Fall 2021
A Message from the
Assistant Dean
The annual return to campus is always a thrill. Returning after more than a year, on the heels of a formative absence from in-person activities motivated by a pandemic, elevates the thrill, adding to it a question both galvanizing and sobering: What happens now?
Here at UCLA Law, the answer is: We reflect, we strategize, we go to work.
Our Experiential Education Program is preparing students to be exceptional lawyers and zealous, multidimensional advocates in an increasingly uncertain and complex world, and if there is a positive aspect of the protracted absence we’ve all experienced since March 2020, it is that students have had a front-row seat from which to view these uncertainties and complexities, not to mention the space to consider their causes and effects. Our role in preparing students for success is to meet them in this space.
From the classroom to the field, our students and faculty are mobilizing toward a shared vision of safe and affordable housing, quality education, accessible healthcare, freedom from violence, and gender and racial justice. To realize this vision, we continue to innovate and expand our experiential curriculum in myriad ways.
We have added new simulation courses covering internal corporate investigations, healthcare compliance, and patent litigation, and created specialized field experiences in collaboration with the Federal Defenders Office and UNITE HERE Local 11. Over the January term, students will provide legal assistance to Afghans paroled into the United States who have resettled in Los Angeles through a mini-clinic. And in the spring, the externship program launches a partnership with Columbia Law’s Center for Public Research and Leadership, where UCLA Law students will join students from other professional schools across the country to gain the knowledge, skills, and mindsets needed to lead transformative change in public school systems in NYC.
Our exceptional experiential faculty continue to raise the bar for teaching, service, and scholarship. Justin Bernstein, Director of the A. Barry Cappello Trial Advocacy Program, successfully led UCLA Law’s Trial Team to a #1 ranking for the second year in a row. Professor Sunita Patel, faculty director of the Veterans Legal Clinic, received the UCLA Academic Senate’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award for Community Service and Praxis. In August, Professor Tendayi Achiume, director of the International Human Rights Clinic, was named the inaugural Alicia Miñana Chair in Law.
During the 2020-21 academic year, nearly 1000 students participated in UCLA Law’s 24 law clinic courses and practicums, 27 simulation courses, and dozens of externship opportunities, honing the tools they will need to realize a better future. Following are some selected highlights of this work, accomplished by our students and faculty in collaboration with their clients and client communities.
Yours in solidarity,
Allison Korn
Assistant Dean for Experiential Education
UCLA School of Law
Welcoming New Faculty & Staff
- In partnership with the Williams Institute, Sapna Khatri has joined UCLA Law as the first Sears Clinical Teaching Fellow. Sapna’s work will focus on the intersections of sexual and reproductive health, LGBTQ rights, and racial and economic justice.
- The Veterans Legal Clinic welcomed Courtney Bachman and Cecilia Ley to the clinic as Staff Attorney and Client Coordinator.
- Loralee Sundra has joined the Documentary Film Clinic as Frontline Fellow.
- Later this month, Talia Inlender will assume the role of Deputy Director for the Center for Immigration Law and Policy. She will teach the Immigrants’ Rights Policy Clinic, one of two law clinics focused on immigration issues.
Bail Reform Practicum
Alicia Virani
Bahar Mirhosseni
The Bail Reform Practicum released a groundbreaking report illustrating how people incarcerated pretrial in Los Angeles County jails are being held for longer periods of time during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report draws from more than 400 declarations from people incarcerated in the County’s jails and argues that if the County does not act to release people during the deadly pandemic and safely resume jury trials, there will be massive violations of the constitutional rights of people incarcerated pretrial and potentially deadly consequences for all those in the County's jails. In an op-ed published by The Appeal, student advocate and report co-author Amy Munro ‘21 says, “In law school, we are taught that speedy trial rights and access to counsel are paramount. It is disturbing to see how utterly false this notion is in practice in our state and county when it comes to people who are incarcerated pretrial.”
California Environmental Legislation & Policy Clinic
California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic students’ research and recommendations regarding new state wildfire policies helped shape the text of Senate Bill 63, introduced by Sen. Henry Stern. The bill, which would help local communities strengthen wildfire prevention efforts and provide funding to mitigate fire damage, was presented to Governor Newsom for signature on September 17, 2021. Student advocates also worked on Senate Bill 83, which introduces a revolving loan program allowing California Counties and communities to purchase vulnerable coastal properties. The first-of-its-kind legislation, featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, would launch a government-subsidized effort to limit the state’s longer-term exposure to sea level rise. Professor Julia Stein “see[s] this program as one tool in the toolbox the State will use to address the risks of sea level rise.”
