UC Davis is hosting a conference titled "Immigration and Poverty: Economic and Social Connections, Policy Approaches" tomorrow and Friday. The conference is sponsored by the UC Davis Economy, Justice and Society Program, as well as the Center for Poverty Research and the Institute of Governmental Affairs. I am on a panel on the second day of the conference. The agenda is here.
Here is the conference description: "The mobility of people across national boundaries is an exceptional economic force and catalyst for social and cultural change, but it is also a source of significant policy challenges. This interdisciplinary conference brings together scholars studying the connection between migration and the economic development of individuals, markets, and states in both sending and receiving countries."
The conference should spark some thought-provoking discussion. I am looking forward to it!
Last week, the Pew Research Center released results of new polling data showing the percentage of adult Americans who hold a favorable view of the Supreme Court (52%) is at a 25-year low.
In this column on Justia (and cross-posted to our Faculty Blog), I drill into the numbers a bit more deeply, and offer some speculative explanations for the diminishing public assessment of the Court.
Last night, I was on a panel of discussants on Free Expression issues and the Occupy movement for the Schwartz Levi Inn of Court.
The title of the program was "The Legal Issues of the Occupy Movement." Associate Dean Vik Amar and Charity Kenyon '77 also were on the panel to discuss the various First Amendment issues raised by the Occupy movement. We discussed striking the balance of protecting free expression while also protecting public health and safety, as well as other legitimate concerns such as freedom of the press. The program included a series of skits in which alumni (and spouses) Kara Ueda '00 and Scott Lay '00, as well as Natalie Johnston '08 participated. Scott made an excellent Geraldo-style panel moderator!
Congratulations to California Assembly member and King Hall alum Luis Alejo ’01! Alejo proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Karina Cervantez, on the floor of the Assembly yesterday. She said yes!
Alejo and Cervantez. The screen behind them reads, "SHE SAID YES."
According to this article in The Sacramento Bee, Alejo’s was “the first marriage proposal on the Assembly floor in recent memory, if not the first ever.”
Assembly member Alejo is a dedicated UC Davis School of Law alum. Former co-chair of La Raza Law Students Association, he regularly attends the LRLSA Patino Banquet and often returns to King Hall to speak to student groups. See his profile on the Law School website.
Rabia Paracha ’12, President of the Law Students Association, was recently awarded the American Law Institute/American Bar Association (ALI-ABA) Scholarship and Leadership award.
This award is presented to the law student in each school's graduating class who best represents a combination of scholarship and leadership. Rabia was selected based on her academic achievement, leadership, and for her many contributions to King Hall.
Congratulations, Rabia!
The annual Law Day Dinner, organized by Operation Protect & Defend and the Sacramento County Bar Association, was a great success. UC Davis School of Law was a proud co-sponsor.
Last night’s dinner in Sacramento featured Professor Emeritus Cruz Reynoso as the keynote speaker. King Hall was in the limelight all evening long. The emcee was Judge Larry Brown ‘89 who kept the audience laughing. Lauri Damrell ‘05 introduced Professor Reynoso. Judge Judy Holzer Hersher ‘84, along with David Post ‘71, presented awards to impressive high school students from Sacramento. Many King Hall alums were involved in the planning of the event, including Judge Hersher, Judge Stacy Boulware-Eurie ‘95, and others. Among those in attendance from King Hall were Associate Director for Career Services Kirsten Hill ‘04, Associate Director of Annual and Special Funds Christian Rockwood, and students Zachary Schultz and Liam McKenna. I saw alumni including Alumni Association President Kara Ueda ’00, past president Steve Boutin ‘72, Monica Bauman ‘09, Deborah Maddux Allison ‘93, Justice Louis Mauro ‘87, Diane Boyer-Vine ‘86, Michael Salerno ‘79, Justice Kathleen Butz ’81, Ariel Brown ’11, Sarah Scott ’10, and Kim Lucia ‘09. It was also nice to see many friends of King Hall in attendance, include Judge Dale Drozd, Judge Kim Mueller, and Justice Elena Duarte.
It was a wonderful event and King Hall was pleased to be a co-sponsor!
I received this nice e-mail and photo from students Patricija Petrac, Sarah Russo, and Heather Cantua.
L to R: Professor Christine Goodman (Pepperdine School of Law), Patricia Sturdevant (CWL President and California Department of Insurance), Sarah Russo (UC Davis '13), Heather Cantua (UC Davis '13), and Patricija Petrac (UC Davis '13).
"King Hall Women's Law Association is incredibly grateful for the Dean's office financial support to attend California Women Lawyers Annual Conference last week. The funding you provided paid for the conference registration fees for Patricija Petrac (2L), Sarah Russo (2L), and Heather Cantua (2L). Without these funds, we would not have been able to attend this phenomenal event, which was invaluable to our growth as lawyers, leaders, and individuals We attended several panel discussions and met numerous accomplished attorneys from across the state and from a wide array of specialities. The opening speaker was Patricia Gillette, a partner in Orrick Herrington’s San Francisco office, and the keynote speaker was Catherine Lacavera, Director of Litigation at Google. The event was valuable in so many ways, in particular the opportunity to hear practical advice from accomplished and powerful women. UC Davis sent the most law students to the event, and everyone lauded the administration for giving us the support we needed to attend."
Thank you for the message, Patricija, Sarah, and Heather! The Dean's Office is proud to support the students of King Hall!
