43 minute read
A RECORD YEAR FOR GIVING
GIFTS OF $39.9 MILLION BOOST UCLA LAW TO RECORD ANNUAL TALLY
UCLA Law set a new annual fundraising record, with donations from alumni and friends that amounted to more than $39.9 million during 2020-21. Th e total exceeded the previous high mark of $32.7 million, which the law school set in 2018-19.
Th is past year, gifts contributed to the excellence of nearly every area of law school. Generous support went to scholarships for students, new faculty chairs, centers and institutes, and the creation or expansion of curricular off erings and other educational opportunities.
A full 3,008 donors made 3,976 gifts. Law school alumni made up nearly 65% of the contributors. UCLA Law continues to have a higher percentage of alumni giving back to the school than any other UCLA professional school or part of the university. In addition, 488 people gave for the fi rst time, a 21% increase over the previous year.
“It is so deeply gratifying, especially on the heels of the hugely successful Centennial Campaign that ended last year, to see our alumni and friends continue their support – and, in fact, to give even more than they have ever before,” says John Sonego, the law school’s associate dean for external aff airs. Th e fi ve-year Centennial Campaign culminated in a $181 million haul for the law school. “Even better: So many new alumni and friends joined in, giving back to this incredible institution and recognizing our accomplishments depend on their generosity.” Major gifts during 2020-21 included: • An anonymous gift of $5 million for the recently founded Center for Immigration Law and Policy, allowing it to expand its staffi ng and operations. Th is year, the center brought in Professor from Practice Ahilan Arulanantham and deputy director
Talia Inlender. Th ey join Distinguished Professor Hiroshi Motomura, who serves as faculty co-director with Arulanantham. • $3.7 million from Lowell Milken ’73 to create the Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofi ts in the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy (see story, page 12). • $1 million from Stewart ’62 and Lynda Resnick, through the Resnick Foundation, to continue their support of the Resnick
Center for Food Law and Policy. • $1 million to establish the Alicia Miñana Chair in Law from Alicia Miñana ’87 and her husband, Rob Lovelace. Th e chair is designed to support a faculty member with interests at the intersection of human rights and immigration or migration. Th e inaugural holder of the chair is Professor E. Tendayi Achiume (see story, page 40). • $1 million from Karen and Jeff Silberman ’82, to establish an achievement fellowship scholarship, the second such scholarship that they have endowed. Th e Silbermans also provided $250,000 in immediate-use funds to support the law school’s Achievement Fellowship program (see story, page 70). • $600,000 from the David Bohnett Foundation to help create the Judge Rand Schrader Pro Bono Program and hire Grace
Meng as the inaugural Judge Rand Schrader Pro Bono Director (see story, page 39). • $250,000 from Miñana and Lovelace to support the hire of a communications director for the Critical Race Studies program.
In addition to those gifts listed above, UCLA School of Law received in September 2020 a $15 million donation from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria to advance the study and practice of Native American law. Th e gift is the largest-ever contribution that a tribe has made to a law school and one of the biggest in history from a tribe to a university. Th e funds are dedicated to scholarships for Native American and other students interested in pursuing careers as tribal legal advocates. Th is year, the law school welcomed the fi rst three recipients of these scholarships (see story, page 34).
“Tribal law is a cornerstone of Native Americans’ quest for equality and inclusion within the U.S. justice system,” said Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Tribal Chairman Greg Sarris, who received his undergraduate degree from UCLA and returned to teach English for more than a decade. “UCLA’s commitment to educating and preparing the next generation of tribal legal advocates is personally known to me, as an alumnus and former UCLA professor. We hope this gift will begin the drive for equity for our people in our native land.”
Jeff and Karen Silberman
Achievement Fellowships: Karen and Jeff Silberman Give Back Again
In 2019, Karen Foster Silberman and Jeff Silberman ’82 endowed an Achievement Fellowship at Jeff ’s alma mater, UCLA Law. Achievement Fellowships include full-tuition scholarships to academically talented, highachieving students who overcame great obstacles on the path to law school. In its fi rst fi ve years, the program has brought 39 students to UCLA Law. “The gift of an education is the most profound ‘hand up’ that you can give young people,” Jeff said at the time. “Helping others to have the life-changing benefi ts of the education we both received is a priority and a core value.”
The Silbermans — whose philanthropy has connected them to religious, civic, cultural, and community organizations — say that they give back because “it has been part of our family DNA since we both were children” and “[we] love the personal connections that evolve from our philanthropy!” They have maintained that personal connection by participating on the committees that interview and recommend Achievement Fellowship recipients.
This year, the Silbermans made a new commitment to this initiative, pledging another $1 million for a second Achievement Fellowship. Here, they talk about this decision and why their commitment to UCLA Law and its students matters so much to them.
Thank you for speaking with us and, of course, thank you for your continued generosity to this vital scholarship opportunity for our students.
Of course! We love UCLA School of Law. It is truly one of our favorite philanthropic benefi ciaries. We believe so strongly in the school, the incredible students we’ve gotten to know, and in Dean Mnookin’s leadership. Her commitment to the Achievement Fellowship program has made our own commitment very easy.
You seem to have found your involvement with the Achievement Fellowships deeply satisfying. Is this why you’ve made this new gift?