Community Economic Development Clinic
Scott Cummings
Doug Smith
A new report by the Community Economic Development Clinic, in partnership with Public Counsel, uncovers how little-known and poorly designed laws make it nearly illegal for street vendors in Los Angeles to sell food, even after considerable efforts to legalize their operations. The report includes stories and perspectives from sidewalk vendors attempting to navigate Los Angeles County’s permitting system, demonstrating that instead of helping vendors break down barriers, local officials punish violations with tickets and cart confiscation—depriving vendors of their livelihood. Cassidy Bennett '22, a student advocate who co-authored the report, said, “It’s particularly striking compared to how officials recently moved with lightning speed to create outdoor dining opportunities for brick-and-mortar businesses during the pandemic, yet, LA’s original outdoor food purveyors have been left behind.” In their op-ed, “Hands off our taco carts,” Professors Scott Cummings and Doug Smith call for “targeted reform” which would advance “the twin goals of promoting vendor opportunity and protecting public health.”
Community Lawyering in Education Clinic
The Community Lawyering in Education Clinic has undertaken a project at the intersection of public education system, the child welfare system, and technology. In partnership with CADRE, a parent empowerment organization, the clinic aims to create the conditions parents need to redefine South Los Angeles public schools. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated that parents and caregivers, particularly mothers and single parents, rely on schools to fulfill basic needs. Through their work uncovering how new information technologies mediate the interaction between the child welfare and public education systems, student advocates seek to ensure that students and families experience school as sites of poverty-alleviation and not criminalization or family separation.
Criminal Defense Clinic
Thanks to student advocates in the Criminal Defense Clinic, two Southern California men serving life sentences in federal prison for non-violent drug convictions were granted compassionate release this year, allowing them to return home to their families. Supervised by Professors Ingrid Eagly and Julie Cramer, student advocates worked directly with clients and their families, and used the First Step Act to ask the court to consider compassionate release. Jenna Finkle ’21, who argued one of the cases before U.S. District Court Judge Consuelo Marshal, explained that “the judge considered the commendable rehabilitation of our client during his time in prison, as well as the tremendous support of his entire extended family.” These victories come at time of significant reform of the federal criminal legal system. “The advocacy of our students has highlighted the unusually long and unjust life sentences that our clients received,” said Professor Eagly. “Thanks to a series of reforms to federal sentencing law, today someone convicted of the same crimes would no longer serve a life sentence.”
Documentary Film Clinic
Documentary Film Clinic students provided counsel and expertise on more than two dozen documentary projects last year, many of which achieved notable success. These projects include Women in Blue (PBS), Lift Like a Girl (Netflix), Q: Into the Storm (HBO Max), The People v. Agent Orange (PBS) and 100 Years from Mississippi (winner of Best Documentary Feature at both the Harlem International Film Festival and the National Black Film Festival). Student advocates also worked with emerging filmmakers referred to the clinic by many prestigious documentary organizations, including Film Independent, Firelight Media and the International Documentary Association (IDA). The clinic will be gearing up for legal ed programs at the Double Exposure Festival in Washington, D.C. in October and several other venues, including the Sundance and Big Sky festivals next spring.
Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic
Cara Horowitz
Sean Hecht
Julia Stein
The Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic worked in collaboration with UCLA Law’s Tribal Legal Development Clinic to support a longstanding Yurok Tribe effort to expand members’ access to traditional food systems along the Klamath River. For the last hundred years, the Yurok Tribe has been denied the ability to harvest culturally significant food sources from the Klamath River basin due to a patchwork of complex regulations. Students from both clinics worked alongside Yurok Tribe leadership to create a legal memo and field guide for tribal members to understand regulations for different species along the Klamanth; they also developed a legal framework for how the tribe could work with government agencies to improve access. Student advocate Nicole Hansen '21 said that their “research builds on the work of elders who have been fighting for decades to allow the tribe access to these cultural resources.”