King Hall faculty contribute a special column to JURIST, a legal news and legal research website operated out of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. JURIST publishes a commentary piece from members of our faculty on a monthly basis. In the newest column, I address public perception and the law in Arizona v. United States. My prediction: the Supreme Court will likely uphold at least two sections of SB 1070.
Read the column at Jurist. The column is also cross-posted to our Faculty Blog, where you can leave a comment!
Jihan Kahssay '12 has been honored with the 2012 Pritikin Award for her paper "Lessons Learned from Somalia: Returning to a Humanitarian-Based Humanitarian Intervention," chosen by a committee of King Hall professors as the best unpublished student paper in the realm of international law and policy. Read the news story on the King Hall website here.
Jihan recently began guest blogging for IntLawGrrls. Last summer, she was a UC Human Rights Fellow with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Resettlement Unit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Great work, Jihan! Congratulations!
As the academic year draws to a close, I want to congratulate the entire King Hall community. Although we endured some tragic losses and unfortunate events, it was a year of remarkable achievements.
Our “New and Improved” King Hall
For over a decade, the King Hall community has worked to bring us all a state-of-the-art building. In the fall, we held the first classes in the upgraded classrooms on the second floor, and saw the opening of the renovated lower level, with space for student organizations, new reading rooms, and an upgraded student lounge (with microwaves and vending machines). Construction will now focus on the first floor, including an upgrade of the classrooms as well as a renovation of the Mabie Law Library and faculty offices. We will celebrate Thanksgiving 2012 with the completion of the entire renovation. Thank you all for your support and patience!
Faculty Excellence
Our faculty continues to draw national and international acclaim. Over the past year, our scholars have published dozens of books, and articles in the best law reviews in the country, including the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, California Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, UCLA Law Review, Iowa Law Review, and Minnesota Law Review, to name a few.
Consistent with the aspirations of a great public university, our faculty members translated their academic work for broader audiences and published op-ed pieces in outlets like the Los Angeles Times, Justia.com, and Jurist.org (with which the law school this year entered into an agreement to provide regular content). Many of our faculty regularly blog for, and are cited on, high-profile blogs like the New York Times “Room for Debate,” SCOTUSblog, and many others. Not surprisingly, our faculty are regularly quoted and featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CNN, National Public Radio, and numerous other international, national, and local media outlets.
The law faculty members regularly appear at academic conferences at prestigious law schools from coast to coast. Our faculty also are in demand internationally. This year, Professor Madhavi Sunder delivered the Hochelaga Lectures, the University of Hong Kong School of Law’s most prestigious lecture series. Professor Edward Imwinkelried visited Beijing to lead the International Conference on Evidence Law and Science. Professor Peter Lee traveled to Chile as part of a new Law School partnership with the University of Chile School of Law.
Our faculty received many prestigious honors. Professor Cruz Reynoso received the Hispanic National Bar Association’s highest honor, the Lincoln-Juarez Award. Professor Evelyn A. Lewis received the William and Sally Rutter Distinguished Teaching Award. Professor Lisa Ikemoto was honored by the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty (CAPALF) with the Professor Chris Kando Iijima Teacher and Mentor Award. Courtney Joslin had two of her articles honored with national awards. The Corporate Practice Commentator selected one of Professor Afra Afsharipour’s articles as one of 2011’s top ten corporate and securities articles. Holly S. Cooper received the Carol Weiss King Award for Creative Litigation from the National Lawyers Guild Immigration Project. Amagda Pérez was honored with the North Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Dolores Huerta Award for Social Justice.
Next year, two new excellent faculty members will join the King Hall community. David Horton comes from Loyola-Los Angeles and will teach in the fields of Trust Wills and Alternative Dispute Resolution. An established international law scholar, Karima Bennoune comes from Rutgers-Newark. Professors Emma Jordan (Georgetown), former President of the Association of American Law Schools, and Rose Villazor (Hofstra) will teach as visiting professors next spring.
Our U.S. News & World Report Ranking: Consistent Excellence
Reaffirming our place among the nation’s top law schools, UC Davis School of Law placed 29 in the latest U.S. News rankings and remains the youngest school ever to rank in the top 25. This year marked the first time UC Davis made three straight appearances in the top 30. In the survey of law professors at other law schools, we ranked number 24.
Career Services
Career Services works harder than ever to increase employment opportunities for our students. We saw a 20% increase in firms participating in fall 2011 on-campus interviewing (OCI) and a 50% increase in employers participating in spring 2012 OCI. The international law firms of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Weil, Gotshal & Manges; Davis Polk & Wardwell; and White & Case will interview King Hall students next year – a first for many of these firms. The Career Services Office continues to conduct outreach to all types of employers to increase opportunities for our students.
Clinics Rock!
Under the leadership of Director of Clinical Education Leticia Saucedo, King Hall students gain invaluable, real-world experience as they make a real difference in our community and our world. This year, Immigration Law Clinic students won a series of impressive victories, including a victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Clinical faculty and students also were active in our community, participating in naturalization workshops for immigrants and developing a presentation on cyberbullying for high school students.