Absolutely. First, the academic and personal qualities of the students applying for these scholarships is incredible. As for their life stories, each one is as compelling as the next. We’ve gained so much personally from getting to know these students. Our own lives are richer for it. We’ve invested in capital projects, and we’ve invested in cultural institutions, but, for us, a scholarship is the ultimate gift. It isn’t just about three years of tuition. It’s about helping a person succeed and thrive for the decades after those three years. And, of course, the multiplier eff ect of all the lives that are helped and made better by what these students will do, professionally and personally.
You mention that your lives are richer for your involvement in this initiative. How so?
The relationships. We are blessed to have one-on-one time with these students. They have visited our home, or we have been with them at school events. We have made ongoing connections and a real trust and mentor relationship has evolved with many of the students. But mentors will often tell you that they get much more back from the mentee, which has been absolutely true for us.
What is it about this particular program that means so much to you?
We are thrilled to see the school excelling in many important metrics including academic standing and, most important, student training and wellness. We are proud to partner with the school to help to further the school’s commitment to being a more diverse and inclusive environment for students and for faculty. This program exemplifi es Dean Mnookin’s entrepreneurial spirit in approaching this need. We think it’s a hallmark of her deanship. We really hope others will join us and have the satisfaction and pleasure that we’ve derived from impacting lives through the Achievement Fellowship program!
‘Hallelujah!’: Video of UCLA Law Grad Passing Bar Exam Goes Viral
If you haven’t seen it by now, the 42-second clip is defi nitely worth watching – a joyous video showing the moment when 2020 UCLA Law graduate Omarr Rambert learned that he passed the California Bar Exam. What begins with Rambert logging into his computer and a few beats of quiet nervousness erupts into tears of relief and cries of “Hallelujah!” as the UCLA Law alum, his mother, and brother soak in the reality that, after waiting so, so long … he passed.
Since Rambert and his mother posted the video to their respective Instagram accounts in mid-January, it became a viral internet sensation. “The reaction has been amazing,” Rambert says. “I have been contacted by people all over the world: Germany, Australia, Japan, the U.K., et cetera. So many people have been inspired by the video for several reasons. One, some people know my story and the road to get to that moment. Two, many people have appreciated seeing a Black male accomplish his goals. And three, the past year has been tough for everyone, so to see a moment like this was refreshing for many.”
The video also captured the end of a long journey for Rambert, who has wanted to be a lawyer since he was in fi fth grade. An aspiring entertainment attorney, he came to UCLA Law to specialize in its leading entertainment law program. He also served as an editor of the UCLA Law Review and the National Black Law Journal and as social chair of the Black Law Students Association. But his experience also included a personal jolt whose sad echoes, he says, reverberate in the video: “My stepfather, my biggest supporter outside of my mother, passed away at the beginning of my 3L year in a tragic car accident.”
The months after graduation presented more challenges, including delays in the administration of the exam and then uncertainty about when the results would be announced. “Studying for the bar exam while trying to stay focused amid a pandemic and recent racial injustice movements can be mentally and physically exhausting,” he says, “because you realize that there are much bigger things going on in the world other than this test.”
Now, Rambert is a litigation associate at Ballard Spahr in Century City, with hopes of tailoring his practice to fi lm and television law as his career progresses. Whatever direction it takes, he will always have the video to remember what he calls “the greatest accomplishment of my life thus far.”
“That moment was an emotional and longsought-after one because I overcame so much adversity to get there,” he says. “Once I received my results, I experienced every emotion: happiness, reassurance, relief, excitement, confi dence. I will never forget that moment.”
LEADing the Way for Students and Alumnae
Th at’s the motto and mission of UCLA Law Women LEAD, a diverse, inclusive, intergenerational community helping one another advance their professional goals. Th e group, begun by alumnae seven years ago, is a network of more than 3,300 women who create opportunities for students and alumnae to meet the many challenges faced uniquely by women in the legal industry.
While the network itself can be found in a formal sense through its formidable LinkedIn group, the real magic happens in the direct connections people make, one on one, or in larger groups, in real life, whether that’s in person, as it was for a recent hike in the Santa Monica Mountains, at home dinners with our LL.M. women from around the world, or on Zoom, and other forms of remote communication people have learned to master in the past 18 months. It is also found in the group’s formal events, which include two summits at the law school, in 2017 and 2019, drawing hundreds of participants.
Co-founders and current board co-chairs Nancy L. Abell ’79, a partner at Paul Hastings, and Michelle Banks ’88, a senior advisor for BarkerGilmore, take special pride in the way the group has met the needs of UCLA Law’s increasingly international and diverse student body and alumni network. “We have women in 59 countries,” says Abell. “Th e power of that is immense.”
Here, four LEAD members, including current students and alumnae, talk about what LEAD’s novel and impactful network means to them.
the network.” —KRIS CHEH BECK
KRIS CHEH BECK ’99 is the chief legal officer of CREXi, a commercial real estate platform:
The people I meet through LEAD are dynamic, brilliant women whom I get to connect with, learn from, and call my friends. Together, we form a 360-degree view of the legal profession and the many stages of it. For myself, I can be a mentor to students, which I love, but also be on the receiving end of mentorship from LEAD members who are further along in their professional journey or doing things entirely diff erent from what I do.
