Welcome Back: Spring 2024
Welcome back! As we begin a new year, we reflect on highlights of the fall and look forward to a great spring.
Honors continue to pour in for our King Hall community. Courthouses will be named in honor of former Chief Justice of California Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye ’84 and late state Supreme Court Justice and UC Davis Law Professor Cruz Reynoso. In November, the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento honored Court of Appeal Justice Shama Mesiwala ’98 with its President’s Award, which Sacramento Superior Court Judge Kara Ueda ’00 presented. The American Bar Association included Professor Raquel Aldana on its list of most influential Hispanic/Latino/a/x Americans in the law.
At its inaugural gala in November, the Yolo Unity Bar honored UC Davis Law’s Black Law Students Association (BLSA), Dean Kevin R. Johnson, Professor Amagda Pérez and retiring Yolo Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg ’74. State Supreme Court Justice Kelli Evans ’94 gave the keynote. In October 2023, Professor Rick Frank received the California Lawyers Association Environmental Law Section’s Lifetime Achievement Award at a ceremony in Yosemite. On March 7, the law school will honor its 2024 Distinguished Teaching Award winner as well as honor a staff member with a newly created staff award at our annual Celebrating King Hall event. Our community also should celebrate past teaching award winners including Karrigan Börk, Bill Dodge, Katherine Florey, David Horton, Elizabeth Joh, Courtney Joslin, Carlton Larson, Peter Lee, Amagda Pérez, Lisa Pruitt, Leticia Saucedo, and Donna Shestowsky.
Nearly 90% of the Class of 2023 already has secured full-time legal employment, one of the highest rates ever for a class six months after graduation.
Please join us next Monday for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and Celebration, arranged by BLSA, the MLK Day working group and Student Affairs. Activities on the holiday include a donation drive for Wellspring Women’s Center in Sacramento, a blood drive, and service at the Fourth and Hope shelter in Woodland. Sign up for the activities here.
Our busy spring schedule of events culminates on May 10 with Commencement 2024. UC Berkeley School of Law Professor Khiara Bridges, an expert on reproductive rights, is the keynote.
Faculty Scholarship and Intellectual Life
UC Davis Law faculty featured prominently at last week’s annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) in Washington, D.C. Participants included Dean Kevin R. Johnson, Senior Associate Dean Afra Afsharipour and Professors Vik Amar, Nila Bala, Andrea Cann Chandrasekher, Stacy-Ann Elvy and Aaron Tang. Alternative Dispute Resolution section chair, Professor Donna Shestowsky, received not one, but two awards – Section of the Year for ADR and the Litigation Section’s AALS Scholar Award. Professor Brian Soucek serves on the executive committee of the Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Professor Carlton Larson is secretary of the Section on Legal History.
Faculty books published in 2023 or forthcoming include (1) Tom Joo, Contracting Law; (2) Courtney Joslin, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Family Law and Sexuality, Gender & the Law and Social Parenthood in Comparative Perspective and Modern Family Law; (3) Chimène Keitner, International Law; (4) Aaron Tang, Supreme Hubris: How Overconfidence is Destroying the Court – and How We Can Fix It; and (5) Mary Ziegler, Roe: The History of a National Obsession, and Research Handbook on International Abortion Law. Dean Kevin R. Johnson and Professor Raquel Aldana are editors of a new University of California Press Critical Race Theory book series.
Last October, Professors Ashutosh Bhagwat, Courtney Joslin, Carlton Larson, Aaron Tang and Mary Ziegler lent valuable perspective on the 2023/24 Supreme Court term. Professor Ziegler continues to lead the national conversation on reproductive rights. Other faculty, including Professors Christopher Elmendorf, Eric Fish, Amelia Miazad, Darien Shanske, and Dennis Ventry, have lent their expertise to national media on housing, mandatory criminal sentencing, corporate sustainability tax and social justice, and other issues. Educating the public, Professor Elizabeth Joh’s law podcast continues with episodes on topical constitutional law issues. Professors Irene Joe, Andrea Cann Chandrasekher and Jack Chin held a joint criminal law class at the Mondavi Center for the 1L and LL.M. classes with a discussion by experts on the legislative process for criminal statutes. Our award-winning clinical programs, headed by Kelly Behre, Holly Cooper, Rob Mullaney, Amagda Pérez, and Carter White, continue to provide legal assistance to the most vulnerable in our society.
