Center Events and APALSA Banquet

Last Thursday, UC Davis School of Law had an amazing series of events.

During the lunch hour, I stopped by the Center for Innovation, Law, and Society virtual event that hosted Santa Clara University School of Law Professor Colleen Chien. She teaches, mentors students, and leads multi-disciplinary teams to conduct empirical research on patents, intellectual property, and the criminal justice system. Professor Chien's talk, "Redefining Progress and the Case for Diversity in Innovation and Inventing," made the empirical case for diversity in innovation and inventing on the basis of at least four plausible mechanisms, based on a review of the literature: novelty, non-obviousness, (overcoming) conflict, and numerosity.  

Professor Chien is among the top 20-cited intellectual property and cyberlaw scholars in the U.S. and is a recipient of the prestigious American Law Institute’s Early Career Medal, awarded every other year to one or two outstanding early-career law professors; the Intellectual Property Vanguard Award (by the California Bar Association) and the Eric Yamamoto Emerging Scholar award (by the Conference of Asian Pacific American Law Faculty). She has also been named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Intellectual Property in the World (by Intellectual Asset Magazine) and a Woman of Influence and a Tech Law Trailblazer (by the National Law Journal and the Recorder) for her work devising “the Second Chances and Empathy Hackathon” and work on executive agency policy pilots.

I next stopped by to hear Professor Sylvie Sarolea talk about climate migrants and how climate change can affect the foundation of international law. Professor Sarolea is Professor at UCLouvain, Belgium where she teaches refugee law, international immigration law, private international law and human rights. The talk, which was fascinating, was co-sponsored by the UC Davis School of Law, UC Davis Law California Environmental Law & Policy Center (CELPC), and Equipe Droits et Migrations (EDEM). CELPC Director Rick Frank was sitting in the front row.

Last but far from least, I could not miss the 12th Annual Asian Pacific American Law Students Association Banquet, which was held this year at the Museum of Science and Curiosity in Sacramento. Traditionally a fun and well-organized event, the banquet serves as an opportunity to promote public interest service, celebrate achievements of graduating APALSA students, and bring together students, professors, and local practitioners.

Law students Jake Kim ‘24 and Emily Young ’24 organized a wonderful evening, which included keynote speeches by Chi Soo Kim, Chief Division Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California, and Judge (retired) Delbert Gee of the Superior Court of Alameda County. 

Many faculty members, including Professors Lisa Ikemoto, Clay Tanaka, Shayak Sarkar, and Luke Fadem, and alums, including Justice Shama Mesiwala ’98 and Judges Kara Ueda ‘00 and Stephen Lau ‘02, were in attendance to honor the graduating APALSA students.

The students always put on great events!