News

The UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic reached landmark settlements on behalf of children held in immigration custody.  

Along with the National Center for Youth Law, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, and Cooley LLP, the clinic arrived at settlements in the 2018 Lucas v. Becerra case regarding detained children with disabilities;  psychotropic medications; and access to counsel.

Episode 77 of What Roman Mars Can Learn About Con Law, Professor Elizabeth Joh’s podcast with co-host Mars, focuses on gag orders, particularly in relation to former President Donald Trump's comments about potential witnesses in his federal case in Washington, D.C. Listen to the episode.

Externship Program Director Dena Bauman presented at the 2023 Southern Clinical Conference, held Oct. 22 at Georgia State University College of Law. The conference focused on the challenges and opportunities clinicians and externship faculty face in fighting against social injustices.

Bauman presented with Duke University Clinical Professor of Law Michael Murphy on the panel “Necessary Trouble of a Different Kind: Turning Difficult Conversations into Constructive Feedback.”

Professor Mary Ziegler weighed in for prominent media outlets last week on key reproductive rights cases in the courts and victories attained by abortion-rights supporters in the Nov. 7 state elections.

Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Afra Afsharipour (pictured) and Professor Amelia Miazad participated in the conference “The Future of ESG,” held Nov. 9-10 at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Afsharipour presented the paper “ESG Dealmaking” as part of the “ESG in the Private Sphere” panel. The paper will be published in a special symposium issue of the Penn Journal of Business Law.

Professor Shayak Sarkar and Josh Rosenthal, a civil and workers’ rights attorney, wrote a Nov. 8 opinion piece on Israel’s migrant workers for the Forward, a nonprofit media outlet focused on news of potential interest to Jewish Americans.

Dean Kevin R. Johnson spoke to reporter Cory Smith of The National Desk for a Nov. 2 report on Mayor Eric Adams’ response to the influx of asylum seekers to New York City.

Professor Brian Soucek and Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy debated the question “Are DEI mandates for university faculties a bad idea?” on the Nov. 3 episode of the public radio program Open to Debate.

An Oct. 29 Financial Times story about law firms’ efforts to close the gender gap in senior leadership cited Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Afra Afsharipour’s widely publicized 2021 UC Irvine Law Review article “Women and M&A.”

The Unity Bar of Yolo County honored Dean Kevin R. Johnson, Professor Amagda Pérez ’91 and the UC Davis Law Black Law Students Association at its first awards gala on Nov. 2.

On Oct. 18, Professor Donna Shestowsky served as a plenary speaker for the Brazilian Arbitration Committee’s annual conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Shestowsky gave the virtual talk “Discussing Procedure,” which drew on research from social psychology.

Criminal law Professors Irene Joe, Andrea Cann Chandrasekher and Gabriel “Jack” Chin will hold a special class for first-year law and LL.M. students at 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 3 at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

Monica Crooms Mkhikian ’13 is an immigration attorney with her own law firm, Crooms Immigration Law in Los Alamitos, California. As a law student, she provided removal defense for clients with the UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic. Before attending King Hall, she taught English in Albania with the United States Peace Corps. She has been a Super Lawyers Rising Star since 2017.

What drew you to immigration law?

On Oct. 20, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Afra Afsharipour presented the forthcoming article, “Client Intervention and Outside Counsel Diversity Gaps,” at the 2023 Transformation of Law Firms Conference at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Professors Rick Frank and Karrigan Börk led a group of 25 King Hall law students who attended the California Lawyers Association’s/Environmental Law Section’s 32nd Environmental Law Conference Oct. 18-22 at Yosemite.

The State Bar of California released a video interview with Lucasfilm Legal Counsel/Senior Vice President of Business Affairs Rhonda Thomas Hjort ’89.

The state bar’s Council on Access and Fairness collaborated on the video with Disney, Lucasfilm’s parent company.

The Association of American Law Schools’ Section on Litigation will honor Professor Donna Shestowsky with its scholar award. Shestowsky will receive the award in January at the AALS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Shestowsky serves as chair of the AALS Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Professor Lisa R. Pruitt participated in three panels at the South Dakota Law Review Symposium on Rural Lawyers, held Sept.

Professor Donna Shestowsky, chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, delivered opening remarks at the AALS ADR Works-in-Progress Conference, held Oct. 12-14 in Connecticut and co-sponsored by Yale Law School and Quinnipiac University School of Law.

Shestowsky also presented her draft article “Discussing Procedure.”

The American Bar Association Diversity and Inclusion Center honored Professor Raquel Aldana among prominent activists and legal trailblazers as part of its observance of Hispanic/Latino/a/x Heritage Month.

Other honorees include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.

Dean Kevin R. Johnson and Professor Amagda Pérez ’91 co-wrote the article “Cruz Reynoso’s Fight for Justice” for a UCLA Chicanx-Latinx Law Review special issue devoted to the late California State Supreme Court justice and UC Davis Law professor, who died in 2021 at age 90.

Professor Brian Soucek and Ryan Chen ’23 have published an article in the Fordham Law Review titled “Misunderstanding Meriwether.” In the abstract, they write:

Yolo Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg ’74 has announced he will retire at the end of the year after 20 years of service, the Davis Enterprise/Winters Express reported.

Then-California Gov. Gray Davis appointed Rosenberg, a former Yolo County supervisor and Davis mayor, to the bench in October 2003. He served for three terms as the court's presiding judge.

By Carla Meyer

Kevin R. Johnson will step down as dean of UC Davis Law in July 2024 after an extraordinary three terms and 16 total years of service. He will return to faculty in the school.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has appointed Stephen Hicklin ’88 as an Orange County Superior Court judge.

Hicklin has been a sole practitioner since 2018 and of counsel at Bonial & Associates PC since 2020.

Read the governor’s press release here.