years to support communities harmed by pollution from the Exide facility.
TED PARSON SHAPES GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORKS FOR EMERGING CLIMATE TECHNOLOGIES
Led by Emmett Institute faculty director Ted Parson, a research project on the governance of solar geoengineering and carbon dioxide removal technologies shaped public understanding of these emerging issues. Parson published an editorial in the journal Science arguing in support of solar geoengineering research and earlier this year, Parson joined Emmett/ Frankel Fellow Jesse Reynolds in organizing a special collection of six papers in the journal Futures on scenarios where diff erent groups — like nations vulnerable to climate change or grassroots organizations — might deploy solar geoengineering technologies without an international agreement. Parson and Emmett Fellow Holly Buck also contributed to the journal Global Environmental Politics with an article on how to manage the future phasedown of carbon dioxide removal programs. The research project’s faculty and fellows have produced more than 50 publications since 2017.
ALEX WANG ADVANCES CONVERSATION ON U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS AND CLIMATE CHANGE
An expert on China’s environmental laws and policies, Emmett Institute faculty co-director Alex Wang advanced the public conversation this year on China-U.S. climate and environmental relations through research, high-level events, and media interviews.
In a series of working papers, Wang explained how “constructive competition” could defi ne the U.S.-China climate relationship, made the case for banning coal in China, and outlined governance challenges for countries’ mid-century carbon neutrality targets. Wang is also leading two research projects on emissions trading in collaboration with Chinese researchers and regulators, funded by the Energy Foundation and the Berggruen Institute.
Ahead of U.N. climate talks this fall, Wang presented at a high-level conference on ChinaU.S. climate cooperation, hosted by Stanford University and Peking University and featuring leading academics, offi cials, and experts. Wang also spoke on China-U.S. relations at events with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, China Research Group, the University of Pennsylvania, and other leading centers. And Wang helped explain China’s environmental policies through interviews with The New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, and other outlets.
WILLIAMS INSTITUTE ADVISES THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON LGBTQ RIGHTS
Th e Williams Institute has been working closely this year with the Biden administration to advance LGBTQ rights and improve data collection on LGBTQ Americans.
In the fall of 2020, institute scholars produced draft executive orders on LGBTQ rights for the Biden administration. Th e orders addressed a wide range of issues that impact the health and well-being of LGBTQ people in the U.S. and abroad — including discrimination, the transgender military ban, bullying of youth in schools, and human rights abuses globally, among others.
On his fi rst day in offi ce, President Biden issued an executive order requiring agencies to interpret federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on sex to also include sexual orientation and gender identity, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. He issued additional orders over the next 100 days to end the transgender military ban, guarantee educational environments are free of discrimination for LGBTQ students, promote LGBTQI+ human rights internationally, expand data collection on LGBTQ populations, reduce the economic and health disparities of COVID-19, and advance racial equity and support for underserved communities. Th e Williams Institute’s draft orders informed these policies.
“Our mission is to conduct research that informs public policy and ensure that those policies are based in fact,” says Brad Sears, founding executive director and David Sanders Distinguished Scholar of Law and Policy at the Williams Institute. “We are honored to have helped support the Biden administration draft data-backed policies that improve the lives of LGBTQ people.”
Since January, the institute has also worked with federal agencies to improve and expand data collection on LGBTQ populations. Th e collaboration resulted in the Census Bureau asking questions about respondents’ sexual orientation and gender identity on the Household Pulse Survey, which provides information on the impact of COVID-19 on people’s lives.
“Several more agencies are currently in the process of adding sexual orientation and gender identity questions to the surveys they administer,” says Christy Mallory, the Renberg Senior Scholar and Legal Director at the Williams Institute. “Federal data collection about LGBTQ people will help policymakers develop solutions that address the unique needs and disparities experienced by this population.”
Bianca D.M. Wilson, Rabbi Zacky Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute, was invited to join a panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The panel will develop best practices on collecting sexual orientation and gender identity information on surveys and forms.
WILLIAMS INSTITUTE TURNS 20
More than 400 friends and supporters joined the Williams Institute this May to celebrate two decades of research with impact. Special guest former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Representatives Maxine Waters (D-CA), and Richie Torres (D-NY) all spoke about the infl uence of the institute’s data on policies that improve the lives of LGBTQ people around the world.