One thing that’s important to me about LEAD is that we have genuine commitment to diversity. We incorporate diversity into all aspects of what we do, in an intentional way, and we hold ourselves accountable in how we grow the network. I’m a fi rst-generation practicing lawyer. My parents are immigrants, I’m an immigrant myself. So, I didn’t have a lot of allies during law school who could point me in the right direction or even just show me the diff erent possibilities and the opportunities. Today, LEAD is fi lling that gap and proving the point that you can do anything with the amazing education you get from UCLA Law.
To work with a student from that starting point and to be of help in their process… I get so much more out of it than they probably do! It’s amazing to hear what drives them and to learn what people who are entering the legal profession now care about. It’s a way for me to remain engaged and remain current and contemporary rather than being trapped in my own timeline.
SHIREEN TAVAKOLI ’17 is the founder and managing attorney of One Law Litigation, a boutique firm in Los Angeles.
With LEAD, you have a group of women who’ve experienced life in diff erent ways. Most important is that they really do share that experience. Members are responsive and really welcoming and encouraging and supportive. That’s been especially important to me, because I switched career paths a couple of times. I started with big law, which I loved but realized it wasn’t the right fi t for my whole career. Then I moved into public interest, working for the United Nations for a couple years, which I also loved, but knew it could not be my whole career. Now I am back in California, in private practice, running my own fi rm, and I feel this is what I was meant to do. Every step of the way, I needed help. And I got that through LEAD.
Just as you build relationships with your professors, advisors, and other law students, you must build a relationship with the bigger law community. There’s so much to learn, and you can’t learn it all in school alone. LEAD can start you on the path of learning.
JULIANA DELGADO RESTREPO LL.M. ’22 is
from Bogotá, Colombia, and specializing in entertainment law and law and sexuality. I chose UCLA because it’s one of the best universities in the country and has the best program in entertainment. I love being here, but Los Angeles is a huge city and poses many challenges for people who get here to start from scratch. LEAD has helped me feel at home here and allowed me to build a group alongside my classmates where I can learn the city, the profession, and what I can do with my LL.M. degree when I fi nish.
It is important to me to have a way to connect with other women. We have some diff erent struggles in the professional world. With LEAD, I connect to people who may be in similar situations about how to balance your career with your personal life, how do you go to high positions in your work, and how to acquire leadership skills. Coming from Colombia, I love that LEAD has so many women from around the world with similar interests and challenges, but who have diff erent perspectives and can give me a fresh view of what I am doing.
I decided to study law because I wanted to help people. I think lawyers are like the doctors of society. When people are in trouble, when they cannot solve things by themselves, they go to lawyers, right? And when we students cannot solve things, we can go to LEAD. MARY RAMZY ’22 is president of UCLA Law’s Real Estate Law Association and previously served as co-president of the school’s 1st Generation Law Students Association.
I had kind of a diff icult fi rst semester of law school. Everything got back on track aft er that, but it was with LEAD that I knew, for the fi rst time, that I really had people taking me seriously. I was seen as an entire person, not just one component of my story, my fi rst semester of law school. I owe so much to the group, and the network of women who’ve been willing to mentor me, see both my value and potential, and encourage me to take control of my career-even at this early stage.
When I was going through the recruiting process last summer, I received a job off er that I wasn’t completely sure of and I’d emailed a LEAD mentor to say, “I honestly don’t know if I’m making the right choice in potentially pursuing this opportunity.” She emailed me back within 15 minutes and said “Let’s talk about it. Don’t worry. We will fi gure it out. We have the LEAD network. Don’t stress, everything is going to work itself out.” And it absolutely has, I ended up with a phenomenal job.
The LEAD group has been amazing, especially in terms of starting my career and being able to hear from powerhouse women in the legal industry like Nancy Abell and Michelle Banks and learn from their wealth of experience. But LEAD has also transformed my relationship to classmates I met through LEAD rather than in my section or my classes. And now we have a space and a group in which to interact with our peers, to bounce things off , and to get to know each other in a personal way, which is such a huge part of having a great experience in law school and getting ready for the profession. Thank you, LEAD!
PIONEER, PRESIDING:
Lachs ’63, World’s First Openly Gay Judge, Refl ects
WITHIN DAYS OF HIS APPOINTMENT to the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1979, a landmark event that made him the first openly gay judge in the world, UCLA Law alumnus Stephen Lachs ’63 could tell that things would never be the same. “There wasn’t much question about it,” he says today. “I immediately started getting mail, literally hundreds and hundreds of letters from people all over the world. They would write to ‘Judge Stephen Lachs, Los Angeles Superior Court, Los Angeles, California,’ and it would all get to me. Most of the letters were congratulatory. A number of people wrote to me saying, ‘I can’t tell you how grateful I am for what you’ve done because it has inspired me. I never thought that I, as a gay person, could do anything, and now I see that you can do something with your life.’ I got so many letters like that. Even now, I could just about cry thinking about it.” Lachs went on to serve with distinction, presiding over high-profi le family law and other cases before he retired from the bench in 1999. Now 81, he works as a private mediator, and, in spite of his remarkable career, to this day considers himself, simply, “Stevie from Brooklyn.”
