2026-2027
Visiting Lecturers
At UC Davis School of Law, we have excellent visiting law lecturers. Read about our guest lecturers to learn more about their background and law interests.
Brittany Aldredge
Brittany Aldredge is a senior attorney with the California Energy Commission with nearly a decade of public service across state and federal agencies and expertise in state energy laws, federal emergency management, administrative law, immigration, and legal research and writing. She has provided legal support and guidance to a range of federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review, Department of Homeland Security, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. She is a former adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School where she mentored and taught legal writing to second-year law students on the GW Journal of Energy and Environmental Law. Ms. Aldredge graduated from the George Washington University Law School and Elliott School of International Affairs with a J.D. and M.A. in International Affairs focusing on international law, national security, and public policy.
Jaya Badiga
Judge Jaya Badiga was appointed to the Sacramento Superior Court in May 2024. Prior to her appointment, Judge Badiga served as a Commissioner with the Court since December 2022. Judge Badiga has over twelve years of experience in Family Law and was a Certified Family Law Specialist prior to joining the bench. Judge Badiga is a faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and was also an adjunct faculty member at McGeorge School of Law. Judge Badiga is a member of the statewide Family Law Curriculum Committee and the Domestic Violence Workgroup of the Judicial Council of California. In addition to her work with the Sacramento Superior Court, Judge Badiga has worked in private practice, non-profit and government roles in her legal career. Judge Badiga holds a Juris Doctor from Santa Clara University School of Law, as well as a joint Master’s degree in International Relations and International Communications from Boston University.
Rachelle Barbour
Rachelle Barbour has been a federal public defender in Sacramento for over 25 years. She is currently the Senior Litigator at the Office of the Federal Defender for the Eastern District of California. Prior to joining UC Davis as a visiting lecturer, Rachelle taught the Federal Defender Clinic at McGeorge School of Law for over ten years. In her pre-public-defense life, Rachelle worked in San Francisco for the California Judicial Council’s Jury Instruction Project, the California Supreme Court’s Criminal Central Staff, and as a law clerk to the Hon. David A. Garcia of the San Francisco Superior Court. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Rachelle earned her J.D. in 1996 from the University of Michigan, where she previously received her B.A. in French and Comparative Literature.
Robert Barton
Robert Barton was appointed to the Board of Parole Hearings by Governor Brown in August 2017, where he presides over parole hearings for incarcerated persons in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation who were serving indeterminate life sentences or lengthy indeterminate sentence with the opportunity for early parole. Recently, he oversaw the parole hearing for Erik Menendez. Commissioner Barton held several positions in the Office of the Inspector General from 2005 to 2017, including inspector general (appointed by Governor Brown) and assistant inspector general (appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger). He was supervising deputy district attorney at the Kern County District Attorney’s Office from 2000 to 2005, where he served as a deputy district attorney from 1988 to 2000. Commissioner Barton was reappointed to the Board of Parole Hearings by Governor Newsom in August, 2023.
Jess Bravin
Jess Bravin is a senior special writer at The Wall Street Journal, where he has covered the U.S. Supreme Court since 2005 following postings as United Nations correspondent, national legal affairs reporter and editor of the WSJ/California weekly. His books include “The Terror Courts,” an account of military trials at Guantanamo Bay, and “Squeaky: The Life and Times of Lynette Alice Fromme,” along with contributions to “Violence in America: An Encyclopedia,” “Crimes of War 2.0” and “A Concise Introduction to Logic” (2nd ed.). He has taught at the UC Washington Center, delivered the John Field Simms Sr. Memorial Lecture in Law at the University of New Mexico, and served on the steering committee of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Mr. Bravin attended Harvard College and Berkeley Law; while in law school, he served as the UC student regent and as a member of the UC Police Review Board and the city of Berkeley’s Police Review Commission.
Daniel Calabretta
Judge Calabretta serves as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of California. Prior to his assuming the federal bench in 2023, he was a Superior Court Judge for Sacramento County where he served in juvenile dependency and as Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court. From 2013-2018 Judge Calabretta served as a Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary for Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. where he advised on various matters including appointments, pending legislation, and issues related to the Political Reform Act and the Emergency Services Act. Judge Calabretta also served as a Deputy Attorney General at the California Department of Justice from 2008-2013 where he represented California’s Constitutional Officers, including the Governor, Controller, and Secretary of State in civil litigation on a range of topics including election law, constitutional challenges, and public finance. Judge Calabretta previously practiced as a Litigation Associate at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and served as a Judicial Clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens at the United States Supreme Court and Judge William A. Fletcher at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Calabretta received his B.A. in Bioethics from Princeton University in 2000 and his J.D. from the University of Chicago School of Law in 2003.
Michael Canzoneri
Michael Canzoneri is a Supervising Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the Attorney General, California Department of Justice. He is currently the Trial Team Coordinator, supervising trial and DA conflict assignments in northern and eastern districts of California (32 counties). He has presented numerous felony trials, ranging from special circumstance murder cases to DNA serial rapist prosecutions. He has also litigated numerous appellate and habeas corpus matters at the state and federal court level, including the California and United States Supreme Courts.
Erica Costa
Erica Costa is an attorney at Berkey Williams LLP in Davis, California, where she has worked since 2017. She specializes in Indian law, focusing on areas such as natural and cultural resource protection, healthcare, employment, child dependency, and water rights. Costa has represented Indian tribes and tribal organizations in tribal, federal, and state courts and has been involved in water rights settlement negotiations. She has worked in various legal roles, including as a legal extern at the Tribal Law and Policy Institute and as a legal clerk for the Yurok Tribe and the Wishtoyo Foundation. Costa has been actively involved in teaching and speaking engagements, including guest lecturing at UC Davis and UC Law SF (formerly UC Hastings). She has also participated in numerous panels on topics such as California Indian Law and tribal governance. Costa has published work title “Revitalizing Stewardship and Use of Tribal Traditional Territories: Options for Improving California Policy and Law in State-Managed Lands and Waters,” The Indigenous Peoples’ Journal of Law, Culture & Resistance (2023).