Research and Policy Center’s Successes
Under the direction of Richard Frank ‘74, the California Environmental Law and Policy Center hosted a conference on the California Environmental Quality Act that was one of the most well-attended events in Law School history. The Center for Science and Innovation Studies, led by Professor Mario Biagioli, hosted many lectures and symposia. Professor Anupam Chander directed the California International Law Center (CILC), which hosted many high profile lecturers, including Judge Joan E. Donoghue of the International Court of Justice and Diego García-Sayán, President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Conferences and Lectures
2011-12 brought an impressive array of luminaries to King Hall. Highlights include the 2012 Fenwick & West Lecture Series in Technology, Entrepreneurship, Science, and Law (TESLaw) with a keynote speech by Jason Goldman, co-founder of Twitter. Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit delivered the Central Valley Foundation/James B. McClatchy Lecture on the First Amendment. Former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Vaughn Walker, who wrote the district court opinion invalidating California’s Proposition 8, delivered the Bill Smith Memorial Lecture. Professor Angela Onwuachi-Willig (Iowa) delivered the Brigitte M. Bodenheimer Lecture on Family Law. Scott Boras, one of the nation’s top sports agents, spoke in an event sponsored by the Entertainment & Sports Law Society (ably co-chaired by Scott Judson ’12 and Colin Kilpatrick ’12). In March, about 200 people attended the Law Review Symposium on “The Daubert Hearing—From All the Critical Perspectives.”
The law school had many other prominent visitors in 2011-12, including former Massachusetts Governor and Democratic President Candidate Michael Dukakis. I accompanied Governor Dukakis to visit the California legislature before his public talk at the Mondavi Center.
Exciting New Initiatives – International and Domestic, New Courses
The Law School continues to grow its international opportunities for students and faculty. In November, we hosted a delegation from China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) for a visit that included the signing by Chancellor Linda Katehi and CUPL President Jin Huang of an agreement to form a partnership between UC Davis School of Law and CUPL. In just the last few weeks, I met with the Dean of Jindal Global Law School in India to sign an agreement providing for international collaborations for faculty and students. I also met with Chilean Ambassador Felipe Bulnes and discussed our new partnerships with the University of Chile and the Diego Portales University.
In addition to expanding international partnerships, we are increasing our academic programs. The faculty approved a new Intellectual Property certificate program. We soon will unveil our new California Supreme Court Clinic, which will allow students to brief and argue cases before the California Supreme Court. By the way, the Court’s newest Justice, Goodwin Liu, is our commencement speaker and the Court will hold oral arguments next November in the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom.
This year, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Hollis Kulwin instituted a new and expanded course advising program, including a Course Advising Fair, to assist students in selecting courses. Next year, we will offer many new courses, including Advanced Negotiations, Renewable Energy Seminar, California Criminal Procedure Seminar, Citizenship Seminar, Economic Justice, Mindfulness in Professional Values, Chinese Intellectual Property, and others. The Academic Support Program further expanded its “Passing the Bar” series.
Student Achievements
King Hall students truly outdid themselves in 2011-12!
The Neumiller Moot Court Competition, ably organized by the Moot Court Board headed by John Stoller ’12, saw Kara DiBiasio ‘13 and Lauren Herrera ‘13 emerge as winners. The King Hall Negotiations Team hosted the annual Intra-School Negotiations Competition as well as the American Bar Association's Client Counseling Regional Competition. Kyle Junginger ‘14 and Sean Newland ‘14 traveled to New Orleans for the ABA National Negotiation Competition. In the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition at Georgetown, Tyler Layton ‘12 and Jim Beck ‘12 won the right to represent King Hall in the international round of competition to be held this October in Italy.
Student organizations also had a banner year. Law School Association President Rabia Paracha served as an excellent student leader; the students elected the irrepressibly upbeat Nima Rahimi as President for 2012-13. The King Hall Legal Foundation’s golf tournament and public interest auction were among the highlights of this school year. HALO (Humanities Aid Legal Organization) students traveled to help the needy in Arizona and Utah. King Hall students took a “Justice Bus” trip to provide legal assistance to the poor in mobile home parks in Napa Valley. The Asian Pacific American Law Students hosted its inaugural banquet with more than 120 in attendance. The Black Law Students Association, ably led by Embert Madison '13 and Fitz King '13 (who succeeded the excellent leadership of Alana Penn '12 and Edward J. Brown ’12), held an impressive Martin Luther King Jr. week. La Raza Law Students Association, co-chaired by Denise Méndez ’12, did the same for César Chavez week (as well as holding a great Lorenzo Patiño annual banquet in which U.S. Department of Agriculture General Counsel Ramona Romero delivered the keynote and Jenni Gomez ‘12 was honored with the Lorenzo Patiño Community Service Award). Roel Mangiliman ’12, Serena Salinas’12, Michael Wu ’12, and others active in the Coalition for Diversity served as our conscience by voicing concerns about the diversity of the student body.
Our students earned many state and national honors. Andrew Huah ‘14 was honored with a Fish & Richardson 1L Diversity Fellowship. Matthew Kane ‘12 was selected by FASPE (Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics) to participate in a program this summer in New York, Germany, and Poland. Amit Rana ‘13 was awarded a summer fellowship by the Peggy Browning Fund. Atticus Lee ‘13 is a Latham & Wilkins Diversity Scholar. Besides ably leading the Journal of International Law and Policy, Joanna Cuevas Ingram wrote an article on California voting rights law that will be published in the Harvard Latino Law Review. Monica Crooms ’13 and Hannah Labaree ’13 were honored with UC Human Rights Fellowships while Miles Prince ’14 and Nienke Schouten ’14 earned John Paul Stevens Fellowships for public interest work.
King Hall students also secured a number of judicial clerkships. To name a few, Matthew Kane will serve a two-year clerkship with the Superior and Supreme Courts of Guam. James Beck ‘12 will clerk for Judge Johnnie B. Rawlinson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Katharine Buddingh ‘12 will clerk for U.S. District Judge David Ezra in the District of Hawaii. John Waste ‘12 will clerk for Chief Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein of the Eastern District of California.