For him, that rise to the bench and sudden emergence as an inspiring fi gure of historic importance is an improbable story that involves hard work, determined activism, plenty of luck, and the life lessons that he learned in Westwood. For his alma mater, Lachs is someone whose humble leadership, immense success, and everyday heroism represents a style of excellence that has characterized UCLA Law students and alumni of all backgrounds since the beginning.
“UCLA changed my life, completely,” says Lachs, a Double Bruin who earned his undergraduate degree in political science. “It was the most important institution in my life, and I am eternally grateful for everything that was given to me there.”
Like many in the UCLA Law community, Lachs was not a Los Angeles native, but he quickly found a lifelong home when his family moved from New York City in the mid-1950s and he opted to attend the university and law school that were in his new backyard. The second member of his large family to attend college and the fi rst to earn an advanced degree, Lachs adored law school, notably courses on securities transactions and income taxation. In the early 1960s, UCLA Law was barely a decade old and had yet to develop the vast networks of affi nity groups, community outreach endeavors, specialized centers of scholarship, and experiential options that it is known for today. Still, Lachs says, “It was a dynamic and growing school, you could feel it. This was not a school that was just going to be sitting there. It was moving. And it was a good feeling to be a part of that.”
For more than a decade following his 1963 graduation, he worked at the California Department of Insurance, in general practice law fi rm jobs, and for the L.A. public defender. In times that were far more socially unforgiving and professionally conservative, Lachs did not discuss his sexuality in public. He was not out beyond a small circle of friends – or, as he says, “out-out” – until the early 1970s, when an acquaintance asked him to attend a small meeting of gay law students who traveled from as far away as San Diego. Lachs remembers, “He said, ‘Would you like to come? They want to meet a gay lawyer.’ None of them had ever seen one before.”
So began his leadership in the burgeoning gay rights movement and community support groups. That included service on the board of what is now the Los Angeles LGBT Center and, years later, as a member and chair of AIDS Project Los Angeles. His legal career also blossomed following his representation of peaceful Vietnam War student protesters. In 1975, he took an exam and was one of three people selected from an applicant pool of 150 to become a superior court commissioner, an offi cial who hears cases like a judge if the parties stipulate.
The end of the decade also saw a gradual shift in the shape of the legal profession and judiciary. President Jimmy Carter appointed a number of pathbreaking women and others to the federal bench. California Gov. Jerry Brown, then in his fi rst two-term stint as the state’s chief executive, was elected with substantial support from members of the gay and lesbian community. They encouraged him to diversify the courts with one of their own, and Lachs, by then a respected commissioner with a decade in public service, was a compelling choice.
“As the song goes, 'The times, they were a-changin’,” Lachs says. “It was thrilling, I’ve got to tell you, living through those times, from the late-Sixties until the AIDS crisis. It was a thrilling, thrilling time to see the changes that were happening, in this country and, honestly, in the world. And to be a part of it? Oh my God.”
Lachs made global headlines when he was appointed around his 40th birthday. (While many sources establish that Lachs was the fi rst openly gay judge in America, no evidence apparently refutes the presumption that he was also the fi rst openly gay judge in the world, and Lachs has never heard otherwise. He admits that the ancient Greeks may have had judges who were out, but he adds that he is not a scholar of ancient Greece.) He was one in a small handful of openly gay government offi cials in the country. In a sign of the times, a headline and the caption on a widely distributed wire-service photograph called him “California’s fi rst avowed homosexual judge,” a phrase that still startles. He had never expected to be such a trailblazer, he says, lightly adding, “I had barely taken my vows – as an avowed homosexual!”
But the world noticed. In addition to the fl ood of letters and newspaper clippings, Lachs was invited to speak at colleges and law schools around the country – at one event, he met Michael Ruvo, his husband of 41 years – and his connection to signifi cant members of his community of advocates and attorneys strengthened.
Among them was Rand Schrader, another pioneering UCLA Law alumnus who had been the fi rst openly gay staff er in the L.A. City Attorney’s offi ce and would himself be appointed by Brown to the state municipal court in 1980 (see story, page 78). Six years apart in age, Lachs and Schrader had in fact met at that early-1970s gathering of gay law students, when Lachs came out. Schrader was one of the students. They remained close through the following two decades, loyal confi dantes and colleagues in service and advocacy, until Schrader died of AIDS in 1993, at age 48.
A short time before, L.A. County’s main center for the care of people with HIV, which Schrader helped found, was renamed the Rand Schrader Health and Research Clinic. It remains today, among other prominent celebrations of his life. “He deserved it, he inspired a lot of people, and if you do that, you deserve those accolades,” Lachs says.
“But I knew him diff erently,” he continues. “We were both on the board of the [Los Angeles LGBT] Center, and I knew him as a friend – as a dear, close friend, not as a city attorney or whatever. For some of us, he will always be ‘Randy.’ He will always be an important, loving person. He was a vital friend of mine. I was so fortunate to have met so many wonderful people, and he really was one of them.”