Dennis Cota ’86
Since 2018, Dennis Cota has been a magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. Judge Cota was the founder of Cota Cole & Huber LLP, and has over 30 years' experience representing both private clients and public entities. As part of his extensive public law litigation practice, he served as special litigation counsel to City of Ontario, Madera County, and San Joaquin County. Judge Cota's extensive trial experience includes complex civil litigation in the areas of labor and employment, civil rights, municipal defense, and environmental and hazardous waste litigation in which he has obtained successful results before both the state and federal bar. Judge Cota's experience includes numerous semesters as a trial practice instructor at UC Davis School of Law where he has taught Trial Practice and Advanced Trial Practice and has coached nationally recognized Trial Practice Competition teams.
Lauri Damrell ’05
Judge Lauri Damrell has been a judge for the Superior Court of California, County of Sacramento since 2018. She has presided over various civil and criminal trials and other proceedings, including misdemeanor arraignments and sentencing, civil harassment and domestic violence restraining order hearings, and family court proceedings. From 2006 to 2018, she practiced at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, where she provided legal advice to leading national and international corporations on a full range of business decisions, agreements, investigations, and litigation, with a focus on employment matters. She received Sacramento Magazine’s award for “Top Lawyer” in 2017, and Sacramento Business Journal award for “40 under 40” in 2016.
George Demos
George G. Demos is a partner at DLA Piper LLP where his practice focuses on securities enforcement, white collar criminal defense, and corporate investigations. He previously served as senior counsel in the Enforcement Division of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's New York Regional Office where he led many high profile and complex corporate fraud investigations. During his tenure at the SEC, he was also detailed to the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. He has taught at the UC Davis School of Law since 2016; courses he has taught include Corporate and White Collar Crime, Presidential Power Seminar, and Securities Enforcement.
David Van Etten
David Van Etten counsels companies on corporate, securities, and derivatives matters, contracting, and start-up operations. He served as associate general counsel and compliance director for fintech start-up Derivative Path, negotiating service and SaaS agreements, providing legal guidance on employment, licensing, and privacy matters, and overseeing the swaps derivatives trading business. Prior to that, Mr. Van Etten served as vice president for Wells Fargo Bank, where he served as a swap dealer compliance officer overseeing foreign-exchange derivatives trading, as well as a documentation team manager where he supervised negotiations and onboarding controls. Prior to that, Mr. Van Etten served as a general corporate associate at Cooley LLP, where he represented companies and VCs in private and public financings, mergers, IPOs, and securities filings, and served as secretary at board meetings. Mr. Van Etten engages in pro bono activities, including successfully representing an asylum client in immigration court, handling disability and guardianship proceedings, and advising clients on homeowners association governance. He contributes to the academic and entrepreneurial community as a mentor and panelist for the UC Berkeley Energy Resource Center, judge for the UC Berkeley Startup Competition, and instructor of a startup law course for the U.S. Small Business Administration. Mr. Van Etten earned his B.A. summa cum laude at Santa Clara University, M.A. in English literature from the University of Wisconsin, and J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law. On the side, Mr. Van Etten teaches poetry writing.
David Fox
David M. Fox is a litigation associate in the San Francisco office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where his practice focuses on resolving clients’ high-stakes and complex disputes at the intersection of intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and emerging issues in internet law. He represents clients across a wide range of technologies and industries, including consumer electronics, pharmaceutical products, and fintech and has represented Google, Samsung, TikTok, and other Fortune 100 companies in both federal and state court. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Fox served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Consuelo Callahan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Before his clerkship, he was a litigation associate at Paul Hastings LLP, where he focused on patent and trade secret litigation. Mr. Fox holds a juris doctor degree (J.D.) from the University of California, Davis (2019) and a B.A., Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis (2011). At King Hall, he served as Articles Editor for the UC Davis Law Review and Articles Selection Editor for the UC Davis Business Law Journal, and completed a Certificate in Intellectual Property. He received Witkin Awards for highest grades in Property Law, Copyright Law, Antitrust & IP, and Legal Ethics, along with the Dean’s Merit Scholarship and the Mabie Family Foundation Scholarship for Public Service.
Mary Louise Frampton
Since Mary Louise Frampton joined UC Davis as the Director of the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies in January 2017. She taught in the areas of restorative justice, structural inequality, law and social justice, legislative advocacy, and professional responsibility. She has co-taught courses on critical race theory and participatory action research in low-income communities in the Central Valley. Professor Frampton led the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at Berkeley Law for more than a decade. She was a UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Public Scholar and an Association of American Law Schools (AALS) National Bellow Fellow. Frampton’s research interests are focused on the use of restorative justice as a tool to dismantle the school to prison pipeline, reduce the over-incarceration of people of color in the criminal justice system, and heal divided communities. She is engaged in research projects in juvenile justice systems and schools in the Central Valley and in the community of Greensboro, North Carolina. She was a co-founder of the Community-University Research and Action for Justice, a collaborative effort of UC academics and community activists in the San Joaquin Valley to alleviate poverty. Her publications include After the War on Crime: Race, Democracy, and a New Reconstruction (NYU Press). For 30 years, before joining Berkeley Law in 2001, Frampton was a civil rights attorney focusing on employment discrimination.
Tom Garberson ’09
Tom Garberson is the Chief Legal Officer at Eskaton, where he leads legal strategy and risk management for a regional nonprofit senior living provider. In that role he oversees departments and functions including litigation, compliance, quality, HR, and governance, while advising the executive team and board of directors. Prior to joining Eskaton, he was a partner at the boutique medical malpractice defense firm Low McKinley Baleria & Salenko, LLP. There, Garberson's practice focused on representing assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, hospitals, and healthcare professionals of all sorts in civil litigation, professional licensing matters, appeals, and more. Garberson is a triple-Aggie, having attended UC Davis for his bachelor's ('06), his JD ('09), and more recently his MBA ('25). At King Hall, Garberson served on the Moot Court Board as Publicity Chair and was a semifinalist for the National First Amendment Moot Court Competition at Vanderbilt University. He was awarded the prestigious Richard C. Dorf Award for Academic Excellence during his MBA program.