In October, with financial support from the California Legislature, we launched the UC Davis Labor and Community Center of the Greater Capital Region, directed by Professor Leticia Saucedo and Dr. Robyn Rodriguez. The UC Davis Law Review held a labor symposium with a keynote by SAG-AFTRA’s Duncan Crabtree-Ireland ’98, chief negotiator in the Hollywood actors’ strike. Thanks to symposium advisors Professors Saucedo and Shayak Sarkar and Senior Symposium Editors Gabe Buffey, Josh Concepcion and Minae Seog.
Directed by Professor Peter Lee, the Center for Innovation, Law, and Society this fall hosted an array of IP scholars and practitioners, including Samsung Catalyst Fund Associate General Counsel Cindy Dole ’09. The California Environmental Law & Policy Center brought state officials to the law school to discuss water and other natural resources law issues; spring programming opens January 18 with a talk by retired California Supreme Court Chief Supervising Attorney Jake Dear ’83. Co-directed by Senior Associate Dean Afra Afsharipour and Associate Dean for International Programs Beth Greenwood, the California International Law Center presented talks by Chilean senator José Miguel Insulza and Indian Parliament member Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi. With the assistance of Aoki Fellow Giselle Garcia ’23, the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies, among many activities, began in the fall its annual critical perspectives on the first-year curriculum, which featured Professors John Hunt, Stacy-Ann Elvy, and Jack Chin. The series continues this spring with Professors Karrigan Börk, Shayak Sarkar, and Aaron Tang. Aoki Center spring events also include (1) Professor Holly Cooper discussing the Immigration Clinic’s work; (2) Professor Emeritus Bill Hing discussing his book, Humanizing Immigration: How to Transform Our Racist and Unjust Immigration System (2023); and (3) Erika Gonzalez of the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking.
Our Community
Led by Director of Diversity and Student Life Alexis Elston, our First Generation Advocates program returned this fall. The program offers guidance and support – including a faculty mentor – to first-generation students, who make up an impressive 27% of the 1L class. The King Hall Outreach Program, which prepares undergraduates for the law school admissions process, begins its 2024 winter session on January 20. In February, UC Davis Law will host the California LAW Pathways Summit. Dean Kevin R. Johnson sits on the advisory board for this group, which helps put community college students on a path to law school.
Our Racial Justice Speaker Series included talks this fall by pundit Wajahat Ali ’07 and University of Pennsylvania Professor Jasmine Harris. The spring schedule includes El/La Para TransLatinas Executive Director Nicole Santamaría; Boston University Professor of Law Aziza Ahmed (Bodenheimer Lecture); and our own Vik Amar (Barrett Lecture).
Exams and Registration
Congratulations, Class of 2026, on completing your first semester of law school! Thank you to our faculty, Senior Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Emily Scivoletto, Registrar Rebekah Grodsky and Assistant Dean of IT and Faculty Support Steven Schwarz and their hard-working teams for administering exams and spring registration.
Curriculum News
Cutting-edge courses in the spring include Artificial Intelligence and the Law; Children and the Law; Conscious Lawyering; Comparative Corporate Governance; Comparative Judicial Process; Gender and Name Change Practicum; Latina/os and the Law; Mental Health and the Law; Modern Topics in Business Law and Presidential Elections and the Constitution. Thanks to Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Afra Afsharipour, who helped make available these offerings, with an excellent and diverse group of instructors.
Alumni Achievements
San Joaquin Superior Court Judge Esmeralda Zendejas ’06 and U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California Judge (and King Hall instructor) Daniel Calabretta administered the oaths to the Class of 2023 bar passers at our celebratory annual swearing-in ceremony. Congratulations to new Superior Court Judges Brock Hammond ’01 (Los Angeles), Stephen Hicklin ’88 (Orange) and Miguel Valdovinos ’96 (Madera). In October, we welcomed recently appointed Justice Stacy Boulware Eurie ’95 and other California Courts of Appeal, Third District justices for oral arguments.
Health and Wellness
Construction of gender inclusive restrooms in King Hall began during the holiday break. Thanks to Senior Assistant Dean for Administration Brett Burns for making this happen. As our community continues to respond to global crises and other events, resources are available in King Hall and at UC Davis Student Health and Counseling Services. Our new law school psychologist should be at King Hall in early spring. Information on campus health and safety protocols can be found here.