“I immediately started getting mail, literally hundreds and hundreds of letters from people all over the world. Th ey would write to ‘Judge Stephen Lachs, Los Angeles Superior Court, Los Angeles, California,’ and it would all get to me. Most of the letters were congratulatory. A number of people wrote to me saying, ‘I can’t tell you how grateful I am for what you’ve done because it has inspired me. I never thought that I, as a gay person, could do anything, and now I see that you can do something with your life.’ I got so many letters like that. Even now, I could just about cry thinking about it.” — Stephen Lachs
Even in the early spring or late fall, temperatures can soar well into the triple digits around the home where Lachs and Ruvo now live in the California desert. Before the pandemic, they had been dividing their time between that arid resort community and their place in New York. But the past year has kept them on the West Coast and been one of slower days where all outdoor activities need to end before 10 a.m., when the sun gets too high in the sky.
Each morning, Lachs takes his little 18-year-old dog for a walk to a neighborhood park. Before heading out, he checks the newspaper’s sports section to fi nd out about the latest Bruins victory, and he looks at the Daily Journal, which, he notes, is increasingly fi lled with retirement announcements for judges who had not yet joined the bench when he was on it.
Even if his decades of service had never made headlines, his record of accomplishments and dedication to the law – 20 years as a judge, 21 years and counting as a mediator, and nearly 60 years as a member of the state bar – would rise high above the norm. The multitude of cases still spark his mind. The poor families whose costly divorces he helped resolve. The ultra-wealthy businesspeople whom he navigated through the thorny thickets of who gets to use the private jet. And the two separate matters involving Michael Jackson, among countless celebrities whose problems, he fi rmly states, are just like everyone else’s.
It’s a history that Lachs is still living as he and his dog head out into the heat.
“It’s always sunny out,” he says, “so I wear my UCLA cap. Seriously. Without law school and the excitement that I felt and the enjoyment that I got from it, I never would have gone into law. UCLA is always going to be a part of me – a big part.”
Karst Scholarship Honors Legacy of Beloved UCLA Law Professor
The incredible legacy of UCLA School of Law professor Kenneth L. Karst is being recognized through a new scholarship that supports students who are committed to racial equity and who embody Karst’s spirit of collegiality. The Kenneth L. Karst Scholarship in Law was established through the generosity of Karst’s family and the newly formed Kenneth L. Karst Racial Equity Foundation. A number of Karst’s students and colleagues have also made contributions in support of the scholarship. The scholarship will go to one student in each entering class, covering a portion of tuition for all three years of law school. Over time, the number of recipients is expected to grow as funding for the scholarship increases. UCLA Law alumni and friends who remember Professor Karst with aff ection are encouraged to consider donating to help grow this scholarship fund. Karst Scholars will become part of a community of future lawyers and practicing lawyers who are dedicated to promoting social justice in their personal and professional endeavors.
“This was his passion,” says Karst’s daughter Leslie. “Dad truly believed that every resident of the United States, no matter their social class, race, caste, sexual orientation, whatever, should be treated as an equal citizen and have a true sense of belonging to the country. We focused this scholarship on racial equity because it's an area where so much progress still needs to be made. If you read Dad's 1989 book Belonging to America, he was quite optimistic about racial equality. But if he wrote the book today, he would be very disappointed and say, ‘There’s more work that has to be done.’”
Karst was an infl uential constitutional law scholar, teacher, and longtime faculty member who had a profound eff ect in shaping UCLA Law. He joined the law school in 1965 and was an active member of the faculty for 40 years, during which he earned the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award and the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching. A prolifi c and celebrated author in a wide range of fi elds, he was cited at least 12 times by the Supreme Court and another 77 times by other federal courts. He was a favorite of students, colleagues, and peers, and his eff orts to address inequities in access to justice and legal education helped develop early minority outreach programs by the law school and shaped broader debates on access and equality. He died in 2019 at age 89.
“This scholarship is a wonderful tribute to the outstanding legacy of our former colleague Ken Karst, a fi rst-rate scholar and lovely person, who devoted his career to supporting equality, social justice, and broadening access to legal education,” says UCLA Law Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin. “I’m immensely grateful to his family for their thoughtful support in founding this scholarship, and I look forward to awarding support to amazing UCLA Law students who will further advance Ken’s passionate commitment to racial equality.”
UCLA Law held a celebration of Karst’s life on June 26, 2019, which would have been his 90th birthday. The event was attended by more than 100 members of the UCLA Law family and generations of law school leaders, including six current or former deans or interim deans of the law school. It featured an array of personal refl ections from Karst’s family, friends, and colleagues. “Ken Karst was a prince of man, a prolifi c legal scholar, gifted teacher, acclaimed expositor of constitutional law, and a sympathique human, revered for his wit and wisdom, kindness, and caring about all of the people law exists, or should exist, to serve,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Karst’s longtime friend and colleague, said in a video that she recorded for the occasion.
“Ken believed rules and doctrines shaped people’s lives, infl uenced people’s opportunities, and impacted people’s conceptions of their self-worth and their dignity. Thinking small meant remembering that scholarship should pay attention to how decisions impact the lives of actual people, especially the most vulnerable among us,” said Professor Adam Winkler, whom Karst mentored and held as a trusted collaborator over many years.