Jessica Gosney ’10
Jessica Gosney currently serves as a Deputy Legislative Counsel in the Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC), where she drafts bills, amendments, resolutions, and initiatives, and provides legal advice on current and pending legislation for both houses and parties of the California Legislature. Gosney previously worked in political campaigning and nonprofit advocacy in California and Washington, D.C., including for MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, the California Public Interest Research Group, and a California Assembly Member. Gosney designed and has co-taught the Legislatures and Lawmaking course for the Masters in Science and Law (MSL) program at the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law since 2019. Gosney earned her J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 2017 where she was named Valedictorian and was a recipient of the Pacific Law Academic Scholarship, the Amicus Lex Alumni Association Scholarship, the Order of the Coif, and several Witkin Awards. She also served as Editor-in-Chief of the University of the Pacific Law Review. Gosney received her B.S. degree from the University of California, Davis in 2010.
Emily Hajarizadeh
Emily Hajarizadeh is a Deputy Attorney General for the Natural Resources Law Section of the Office of the California Attorney General in Sacramento, CA. She is an experienced attorney specializing in environmental, natural resources, and land use law. Ms. Hajarizadeh formerly served as Deputy Legislative Counsel for the California State Legislature and clerked at the Los Angeles County Superior Court of California. She has been involved in legislative drafting, litigation, and providing legal counsel on environmental and public policy issues to federal, state and local government agencies. Her teaching experience includes lecturing on Constitutional Law at the University of Oregon, and her scholarly work includes several publications on environmental hazards, mediation privilege, and wildfire law. Ms. Hajarizadeh is also an active member of several legal organizations related to environmental law. She holds a Juris Doctor with a concentration in Environmental Law from the University of Oregon (2018) and a Master’s degree in Community and Regional Planning (2018).
Paul Hemesath
Paul Hemesath currently serves as Senior Counsel for Security and Technology Legal at Coinbase. Prior to this role, he served as Counsel to the Digital Currency Initiative within the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section at the U.S. Department of Justice. He was also a member of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), part of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). Prior to that, Hemesath served as an Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California, where he was designated as a Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIP) attorney. He holds a Juris Doctor (J.D.) and a Master of Science in Foreign Service (M.S.F.S.) from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has been a member of the California Bar since 2002.
Hayley Graves Hopkins
Hayley Graves is currently a law clerk for the Honorable Jeremy D. Peterson in the United States District Court, Eastern District of California. She served as the judicial law clerk for the Honorable Jerome T. Tao, Nevada Court of Appeals (2020-2021) and prior to that as a judicial extern for the Honorable Ronald B. Robie, California Court of Appeal, Third District. Since 2016, Graves has coached her former high school mock trial team where she represented Sacramento County and took her team to the California State Finals. Graves has been a trial practice and mock trial coach at King Hall since 2022. Graves received her J.D. (Order of the Coif) from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 2020. At McGeorge, Graves served as the Editor-in-Chief of the University of the Pacific Law Review and was on the McGeorge Mock Trial Team, ranked seventh in the nation at the time, and has completed in several national competitions. She received her B.A. in Political Science, with a minor in English from Southern Methodist University in 2016.
Darcie Houck
Commissioner Darcie L. Houck was appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) by Governor Gavin Newsom on Feb. 9, 2021. She formerly served as Chief Counsel for the California Energy Commission since 2019. Commissioner Houck was an Administrative Law Judge at the CPUC from 2016 to 2019, Senior Counsel then Partner at a prominent boutique law firm specializing in Federal Indian and Tribal law from 2005 to 2016, and Staff Counsel and Policy Advisor at the California Energy Commission from 2000 to 2005. Commissioner Houck has expertise in matters concerning environmental equity, nuclear energy regulation, and safety policy. She has an extensive background representing Native American tribes throughout the country on a broad range of matters, including energy, water, land rights, and general governmental matters. She serves as the CPUC representative to the California Broadband Council, the Board of State Regulators for the Western Energy Imbalance Market, and a National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners representative to the EPRI Advisory Council. Commissioner Houck is a Fellow of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, she is a member of the California Indian Law Association, California Lawyers Association, Schwartz-Levi Inn of Court, Women Lead and the Association of Women in Water, Energy, and Environment. Commissioner Houck has previously taught courses in the Native American Studies Department at the University of California, Davis and in the American Indian Studies Department at San Francisco State University. She has also previously taught Federal Indian Law at McGeorge School of Law, and Federal Indian Law and Environmental Justice Law at UC Davis School of Law. Houck received her B.A. in Native American Studies from the UC Davis, a Master of Science in Community Development from UC Davis and her J.D. from UC Davis School of Law in 1998.
Jenny Huang
Ms. Huang founded Justice First in 2005 as a unique law practice dedicated to public interest law and focused on serving underprivileged communities. Ms. Huang has over 25 years of experience in civil rights law and her areas of practice include prisoner rights litigation, employment discrimination on behalf of workers, and indigent appellate criminal defense. Before starting her own law firm, Ms. Huang worked as a Staff Attorney at Public Advocates, Inc. a non-profit law firm and advocacy organization in San Francisco. She worked there on statewide impact litigation in the areas of educational equity, employment discrimination, community economic development, and transportation equity. She was also an associate for Koob & Magoolaghan, a plaintiff’s civil rights law firm in Manhattan, where she litigated cases in the areas of prisoners’ rights, employment discrimination, and constitutional law.
Throughout her legal career, Ms. Huang has mentored students interested in public interest lawyering. She supervised the legal internship programs at Koob & Magoolaghan and at Public Advocates, Inc. In 2008, Harvard Law School awarded her the Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship, giving her the opportunity to advise Harvard law students about public service legal careers. At Justice First, Ms. Huang founded and supervised the internship and fellowship programs, designed to give meaningful experience and inspiration to students and new attorneys committed to pursuing a legal career in public service.
