Nation’s Best: Top-Ranked Trial Team
Wins Tournament of Champions

UCLA Law’s A. Barry Cappello Trial Team completed the best month in its history, including strong finishes in multiple national competitions and the team’s first-ever victory in the Tournament of Champions, the country’s premier invitational trial competition. Between Nov. 5 and Nov. 8, the team also reached the semifinals of the Kelly Competition and came in second in the All-Star National Competition. Part of the A. Barry Cappello Program in Trial Advocacy, which continues to expand and thrive just three years after its founding, the team has been on a roll in the (virtual) courtroom since earning the No. 1 national ranking at the start of the school year: By mid-November, UCLA Law was the only school in the country to have begun the 2020-21 season with three wins.

Promise Institute Expands Leadership
in International Human Rights

The Promise Institute for Human Rights at UCLA Law continues to broaden the reach of its impact in global justice advocacy, including vital work by students and staff in areas related to the environment and child labor. Institute Executive Director Kate Mackintosh (pictured above, right) has joined a panel of leading international lawyers and judges who will work to draft a definition of “ecocide” as a potential international crime alongside terms including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. And Deputy Director Cathy Sweetser (pictured above, left) worked with students in the Human Rights Litigation Clinic to draft briefs for the litigation team representing child victims of forced labor in the chocolate industry in a consolidated matter involving the food giants Nestle and Cargill that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear on Dec. 1.

Ann Carlson Q&A: Why Biden’s Election Raises Optimism on Climate Policy

President-elect Joe Biden’s administration has significant work ahead to rebuild the nation’s climate policies, says Professor Ann Carlson, after the Trump administration eviscerated federal climate rules and rolled back more than 100 regulations that protected the environment. In this insightful Q&A, Carlson, the Shirley Shapiro Professor of Environmental Law and faculty co-director of UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, takes a broad view in the aftermath of the presidential election, discussing why – even with a narrowly divided Congress and conservative Supreme Court – there’s still plenty of reason for optimism: “There are a lot of options available to Biden that may seem incremental but together would be quite powerful.”

Alumni on the Move

Ronald O. Kaye ’89 and Hernan D. Vera ’94 are appointed to serve as judges on the Los Angeles County Superior Court. Veteran entertainment executive Dan Limerick ’97 is promoted to chief operating officer of WME. Morrison & Foerster partner Tritia M. Murata ’04, who co-chairs the firm’s global employment and labor group, is named a 2020 Trailblazer in Litigation by the National Law Journal. George H. Brown ’88 is elected to the board of directors of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Joshua Ostrer ’18 joins the appellate practice group at Buchalter. Knobbe Martens associate Bita Kianian ’18 receives the 2020 Tomorrow’s Leader Award from the International Trademark Association. Dickinson Wright of counsel Cindy Villanueva ’10 is elected communications director for the board of directors of Los Abogados, Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association. Democrats Linda Sánchez ’95 and Lou Correa ’85 both win reelection to their Southern California seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Tax Spotlight: Hochman Award Winner Joshua Thomas ’20

UCLA Law’s No. 5-ranked tax law program includes several of the nation’s top scholars in the field, faculty members who convened a recent high-level summit on “Taxing Capital and Wealth” and continued to lead many initiatives at the state, national and international levels, among other accomplishments during the past year. For students, learning from these experts yields tremendous benefits, says 2020 graduate Joshua Thomas, who won the Bruce I. Hochman Award for Excellence in the Study of Tax Law and will work at Ropes & Gray in New York: “If I had not attended UCLA Law and had access to its brilliant and engaging faculty, I highly doubt I would have developed a passion for tax.”

Hundreds of Volunteers Steer
Public Service Challenge to Success

Thanks to the dedicated work of roughly 300 members of the UCLA Law community, the school’s inaugural Public Service Challenge succeeded in serving a great number of voters, charitable groups and others in Southern California from Oct. 30 through Nov. 3. Created by UCLA Law’s Office of Public Interest Programs, the challenge encouraged UCLA Law students, faculty, staff, alumni, friends and families to vote or volunteer as poll workers, do election protection work or engage in other pro bono or public service opportunities. To support the challenge, the school did not hold classes on Election Day.

Ziffren IN-Sports: Leading Media Executives Join In Spirited Discussion of SPACs

Harry Sloan, the chairman and CEO of Eagle Equity Partners, and Jeffrey Sagansky, a founding investor in the group, joined Ziffren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law founder Ken Ziffren ’65 in a conversation on the explosion of interest in special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) on Oct. 26. Among other accomplishments, Sloan and Sagansky successfully navigated the fantasy gaming platform DraftKings to an IPO, and their discussion of SPACs – companies that raise capital through an IPO for the purpose of acquiring an existing company in a targeted business sector – was the latest in the institute’s IN-Sports series of authoritative events.

Give to UCLA Law and
Support Experiential Education

As the end of the year nears, consider supporting UCLA Law’s pioneering Experiential Education Program, which is in its 50th year of offering law-clinic courses, simulation-based skills courses and a wide array of opportunities for students to gain the practical abilities that they need to become impactful lawyers. Read more about the program’s recent accomplishments and consider how your contributions continue UCLA Law’s reputation as a national trailblazer in clinical education by supporting teaching, fellowships and access to justice for countless clients across Southern California. Please give today.

Kimberlé Crenshaw’s impactful career at the forefront of feminist legal theory and intersectionality is the subject of a lengthy profile in The Guardian. Adam Winkler writes an op-ed in The Washington Post on why Trump’s lawyers are failing in court. Jill Horwitz appears on CNN to discuss the Supreme Court’s latest review of the Affordable Care Act. Ann Carlson writes in The Hill about “the most anti-environmental court in the modern era” after Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation. Sharon Dolovich speaks with The Washington Post about the threat that the pandemic poses to people in America’s jails and prisons, and she discusses compassionate release with Liberal Currents. Joanna Schwartz talks to Bloomberg CityLab about police brutality and accountability. Scott Cummings discusses voting fraud on the Good Law, Bad Law podcast. Alicia Virani talks about criminal justice reform in The Orange County Register. Cara Horowitz speaks with CapRadio about how California can be a model for the Biden administration’s ambitious climate policy goals. Laura Gómez appears on Rising Up With Sonali’s Election Day livestream and talks to The Sacramento Bee about Trump supporters. Ingrid Eagly is quoted in The San Diego Union-Tribune about the influence that Lexipol has over California police policy. And Jon Michaels offers caution about the presidential transition in Vox. Plus, Steve Bank on an athlete’s lawsuit over his injuries in Yahoo! Sports, Hiroshi Motomura on immigration in the Biden administration on KQED, Tendayi Achiume on technology and refugees in The Guardian and much more.