Dedicated and Influential Alumni
King Hall alumni were a presence at King Hall in 2011-12. Besides providing much-needed financial support, more than 850 alumni volunteered to help moot court and mock trial programs, met with prospective students, spoke to King Hall classes, and much more.
It would be impossible to list here all of the outstanding accomplishments achieved by King Hall alumni during the past year, but let me mention a few. Darrell Steinberg ‘84, President Pro Tem of the California State Senate, and Chief Justice of California Tani Cantil-Sakauye ‘84 continued to provide superb leadership to the state of California. Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney David Walgren ‘95 successfully prosecuted a doctor charged in connection with the death of entertainer Michael Jackson. Marlon Cobar ‘00, with the U.S. Department of Justice, successfully prosecuted one of the world’s largest heroin dealers. Robert A. Barton ‘88 was appointed California Inspector General. Professor Francine J. Lipman ’93 (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) was elected to the American Law Institute.
Fundraising Success
As always, the greater King Hall community rallied this year in support of the Law School, with a focus on student scholarships, in another outstanding fundraising year. This year, more than $288,000 was raised to support new scholarships. The Richard Archibald Memorial Fund, started by members of the Class of 1980 to honor a classmate, reached its $100,000 goal and will provide additional funds for our Loan Repayment Assistance Program. The Class of 2012 is nearing record levels in its class gift. Last but not least, we soon will announce a $2.5 million planned gift to support our clinical and skills programs.
Staff Hires
As always, our extraordinary staff have made it possible for the Law School to operate efficiently and effectively. This year, we hired two staff, Christian Rockwood in External Relations as Associate Director for Annual and Special Funds, and Kathleen Harbaugh as Executive Assistant to the Dean.
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Have a great summer! Congratulations to the Class of 2012. We look forward to seeing the classes of 2013 and 2014 – and the new class of 2015 – in August.
Kevin R. Johnson
Dean
Earlier this week, I was invited to participate in an online debate on PolicyMic.com over the legal issues surrounding Arizona's SB 1070.
PolicyMic hosted the discussion with several legal scholars and think-tank scholars on how the Supreme Court should decide the case. My contribution, titled "Arizona Immigration: A State Cannot Have its Own Immigration Policy," appears on the PolicyMic website and is cross-posted to the UC Davis Faculty Blog.
Also from King Hall, Professor Gabriel "Jack" Chin and Professor Emeritus Bill O. Hing contributed to the debate, too. You can read their entries, respectively, here and here on PolicyMic.com.
Many thanks to PolicyMic for inviting me to participate!
The UC Davis Law Review wrapped-up the academic year with its annual Hopkins Banquet last week.
The editorial board and members of the UC Davis Law Review
The Law Review is an important part of the intellectual vitality of King Hall, and I enjoyed attending the year-end banquet at the Gunrock Pub on campus. Many faculty members were there, including Afra Afsharipour (the Law Review’s Faculty Advisor), Rex Perschbacher, Rick Frank, Bob Hillman, John Hunt, Floyd Feeney, Anupam Chander, Rick Frank, Jack Chin, Miguel Mendez, and Larry Green.
This year, Professor Afsharipour and her team of faculty selected students Liam McKenna and Connor Boyd as having written the best Law Review papers. Both of them were published in Volume 45, Issue 1. Connor is an Executive Editor, and Liam is a Senior Articles Editor.
Here are links to the masthead for the 2011-2012 Law Review (Vol. 45) and the masthead for the next academic year’s incoming board (Vol. 46).
Congratulations to the award winners, as well as all of the editors and members of the UC Davis Law Review!
I am proud to announce a new partnership with a prominent law school overseas.
Professor Afra Afsharipour, Jindal Global University Vice Chancellor Raj Kumar, me (wearing Jindal colors), and International Programs Director Beth Greenwood
Last Wednesday, I had dinner with a leader of Jindal Global Law School in India. Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor of Jindal Global University and Dean of Jindal Law School, and I signed a new Memorandum of Understanding over dinner in Burlingame. Professor Afra Afsharipour, who has scholarship focusing on corporate governance in India, and International Programs Director Beth Greenwood attended the dinner with Professor Kumar and me. Jindal Global Law School has similar agreements with UC Berkeley, Indiana-Bloomington, Arizona, and other law schools.
In its announcement, Jindal Law School said, “The MoU with the University of California, Davis, School of Law provides for collaborations through summer training programmes, joint research, seminars, publications, faculty collaborations and exchanges of faculty and students. Both law schools have agreed to nominate up to four students per year to attend the other law school for one semester."
With our commitments to research and teaching, UC Davis and Jindal are an excellent pairing. King Hall is honored to be forming this new partnership, which underscores the importance of global legal education.
In fact, UC Davis School of Law continues to build its international presence.
I met with the newly appointed Chilean Ambassador to the United States last week.
Me, Beth Greenwood, and Chilean Ambassador Felipe Bulnes
Ambassador Felipe Bulnes visited King Hall and met with me in the Dean’s conference room. Prior to becoming Chilean Ambassador, Bulnes was the Chilean Minister of Justice and Minister of Education. Ambassador Bulnes has practiced corporate law and has taught law and economics at top Chilean law schools. The visit provided an opportunity to discuss the partnerships that the UC Davis School of Law has formed with major Chilean universities including the University of Chile and the Diego Portales University. We talked about my plan to visit Chile, and our mutual experiences in a cold Cambridge winter (Bulnes has an LL.M. from Harvard).