From 2018-2021, Ms. Huang taught as an adjunct professor at Golden Gate University School of Law, nationally recognized as one of the most diverse law schools in the country. Ms. Huang graduated from New York University School of Law in 1996 and was awarded the Moncrieffe Convocation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Racism & the Law. She served as a judicial clerk for the Supreme Court of Minnesota, followed by a federal clerkship with the Honorable Michael Davis in the District of Minnesota. In 2019, the Eastern District of California awarded her the Joe Ramsey Award for Excellence for her pro bono legal services to prisoners in federal civil rights cases. Northern California Super Lawyers has recognized Ms. Huang as a Super Lawyer in the area of Civil Rights since 2020.
Jason Jasmine ’01
Jason Jasmine is the Managing Partner at Messing Adam & Jasmine LLP, with offices in Sacramento and the Bay Area. His practice primarily focuses on representing public employees and employee associations in a wide range of labor and employment issues, with an emphasis on public safety employees and public safety employee unions. Previously he was a Partner at Carroll, Burdick & McDonough LLP where he successfully handled all facets of a labor law practice. Jasmine has been active with the Sacramento County Bar Association, having been on its Board of Directors for three years, and previously serving as Chair on the SCBA Mentorship Task Force where he worked with minority and disadvantaged students and new lawyers. He is active as an Arbitrator for fee disputes between attorneys and clients, through the California State Bar Association. He was named as a Rising Star in Northern California by Super Lawyers from 2010-2015 and as a Super Lawyer from 2016-2024. He received his J.D. from UC Davis School of Law in 2001 and received his B.A. in Political Science from UC Davis in 1998.
Craig Judson ’84
Craig Judson is the Managing Shareholder of Bold, Polisner, Maddow, Nelson & Judson, APC. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from UC Davis in 1981 in political science and public service, graduating with cum laude and with Phi Beta Kappa honors. He also earned his Juris Doctor from the UC Davis School of Law in 1984. His practice focuses primarily in the area of estate and trust planning, trust and probate administration, conservatorships, guardianships, elder abuse, and related litigation.
Over the past 40+ years, he has developed a significant water and public agency practice focusing on governance and litigation, representing public agencies in inverse condemnation, construction, real estate, and personal injury matters, as well as serving as general counsel providing advice in governance and business matters. He currently serves as General Counsel to the North Marin Water District, and litigation counsel for the Contra Costa Water District and Hidden Valley Lake Community Services District, and was formerly general counsel to the Valley of the Moon Water District and numerous smaller public agencies. For private clients, his broad legal experience involves personal injury, real estate, construction defect, and contract disputes, as well as probate and trust litigation.
Since 2016, he has been a member of the UC Davis School of Law faculty, teaching practical skills classes in the area of Trusts and Estates and Civil Litigation. In his free time, he is a contributing editor in multiple publications for CEB (Continuing Education of the Bar), serves as a private arbitrator and mediator through the Contra Costa County Superior Court, and is a frequent lecturer on current legal topics for various organizations and conferences.
Chi-Soo Kim
Chi Soo Kim is qualified to teach Lawyers, The Rule of Law and Democracy. She has extensive litigation experience in both the public and private sectors. She is currently a United States Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. Before her appointment to the bench, she served as the Civil Division Chief at the United States Attorney’s Office (E.D. Cal.), where she led the Civil Division in representing the United States in civil actions. She also served in the front office as the Executive Assistant United States Attorney, overseeing a Criminal Division unit, community outreach, and the law student clerk program, among other responsibilities. As an Assistant United States Attorney, she tried civil and criminal cases.
Before joining the USAO, she practiced complex commercial litigation at a large international law firm and at a mid-size law firm in San Francisco. She served as a law clerk for United States District Judge William Schwarzer (N.D. Cal.) and United States Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas (N.D. Cal.), and as a staff attorney at the Ninth Circuit. She previously taught legal writing and research as an adjunct at UC Law San Francisco. Judge Kim also led one of our 1L Lawyering Process Labs during the first two years of the Lawyering Process course. She is active in civics efforts, and served as Executive Chair of Operation Protect and Defend. She received her B.A. from Princeton University in 1999, and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 2004.
Randall Kiser
Randall Kiser is a Principal Analyst at DecisionSet, a professional development and decision calibration firm. His research integrates the fields of law, statistics, psychology, and economics. He is recognized as "the preeminent scholar of the U.S. legal profession." Mr. Kiser is the author of six books on lawyer and law firm performance. Mr. Kiser also is the lead author of the widely read study on settlement decision making in civil litigation cases, “Let’s Not Make A Deal: An Empirical Study of Decision Making in Unsuccessful Settlement Negotiations” (Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Vol. 5, Issue 3, September 2008). The New York Times described that study as “the biggest of its kind to date” and noted that it “raised provocative questions about how lawyers and clients make decisions.” His current research interests are empirical analyses of attorney, judge, and executive decision making and leadership. In addition to his advisory work, Mr. Kiser teaches professional skills courses for law students, lawyers, judges, and mediators in North America, South America, Europe, and Oceania. He recently served as a Scholar-in-Residence at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. He also taught at the University of Washington School of Law, the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, and the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In addition to his work as an author and scholar, Mr. Kiser has qualified to testify as an expert witness and has conducted continuing education programs for thousands of legal professionals. Mr. Kiser received his law degree in 1978 from the University of California at Berkeley and was awarded his undergraduate degree with Highest Honors in 1975 from the University of California at Davis."
Courtney Lee
Courtney Lee is currently a Consultant with AccessLex Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding access to the legal profession. From 2021–2025, she served as State Content Director and has continued in a consulting role since 2026. Prior to that, Lee spent fourteen years as a full-time faculty member at McGeorge School of Law, where she taught Animal Law and focused her scholarship on animal law issues. She also contributed to the leadership of national organizations devoted to animal law, including those affiliated with the Association of American Law Schools and the American Bar Association. In addition, she directed McGeorge’s Academic Support and Bar Preparation programs and taught several courses within those programs, as well as Criminal Law, Principles of Agency Law, and Appellate and International Advocacy.