“Ken sought not to mold students to his view. He sought to open them up to the views of others,” Winkler continued. “As a mentor, Ken changed the lives of those like me whom he took under his wing. As a teacher, Ken opened the minds of students and taught them not just how to be good lawyers, but how to be tolerant, respectful human beings. And as a scholar, Ken reshaped American constitutional law. Thanks to Ken today, there are thousands of former students and colleagues who are better people.”
“Ken sought not to mold students to his view. He sought to open them up to the views of others...as a mentor, Ken changed the lives of those like me whom he took under his wing. As a teacher, Ken opened the minds of students and taught them not just how to be good lawyers, but how to be tolerant, respectful human beings. And as a scholar, Ken reshaped American constitutional law. Thanks to Ken today, there are thousands of former students and colleagues who are better people.”
UCLA LAW AWARDS 15 POSTGRADUATE PUBLIC SERVICE FELLOWSHIPS TO 2021 GRADUATES
Thanks to an important University of California system-wide initiative, along with the generosity of alumni and friends, UCLA School of Law awarded 15 postgraduate fellowships, including nine UC President’s Public Service Law Fellowships, to 2021 graduates who are committed to practicing public interest law. The competitively awarded one-year fellowships include stipends of $45,000 for each graduate and funding to help defray bar exam expenses.
The fellowships enable graduates to work on behalf of underserved individuals, communities, and causes, as well as in government positions.
“These fellowships help our graduates break into the fi eld of public interest law, where job opportunities are scarce, and secure positions with top public interest employers,” says Brad Sears, UCLA Law’s associate dean of public interest law. “They give our students a fi rst foot in the door.”
This is the sixth year that UCLA Law graduates have received funding from the UC President’s Public Service Law Fellowships. Almost 90% of fellows funded through the program have transitioned from their fellowships to permanent public interest or government positions.
In addition to the UC President’s Public Service Law Fellowships, funding for public service fellowships was provided by the Ahmanson Foundation; the Bruhn-Morris Family Foundation; Glen Sato ’87 and Hope Nakamura ’86; Evelyn Shimazaki ’84 and Naoki Shimazaki ’84; UCLA Law’s David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and Promise Institute for Human Rights; and cy pres funds.
This year, four fellowships are supporting graduates who are working to address the eviction crisis in Los Angeles at the Eviction Defense Network and the Los Angeles Center for Community Law and Action. The fellows are providing much needed support to these organizations, which are struggling with the wave of evictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another three fellows are working on defending people in the criminal justice system. One works with youth as part of Bay Area Legal Aid’s Youth Justice Team. Two have joined the Gideon Fellowship Program to provide representation in underserved areas of the South, including fellowships with Mecklenburg Defenders in North Carolina and the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy (see story, page 37).
Yet another two fellows are working on international human rights issues with the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and Reprieve US.
In addition to these placements, fellows will also be working to combat elder fraud with Bet Tzedek legal services; addressing reproductive justice with Planned Parenthood; supporting community economic development in Los Angeles with Public Counsel; advancing LGBTQIA+ rights with Equality California; advocating for labor rights with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center; and promoting environmental justice with Communities for a Better Environment.
Many of the host organizations also provide 50% of the base fellowship stipend, and almost all add on to the fellows’ pay and cover the cost of health insurance and benefi ts.
“We are so appreciative of the funding from the UC President’s off ice that makes these fellowships possible, as well as the generosity of alums and friends,” says UCLA Law Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin. “Throughout the year, we work hard to double the impact of the invaluable funding from the UC Presidential initiative by having it matched by donors to the law school and the fellows’ host organizations.”
The UC President’s Public Service Law Fellowships are part of a UC Off ice of the President initiative to award $3 million to $5 million annually to make public service-oriented postgraduate work and summer positions more accessible to promising students at the UC’s four law schools — UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UC Irvine.
CELEBRATING RAND SCHRADER ’73:
Gay Rights Trailblazer and UCLA Law Graduate
Visitors to the 6500 block of Hollywood Blvd. fi nd themselves surrounded by monuments to Los Angeles greatness. There are Walk of Fame stars for Frank Sinatra and Orson Welles. The building on the corner bears a massive mural featuring generations of Lakers legends. And above the intersection, a street sign recognizes another L.A. icon. It reads: “Schrader Bl.”
That sign, and the two-block stretch of sidewalk and pavement between Sunset Blvd. and Hollywood Blvd. that it marks, pay homage to UCLA Law graduate Rand Schrader ’73. His exceptional life as an attorney, judge, and gay rights activist is now fondly recalled through Los Angeles landmarks and the memories of those who knew him.
Schrader – an L.A. native who died of AIDS at age 48 in 1993 – was by all accounts brilliant, brave, kind, and deeply engaged. When he joined the offi ce of the L.A. City Attorney in the mid-1970s, Schrader became the fi rst openly gay prosecutor in the city and, quite likely, the country. His later appointment to the L.A. Municipal Court made him one of a few openly gay judges in the world – a trail originally blazed by his longtime friend and fellow UCLA Law alumnus Stephen Lachs ’63 (see story, page 74).
Schrader, however, had always risen above the risks of being an openly gay man in a still largely intolerant professional world. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times shortly before his death, he spoke of the challenges. “I went to the dean of the law school at UCLA and asked him: ‘Will I be admitted to the bar if I’m openly gay?’” Schrader recalled. “That’s how frightened we were.”