Over the past 20 years, the Williams Institute has published more than 480 reports, submitted 47 amicus briefs and 41 testimonies, conducted more than 200 judicial education trainings on fi ve continents, and advocated for the improved data collection on LGBTQ people in federal and largescale surveys.
The institute’s research has informed policymakers, judges, advocates, and the media on issues such as employment and housing discrimination, the transgender military ban, conversion therapy, and HIV criminalization. A 2013 estimate of the number of samesex couples raising children was a key factor in Justice Anthony Kennedy's decision to rule in favor of marriage equality.
SMALL GRANTS, BIG IDEAS
Early in 2021, the Williams Institute launched two small grants programs to encourage new research on LGBTQ populations in the U.S. and around the world.
The LGBTQ and Racial Justice Small Grants Program supported policy-relevant research at the intersections of race, sexual orientation, and gender identity. More than 80 proposals were submitted and six were selected to receive awards. The winning projects span a range of topics that impact LGBTQ people of color, including access to health care, discrimination, immigration, and mortgage lending.
Global LGBTI Small Grants Program was designed to foster research on LGBTI populations in the Global South and to support researchers from those regions. Researchers from more than 40 countries submitted 115 proposals. The seven winning projects will look at a range of issues including violence, access to health care, mental health, legal gender recognition, and policing.
ZIFFREN INSTITUTE WELCOMES NEW LEADERS, BOARD MEMBERS
The Ziff ren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology, and Sports Law is excited to welcome Cindy X. Lin, its new executive director, and Mark McKenna, its new faculty co-director. Lin joins the Institute from Sega of America, Inc., where she was senior director of legal and business aff airs. She brings with her 15 years of leadership experience and collaboration with executives and creatives across media, entertainment, and technology. She previously worked at Twentieth Century Fox and as an associate at Morrison & Forester.
McKenna has joined the UCLA Law faculty from Notre Dame Law School. Though his core expertise is in trademark law, he has written broadly on topics in nearly every area of intellectual property. Much of his recent work has focused on design and on the boundaries of diff erent forms of intellectual property. He is also working on projects relating to the regulation of new technologies, particularly those that employ predictive algorithms.
The Ziff ren Institute is also thrilled to be adding four accomplished industry leaders to its board, as it looks forward to continuing the critical work of educating and training the next generation of attorneys in the media, entertainment, and sports industries. Catrice Monson ’97 is the managing director and co-founder of Right Size Media, an advisory fi rm focused on inclusive storytelling and customer engagement across media, entertainment and technology. She has made it her mission to make creative spaces more inclusive for the underrepresented.
Chad Fitzgerald ’01 is a Partner at Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley where he specializes in entertainment industry disputes regarding profi t participation and vertical integration and boasts an extensive Hollywood clientele. He’s been named to The Hollywood Reporter’s “Power Lawyers” list and one of “Hollywood’s New Leaders” by Variety.
Amy Siegel is the co-head of O’Melveny’s Entertainment, Sports and Media Industry Group. She represents motion picture studios, television networks, distribution and production companies, sports organizations, and other media clients in all business and legal aspects relating to the acquisition, fi nancing, exploitation, and management of media-related assets. Her work has earned her a place on The Hollywood Reporter’s “Power Lawyers” list for both 2020 and 2021.
Gabriel Brakin ’05 is the chief operating offi cer of Participant, the leading global media company dedicated to entertainment that inspires and compels social change. Brakin oversees company-wide business operations, deal making, and corporate and legal aff airs, and is responsible for the integration and operationalization of Participant’s content and impact strategy. A Double Bruin, Brakin also holds a B.A in Political Science from UCLA.
DOCUMENTARY FILM CLINIC KEEPS ROLLING
Even through the pandemic, the Documentary Film Legal Clinic and its clients had an amazing year. Student clinicians and director and associate director Dale Cohen and Dan Mayeda ’82 provided counsel and expertise on more than 20 documentary projects, including notable successes such as: Women in Blue (PBS), Lift Like a Girl (Netfl ix), and 100 Years from Mississippi (winner of Best Documentary Feature at the Harlem International Film Festival and the National Black Film Festival). They worked with emerging fi lmmakers referred by the most prestigious documentary organizations, including Film Independent, Firelight Media, and the International Documentary Association (IDA).
