News

Professor Peter Lee recently presented a paper at the Intellectual Property & Innovation Researchers of Asia (IPIRA) conference at Waseda University in Tokyo. Professor Lee presented a work in progress entitled “Techno-Optimism in Innovation Law and Policy.” The piece, which is forthcoming in the Emory Law Journal, contrasts policymakers’ highly laudatory view of innovation with several underappreciated costs of technological progress.

Jennifer Carbuccia ’07 has served as the General Counsel at Sweetwater Union High School District for over a decade. Previously, she directed labor relations at San Diego Unified School District and served in leadership in labor relations at the City of San Diego. Before that she was an attorney at Currier & Hudson, advising school district, college, utilities, and other public agency clients in San Diego and Imperial County.

On April 25, Professor Shayak Sarkar presented his paper “Financial Assimilation” at the Wharton Financial Regulation Conference at the University of Pennsylvania. The article is forthcoming in the California Law Review.

Shayak Sarkar's scholarship addresses the structure and legal regulation of inequality. His substantive interests lie in financial regulation, employment law, immigration, and taxation.

Professor Mary Ziegler’s book Personhood: The New Civil War Over Reproduction was released April 22 by Yale University Press and has generated extensive coverage from top media outlets including the New Yorker, New York Times, The Guardian and PBS.

Media outlets scrambling to understand reproductive rights issues have been relying on Professor Mary Ziegler’s expertise. Ziegler is one of the world’s foremost historians of United States debates surrounding abortion, IVF, and reproduction. She regularly provides analysis for major news outlets. She has also advised governors and members of Congress and submitted congressional testimony. She lectures worldwide on the history and law of reproduction.

Professor Albert Lin spoke to Science magazine for an April story on a new paper that finds a way to quantify how much emissions from a particular polluter contributed to a given heat wave.

On April 8, Professor Kevin R. Johnson gave a talk to the Notre Dame Law School chapter of the American Constitution Society.

Johnson discussed recent developments in birthright citizenship, which Donald Trump has attempted to end. Johnson discussed how text, history, and precedent firmly establish birthright citizenship as part of U.S. law.

In May, the Supreme Court will weigh Trump’s claim that there is no automatic guarantee of birthright citizenship in the Constitution.

Professor Aaron Tang wrote an April 20 essay in the New York Times about how the major questions doctrine, which had been popularized by conservatives on the Supreme Court to constrain the reach of regulatory agencies, now is being used to challenge President Donald Trump’s “seemingly boundless claims of presidential power.”

“As the saying goes, what goes around, comes around,” Tang writes. “And it is not likely to be good for Mr. Trump.”

Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin spoke to Oakland’s KTVU Channel 2 for a March 25 story about Woodland’s historic Chicago Cafe being up for sale.

“The Chicago Cafe is an important part of California and U.S. history,” Chin said. “On the surface, it is an ordinary family restaurant, but when examined more closely, it reveals a remarkable immigrant story.”

Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin commented for the Sacramento Bee for a March 21 story on a Sacramento County resident’s lawsuit opposing a plan by the county and the United Way to give $725 a month to 200 Black, Native American and Alaska Native families.

Plaintiffs Eva Zhou and the nonprofit Californians for Equal Rights Foundation filed a lawsuit alleging this guaranteed-basic-income program was discriminatory.

Dean Jessica Berg discussed women in leadership positions in law as part of a Women’s History Month virtual discussion in March sponsored by the law firm Snell & Wilmer.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke at a special “Legal Legends” event on March 31 at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

In conversation with IU McKinney Professor Linda Kelly, Johnson explored the intricacies of immigration law, including current developments under President Donald Trump’s administration.

Professor Mary Ziegler appeared on the public radio program Here & Now, MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports and Bloomberg radio in early April to discuss Medina v.

Professor Mary Ziegler appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered on April 1 to discuss federal judge Myron Thompson’s ruling that Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall cannot prosecute groups that help Alabama residents travel to other states to obtain abortions.

For the second time in a month, students from the Civil Rights Clinic argued in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. Alice Chang ’25 and Dominique Kato ’25 appeared before a panel of judges on April 1. The panel comprised Andrew Hurwitz, Lucy Koh and Anthony Johnstone.

On March 19, Professor of Environmental Practice Rick Frank filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of UC Davis’ Institute of Transportation Studies in the case of Diamond Alternative Energy v. U.S.

On March 20, Professor Karrigan Börk spoke on the panel “The Dust Bowl?: Air Pollution, Great Salt Lake, and Utah’s Critical Challenge” at the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment’s 30th symposium, “Breathing Easier: Air Pollution Challenges and Solutions.”

The Stegner Center is part of the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.

On March 4, Professor Karrigan Börk gave the plenary address “The Law of the Delta” at the 2025 Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) annual workshop.

The IEP is a consortium of three state departments and six federal agencies that coordinates research in California's Delta.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke to the Sacramento Bee for an April 7 story on Wilfredo Rivero of Siskiyou County, who was arrested after traveling to Sacramento’s immigration office to notify officials of his new address before his pending asylum case was to be heard.

UC Davis Law environmental law student experienced remarkable success during the spring 2025 semester.

In February, the 3L trio of Kaylinn Charnley, Abigail Talboy and Alina Werth finished among the three finalist teams in the prestigious Pace University Jeffrey G. Miller National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition.  Thanks to King Hall alum and longtime coach David Green ’12 for guiding the team.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court cited Professor Courtney Joslin’s scholarship in deciding Glover v. Junior, a case that raised the question of the parental status of a lesbian spouse regarding a child born through assisted reproduction during the parties’ marriage.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit cited an article by Professor David Horton in affirming a lower court’s ruling that an antitrust case against the food delivery platform Grubhub belongs in federal court and not arbitration, as Grubhub had argued.

Professor Holly Cooper spoke to the Los Angeles Times for a March 31 story that went inside a West Los Angeles immigration courtroom to explore the struggles of unaccompanied children who lack the right to court-appointed attorneys for deportation proceedings.

UC Davis Law is pleased to announce that California Supreme Court Associate Justice and King Hall alumna Kelli M. Evans will deliver the keynote address at its  Class of 2025 commencement on Friday, May 16.

The Minnesota Reformer quoted Professor Darien Shanske, who spoke before the Minnesota Senate Taxes Committee on April 8 about a Democratic proposal to implement a first-in-the-nation tax on social media companies that collect data on Minnesotans.