The hiring of openly gay lawyers in high-profi le positions “just didn’t happen every day,” Lachs says. He and Schrader remained close friends through years of service on the court and in a tight-knit group dedicated to community activism, including as members of what is now the Los Angeles LGBT Center – which resides at 1625 Schrader Blvd. “When Randy got out of law school and ended up in the city attorney’s offi ce, all of us in this little circle of
friends were thrilled. It was a very exciting time.” Burt Pines was the city attorney who hired Schrader. It was a transformative move that helped modernize and diversify the offi ce, but, at the time, the decision to bring on an openly gay lawyer carried plenty of perils. “The city attorney’s offi ce was not a welcoming place in the past,” says Pines, who ran the department from 1973 to 1981 and later served as a judge on the L.A. Superior Court. Pines’ initial election The Los Angeles LGBT Center on Schrader Blvd. signaled change for a workplace that was almost completely fi lled with straight white male prosecutors who worked in tandem with a police force that was notorious for its raids on gay bars and bath houses.
“I knew that Rand was going to be watched,” Pines continues. “We had a conversation about that. I told him that I was going to hire him, but it was risky, and he had to be careful because he should assume that the police would be attentive to what he was doing. As a trailblazer, there was a lot of pressure on him.”
Fortunately, trouble never materialized, in part, Pines believes, because Schrader was such an impressive attorney: “Rand was hardworking, a team player, friendly, a good advocate for the prosecution in trials, and an excellent writer. He later became chief of our appellate section.”
At the same time, Schrader’s combination of daring and excellence inspired many. “One of the long-term deputy city attorneys came to me and thanked me for hiring him,” Pines says. “He told me that it was the fi rst time that he had any real interactions with a gay man, the fi rst time he ever worked with a gay individual, and it really opened his eyes. It changed his perceptions. Rand also opened the door for more gay and lesbian lawyers to apply, because they saw that this was a welcoming place. He had a profound infl uence on the offi ce. It was monumental.”
Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Schrader to the bench in 1980, and he served with distinction until shortly before his death.
All the while, he continued to practice the sort of understated activism and leading by example that had set him apart as a pathbreaking young prosecutor.
During his decade-plus as a judge, Schrader often promoted the success of gay law students. He was a leader of groups including the Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles, or MECLA, an early major gay political action committee. He went public with his diagnosis while serving on the court to show that people with AIDS could remain active and accomplished.
And he helped found the main Los Angeles County facility for HIV care, which was renamed the Rand Schrader Health and
Research Clinic.
Today, that center stands as one legacy commemorating Schrader’s incredible life. Another lives online: In a 1988 video that was posted by the foundation of Schrader’s longtime partner, philanthropist David Bohnett, Schrader speaks with trademark eloquence.
“Aren’t we good enough? Haven’t we suff ered enough? Are gay people, men and women, not as worthy of self-respect and power as others?” he asks in honoring the lives of friends who had died of AIDS. “There is only one memorial worthy of [all those] lost to this disease, and that is to go forward with courage and spirit, to claim the ultimate victory of human freedom.”
Three prominent law firms recently established endowed scholarships at UCLA Law to support academically talented students who have overcome substantial hurdles on their journeys to gaining a legal education.
The Cooley LLP Endowed Scholarship in Law, Cox Castle & Nicholson LLP Endowed Scholarship in Law, and Sheppard Mullin Endowed Scholarship in Law were established with endowed gifts to provide ongoing scholarship support. Each firm employs more than 30 UCLA Law alumni. The scholarships award tuition and aid to incoming students who demonstrate significant financial need and have confronted considerable obstacles in life such as socio-economic disadvantage, disability, being the first in their family to attend college, attending under-resourced schools, or other extensive hardships or challenges.
Cooley partner Eric Jensen ’88 made the lead gift to establish that firm’s fund, and partners Pat Mitchell ’98, John Crittenden ’81, Patrick Gibbs ’94, Nick Hobson ’07, and Matthew Caplan ’08 joined with significant contributions. Cox, Castle & Nicholson partner Alicia Vaz, who earned her undergraduate degree from UCLA in 1997, led the launch of her firm’s gift to fund the scholarship. Sheppard Mullin partner and executive committee chairman Guy Halgren ’84 drove the effort to create the scholarship that his firm endowed.
UCLA Law alumni at each firm have the opportunity to continue to make contributions to the scholarships during the Law Firm Challenge, the law school’s fundraising competition that raises nearly $2 million from more than 1,000 alumni at approximately 100 firms each year.
Seven other firms that participate in the Law Firm Challenge and employ a significant number of UCLA Law alumni previously established existing scholarship funds at the law school: Paul Hastings, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Irell & Manella, Latham & Watkins, Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp, Morrison & Foerster, and O’Melveny & Myers.
“These scholarships are incredibly helpful in our ability to provide our incoming students access to a premier legal education,” says Rob Schwartz, assistant dean of admissions. “We thank these law firms for their inspiring contributions and ongoing support.”