Ambassador Bulnes was very impressed with the UC Davis School of Law and hopes to return to give a talk when he is again on the West Coast.
Many thanks to our international partners!
Here is a guest blog entry from Senior Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Hollis Kulwin. Unfortunately, I had to miss it because it was the same time as an admitted student event in Sacramento. Congratulations on your great event, APALSA students!
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Last Friday, I attended the inaugural banquet hosted by the Asian Pacific American Law Students (APALSA). The students did a really nice job!
APALSA Board with faculty advisor Professor Tom Joo. Photos courtesy of APALSA.
About 120 people attended, including members of the Bench and Bar, as well as our own La Raza Law Students and McGeorge Law School's APALSA.
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Russell Hom was the evening's MC--he was really nice, was very impressed with the students and did a great job as MC. The keynote speaker, California Court of Appeal Associate Justice Nathan Mihara, was extremely nice and delivered an excellent speech about diversity, the power of words and the importance of finding and being a mentor.
There were many members of the Asian Bar there, including Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento (ABAS) President Angela Lai, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Helena Gweon and Administrative Law Judge for the State Personnel Board, Floyd Shimomura ‘73. I sat with Floyd and Justice Mihara and his wife at dinner.
Sitting at dinner with Justice Mihara (center)
Banquet guests with event MC Judge Russell Hom (4th from right)
Professors Tom Joo, Miguel Mendez, Madhavi Sunder, Clay Tanaka were the faculty who were there. Casper Chan ‘13 thanked a long list of faculty who had contributed financially to the event. He also thanked the Dean’s Office several times for its support.
The students had a nice ceremony for the 3Ls, where they described each student's accomplishments and gave each one a certificate. They introduced their new board and recognized Clay Tanaka for his contributions.
Caspar Chan '13, Professor Clay Tanaka, and Wendy Guo '13
Congratulations to APALSA on its successful first banquet. Best wishes for many more!
King Hall alumna Kathleen Butz '81, Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, is featured in this article in the Sacramento Bee: Women Make History in Sacramento while Hearing Murder Appeal. Associate Justice Elena Duarte, a friend of King Hall and onetime speaker at the La Raza Law Students Patino Banquet, is part of the story, too.
The Law School was proud to be a co-sponsor of a lecture by Yale and Stanford Law Professor Lucas Guttentag at King Hall this week.
Guttentag’s presentation was titled, “The Civil Rights Battle for Immigrant Justice: Arizona, Alabama and the Future of America.” First, he was very kind in complimenting Professor Emeritus Cruz Reynoso and me on our immigration work. He went on to address the tough immigration laws in some states and the record number of deportations during the Obama administration. His central theme was that, whatever happens in the U.S. Supreme Court in Arizona v. United States, immigration will be a political issue in the states and nation as a whole. Guttentag offered a short history of the disputed, complex, and controversial nature of immigration in the United States. This history includes episodes of racism and nativism.
Guttentag has a long and impressive body of work in immigration law and Constitutional law. He was the founding national director of the Immigrants' Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation.
Other sponsors of the lecture were the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas, the Davis Humanities Institute, the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, and the History Department.
It was a pleasure to have Professor Guttentag at King Hall!
UC Davis School of Law hosted nearly 100 admitted students and their guests on Friday and Saturday for a special slate of activities to give them a taste of King Hall as they decide where to attend law school.
On Friday, we held a reception for alumni and admitted students at the Sacramento office of Best Best and Krieger. Our gracious hostess was BBK partner Kara Ueda ’00, President of the King Hall Alumni Board. Alum Emilio Camacho ‘11 addressed the attendees, speaking about the wonderful community at King Hall and encouraging admitted students to attend UC Davis. Many alums were in attendance including Tom Stallard ’75, Alberto Roldan ’92, Gage Dungy ’03, Michael Mills ’97, and Linda McAtee ’85, and many more.
Current King Hall student groups hosted gatherings in Downtown Davis on Friday night, with events sponsored by La Raza and Lambda, among others. It was great of the student groups to be so welcoming of our admitted students!
Then Saturday brought a full day of great programs at King Hall! I, along with Assistant Dean Sharon Pinkney and Law Students Association President Rabia Paracha ’12, welcomed the admitted students in our Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom. The day’s agenda featured informational sessions on the 1L curriculum, Career Services, the Law Library, Academic Success, Financial Aid, Student Life, and areas of study including public interest law and environmental law. We had lunch (enchiladas) in the sunny King Hall Courtyard. Then students took a tour of the UC Davis campus (I heard they were impressed with the gym!), and ended the day with a reception at the Gunrock Pub. I’d like to thank the faculty members who took time to take part in activities throughout the day! They include Vik Amar, Rex Perschbacher, Cruz Reynoso, Rick Frank, Thomas Joo, Courtney Joslin, Al Lin, John Hunt, Krystal Callaway Jaime, Lawrence Green, and Meehan Rasch.
I heard a lot of positive feedback from admitted students. They were impressed by our warm and friendly community, and our beautiful new facility.
Afterward, one student wrote to me in an e-mail, “I cannot tell you how impressed I was with everyone I encountered on campus. The current students were so warm and friendly, and the other admitted students were equally kind. I thought it was fantastic that you took the time to interact with everyone and even gave us a personal tour of your office. UC Davis struck me as an institution that truly invests in its students and honors Dr. King's legacy in every aspect. I know that I will be both challenged and encouraged in that type of environment. I felt honored to be admitted, and I am so grateful that the school was able to work with me so that I can attend. I am very excited to join and contribute to this community. Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me.”
Many thanks to everyone who organized and attended Admitted Students Weekend!
The Lambda Law Students of King Hall hosted an esteemed guest speaker at its annual Bill Smith Memorial Lecture on Wednesday: Hon. Vaughn R. Walker, the former Chief Judge for the Northern District of California, who authored the initial opinion striking down Proposition 8, the ban on same-sex marriage, as unconstitutional.
I could not stay for the lecture because I had to attend a meeting with the Dean of a law school in India (We are soon going to launch a new partnership with this school!), but I wasn’t going to miss the opportunity to greet Judge Walker. Before the lecture began, I made sure to swing by the lobby on my way to the Bay Area, so I could thank him for coming to King Hall.
Greeting Judge Walker before the lecture
Associate Dean Vik Amar provided the introduction to Judge Walker's lecture. Professor Emeritus and former California State Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso (pictured below) was in attendance, as well.
The event organizers recognized three members of the King Hall community with awards.
Faculty/Professor of the Year: Assistant Dean Sharon Pinkney
Alumna of the Year: Natalie Wormeli ‘93
Bill Smith Memorial Public Interest Fellow: Bradley Showman ‘14
Congratulations to the award winners! And GREAT JOB, Lambda students! Stay tuned for a news item about the 2012 Bill Smith Memorial Lecture on the King Hall website.
Did you check out the results of King Hall’s lower level renovation during the “preview event” we had on Wednesday? The spacious student lounge, with its gleaming new kitchen and flat screen TV monitors, was a big hit. Here are a couple of photos:
About a hundred attendees comprising faculty, students, and staff took a sneak peek at the new student lounge and offices. I thanked everyone for their patience during the lower level renovation project. We’re nearly at the finish line! The Fire Department is expected to give us the go-ahead to officially open the lower level in the coming days!
Here is a guest blog entry from Director of Marketing and Communications Pamela Wu, who was the emcee for the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento (ABAS) Annual Celebration Dinner earlier this week. Thanks, Pam!
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For the third year in a row, I was honored to be the emcee for ABAS’s annual dinner. This year’s dinner was held inside the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria in downtown Sacramento. King Hall's alumni and students featured prominently throughout the evening.
Professor Richard Frank '74, California Court of Appeal Justice Andrea Hoch, and California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu. Photo by Tia Gemmell.
Attendees included Senior Assistant Dean Hollis Kulwin, Assistant Dean Craig Compton, Professor Rick Frank '74, California Court of Appeal Justice Louis Mauro '87, Alumni Board members including Kara Ueda '00, Grace Arupo '02, Judge Judy Holzer Hersher '84, Judge Stacy Boulware-Eurie '95, and Gene Woo '85, as well as Judge Larry Brown '89 and many, many other King Hall grads.
Alum Derek Ledda ’79 was recognized with the ABAS Community Service Award. Three of our students, Herman Cheung ’13, Michael Wu ‘12, and Melanie Young ’13 (pictured below), were awarded scholarships from the ABAS Law Foundation.
For me, the highlight of the evening was the keynote speech by California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu. Justice Liu will deliver the commencement address for the King Hall Class of 2012 at its ceremony on May 17, so I was really looking forward to hearing him speak.
Justice Liu, a Sacramento native, delivered a speech that was at once smart, humble, and clever. He said it was good to be back home (He was joined at the dinner by his parents, who still live in Sacramento, and his high school art teacher.) and reminisced about how he had visited the Capitol Rotunda as a child during Jerry Brown’s first governorship. He said he never imagined that someday, in the same Rotunda, Governor Brown would swear him in as a Supreme Court Justice. “Life does have a funny way of coming full circle,” he smiled. He also talked about how he had planned for a career in medicine before switching courses to go to law school. He was inspired by the late Congressman from Sacramento, Robert Matsui. Also a lawyer, Matsui helped Liu land a job as a Congressional page. (He joked, “For those of you who are too young to know what pages are, we were the equivalent of e-mail communication before the Internet.”) It was his first exposure to law and politics, and it made a lasting impression.
Justice Liu spoke about the importance of mentorship, citing Congressman Matsui and Harold Koh, legal advisor to the State Department former Yale Law School Dean, as the two mentors who had the greatest influence on his legal career. Congresswoman Doris Matsui (Bob’s widow and successor in the House of Representatives) was in the audience, and I could tell that she was touched by the kind words that Justice Liu had for her husband.
ABAS Law Foundation President Yoshinori Toso Himel '75, Congresswoman Doris Matsui, California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu, Gubernatorial Appointments Secretary Mona Pasquil, and ABAS Community Service Award recipient Derek Ledda '79. Photo by Tia Gemmell.
Liu received a standing ovation after his speech. Let me assure the Class of 2012 – you guys are getting a fantastic commencement speaker!
Thanks, ABAS, for the opportunity to participate in this year’s annual dinner. Congratulations on an outstanding event!
I attended the Law School’s annual Neumiller Moot Court Competition on Saturday. As usual, the oral advocates were outstanding!
Kara DiBiasio '13 argues her case to the panel of judges.
The team of Zachary Schultz & Nathan Zhang represented the Petitioner; Kara DiBiasio & Lauren Herrera argued for the Respondent. We hosted an esteemed group of judges: the Honorable Raymond C. Fisher and Milan D. Smith, Jr. from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, as well as John A. Mendez and William B. Shubb from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. The cutting-edge case revolved around a high school student’s online journal and the discipline and accusations she faced from the school’s administration. The legal issues at stake included defamation and the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
In the end, the team of DiBiasio and Herrera prevailed. The judges singled out DiBiasio for her exceptional skills.