Food Law & Policy Clinic
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on food insecurity, student advocates in the Food Law & Policy Clinic worked with the Southern California Disaster Legal Assistance Collaboration and the Farm Bill Legal Enterprise to analyze disaster response models and identify the best options for meeting goals of quick dispersal of relief – particularly regarding nutritional assistance and other basic needs – immediately following a large-scale emergency. The clinic partnered with mutual aid groups and community-based organizations across the Los Angeles - including LA-CAN, Polo’s Pantry, and Homey Made Meals - to understand how these relief mechanisms often exclude unhoused populations, farmworkers, seniors, persons with disabilities, and others made more socially vulnerable by disaster. Their work will contribute to a comprehensive report recommending an overhaul of local, state, and national disaster response policies.
The clinic also provided research and litigation support for a class action lawsuit alleging that that various importers, packers, and a major third-party honey certifier have conspired to flood the American market with fake honey at the expense of consumers and beekeepers. Student advocates drafted a series of public statements to raise awareness about honey adulteration, honey litigation, and potential policy solutions to the problem of honey fraud.
Human Rights Litigation Clinic
In September 2021, the Ninth Circuit delivered an opinion in Garcia v. Los Angeles affirming a trial court’s ruling that the city cannot remove certain possessions of homeless people. Student advocates from the Human Rights Litigation Clinic, supervised by Professor Cathy Sweetser, worked on several aspects of the case, including research and investigation during the discovery phase, meetings with the client, and preparing arguments for appeal. Regarding her clinic experience collaborating on this multi-year effort, Shyann Murphy ’22 said, “It was gratifying to work on something so important. We must continually reaffirm that unhoused people are humans who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and have the same rights as everyone else.”
Immigrants' Rights Policy Clinic
Student advocates in the Immigrants’ Rights Policy Clinic participated in efforts to persuade the Los Angeles City Council to renew and extend funding to provide noncitizens in immigration court with lawyers paid by local government. At the national level, student advocates advised grassroots organizations in New Jersey in their efforts to have state laws enacted to limit the federal government’s ability to have private immigration detention facilities in those states.
Immigrant Family Legal Clinic
Student advocates in the Immigrant Family Legal Clinic were thrilled to return to their office on the campus of RFK Community Schools, where they responded to an influx of newcomer families, including many unaccompanied minors and asylum-seeking families who spent extended periods trapped in Mexico. In addition to providing dozens of direct representation and consultations, students also led classroom presentations to newcomer students to provide information about the U.S. immigration system, workers’ rights, and other legal topics. Rachel Moon ’23 and Tiana Cherbosque ’23 designed bingo cards for the presentations, which help explain concepts such as “SIJS” and “asylum.”
Ninth Circuit Appellate Advocacy: Prisoners' Rights Clinic
Last spring, student advocates in the Prisoners’ Rights Clinic argued before the Ninth Circuit on behalf of an incarcerated client – and won. The students’ client is an incarcerated man who sued prison medical providers after they abruptly terminated his pain medication. Supervised by Aaron Littman and working with appellate and civil rights attorneys from McLane, Bednarski & Litt and Barry Levy of Horvitz & Levy, students probed the district court records, researched relevant case law, drafted multiple briefs, and participated in a half dozen moot courts to prepare for their appearances. Reflecting on her experience in the clinic, Amaris Montes ’21 said, “People in carceral settings have to overcome so many obstacles to have their rights respected by this legal system — from physical and financial barriers, to impossible administrative hurdles, to laws such as the Prison Litigation Reform Act that actively prevent people in prisons from having their day in court. For individuals in these carceral settings like our client, Mr. Coston, with no representation, the work they do in representing themselves is absolutely impressive but also heartbreaking: The legal system has failed them so much. It was a true honor and a privilege to have worked with him.”
Tribal Legal Development Clinic
In addition to their successful collaboration with the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic supporting the Yurok Tribe, student advocates in the Tribal Legal Development Clinic researched and drafted a white paper examining the regulatory background of fracking in the Chaco Canyon region of New Mexico. The paper examined relevant cultural resource protection laws that can and should be leveraged to better engage tribal voices at all stages of the regulatory process. Student advocates developed the paper into a community-focused illustrated guide. “Fracking is impacting the health and well-being of cultural landscapes and the Indigenous people that access these cultural landscapes,” says Professor Lauren van Schilfgaarde. “It was empowering to help articulate the legal framework that tribes can use to help assert their rights in the face of resource extraction.”