James Liu
James Liu currently serves as Corporate Counsel at Krafton, Inc. where he primarily assists the company's esports department. Previously, he was an associate at Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe LLP where he assisted in various litigation case teams in matters involving privacy and data breach, intellectual property, and other general litigation matters. Prior to this, he served as a Judicial Extern for Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye at the California Supreme Court. James received his B.A, summa cum laude, in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2015 where he served as National Society of Collegiate Scholars Chair of PACE Mentoring Program, and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2019 where he served as Publishing Editor for the Berkeley Journal of Entertainment and Sports Law, member of the Asian American Law Journal, and received a Law and Technology Certificate from the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.
Lizzie Lockwood
As a staff attorney with For The People, Lizzie Lockwood is experienced in cutting-edge areas of criminal practice such as Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing (PIR). She currently serves as the lead attorney in Yolo, Santa Clara, San Diego, Merced, and Humboldt Counties. In this capacity, she has reviewed hundreds of C-Files, presented upwards of 50 cases to various California District Attorney’s Offices, drafted over 20 Motions for Sentence Reduction, and helped facilitate the resentencing and early release of more than 40 incarcerated people. She has directly supervised volunteer attorneys and legal interns, and created the vast majority of For The People’s PIR trainings, guides, and toolkits. Prior to her work with For The People, she worked as an investigator at the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, conducting complex investigations on death penalty cases in preparation of filing their state habeas petitions, served as a Judicial Intern with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and Law Clerk and Legal Intern with Bonjour, Thorman, Burns & Dahm. Lockwood previously served as a Teaching Assistant for Legal Writing and Research courses at UC Hastings College of Law. Lockwood received a B.A. in Anthropology from Wesleyan University in 1994 and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 2019 where she served as Senior Staff Editor for the Hastings Environmental Law Journal.
Keith Long
Keith Long is currently serving as an Administrative Law Judge at the Office of Tax Appeals (OTA) in Sacramento, CA where he conducts oral hearings and handles appeals related to audits from the Franchise Tax Board and California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Before his role at OTA, Long worked as a Tax Counsel at the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA), where he conducted appeals conferences, provided research, and drafted decisions on business taxes. He has also worked in private practice, representing clients in tax debt collection cases and advising on tax compliance, penalties, and court filings. Long is an active member of the California Lawyer’s Association (CLA) Taxation Section, where he serves as an executive committee member, and previously co-chaired the State Standing Committee of Young Tax Lawyers. Long received a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Taxation (2012) and a J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law (2011) and a BA in Economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2004.
Jordan Lowery ’14
Jordan Lowery is a Deputy City Attorney at the Sacramento City Attorney’s Office. Lowery serves as counsel to the public safety departments and is one of the primary resources for advising City departments responsible for managing our population of people experiencing homelessness. Prior to joining the Sacramento City Attorney's Office, Jordan worked at the City of San Diego and County of Shasta where she handled various labor and employment law issues, conservatorship hearings and trials, implementation of CARE Court, bail bond motions, contracts, records requests, and felony cases. Jordan earned her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Irvine School of Law, in 2021, and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Davis, in 2014.
Sahreen Manzar
Sahreen Manzar, Esq. is a State Bar of California Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law with over a decade of experience spanning private practice, judicial service, teaching, and non-profit advocacy. She is the Managing Attorney of Crimmigration Inc. in Sacramento, specializing in complex removal defense before the EOIR/BIA and litigation at the intersection of family, probate, and immigration law.
Deeply integrated into the local legal system, Ms. Manzar serves as a volunteer Judge Pro Tem for the Sacramento County Superior Court Family Law Branch and teaches as an Adjunct Professor of Paralegal Studies at American River College. As a former Legal Director at CAIR Sacramento from 2017 to 2021, she helped conceive, design and then directed a high-volume Immigration Law Clinic, providing consultations to hundreds of clients, defending individuals in EOIR removal proceedings, and filing thousands of petitions with USCIS.
In addition to being an attorney, she is a California State Certified Domestic Violence Shelter Advocate who passionately represents victims of abuse. To this end, she has long served as a Staff Attorney for My Sister’s House, securing critical family law and immigration relief for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. Ms. Manzar earned her J.D. from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law on the Dean’s List, receiving Witkin Awards in Youth Law and International Human Rights. She also holds a Double B.A. in Political Science and Law and Society from York University and is fluent in Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu.
Cinthia Padilla Martin ’23
Cinthia Padilla Martín is an associate attorney at the Law Offices of Taylor P. Call in Sacramento, Padilla Martín conducts research on substantive and procedural matters for probate and civil litigation. Padilla Martín received her B.A. in Political Science, Minor in Civic Engagement (2018) and received her J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law (2023). While at King Hall, Ms. Padilla Martín served on the First Generation Advocates (FGA) Board; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Committee; Trial Practice Honors Board; and the Carr Mock Trial Competition. She also worked as an Academic Success Tutor and as a teaching assistant for Property Law.
Sarah McBride ’09
Sarah McBride is a Senior Field Attorney with the National Labor Relations Board. She has worked in the major West Coast offices in San Francisco and Seattle, handling complex investigations and administrative hearings as well as injunctive litigation. She has extensive experience as a neutral party evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of legal claims as well as negotiating settlements and preparing witnesses for trial. For the past several years Ms. McBride has focused on mentoring younger attorneys and helping to build their skill sets. At King Hall, Ms. McBride was a volunteer judge for negotiations and Co-Chair of the UC Davis Moot Court Board Asylum & Refugee Law National Moot Court Competition. Ms. McBride is in a unique position to provide guidance to our students in negotiations competitions, having won the international law student negotiation competition while a student at King Hall, which entailed excelling at the regional and national competition levels that preceded it. Ms. McBride earned her J.D. (Order of the Barristers) at the University of California, Davis, School of Law in 2009 and a B.A. in Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2003.
Sinead McDonough ’22
Sinead McDonough is an Associate in Lozano Smith's Sacramento office. Her practice is primarily focused on the labor and employment aspects of public agency law, with an emphasis on education law issues. Ms. McDonough earned her J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law in 2022. During law school, she served as a member and Articles Editor of the UC Davis Law Review, and was a board member and 1L Competition Chair of the UC Davis Moot Court Honors Board. She also served as a skills tutor for first-year law students. Ms. McDonough earned a B.A. in Spanish and Communications with an emphasis in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2014.
John McKinsey ’99
Mr. McKinsey has practiced law in the private practice setting continuously since graduating from King Hall in 1999. He focuses on energy, commercial, regulatory and environmental law in several industries, chiefly Energy and Food, Beverage and Hospitality. He has extensive classroom teaching experience, including teaching Energy Law since 2011. He regularly writes and speaks on energy policy and law. Mr. McKinsey gained significant applied science knowledge and skills while serving in the United States Navy on submarines as a nuclear power plant operator and supervisor and leading electrician. He graduated cum laude with his B.A. from California State University Sacramento in Economics and received his J.D. from UC Davis School of Law.
Shama Hakim Mesiwala ’98
In 2023, Shama Hakim Mesiwala became an Associate Justice on the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District. Prior to that, she served on the Sacramento Superior Court since 2017, presiding over trials, hearings, and law and motion matters. Before becoming a judicial officer, Justice Mesiwala was an appellate attorney for 18 years, first representing indigent defendants, parents, and juveniles in criminal, dependency, mental health, and delinquency proceedings and then working for the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District. She began her legal career as an attorney with the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Sacramento. Justice Mesiwala is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession. She created the first Indian Child Welfare Act courtroom in Northern California. She serves as the co-founder of the South Asian Bar Association of Sacramento, hosting its annual Diversity Law Student Reception, president of the Schwartz/Levi American Inns of Court, and working group member of the California Judicial Mentor Program.
Chris Micheli
Chris Micheli is an attorney and lobbyist with the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Snodgrass & Micheli, LLC. As a legislative advocate, Micheli regularly testifies before policy and fiscal committees of the California Legislature, as well as a number of administrative agencies, departments, boards, and commissions. He drafts legislative and regulatory language and is considered a leading authority on state tax law developments and California's legislative process. He has written and lectured extensively on lobbying and the legislative process. Micheli has been an attorney of record in several key cases, having argued before the Supreme Court of California, as well as the Court of Appeal several times. He has filed many amicus curiae briefs in California courts and has published half a dozen peer-reviewed law journal articles and is the co-editor and co-author of the books “A Practitioner’s Guide to Lobbying and Advocacy in California” and “Guide to Executive Branch Agency Rulemaking.” In addition, he has published three textbooks: “Introduction to California State Government,” “An Introduction to Drafting Legislation in California,” and “Understanding the California Legislative Process.” He is also the author of two recent casebooks: “The California Legislature and Its Legislative Process: Cases and Materials” (Carolina Academic Press) and “Cases and Materials on Direct Democracy in California” (Kendall-Hunt Publishing). He has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at McGeorge since 2015 where he co-teaches the course Lawmaking in California. He co-designed and co-teaches the online Legislatures and Lawmaking course, as well as designed and teaches the Lobbying and Politics course.
Kim Ng ’20
Kim Ng is a former Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Jeremy D. Peterson in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. Ng previously worked as an Associate Attorney at Perkins Coie LLP, focusing on privacy and data security, where she advised clients on data privacy issues and litigated civil and criminal information requests. Kim Ng graduated from the University of California, Davis School of Law in May 2020 with a Juris Doctor degree. She earned numerous honors, including Certificates of Achievement for Public Service & Pro Bono, Outstanding Appellate Brief, and Best Oral Appellate Advocate. At King Hall, Ng served as Managing Editor of the Business Law Journal, served as the Problem Writing Chair on the Court Honors Board, and was a teaching assistant for Legal Research and Writing II and Contracts. Prior to law school, she earned a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in Political Science and Asian American Studies from UC Berkeley.
K.S. Park
K.S. Park, Professor of Korea University Law School (A.B. in Physics, Harvard University, Class of 1992; and J.D., UCLA Law School, Class of 1995), a former commissioner of Korea Communications Standards Commission, the country’s Internet/broadcasting regulator, and one of the co-founders of Open Net, the premier digital rights organization operating in Asia, has written academically on free speech, platform regulation, surveillance, data protection, AI, human rights, network neutrality, etc. Internationally, he served as a board member of Global Network Initiative, the multi-company self-regulatory body to enhance human rights impact of digital technologies, an advisor to Freedom Online Coalition, the inter-governmental coalition dedicated to internet freedom, and a member of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, the board of experts for the inter-governmental coalition dedicated to media freedom, Media Freedom Coalition. K.S. Park was also a key drafting partner in international standard-setting efforts on internet governance in communication surveillance and intermediary liability, Necessary and Proportionate, and Manila Principles. He represents Open Net on the Special Consultative Status both with the UN Economic Social Council and the Committee on Convention 108, the world’s only multilateral treaty on data protection, and a series of AI Action Summits.
Jeremy Peterson
Judge Peterson has been a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of California since 2018, and has presided over a wide variety of civil and criminal matters, including many settlement conferences. Prior to his appointment, he served as both a federal prosecutor and a private defense attorney. His career began with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., where he prosecuted domestic violence offenses. He next joined the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, where he was part of the Deepwater Horizon Task Force. Judge Peterson then joined Arnold & Porter, a national law firm, where he represented clients in a variety of civil and criminal matters. Judge Peterson is active in the Kennedy Inn of Court. While in private practice, he served as co-chair of a conference on trial strategy and helped lead an American Bar Association committee that reviewed federal and state enforcement actions. Judge Peterson received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal, and his B.A., with honors, from Swarthmore College. After law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Ruggero J. Aldisert of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Heraclio Pimentel ’18
Heraclio Pimentel is an attorney with the State Water Resources Control Board Office of Chief Counsel, where he serves as legal counsel to a Regional Water Quality Control Board. Prior to this, Pimentel worked in private practice, first as a municipal law attorney with Best Best & Krieger, LLP, and then as an environmental litigator with Stoel Rives LLP. He started his legal career as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Richard W. Pollack (ret.) of the Supreme Court of the State of Hawai’i. Pimentel received his J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law in 2018, where he was named to the Order of the Coif.
Sean Riordan
Judge Riordan serves as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, a position he has held since 2024. In his current role, a majority of his civil docket is constituted by civil rights lawsuits. Judge Riordan regularly presents on constitutional law issues at federal judicial conferences. He previously served as a Senior Staff Attorney and Interim Deputy Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and an Assistant Federal Public Defender at the Office of the Federal Defender, Eastern District of California. As an ACLU lawyer, Judge Riordan utilized civil rights litigation in federal and state court as a tool to create systemic change for individuals and groups. While the bulk of his advocacy involved immigrants’ rights, he also helped lead significant litigation concerning the First Amendment, criminal justice reform, and police accountability. Judge Riordan began his career as a Skadden Fellow and Staff Attorney at the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties. Judge Riordan holds a BA in History (magna cum laude) from Whittier College, an MA in Arabic Studies, with an emphasis in Middle Eastern History, from The American University in Cairo, and a JD from UCLA School of Law in the Public Interest Law and Policy Program, where he was awarded the White O’Connor Award for the top UCLA Moot Court team and served as Chief Articles Editor for the UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law."
Alberto Rosas
Alberto Rosas serves as an Administrative Law Judge with the State of California, He is a visiting lecturer at UC Davis School of Law and an adjunct professor at McGeorge School of Law. He volunteers with the Superior Court of California (Sacramento & Yolo). He serves as Vice President of Yolo Conflict Resolution Center’s board of directors, as a director-at-large of the Sacramento County Bar Association, and as a cofounder and Vice President of Communications of the Unity Bar of Yolo County. Rosas received his B.A. in English and Criminal Justice from San Francisco State University in 2006 and his J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 2009, where he was awarded the C.A.L.I. Award for Excellence in Employment Discrimination Law, Federal Income Tax Law, and Immigration Law.
Nathan Sabri
Nathan Sabri is a Partner at Perkins Coie LLP, representing large tech clients, video game companies, and other industries. Prior to this role, he was a Partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP. He has litigated and tried cases in areas ranging from video games to network security, smartphone software and hardware, and industrial design and achieved results that include plaintiff-side jury verdicts exceeding $1 billion and complete defense wins at and in advance of trial. He serves as the pro bono chair of Perkins Coie’s San Francisco office and remains deeply engaged in pro bono work, having secured asylum for a transgender refugee forced to flee her home country, obtained parole for a domestic violence survivor incarcerated for an offense involving her abuser, and defended a nonprofit human rights organization against trademark infringement claims tied to its use of a parody logo. Sabri holds a J.D. from the University of California, Davis where he was a School of Law Medal recipient, Executive Editor of the UC Davis Law Review, Editor of Environs, and the recipient of seven Witkin Awards. Sabri is a member of the Video Game Bar Association and has spoken extensively on issues in that area, including in Tokyo at the invitation of Bandai Namco, publisher of games like Pac-Man and Elden Ring, and SXSW.
Ronald Scholar
A litigator for 27 years, Ronald Scholar started his career as a public defender before moving to civil practice where he represents public entity and private business clients in a diverse scope of litigation including federal and state civil rights, employment law, dangerous conditions of public property as well as contract and business disputes. Named to Sacramento Magazine’s Top Lawyers List for 2016, Scholar also serves as a Judge Pro Tem in the Placer County Superior Court. Scholar has been active in the trial practice and mock trial programs at King Hall since 2016.
Dana Scott ’19
Dana Scott currently serves as an Associate General Counsel with the California School Boards Association in West Sacramento, CA. Prior to joining the California School Boards Association, she was an Associate Attorney with Liebert Cassidy Whitmore and Parker & Covert L.L.P. where she counseled public entity clients on a variety of matters including school board governance and school district elections. Ms. Scott received her J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law in 2019, and her B.A. in Political Science and Psychology (with honors) from the University of California, Davis in 2016. While at King Hall, she served as a tutor for Legal Research and Writing.
Saba Shatara ’13
Saba is a partner in Reed Smith LLP's State Tax Practice, where he focuses on representing multistate corporations in state and local tax controversy matters before California state tax agencies. Saba represents clients in a wide range of industries in connection with state tax return positions, audits, administrative appeals, and litigation. In addition, Saba has extensive experience in resolving cases favorably via negotiated settlements, closing agreements, and rulings, based on his clients’ needs. Saba is also active in the California tax community, serving as the former chair for both the State and Local Tax Sections of the California Lawyers Association and the California Office of Tax Appeals Pro Bono Project. He is the current Chair of the California Lawyers Association’s Executive Committee for the Taxation Section and is a frequent speaker and author on issues in state and federal taxation. He has presented a number of legislative proposals before the California State Legislature (which have resulted in modifications to California's tax laws), as well as before U.S. Congressional Committees. He received his J.D. from the UC Davis School of Law in 2013 and his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2009. He has taught at King Hall since January 2017.
Prince Singh ’20
Princepreet (Prince) Singh is currently Counsel at Rocket Money, Inc., where his practice focuses on advertising, marketing, and intellectual property law. He primarily works with in-house marketing teams on advertising compliance, and IP enforcement, as well with product teams on data privacy and regulatory matters. Prior to going in-house Prince was an IP litigation attorney at Reed Smith LLP where he handled full scale trademark and patent litigation matters. He subsequently served on his firm’s summer associate hiring committee and was actively involved in immigration pro-bono matters. Singh earned his bachelors with honors from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University, and a Juris Doctorate and Immigration Law Certificate from the University of California, Davis School of Law where he was selected as the Class of 2020 commencement speaker. While at King Hall, Singh was the president of the Middle Eastern South Asian Law Student Association, Career Chair of the IP Law Association, Above the Line and Senior Interview Editor of the Business Law Journal, Immigration Law Clinic Clerk, and was a recipient of the David & Mariana Beatty Law Award. Singh currently serves on the board of the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California and was recently awarded the 2025 Rising Star Attorney Award.
