Reshaping the Curriculum
UCLA Law’s Innovative Reforms Connect Classroom and Clinic
Against a backdrop of unprecedented changes in the legal landscape and a long tradition of innovation in legal education, UCLA School of Law is boldly reshaping its curriculum. The UCLA Law faculty undertook a comprehensive review of the first-year curriculum and many aspects of the upper-division program and has adopted an ambitious set of changes. These reforms will redefine the balance between traditional doctrinal offerings and the development of key skills to help prepare a new generation of lawyers facing the challenges and opportunities of a fast-evolving profession.
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Building Momentum Together: UCLA Law Launches $150 Million Centennial Campaign
Through the
Centennial Campaign for UCLA School of Law, a $150 million fundraising effort and the largest in the school’s history, the law school seeks to harness the power of private philanthropy to increase student scholarships; support curricular innovation; attract and retain faculty members; and advance the research, outreach and policy work of the law school’s programs, centers and institutes. UCLA Law will leverage the energy, creativity and intellectual rigor of America’s youngest top-ranked law school and its alumni and supporters to transform the educational experience, catalyze breakthrough research and
foster real-world impact that strengthens communities and improves people’s lives.
Emmett Institute Established
UCLA School of Law has received a $1 million leadership gift from the Emmett Family Foundation and a $1.5 million matching gift challenge to greatly increase the law school’s capacity to advance law and policy solutions to pressing environmental issues and to train the next generation of environmental leaders. The gift is a re-investment by Dan and Rae Emmett, whose gift to UCLA Law in 2008 established the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment. In addition, the Emmett Center and the law school’s Environmental Law Center have joined together to form the
Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, which houses the law school’s environmental law and policy work and focuses on a full range of environmental issues in addition to addressing the challenges posed by climate change.
UCLA Law Welcomes U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Sandra Day O’Connor
UCLA School of Law welcomed U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the law school in January. During a day-long visit, which included a Q&A conversation with students, Justice Sotomayor shared stories about her life before joining the Supreme Court and provided students with words of wisdom on how to achieve their own goals. In addition to the Q&A session, another highlight of the day for UCLA Law students was Justice Sotomayor’s visit to Professor Jonathan Varat’s Federal Courts class, where she observed a discussion on the issue of standing.
In December, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (Ret.) visited the law school. During her visit, she participated in an iCivics event with local elementary school children. She also participated in a special Q&A discussion with UCLA Law students. Four renowned UCLA Law faculty members—Professors Iman Anabtawi, Stuart Banner, Dan Bussel and Eugene Volokh, who all had the privilege of serving as clerks to Justice O’Connor—participated in the conversation.
President Obama Signs Executive Order Prohibiting LGBT Job Discrimination
Williams Institute Research Cited by the White House
On July 21, President Barack Obama signed a federal nondiscrimination executive order to prohibit workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy
published more than 15 reports and memos addressing the need for an executive order and the potential impact on business and government. “Williams Institute research has documented pervasive and persistent patterns of workplace discrimination in all fifty states,” said Williams Institute Executive Director Brad Sears. “However, our analysis indicates that state and local nondiscrimination laws protect only a portion of the American workforce.” The institute’s work was cited by the White House in a fact sheet about the executive order.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Holds Special Sitting at UCLA School of Law
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held a special sitting in the law school’s A. Barry Cappello Courtroom in March. It was the court’s second sitting at UCLA School of Law, and all of the judges on the two panels were UCLA School of Law alumni. The first appellate panel consisted of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski ’75, Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw ’79 and Senior Circuit Judge Dorothy W. Nelson ’53. The second panel consisted of Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, and Circuit Judges Sandra Segal Ikuta ’88 and Jacqueline H. Nguyen ’91.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens Delivers Commencement Address
On May 16, 2014, more than 400 UCLA School of Law students joined the alumni community as they were awarded J.D. and LL.M. degrees at the school’s 63rd annual commencement ceremony. It was a celebration not only of their achievement of this major milestone but also of the impact that is now possible in their future careers. The law school was honored to welcome U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens (Ret.), one of the longest serving justices in the Supreme Court’s history, who delivered the commencement address.
Student Entrepreneurship Competition Established
UCLA Law has established the Lowell Milken Institute-Sandler Prize for New Entrepreneurs, an entrepreneurship competition designed to recognize student innovation and leadership and support the real-world launch of promising new business ventures. The competition, which includes a $100,000 prize, is the first of its kind sponsored by a top American law school. It was established through gifts from the Lowell Milken Family Foundation and the Richard and Ellen Sandler Family Foundation. The competition, which will be housed within the
Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy and will start in fall 2015, will be open to third-year UCLA Law students or J.D. graduates within two years of graduation.