The 45th Annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium transformed into a virtual fourpart webinar series, “The Show Must Go On… Line? Life After Hollywood’s Longest Year.” It featured Tom Wolzien's annual state of the industry update; the future of theatrical distribution; the new backend model in the streaming wars; the changing diversity, equity, and inclusion landscape; the booming business of Infl uencers; and a discussion of online speech with general counsels of Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. The series was capped by the John H. Mitchell Panel on Ethics and Entertainment, and a keynote address by Blumhouse Productions CEO Jason Blum.
WE’RE NO. 1 AGAIN!
Th ere was good news when Th e Hollywood Reporter published its annual list of the top power lawyers, music attorneys, and legal legends in the entertainment industry. UCLA Law alumni and the Ziff ren Institute’s array of programs, clinics, classes, externships, and more had helped secure the school’s position as the No. 1 entertainment law school in the country for the seventh time in eight years. With growing curricular off erings and faculty experts, the Ziff ren Institute will continue to be the preeminent training ground for future leaders in entertainment and beyond.
THE ITLP’S AMBITIOUS YEAR-ONE AGENDA
Th e Institute of Technology, Law & Policy kicked off its fi rst year of full programming by hosting over 30 lectures and panels on issues from AI inventors to the future of free speech. Speakers included a who’s who of leading experts, such as Jack Balkin, Mark Lemley, Kate Klonick, and ICANN CEO Goren Marby. Th e institute also featured the best UCLA has to off er in the tech space, from marquee names like Eugene Volokh, Sarah Roberts, and Safi ya Noble, to campus newcomers Andrew Selbst, Achuta Kadambi, and Mark McKenna.
Ethics in tech was a particular area of focus, with a series that included author Cory Doctorow, the EFF’s stalkerware guru Eva Galperin, and civil society voices such as Tawana Petty of Data for Black Lives. “While the pandemic limits our ability to hold events, it creates new opportunities to host the world’s best and brightest thinkers in this space,” says Michael Karanicolas, the ITLP’s executive director.
Ariel Davis for Rest of World
FROM RESEARCH TO ACTION
Th e ITLP’s global reach is on display with a new article series that the institute is sponsoring. Th e Destabilization Experiment tracks the impacts of social media on global democracy, connecting American concerns about online political speech, polarization, and the massive infl uence of the tech sector, with parallel challenges taking place from the Philippines and Brazil to Sudan and South Africa.
UCLA students are also getting in on things, with a program that allows the Institute’s research assistants to tackle digital rights challenges related to regulating social media, facial recognition, and digital transparency.
“Tech policy should not be a spectator sport,” says Karanicolas. “It’s not enough to have great ideas, you have to bring that knowledge to those making decisions which impact millions of lives. With all the brilliance of UCLA’s students and faculty, there is a lot that we can off er to support smarter rulemaking in this space. And we are just getting started.”
ICLP CONFERENCE BRINGS LEADING THINKERS TOGETHER BY DESIGN
Th e International and Comparative Law Program joined forces with the Transnational Program on Criminal Justice last fall to co-host the annual meeting of the American Society of Comparative Law.
Th e conference included plenary panels discussing the relationship between comparative law and legal history, and comparative legal histories, and 25 panels featuring over 100 speakers from more than 20 countries, including some of the world's most insightful comparative law scholars.
Leading minds on comparative law and legal history were in attendance, including Tamar Herzog from Harvard, Lauren Benton and James Whitman from Yale, and many others. Panels engaged scholars from the two fi elds to discuss what they can learn from each other methodologically and substantively, a collaboration that is of crucial importance at a time in which the United States is rethinking its relationship with other countries and legal systems, and reinterpreting and reckoning with its own history, including the history of its legal system.
CENTERING AFGHAN VOICES AMID A TUMULTUOUS AND HISTORIC TRANSITION
ICLP programs rushed to add scholarly voices to the dialogue on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan this past summer. Th is included ensuring that Afghanis themselves were heard from — an example of UCLA Law's commitment to centering aff ected communities in dialogue.
Th e International and Comparative Law event “Afghanistan: An Evolving Situation” featured Hasina Safi , former minister of women’s aff airs in Afghanistan, UCLA Law Professor Aslı Ü. Bâli, and Haroon Azar, senior fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations.