UCLA Law Partners With Hueston Hennigan to Create PostGraduate Social Justice Fellowship
In 2021, UCLA Law launched its participation in the Social Justice Legal Foundation, an incubator for the next generation of leading trial lawyers in the public sector, which launched with a $10 million pledge of support from Hueston Hennigan LLP. The foundation sponsors five promising law school graduates, including one from UCLA Law, as Hueston Hennigan Fellows for two-year terms.
The mission of the foundation is “to combine public-interest issue expertise and elite academic resources with private-sector experience in order to bring a fresh approach to pursuing national trial work advancing social justice and equity.” The foundation brings together five leading U.S. law schools, top trial lawyers from the private sector and a lineup of star advisors, including judges, activists and scholars to vet and pursue groundbreaking cases.
“This is an incredible opportunity for UCLA Law’s public interest graduates to receive incredible litigation training with leading national trial attorneys,” says Brad Sears, UCLA Law’s associate dean of public interest programs, who serves on the foundation’s board of advisors.
Funded and created by the partners of Hueston Hennigan, the foundation also collaborates with the law schools at Columbia University, Northwestern University, Stanford University, and Yale University to identify pressing legal issues and to mentor and develop a new generation of trial lawyers in the public sector. Each law school has a representative on the foundation’s board, and the board selects an emerging leader from among each school’s graduates to serve a fully funded two-year fellowship.
“We thank Hueston Hennigan for providing this incredible opportunity for tomorrow’s public interest leaders and for investing so meaningfully in potentially transformative social justice work,” says UCLA Law Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin.
The foundation emphasizes trial work and seeks to collaborate with other social-justice organizations and bar associations to take some of the most difficult and important cases to trial.
“I look forward to working with our advisors, fellows, staff and pro bono attorneys to take to trial some of the most important cases affecting social justice,” says John Hueston, chairman of the foundation’s board.
To address evolving societal crises, the foundation will rotate its primary areas of attention every two years from among the following areas: economic justice, housing/homeless discrimination, LGBTQ+ rights, immigrant justice, Native American discrimination, voting rights and criminal justice reform. Its cases and focus areas will be informed by its executive leadership, academic partners, other social-justice organizations and fellows.
UCLA LAW’S 19th LAW FIRM CHALLENGE
Continuing a strong tradition of support for their alma mater, nearly 1,500 UCLA Law alumni who are lawyers at about 100 fi rms across the country participated in the 2021 Law Firm Challenge. Overall, the challenge raised roughly $2 million for UCLA Law scholarships and programs. The law school is most grateful to all of the fi rms and participants in the 19th annual challenge, in particular to the leaders who spearheaded the eff ort at their individual fi rms. Tremendous thanks is also due to James D. C. Barrall ’75, the longtime Latham & Watkins partner who was instrumental in creating the Law Firm Challenge in 2002 and has been a steadfast champion of the law school’s success, including in his current position as Senior Fellow at the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy.
Overall, 60% of UCLA Law alumni in the 104 participating fi rms participated in the challenge. 26 fi rms earned gold stars, meaning that more than half of the UCLA Law alumni partners at each fi rm made leadership gifts of $1,000 or more. A total of 64% of UCLA Law alumni who are partners took part in the challenge. Thank you!
Tier 1 Firms of 30 or more alumni | Tier 2 Firms of 11-29 alumni | Tier 3 Firms of 2-10 alumni
SUPER STAR FIRMS IN 2021
(100% participation & Gold Star status)
TIER 1 Cooley Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher Paul Hastings TIER 2 Ervin Cohen & Jessup Greenberg Glusker Milbank
GOLD STAR FIRMS IN 2021
(50% or more of partners making gifts of $1,000+) TIER 3 Baker Burton & Lundy Ballard Rosenberg Golper & Savitt Lewis Roca Maron & Sandler Nutter Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones Shartsis Friese The Cook Law Firm
TIER 1 Cooley Gibson, Dunn, & Crutcher Paul Hastings TIER 2 Buchalter Ervin, Cohen & Jessup Milbank Quinn Emanuel Skadden WilmerHale TIER 3 Baker Burton & Lundy Ballard Rosenberg Golper & Savitt Cadwalader The Cook Law Firm Daniels Fine Israel Schonbuch & Lebovits Hueston Hennigan Hoff man, Sabban & Watenmaker Jeff er, Mangels, Butler & Mitchell Maron & Sandler McDermott, Will & Emery Nutter Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones Sullivan & Cromwell Shartsis Friese O’Neil Shumener Odson Oh Stroock
FIRMS WITH 100 PERCENT PARTICIPATION IN 2021
TIER 1: Cooley Gibson, Dun, & Crutcher Cox, Castle & Nicholson O’Melveny Paul Hastings
TIER 2 Ervin Cohen & Jessup Glaser Weil Greenberg Glusker Milbank Quinn Emanuel
TIER 3 Baker Burton & Lundy Ballard Rosenberg Golper & Savitt Brown Moskowitz & Kallen Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck Dentons Enenstein Pham & Glass Hirschfeld Kraemer Levene, Neale, Bender, Yoo & Brill Lewis Roca Maron & Sandler McDermott, Will & Emery Mirman, Bubman & Nahmias Nutter Osborn Maldeon Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones Parsus Polsinelli Shartsis Friese The Cook Law Firm
