Fall 2021 Welcome Message
Welcome to the 2021/22 school year! After a tough 18 months for everyone, it is wonderful to be back together in King Hall.
Thanks to everyone for your patience, cooperation, and resilience during this most trying time. Our community’s extraordinary response to the pandemic demonstrates that we remain strong. I am confident that we can work together through any future challenges and make 2021/22 a great year.
Congratulations to the 1L’s for completing orientation week. Regular instruction begins this Monday. The health and safety of students, faculty and staff is always our foremost concern. Regular COVID updates can be found on the King Hall and campus web pages. We will continue to closely monitor state, county, and campus guidelines throughout the school year.
We not only maintained our academic enterprise in 2020/21 but also achieved much. Our world-renowned majority-minority faculty continues to shine on a national stage, and we have sustained our focus on social justice that defines King Hall. Thanks to all who joined the Community Read of Ian Manuel, My Time Will Come: A Memoir of Crime, Punishment, Hope, and Redemption, which tells the story of a young African American man who lost his youth to poverty and our criminal justice system. The discussions were rich, passionate, and constructive. As an attorney at Equal Justice Initiative, Professor Irene Joe worked on Ian Manuel’s case. See p. 139 of My Time Will Come.
Our Racial Justice Speaker Series, launched last year, returns. To maximize participation, the format for most of the lectures will be a hybrid virtual/in person.
Racial Justice Speaker Series (Tentative)
Aug. 25 Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia Law School (Edward Barrett Lecture on Constitutional Law)
Sept. 8 Meera Deo, Professor of Law, Southwestern Law School; Director, Law School Survey of Student Engagement; Neukom Chair, American Bar Foundation
Oct. 20 Khiara Bridges, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley Law (Brigitte Bodenheimer Lecture on Family Law)
Nov. 3 Danielle Citron, Jefferson Scholars Foundation Schenck Distinguished Professor in Law, University of Virginia School of Law (McClatchy/Central Valley Foundation Lecture)
Jan. 19 Maryam Jamshidi, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Florida Levin College of Law
TBA Rose Cuison-Villazor, Interim Dean, Professor of Law and Chancellor's Social Justice Scholar, Rutgers Law School
King Hall’s commitment to racial justice looks inward as well as outward. Our new Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), including student, faculty, staff, and alumni members, will provide guidance on DEI issues for the King Hall community.
Sadly, in May, we lost Justice Cruz Reynoso, who passed away at age 90. A civil rights icon, the first Latino California Supreme Court justice, and a UC Davis Law professor emeritus, he was a vital part of the law school and greater community. On September 27, the Schwartz/Levi Inn of Court, Cruz Reynoso Bar Association, and the law school will screen Cruz Reynoso: Sowing the Seeds of Justice, the extraordinary documentary about Justice Reynoso. On October 21, Professors Raquel Aldana and Amagda Pérez (co-director, Immigration Law Clinic and Executive Director, California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation), José Padilla (Executive Director, California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.), and Thomas Saenz (President and General Counsel, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund), will discuss Justice Reynoso’s civil rights legacy.
The Class of 2024
The Class of 2024 represents a unique King Hall combination of diversity and excellence. Students of color make up 56% of the J.D. class, women compose 58%, and 23% of the class identifies as LGBTQ+. One-fifth are first-generation college graduates. Thirty-eight percent will receive need-based aid, and 85% will receive gift aid. The median LSAT score is 165, and median undergraduate GPA is 3.69 .
The class includes five alumni of the King Hall Outreach Program, which prepares students for the law school admission process; two military veterans; Peace Corps, AmeriCorps and Teach for America alums; athletes; engineers and scientists; and many advocates for social justice.
With 265 students, the Class of 2024 is the largest ever. We received around 3,800 applications, up nearly 25% from last year. Although the law school made roughly the same number of offers as last year, the percentage of offers accepted increased significantly. No offers of admission were extended after April 5.
To assist the Class of 2024, our Academic Success program has increased the number of tutors for our first year classes. We also added a section of Legal Research and Writing (LRW). Three outstanding instructors have joined the (LRW) program: Luke Fadem, a Napa County deputy district attorney; Suzanne Reuben, a civil litigator who taught legal writing at Western State College of Law; and Clarisa Sudarma ’12, a Solano County deputy counsel who returns to King Hall as an LRW instructor.
King Hall also welcomes 20 new Master of Laws students. They join 35 continuing LL.M. students. These pioneers literally come from around the world: China, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.
Faculty News
King Hall faculty continue to make a scholarly splash. Edward Elgar Publishing has published Comparative Corporate Governance , a book co-edited by Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Afra Afsharipour. The New York Times featured her recent article on women in mergers and acquisitions . Professor Lisa Ikemoto was elected to the American Law Institute. Professor Stacy-Ann Elvy published A Commercial Law of Privacy and Security for the Internet of Things (Cambridge University Press, 2021). For the second year in a row, Professor Carlton Larson was a finalist for the ABA Silver Gavel Award for Media and the Arts, this time for On Treason: A Citizen’s Guide to the Law (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2020). Professor Elizabeth Joh continues to drop episodes of her hit podcast What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law . The Association of American Law Schools Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution selected Professor David Horton’s article “Infinite Arbitration Clauses,” published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review as the best of 2020. Dean Kevin R. Johnson and Professor Raquel E. Aldana will direct the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies . We bid a fond farewell to Mary Louise Frampton, who retired as director of the center.
Student Life, New Classes, and Resources
To learn about King Hall’s amazing student organizations, the Law Students Association will hold a student organization fair in the King Hall courtyard at noon on August 26.
We have added cutting-edge courses to our curriculum, including Art Law; Child Welfare and the Law; Comparative Criminal Justice; Direct Democracy in California; Fintech Innovation and Financial Inclusion; King Hall Post-Conviction Practicum; Leadership and the Law; Legislative Drafting; Military Justice and Social Change: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; National Security Crisis Simulation Seminar; Neuroscience and the Law; Patent Prosecution Practicum; Representing Life Science Companies; Sports Law; Tax Controversy and Procedure, and Trauma-Informed Lawyering.
Dr. Margaret Lee ( [email protected] ) is scheduling (virtual, for now) counseling appointments. Student Health and Counseling Services also provides counseling. DEI fellow Alexis Elston ( [email protected] ) is available to meet with students about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. A UC Davis Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion website provides resources for coping with racial trauma.
Our Career Services office will host employers for virtual interviewing all year. This fall, the office will hold Small and Midsize Firm and Public Interest and Government job fairs. Beginning in mid-September, career counselors will meet with each first-year student. The office will present career-related programs for all students on many topics, including video interviewing and networking.
Fundraising Success, More Scholarships
In 2020/21, the Law School raised more than $2.1 million. With the help of Yeoryios Apallas ’72, the Mabie Family Foundation generously gave $1 million for student scholarships.
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I look forward to a great year. For news and announcements, be sure to check the law school website, Dean’s Blog , Faculty Blog and the weekly King Hall newsletter. Follow King Hall on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram .