Students

Earlier this year, Grace Wiley ’24 received UC Davis Law’s Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) award for outstanding externship student. Externship Director Dena Bauman nominated Wiley for her accomplishments in her two externship placements. 

In fall 2022, Wiley interned with Justice Shama Mesiwala ’98, then a Sacramento Superior Court judge and now a California Court of Appeal, Third District associate justice.

The John Paul Stevens Foundation selected six UC Davis Law students as 2023 Fellows. Named for the late Supreme Court justice, the prestigious fellowship provides grants to enable law students to work in unpaid public interest summer law positions.

The selected students will work with governmental agencies or nonprofit organizations this summer:

By Carla Meyer 

UC Davis School of Law alumni and students are leading efforts to assist migrants who were transported unannounced to Sacramento from the U.S.-Mexico border under Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ relocation program. 

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg ’84 set the tone for local officials by warmly welcoming the 36 new arrivals, who were sent to Sacramento on two chartered flights in early June.

On May 15, the King Hall community gathered at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts for the first in-person commencement in three years.

Twenty King Hall law students – a record number – externed during the spring semester with the Sacramento Public Defender’s office. They provided thousands of hours of legal services while honing valuable skills including interviewing clients and witnesses, completing legal and factual research, negotiating settlements, and appearing in court under the student practice rule.  Students worked in a wide range of practice areas including DUI, misdemeanor intake, and juvenile court.

Professor Lisa Pruitt, Kaceylee Klein ’25 presented their paper “Rural Bashing” on Feb. 17 at the University of Richmond Law Review symposium “Overlooked America: Addressing Legal Issues Facing Rural United States.” 

Thirty-four teams participated in UC Davis Law’s Intraschool Negotiations Competition, held March 4 at King Hall.

Congratulations to winning teams Sinporion Phuong ’25 and Mark Lerner ’25 and Garrett Vena ’24 and Ethan Hicks ’24, and to finalists Hannah Thomas and Morgen Hopson and Kim Martinez and Ethan Bell – all from the Class of 2025 – and to all the teams for their strong efforts in the competition.

Thanks to Dean Kevin R. Johnson for offering opening remarks, King Hall Negotiations Team advisor Professor Donna Shestowsky, and to all of our practitioner judges.

UC Davis Law ranks No. 1 among the nation’s law schools in “greatest resources for women,” according to The Princeton Review’s just-released “Best Law Schools, 2023” rankings. Davis also placed high for “best quality of life” (No. 10).

UC Davis School of Law students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends marked Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with the law school's fourth MLK Day of Service and Celebration. The day’s activities furthered the principle of community service so vital to the mission of King, the civil rights giant whose name graces the law school's building.

Brenda Quintanilla ’24 has received the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s 2022 AILA Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Law Student Scholarship.

According to AILA’s website, the scholarship is intended to provide academic, professional, and financial support to law students from historically underrepresented groups who are interested in the practice of immigration law and advocating on behalf of immigrant communities.