Veterans Legal Clinic
The Veterans Legal Clinic filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this spring on behalf of the National Association of Minority Veterans of America (NAMVETS). Student advocates have represented NAMVETS since 2019 in a variety of matters and provided a range of legal assistance, including drafting templates for open records requests, producing know-your-rights videos, and creating public-education materials. This complaint asks for records from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that may shed light on VA police force interactions with disabled and minority veterans throughout VA medical facilities. Under the supervision of Professor Sunita Patel and assisted by clinic staff attorney Courtney Bachman, student advocates submitted a FOIA request in 2020 requesting these records. “The information is essential at this moment where the nation is paying attention to the harms of policing upon historically marginalized communities,” says Professor Sunita Patel.
Voting Rights Practicum
The UCLA Voting Rights Project was asked by U.S. House membership and staff to prepare proposed language for inclusion in the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, introduced on August 17, 2021. Student advocates in the Voting Rights Practicum, working with Professors Chad Dunn and Matt Barreto, helped craft the legislative proposals and pull together background information and legal resources critical to the House Committee’s consideration of the bill. Ultimately, the bill as passed by the U.S. House reflects many of the proposals made by the UCLA VRP.
Recent Experiential Faculty Scholarship
- “Transnational Racial (In)Justice In Liberal Democratic Empire,” 134 Harvard Law Review Forum 378 (2021).
- “Critical Race Theory Meets Third World Approaches to International Law,” with Devon W. Carbado, 67 UCLA Law Review 1462 (2021).
- “Race and Empire: Legal Theory Within, Through, and Across National Borders,” with Aslı Ü. Bâli, 67 UCLA Law Review 1386 (2021).
- The Decline of Natural Law: How American Lawyers Once Used Natural Law and Why They Stopped, Oxford University Press (2021).
- “Making Public Interest Lawyers in a Time of Crisis: An Evidence Based Approach,” with Richard L. Abel and Catherine Albiston, 34 Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics (2021).
- An Equal Place: Lawyers in the Struggle for Los Angeles, Oxford University Press (2021).
- Criminal Practice: A Handbook for New Advocates, with George Fisher and Ronald Tyler, Foundation Press (2021).
- “Learning from Deported Americans,” review of Deported Americans: Life After Deportation to Mexico by Beth C. Caldwell, 50 Southwestern Law Review 333 (2021)
- “Access to Justice for Immigrants: A Lecture Presented in Memory of Breanna Boss,” 92 University of Chicago Law Review Forum 1 (2021).
- “Measuring In Absentia Removal in Immigration Court,” with Steven Shafer, 168 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 817 (2020).
- “The Institutional Hearing Program: A Study of Prison-Based Immigration Courts in the United States,” with Steven Shafer, 54 Law & Society Review 788 (2020).
- “The Miseducation of Carceral Reform,” 69 UCLA Law Review (forthcoming 2022).
- Behavioral Ethics, Deception, and Legal Negotiation, 20 Nevada Law Journal 1209 (2020).
- “Jails, Sheriffs, and Carceral Policymaking,” 74 Vanderbilt Law Review 861 (2021).
- Evaluating the Application of Decision Analysis Methods in Simulated Alternatives Assessment Case Studies: Potential Benefits and Challenges of Using MCDA,” with Christian Beaudrie, Charles J Corbett, Thomas A Lewandowski, and Xiaoying Zhou, 17 Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 27 (2020).
- “QSAR Use in REACH Analyses of Alternatives to Predict Human Health and Environmental Toxicity of Alternative Chemical Substances,” with Kazue Chinen, 16 Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 745 (2020).
- “Making Immigration Law,” review of The President and Immigration Law by Adam B. Cox and Cristina M. Rodríguez, 134 Harvard Law Review 2794 (2021).
- Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy, with T. Alexander Aleinikoff, David A. Martin, Maryellen Fullerton, Juliet P. Stumpf, and Pratheepan Gulasekaram, Ninth Edition, West (2021).
- “Going Rogue: The Supreme Court’s Newfound Hostility to Policy-Based Bivens Claims,” with Alexander Reinert and James E. Pfander, 96 Notre Dame Law Review 1835 (2021).
- “Qualified Immunity’s Boldest Lie,” 88 University of Chicago Law Review 605 (2021).
- “Qualified Immunity and Federalism All the Way Down,” 109 Georgetown Law Journal 305 (2020).
- “What Cheap Speech Has Done: (Greater) Equality and Its Discontents,” 54 UC Davis Law Review 2303 (2021).
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