Students Address Human Rights Violations
UCLA School of Law’s International Human Rights Clinic
worked on projects to address human rights issues in the United States. The clinic’s work led to filings with international tribunals to challenge U.S. human rights abuses as well as an analysis of possible models of civilian oversight to combat human rights violations in Los Angeles county jails. After rigorous client interviews and legal research, students filed petitions in April before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of four brothers who were detained in the United States for more than 40 months after the September 11th attacks. Clinic students also represented a community-based coalition of citizen advocates seeking to reform the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and its handling of complaints of misconduct in the county jails.
UCLA Law Launches Patent and Trademark Clinics
UCLA School of Law was one of 19 law schools recently selected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to join the USPTO’s Law School Clinic Certification Pilot Program. The law school launched both the Patent Law and Trademark Law clinics this fall. The UCLA Patent and Trademark Law Clinics
enable law students to gain real-world experience practicing patent and trademark law before the USPTO under the guidance of an experienced clinical faculty supervisor. UCLA Law is the only law school in the greater Los Angeles area that offers free legal services for clients to file patent and trademark applications.
Lowell Milken Institute Launches Review of Private Funds
The Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy held the inaugural Private Funds Conference
in May and published the first Private Funds Report, “2014 Private Fund Report: A View From California.” This year’s conference and report served as an introduction to the topic of private funds and the changes in the economic and legal environment as a result of several legislative reforms following the financial crisis of 2008. The Lowell Milken Institute intends to provide an annual review of private funds and is already working on the 2015 report and conference, which will focus on the role of activist funds.
Harvey Weinstein Headlines 38th Annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium
UCLA School of Law hosted the 38th Annual UCLA Entertainment Symposium, “Big Screen, Small Screen, Big Business,” in March, focusing on emerging legal challenges and opportunities in the entertainment industry and welcoming several hundred entertainment industry attorneys, executives and business leaders. A highlight of this year’s symposium was a dialogue with Harvey Weinstein, Academy Award-winning producer, studio executive and co-founder of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company (TWC), who served as the keynote speaker.
Inaugural Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy Conference Examines Trends in Food Litigation
In April, the Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy
hosted the inaugural conference “Food Fight: An Examination of Recent Trends in Food Litigation and Where We Go From Here.” The full-day event brought together preeminent food law attorneys, academics and students to examine emerging issues in food litigation, including what is driving a surge in food-related lawsuits. Panel topics included: a discussion of food labeling cases; the emerging “Food Court” and its implications; recent food litigation trends; and key regulatory actions and changes that will shape the future legal landscape.
UCLA Law Receives Gift to Establish Chair in Tax Law and Policy
James D. C. Barrall ’75 and Carole Barrall (UCLA ’75) established the UCLA School of Law Barrall Family Endowed Chair in Tax Law and Policy
in honor of Jim’s parents, Raymond C. and Shirley C. Barrall. Barrall is a partner in the Los Angeles office of the international law firm Latham & Watkins and serves as the global co-chair of the firm's Benefits and Compensation Practice. The chair recognizes the achievements of a distinguished faculty member whose scholarship and teaching contribute to excellence in the field of tax law and policy at UCLA School of Law. Professor
Kirk J. Stark, whose research focuses on taxation and public finance, with a particular emphasis on state and local tax policy and U.S. fiscal federalism, is the first Barrall Family Endowed Chair in Tax Law and Policy.
New Faculty Appointments
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E. Tendayi Achiume has joined the UCLA Law faculty as Assistant Professor of Law. Her research and teaching interests lie in international human rights law, international refugee law, comparative immigration law, international criminal justice and property. She previously served as UCLA Law’s Binder Clinical Teaching Fellow, offering the International Human Rights Clinic, co-teaching the Asylum Clinic and the International Justice Clinic, and serving as the founding faculty supervisor for the UCLA School of Law International Justice Project.
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Assistant Professor of Law Beth A. Colgan
joined the UCLA Law faculty from Stanford Law School, where she was a Thomas C. Grey Fellow. Her scholarship focuses on criminal and juvenile justice and is guided by an understanding that constitutional interpretation is properly informed by the practical effects of the law. Recently, her work was cited by the Iowa Supreme Court in Iowa v. Hull, in which the court held that a 52.5-year mandatory minimum sentence applied to a juvenile was unconstitutional.
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Richard M. Re has joined the faculty as Assistant Professor of Law. His primary research and teaching interests are in criminal procedure, federal courts and constitutional law. Following law school at Yale, he clerked for Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court. He also worked as an Honors Program attorney in the Criminal Appellate Section of the U.S. Department of Justice and practiced in the Issues and Appeals Section of Jones Day in Washington, D.C.
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