Judge Fisher listens as Judge Smith provides feedback and explains the court's decision to each advocate.
Judge Shubb, Judge Fisher, Judge Smith and Judge Mendez pose with me and the winners, Kara DiBiasio '13 and Lauren Herrera '13.
During the event, the following students were also recognized with special awards.
Overall Outstanding Appellate Advocate:
Zachary Schultz
Overall Outstanding Oral Advocate:
Zachary Schultz
Outstanding Appellate Brief:
Ian Hlatky and Tom Morris
Order of the Barristers:
James Beck
Scott Judson
Collin Kilpatrick
Jason Liu
Liam McKenna
Jan Roos
Brittany Sachs
John Stoller
Alana Thorbourne
Kyle Wende
Congratulations to all!!
Here is a guest blog entry from Senior Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Hollis Kulwin, who organized a great "de-stressing" event in the King Hall Courtyard on Wednesday. Thanks for setting up this fun visit, Dean Kulwin!
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For law students, stress relief can come in the form of a bracing workout, a quiet walk in the arboretum, or an evening with family. On Wednesday, it came in the form of three furry friends.
Pedro (chihuahua mix), Buddy (pit mix), and Velvet (lab), adoptable dogs from the Yolo County SPCA, paid a visit to the King Hall Courtyard. They were cooed at and petted by dozens of law students (and a few professors and staff members too) and gave lots of love back to their adoring public!
Here are some photos from the dogs' visit. The pictures were also posted on the UC Davis Facebook page, where they received more "likes" than any other post on that day!
The dogs were sweet and social. For more information on how to adopt Pedro, Buddy, or Velvet, please visit the website of the Yolo County SPCA.
The Law School recently provided support through Students First, the campus-wide campaign to support student scholarships and programs, for four 3Ls to attend the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon School of Law.
Caroline Nasella '12 and Naomi Kaplowitz '12 in front of the University of Oregon
Samantha Arens '12 at Spencer's Butte
The students shared their thanks:
"It was a pleasure and a privilege to attend the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Oregon. PIELC is the foremost gathering of public-service minded environmental folks. It brings together lawyers, scientists, and non-profit directors, and interested laypersons. The panels focus on cutting-edge issues in environmental law, but are made accessible to people from all fields. Some of my favorite panels centered on environmental justice for native people. I also enjoyed a guided hike of nearby Spencer's Butte by a local forester, where I learned about forest ecology and evolution. This conference was far and away the highlight of my semester." -- Samantha Arens ‘12
"Thanks Students First Campaign! Four of us were able to enjoy beautiful Oregon because of your support!" --David Green '12
"Thanks to the Students First Campaign, I attended the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, OR, where I was able to learn about many pinnacle issues in the field, such as climate change public trust litigation, population growth, and new development in the Endangered Species Act jurisprudence. I was also able to reconnect with former employers and network with potential future employers. Thanks again!" --Naomi Kaplowitz '12
Thanks to Naomi for forwarding these great messages!
La Raza Law Students Association (LRLSA) held its 30th annual Lorenzo Patiño Banquet on Saturday evening. The event honors the late Lorenzo Patiño ’73, a highly respected leader in Sacramento’s Latino community.
LRLSA students with keynote speaker Ramona Romero, General Counsel for the USDA
Sacramento Superior Court Judge Dave DeAlba was the evening’s emcee. I sat at the table with the event’s keynote speaker, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s General Counsel Ramona Romero, as well as her husband and two daughters. Romero gave an inspiring speech about how she grew up on Food Stamps in NYC and eventually became the General Counsel of the agency that administers the Food Stamp program. She lamented the small numbers of Latinos in universities and law schools and said that she was proud to be among our La Raza Law Students, who attend a school with a great student body and commitment to public service.
Keynote speaker Ramona Romero
LRLSA gave awards to Professor Amagda Pérez ‘91 (Alumni of the Year), Professor Clay Tanaka (Professor of the Year), and Jenni Gomez ’12 (Patiño Award). I had the honor once again of announcing the Patiño award winner.
With award winner Jenni Gomez '12
Attendance was excellent, with many alums in attendance including Desiree Velasco Zavala ‘06, Esmeralda Soria ‘11, Emilio Camacho ‘11 (and his ten year old son, Emilio Camacho IV), Aida Macedo ‘11, Miguel Martin ’84 (who founded the Patino Banquet), Dian Vorters ‘97. Justice Elena Duarte of the California Court of Appeals was in attendance. Bounty hunter and Sacramento mayoral candidate Leonard Padilla was there in his black hat.
Many faculty were in attendance, including Amagda Pérez, Cruz Reynoso, Miguel Mendez, Clay Tanaka, Larry Green, Alan Brownstein, and Floyd Feeney.
Thanks to Monica Crooms ’13 for sharing pictures for my blog!
Here is my latest contribution to SCOTUSblog, the leading blog about the U.S. Supreme Court. It is an analysis of the Court's opinion in Vartelas v. Holder.