REAL-TIME ASSESSMENT OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S CHALLENGES
Th e International and Comparative Law Program hosted an event with a lineup of powerhouse scholars to explore the many international relations challenges the Biden Administration faced as it assumed power.
From trade and the environment, human rights challenges, and relations with China, Iran, and the EU — “Th e Biden Administration and International Law” event underscored the nonpareil thought leadership at UCLA Law.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE LAW REVIEW AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROGRAM HOST NATIONWIDE CONFERENCE ON BUILDING SAFE COMMUNITIES
In Fall 2021, the Criminal Justice Program partnered with the UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review and the Center for the Study of Women to hold a three-week symposium: “Whose Streets? Building Safe Communities for All.” Conducted entirely virtually, the symposium brought together academics, activists, and lawmakers from across the country to discuss what public safety may look like with decreased reliance on traditional policing. Each symposium session examined public safety in one of three distinct spheres: the street, the home, and schools. The symposium series ultimately drew over a hundred total attendees with robust engagement from participants and UCLA Law students.
TRANSFORMING LOS ANGELES COUNTY’S JUVENILE JUSTICE PROGRAM
Since 2020, CJP has participated in the Youth Justice Reimagined initiative, which is focused on creating alternatives to probation and incarceration in Los Angeles County that prioritize equity, accountability, and healing-informed responses along the continuum of youth justice system involvement. In Spring 2020, Leah Gasser-Ordaz, CJP’s youth justice policy lead, moderated a panel for UCLA Law students about the Youth Justice Reimagined initiative and the ongoing work to transform the youth justice system in Los Angeles County, and just this fall, she presented the policy fi ndings and recommendations from CJP’s report on Los Angeles County Probation’s Citation Diversion Program to the Probation Oversight Commission, a civilian oversight body that advises the Probation Department and the Board of Supervisors and monitors probation’s progress on systemic reform. The POC then voted to adopt all of the recommendations, in a great example of how UCLA Law research can be transformative for the justice system in L.A. County.
SHINING A LIGHT ON PROLONGED DETENTION IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY JAILS DURING COVID-19
Sagar Bajpai ’21, Amy Munro, ’21, and Rodrigo Padilla Hernandez, ’21, authored a report as advanced students in CJP’s Bail Practicum that was released in December 2020. Their report — “Counting the Days: The Story of Prolonged Detention During COVID-19” — uncovers that people incarcerated in Los Angeles County jails pretrial were being held for longer periods of time during the COVID-19 pandemic than prior to the pandemic. While 35% of the pretrial population in January had been in custody for six months or longer, in September it jumped to 41%. The percentage of Black and Latinx people in the jails increased during the pandemic. 36% of Black people detained pretrial in January had been in jail for six months or longer, but that number jumped to just over 44% by September. The report draws from over 400 declarations submitted by people incarcerated in the county’s jails and data from the Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Department.
INGRID EAGLY TO SERVE AS CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROGRAM’S NEW FACULTY DIRECTOR
Ingrid Eagly is the program’s new faculty director, taking over for Máximo Langer, who served in that role for fi ve years. She teaches and writes about immigration law, criminal law, evidence, and public interest lawyering. In 2017 she received UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award. An expert in the intersection between immigration enforcement and the criminal legal system, she also co-teaches UCLA Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic.
CONNECTING ART AND LAW FOR LIBERATION (CALL) VIRTUAL FESTIVAL
Students, faculty, and staff across UCLA’s campus came together to make the virtual CALL festival come alive. To imagine an abolitionist future, the festival featured a conversation among artists and formerly incarcerated individuals, and workshops led by people across the globe focused on advocacy through the arts to fi ght mass incarceration.
RESNICK CENTER LAUNCHES GLOBAL BEST PRACTICES PROJECT
In 2021, the Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy launched a seminal project on global best practices in food regulation, funded by the Seeding the Future Family Foundation, founded by Bernhard Van Lengerich, a member of the Resnick Center’s outside advisory board. Melissa Shapiro, a former instructor in the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, will direct the project, which will produce a report and an interactive website analyzing best practices in food regulation from countries around the world. By identifying and annotating model legislative and regulatory approaches in the food space, this project will promote cooperation and sharing amongst governments and stakeholders, identify gaps in the regulation of serious food issues that need further attention, and inspire regulatory innovation and novel approaches.