Doug Skelton
Douglas Skelton is a Court Commissioner with the Napa County Superior Court, where he presides over family law, juvenile dependency, child support, traffic, and small claims calendars. Before taking the bench, he spent approximately a decade in private practice representing clients in a wide variety of civil and criminal matters. His litigation experience included extensive courtroom advocacy, motion practice, negotiations, and jury trials, including high-stakes felony cases.
Commissioner Skelton received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of La Verne and his Juris Doctor from the University of San Francisco School of Law. He brings to the classroom both practical litigation experience and the perspective of a judicial officer.
Selvi Stanislaus
Selvi Stanislaus is the first woman to lead the second largest tax department in the nation. She administers two of California's largest tax programs namely Personal Income Tax and Corporation Tax, which collects over $60 billion for the state’s general fund. She overseas a department of over 6000 employees in 11 offices located in California, Illinois, New York and Texas. She advises the Franchise Tax Board Members and the California Legislature on statewide policy issues. In 2006, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States presented her with the “IRS Commissioner’s Award”, which recognized the excellent work done under her leadership in federal/state initiatives. In 2008, she received the Government Technology Conference Award for “Innovation and Leadership” in state government and was also judged as one of the nations “Doers, Dreamers and Drivers for the year 2011.” Ms. Stanislaus has been a professor for the Lincoln Law School since 2006, where she teaches Federal Income Taxation. She has previously taught State and Local Taxation at the UC Davis School of Law. Ms. Stanislaus received her LL.M. in Taxation from the McGeorge School of Law in 1997, her J.D. from the Lincoln Law School in 1995, and her B.A. in Law from the Sri Lanka Law College in 1981.
Lynn Starr
Lynn Starr has taught Pretrial Skills at UC Davis School of Law since 2001. Previously a litigation partner in the San Francisco office of Jackson Tufts Cole & Black LLP, she represented clients in Federal and California courts as well as various ADR forums. She also served as the firm’s hiring partner. Ms. Starr was a board member of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and the San Francisco Shelter Grievance Advisory Committee. She received her J.D., with Distinction, from Stanford Law School and was the recipient of the Frank Baker Belcher Prize for Best Academic Work in Evidence. She received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University.
John Stoller ’12
John Stoller is currently the supervisor of the Post-Conviction & Research, Office of Public Defender, Sacramento, CA where he leads a grant-funded post-conviction unit that seeks relief under various Penal Code sections, develops office-wide strategies, and guides litigation on novel cases and new legislation such as the Racial Justice Act. He also prosecutes writs and appeals in reviewing courts and organizes and teaches continuing legal education programs for practicing lawyers both within and outside his unit. He served as the law and motion attorney in one of the most notorious cold cases in California history, People v. Joseph DeAngelo, widely known as the “Golden State Killer” case. Stoller also currently serves as a County Commissioner for the Sheriff Community Review Commission where he reviews community complaints, issues and concerns regarding the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. He is a regular guest lecturer for classes at UC Davis’s undergraduate campus as well as the law school and has coached mock trial and moot court at all levels — law school, college, and high school. Stoller earned a B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley (2009) and J.D. at the University of California Davis School of Law (2012). At King Hall, Stoller taught at the King Hall Outreach Program (KHOP), a program ran by King Hall that helps college students prepare for law school.
Kelli Taylor
Kelli Taylor has over 26 years of litigation experience, as an Assistant United States Attorney and as a shareholder in private practice. Currently, Ms. Taylor defends the United States in civil lawsuits brought against the United States, federal agencies and federal employees concerning a wide range of topics including environmental issues, employment, civil rights, medical malpractice, catastrophic injuries and death on federal lands, other Federal Tort Claims Act allegations, and more. Previously, as chief of the Affirmative Litigation Unit for eight years, she handling all aspects of her own caseload while also supervising as many as 11 AUSAs and 20 support staff (paralegals, investigators, auditors and clerks). Ms. Taylor also periodically handles criminal prosecutions, including at trial. She has regular interactions with highly sophisticated opposing counsel, cultivated relationships with federal agencies, and provided regular briefings to the U.S. Attorney and other senior members of the Department of Justice. A member of the Schwartz-Levi Inn of Court, Ms. Taylor has mentored numerous King Hall students and judged the law school’s moot court competitions. Ms. Taylor has been a Lawyering Process Laboratory Lecturer (Spring 2019-2022). She received her J.D. from the University of San Diego, School of Law in 1996 and a B.A. with distinction in her major from San Diego State University in December 1992.
Ruben Villalobos ’98
The Hon. Rubén A. Villalobos is a Superior Court Judge for Stanislaus County, California, where he has served since 2015, with a current focus on Juvenile Justice. He has held various leadership roles, including Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court from 2020-2021, and is active in statewide judicial committees such as the Judicial Council's Family and Juvenile Committee and the California Judges Association. Prior to his judicial appointment, Villalobos worked as a partner at Law Office of Villalobos, Meyer, and Borthwick, and as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Las Vegas. He earned his J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law in 1998 and holds a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley. Villalobos is also a dedicated educator, teaching and leading seminars in juvenile law and judicial education, with an emphasis on racial justice and juvenile dependency.
Stephen White ’74
Stephen White currently serves as a Judge for the Sacramento County Superior Court, a position which he has held since his appointment in 2003. In addition, he served as Presiding Judge of the Superior Court from 2010 to 2011. He is currently the president of the Alliance of California Judges and is a member of the Judicial Council Criminal law Advisory Committee. His experience in these positions – as well as his past position as Chief Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Criminal Division, and as District Attorney of Sacramento County – have allowed him to be a successful visiting lecturer at UC Davis School of Law where he has primarily taught Advanced Criminal Procedure since 1995.