Trial Advocacy Ranked No. 1 Again
UCLA Law's trial advocacy program has been ranked best in the nation for a second year in a row, topping more than 160 law schools in competition. Over the past three seasons, the A. Barry Cappello Trial Team has featured 41 students and all contributed to the school's success. “The year UCLA Law had was simply remarkable,” says Adam Shlahet, director of Fordham's Trial program, which created the objective ranking system. “No other school has even come close to that level of success at national tournaments in a single year.”
Crenshaw Wins AALS Triennial Award
UCLA Distinguished Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw has been honored with the 2021 AALS Triennial Award for Lifetime Service to Legal Education and the Legal Profession by the Association of American Law Schools. The Triennial Award is among the highest honors in legal education. Only five other people have earned it since its inception in 2006. Crenshaw’s colleagues across the legal landscape nominated her for the award while citing her incredible impact on legal scholarship in human rights and civil rights and her many years of service to the academy.
See what Kimberlé Crenshaw said about this honor.
Ziffren Institute Welcomes New Leader
Cindy X. Lin has joined UCLA School of Law’s Ziffren Institute for Media, Entertainment, Technology, and Sports Law as executive director. At the Ziffren Institute, Lin will run UCLA Law’s main hub of scholarship, education, and programming in the areas of media, entertainment, sports, technology, and intellectual property. “I’m excited to continue to grow the institute’s programs, further solidifying its reputation as the key legal center in the heart of the entertainment world,” says Lin.
Ontiveros '21 Named Hochman Winner
Dana Ontiveros has been named the winner of the Bruce I. Hochman Award for Excellence in the Study of Tax Law. The $15,000 award is presented by the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy and has gone to the law school’s top tax law students since 2002. “Studying tax law will help prepare you for nearly any career in law, whether in the tax world or not,” says Ontiveros, who now works in commercial litigation with Snell & Wilmer in Los Angeles. “If you can comb through the tax code and apply its sometimes dense provisions to real world numbers, analyzing statutes and regulations in other subjects will come with ease.”
Measuring UCLA Law's Scholarly Impact
In the latest so-called Sisk-Leiter scores, which rank legal scholars and law school faculties for their impact on scholarship, UCLA Law is ranked No. 11 nationally when looking at mean and median citations and No. 10 for median citations alone, and is one of a small group of top schools to outperform its U.S. News ranking (No. 14).
Whither the Court 2021
On Sept. 29, join a who's who of UCLA Law experts, plus a special guest, for this signature annual event where we review the Supreme Court’s most recent term, examine trends in the law, and preview the Supreme Court's upcoming cases, looking at the implications for lawyers, students, academics, and the general public. Panelists include Professor From Practice Ahilan Arulanantham (pictured), who will argue one of the major cases of the 2021-22 term, FBI v. Fazaga, on Nov. 8. Other authorities include UCLA Law professors Cary Franklin and Jon D. Michaels, plus NYU Law Professor Melissa Murray. Our own Adam Winkler moderates. MCLE credit available.
A Year in Review:
Dean Mnookin Chats With George Gascón
Join us on Oct. 13 as Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón spends an hour in conversation with Dean Jennifer Mnookin, discussing his first year in office and his vision for changing the landscape of mass incarceration in Los Angeles and beyond. The special event will be hosted by UCLA Law's Criminal Justice Program.
Michael Baum '85 to Deliver Green Lecture
Michael Baum, of the national plaintiff law firm Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman, will deliver the annual Irving Green Lecture on Oct. 14, at 12 p.m. PT. Funded by a gift from Green's wife and children, the Irving H. Green Memorial Lecture series launched in 1993 to bring to UCLA Law the leading advocates of the day. Past speakers have included Bryan Stephenson, Kenneth Feinberg, A. Barry Cappello '65, and Harland Braun '67. Baum will discuss, among other topics, his firm's landmark work in the Monsanto Roundup cases, which have resulted in more than $2.4 billion for the plaintiffs.
Alumni on the Move
Hernán D. Vera '94 is nominated to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Rafael A. Sivilla-Jones '91 is appointed as a judge on the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Stephen Yslas '72 receives the Ohtli Award from the Mexican government. Sarah Gill '97 is named ombudsman of FINRA. Mark Miller ’88 is appointed Senior Vice President of investor relations and strategic planning at Encompass Health. Michael Rivera '06 joins Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson as partner. Drew Harbur ’11 joins Allen Matkins as partner. Brad Small '94 joins Fox Rothschild as partner. George Brown '88 is appointed executive director of the Stanford Center for Racial Justice at Stanford Law School. Patrick Marette ’92 joins Miller Starr Regalia as senior counsel. Abigail Zelenski ’03 serves as the 2021 President of the Philippine American Bar Association. Penny Rosenberg M.L.S. '21 is named editor of the Albany Democrat-Herald, the Corvallis Gazette-Times, and the Lebanon Express newspapers in Oregon. And Walter Howald '65 is named the 2021 Newport Beach Citizen of the Year.
Visit our alumni website to catch up on the latest news and submit your update.
Join Us for These Events!
Terrific events are always happening at UCLA Law, and you are invited. Highlights:
- September 29 — Whither the Court
- September 30 — Coffee & Art: Come Meet the Art Law Society Board
- October 5 — Transgender People and the Evolving Public Policy Landscape
- October 5 — The Armenians of Aintab: The Economics of Genocide in an Ottoman Province
October 6 — Ethics in Tech with Achuta Kadambi and Safiya Noble
- October 6 — Tribal Legal Development Clinic Highlight: The Need for Confidentiality Within Tribal Cultural Resource Protection
- October 15 — Master of Legal Studies General Program Q&A
- October 12 -15 — Workshop: The Future of Open Source
- October 20 — Ethics in Tech with Dunstan Allison-Hope and Michael Karanicolas
- October 20 — Human Rights Around the World Series: Tigray
- October 22 — Workshop: Calibrating Data Surveillance
- October 25 — Human Rights Around the World Series: Uighur
- October 25 — Rand Schrader Pro Bono Program Launch/Public Service Challenge Kick-off
- October 26 — Lowell Milken Institute-Sandler Prize for New Entrepreneurs Fall Meetup
Visit the UCLA Law events page for more events and information.
Jon Michaels co-authors a New York Times opinion piece on private enforcement laws. Brad Sears writes an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle on the need to pass the Equality Act. Ahilan Arulanantham writes in the San Diego Union-Tribune on post-9/11 mistreatment of Muslims. Scott Cummings writes an op-ed for NBC News on Donald Trump’s election fraud lawsuits. Eugene Volokh’s scholarship on “cheap speech” is the basis of a Washington Post opinion piece. Cara Horowitz is quoted in the New York Times on the California recall election’s impact on environmental policies. Laura Gómez is quoted in Insider on changing the name from Hispanic Heritage Month to Latino History Month. Adam Winkler is quoted in the Atlantic on the Supreme Court and the Texas abortion law. Jonathan Zasloff speaks with the Los Angeles Times on the role of religious institutions in the recall election. Victor Narro is quoted in the Los Angeles Times on a new effort to curb garment industry wage theft. And Gary Blasi talks to the Los Angeles Times about homelessness and the California recall election.
Watch Now: Critical Race Studies at 20
As UCLA Law’s Critical Race Studies program celebrates its first two decades, founding members Devon W. Carbado, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Laura E. Gómez, Cheryl I. Harris, and Jerry Kang got out of the classroom and in front of the camera to reflect on the program's founding, two decades of work, and what they see for the years ahead.
Like, share, repeat.
Follow us and keep up with everything at UCLA Law.