New Juice Drinks Labeling Initiative
Juice drinks often aren’t what they seem. Th at’s the premise behind the Resnick Center’s new Juice Drinks Labeling Initiative, started in collaboration with public health scholars and leading experts in science, law, and policy. Th e focus of the initiative is a citizen petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requesting changes in the labeling of juice drinks to empower parents and consumers to make better health decisions. Th e initiative also fosters cohesive working relationships between nutritional science researchers and legal and policy advocates. Healthy Eating Research and the Feed the Truth nonprofi t organization contributed seed funding which aided student research in support of the initiative.
New Podcast Launches: Introducing ‘Repast’
Big news for your food law and policy listening pleasure! Th e Resnick Center has launched a monthly podcast series, “Repast,” where executive director Michael Roberts and deputy director Diana Winters interview thought leaders in the fi eld of food law and policy to discuss past achievements, current developments, and future challenges. Th us far, the podcast has covered topics including: the dangerous levels of sodium in the American diet; Sen. Tom Harkin’s signifi cant impact on food policy; a discussion with the founder of the Center for Good Food Purchasing; conversations with the President and CEO of Partnership for a Healthier America on reforming food systems; the health harms of processed foods; agribusiness innovation; and immigration enforcement in meatpacking plants. “Repast” was even named one of the top 10 food and agriculture law podcasts by Feedspot.
RESNICK CENTER SCHOLARS CONTRIBUTING TO FOUR NEW PUBLICATIONS
Michael Roberts and Diana Winters, the Executive Director and Deputy Director of the Resnick Center, are busy with an exciting set of new publications due in 2022 and beyond. Roberts is editing a research handbook on international food law to be published by Edward Elgar Publishing in 2022. Approximately 30 scholars from law schools and leading institutions are contributing chapters to the book. A broad range of topics will be covered in the book drawn from the development of food law and from current important issues in the regulation of food.
He is also contributing a volume to the Edward Elgar law and governance series on the history of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Also due in 2022, this volume discusses the historical beginnings of the FAO, the legal and governance structure of the FAO, and the role of the FAO within the international regulation of food.
Meanwhile, Diana Winters and Roberts are revising Roberts’s seminal food law treatise Food Law in the United States for a second edition for Cambridge University Press, to be published in 2023.
The two have also formed a partnership, dating back to June 2019, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on a series of research and advisory initiatives. This year, Roberts and the FAO legal department are co-drafting a major report on food fraud for the FAO legal department to be presented to FAO member countries. The report will consist of international legal strategies to regulate food fraud.
Michael Roberts
Epstein Program Hosts Pathbreaking Levy Fellows
Marbre Stahly-Butts
Jullian Harris-Calvin Two national leaders in civil rights and public interest law joined UCLA Law for a series of presentations and meetings during their Margaret Levy Public Interest Fellowships in Spring 2021. Marbre Stahly-Butts and Jullian Harris-Calvin ’13 were the latest in a growing line of impactful lawyers who come to UCLA Law as part of the Levy Fellowship and share with students, faculty, staff , and alumni the expertise that they have gained on the front lines of public interest legal practice.
The Levy Fellowships launched in 2018 with the support of dedicated alumna and civil litigation expert Margaret Levy ’75 and the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy. The initiative brings top leaders to UCLA Law for multi-day visits. In 2021, the visits were conducted virtually.
Stahly-Butts is executive director of Law for Black Lives. She was a Levy Fellow during the week of March 8, when she presented the public lecture “Lawyering for Liberation: Movement Lawyering and Black Lives Matter.” A longtime leader in social justice policy development and advocacy, Stahly-Butts has worked to address issues including aggressive policing and criminal justice reform.
Harris-Calvin is the director of the Greater Justice New York program at the Vera Institute of Justice. She was a Levy Fellow during the week of April 5, when she presented the public lecture “Putting It All Together: Supporting Movements Through Data, Storytelling, and Policy Expertise.” She has made a substantial impact in the criminal justice reform movement since graduating from UCLA Law, serving as a public defender in New York and the District of Columbia, among other positions.
Previous Levy Fellows include Catherine Lhamon, chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; Vanita Gupta, who now serves as the U.S. associate attorney general; Dale Ho, director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project; and Janai Nelson ’96, the next president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (see story, page 14).