Opinion analysis: Court rejects retroactive application of 1996 immigration law amendment
The issue before the Court was the application of Immigration & Nationality Act § 101(a)(13)(C)(v), which was added by the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA). IIRIRA reformed the U.S. immigration laws in a number of important ways; among other things, it toughened the provisions governing the admission and removal of noncitizens guilty of criminal offenses. Under the amended definition of “admission” into the United States, a lawful permanent resident returning from a brief trip outside the country who had been convicted of certain criminal offenses was deemed to be seeking admission into the country. The U.S. government relied on the new provision to deny admission to Vartelas based on conviction for a “crime involving moral turpitude.” Vartelas would not have been subject to deportation to Greece if he had not left the United States. And, before 1996, as a lawful permanent resident, he would have been free to take a short trip abroad. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, agreeing with the Board of Immigration Appeals, had ordered that Vartelas be returned to Greece.
In an opinion by Justice Ginsburg, last Wednesday the Court reversed. The majority summarizes its holding as follows:
We conclude that the relevant provision of IIRIRA, §1101(a)(13)(C)(v), attached a new disability (denial of reentry) in respect to past events (Vartelas’ pre-IIRIRA offense, plea, and conviction). Guided by the deeply rooted presumption against retroactive legislation, we hold that §1101(a)(13)(C)(v) does not apply to Vartelas’ conviction. The impact of Vartelas’ brief travel abroad on his permanent resident status is therefore determined not by IIRIRA, but by the legal regime in force at the time of his conviction.
(emphasis added).
In concluding that Vartelas could not be subjected to the new admission rules enacted by Congress in 1996, the Court applied the “presumption against retroactive legislation” and the general retroactivity rules from its 1994 decision in Landsgraf v. USI Film Products. Critical to the Court’s holding was its acceptance of Vartelas’s argument “that applying IIIRA to him, rather than the law that existed at the time of his conviction, would attach a `new disability,’ effectively a ban on travel outside the United States, `in respect to [events] . . . already past,’ . . .” (emphasis added).
The U.S. government, as well as the dissent, argued that the case did not raise an issue of the retroactive application of law because Vartelas’s trip to Greece occurred after the 1996 act was passed and it was this trip — not the pre-1996 criminal conviction — that triggered the removal proceedings. The Court emphatically rejected this argument, stating unequivocally that “[w]e find this argument disingenuous.” The Court instead focused on the fact that the government’s effort to remove Vartelas from the United States was based on his pre-1996 criminal conviction rather than his post-1996 travel.
The Court found that, in pleading guilty to the criminal charge in 1994, Vartelas “likely relied” on the law as it existed at that time, which allowed him the freedom to take brief trips outside the United States. In so doing, the Court closely followed the lead of INS v. St. Cyr (2001), in which the Court held that a noncitizen in accepting a plea agreement “almost certainly relied” upon then-existing discretionary relief available before 1996. The Court further suggested that “Vartelas’ case [might] even [be] easier than St. Cyr’s” because St. Cyr sought discretionary relief existing before 1996, while Vartelas would have been free to take a short trip abroad under pre-1996 law.
In an opinion joined by Justices Thomas and Alito, Justice Scalia dissented. The dissent viewed the activity regulated by the 1996 amendment as reentry into the United States after a trip outside the country. Consequently, the new statutory language “has no retroactive effect on Vartelas because the reference point here – Vartelas’s readmission to the United States after a trip abroad – occurred years after the effective date.” Justice Scalia accused the majority of going beyond the statutory language to achieve a fair result. He stated that “new disabilities” are frequently attached to criminal convictions – for example, laws that render persons convicted of drug crimes ineligible for student loans. Justice Scalia also stated that there could be little doubt that the new language “is intended to guard against the `dangers that arise postenactment’ from having aliens in our midst who have shown themselves to have proclivity for crime . . . .”
Just as I predicted after the oral arguments, the Court found for Vartelas in a narrowly drawn opinion that focused on the issue of the retroactivity of the 1996 amendments to the immigration laws. The Court did not address whether Immigration and Nationality Act § 101(a)(13)(C)(v) overruled its 1963 decision in Rosenberg v. Fleuti, in which it held that an “innocent, casual, and brief” trip from the country did not subject the returning lawful permanent resident to treatment as seeking admission. Nor did the Court address more broadly the constitutional rights of lawful permanent residents.
The holding that pre-1996 law applied to a plea bargain and criminal conviction before the 1996 amendments is consistent with the Court’s efforts to ensure that immigrants are made aware of the potential immigration consequences of a criminal conviction when making plea agreements. For example, in Padilla v. Kentucky (2010), it held that an ineffective assistance of counsel claim could be based on an attorney’s failure to inform a noncitizen of the immigration consequences of a criminal conviction. When Vartelas entered into his plea agreement, the law was such that he could reasonably expect to make a brief trip to Greece. As the Court reasoned, the 1996 amendments to the immigration laws truly did create a “new disability” attached to Vartelas’s criminal conviction, and one that might be expected to be of great significance to a native of a foreign country.
In declining to apply the change in law retroactively, the majority applied basic retroactivity principles from its decision in Landsgraf v. USI Film Products and adhered to its approach in INS v. St. Cyr, which held that a form of relief from removal that was repealed by the 1996 reforms was still available for criminal convictions entered before 1996.
As this analysis suggests, the Court’s decision in Vartelas v. Holder is not likely to have a broad impact. It will ensure that brief foreign trips are possible for lawful permanent residents with criminal convictions entered before 1996. There is little in Vartelas that suggests that it would have much of an impact beyond the case at hand in terms of immigration law, statutory interpretation, or administrative law. Rather, the Court, as it has in other recent immigration cases, has tended to follow the same general approaches pursued in other types of cases.