Videos of the fellows’ lectures are available on UCLA Law’s YouTube page.
SERVICE IN THE SPOTLIGHT: UCLA LAW HOSTS PUBLIC INTEREST CELEBRATION
UCLA Law celebrated the school’s fourth U. Serve L.A. celebration and second Public Service Challenge this fall, recognizing the community’s remarkable pro bono, public interest, and public service contributions.
Founded in 2018, the U. Serve L.A. event has raised more than $240,000 for UCLA Law’s public interest initiatives. Cosponsored by UCLA Law’s David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy and the UCLA Law Alumni Association, U. Serve L.A. includes live entertainment and the presentation of awards to several distinguished members of the law school’s public interest law community.
Th is year, three members of the UCLA Law public interest family were singled out for special recognition: Scott Cummings, the Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics and a former faculty director of the Epstein Program; Brenda Kim, the former manager of operations and events for UCLA Law’s Offi ce of Public Interest Programs; and Victor Narro, the project director for the UCLA Labor Center and a 2L Seminar Instructor in the Epstein Program. Fifteen students from the law school’s J.D., LL.M., and Masters of Legal Studies classes were also honored for their outstanding commitment to public service and public interest law.
“It is impossible to put into words really how special [receiving this award] is to me,” Cummings said in accepting his award from Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin. “Over the course of my 20 years at UCLA, my most profound experiences and relationships have been with students and colleagues in the public interest program, people who have constantly reminded me why I became a lawyer in the fi rst instance.”
During the law school’s annual Public Service Challenge, more than 460 members of the UCLA Law community contributed over 1,050 pro bono hours over ten days to an array of legal and nonlegal volunteering opportunities.
“U. Serve L.A. was a terrifi c night to gather together, after all of the time that we spent apart, and celebrate our collective work in the public interest and public service, which is so important to us at UCLA Law,” says Brad Sears, the law school’s associate dean of public interest law.
From the Desk of John Sonego, Associate Dean of External Aff airs
Dear Alumni and Friends of UCLA Law,
For many of us, a sense of connection begins with a place — a home, a room, a building, that comes to represent something meaningful in our lives. When I began my new role as associate dean of external aff airs at the height of pandemic, I had never been inside the law school building. Nor had I met any of my new team, colleagues, or our students in person.
It would be many months before I could enter the halls or meet people face-to-face. When I started, I wasn’t sure how to meet the challenge of building connection and relationships without that direct contact. How do you build a relationship with a face on a zoom screen, or get a sense of and share the great learning that continued on, even when classrooms were empty?
What I found, though, was something remarkable. There’s a spirit, a sense of community and a shared purpose that seems to connect everyone with an affi liation to the law school. That affi liation easily transcends place it is rooted in a reverence for the law, an abiding appreciation for the work of the school, and a commitment to providing access to generations of lawyers destined to become leaders in their fi eld.
And it is rooted in a sense of warm congeniality that has marked all of my interactions with the law school community. It has been so gratifying to be welcomed into a community that cares so deeply about the school and is so eager to support the school’s needs and priorities.
I am glad for what we have accomplished together, despite the challenges of the pandemic. It is enormously rewarding to help grow the nation’s leading centers in critical race studies, immigration policy reform, and to help launch a center for reproductive justice with the help of so many alumni and friends of the UCLA Law community.
I am fortunate to work with the school’s Board of Advisors, who have played a pivotal role in helping to lead the school to two consecutive record fundraising years. And to work with the passionate alumni engaged on our alumni board, in UCLA Women LEAD, and in other institute and program boards across the school.
Every day, I marvel at my good fortune to have such a great partner in Dean Mnookin, and to work with the amazing faculty and staff here. And, I’m grateful to work with a strong external relations team, each of whom brings their skills, talent and focus to our collective work of serving our students and the alumni community.
Each of us with a UCLA Law affi liation shares a common connection, built around values and experiences we all share. There are so many ways for you to connect with the school, including mentoring our students, volunteering for board service, supporting scholarships and research, and participating in our programs, including the new Web series, “From the Front Lines,” which looks at critical issues in the news through a legal lens. There is such phenomenal work going on at the school, and I do hope you will want to be a part of it!
I look forward to working with each of you to continue building that community and connection.
Warm regards,
John Sonego Associate Dean, External Aff airs
