News

The King Hall Negotiations team hosted 30 teams of talented first-year UC Davis Law students on March 1 at the 17th annual Intraschool Negotiations Competition.

Congratulations to the winning teams of Anusha Entezari and Reagan Lewis and Wyatt Herrera and Cameron Lane and finalist teams Farhad Abadani and Logan James and Madison Mitchell and Angelene Obedoza. 

On March 6, students Thacher Hoch ’25 and Sinporion Phuong ’25 argued on behalf of a Civil Rights Clinic client before a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. The panel comprised Judges Kim McLane Wardlaw, Richard A. Paez and Kenneth K. Lee.

Nayarith Franco Vasquez ’26 has received a prestigious Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Law School Scholarship. Franco Vasquez is one of 10 law students across the nation awarded $5,000.

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Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke to the nonprofit publication Capital & Main for a Feb. 3 story discussing the history of mass deportations from the United States and what President Donald Trump’s promised mass removals would require to be enforced.

Professor Karrigan Börk spoke to Huffington Post for a Jan. 27 story about President Donald Trump blaming California water policies – and the protected Delta smelt – for the recent wildfires in Los Angeles.

Professor Karrigan Börk spoke to the Sierra Nevada Ally news site on Feb. 21 about the increased water flows, ordered by President Donald Trump, from Terminus Dam at Lake Kaweah and Schafer Dam at Lake Success.

On Feb. 5, Professor Courtney Joslin  discussed her current work in progress as part of UC Davis Law’s "The Secret Life of Faculty"  series.

The series gives small groups of students opportunities to engage directly with professors about their works in progress, teaching philosophies and career paths. Joslin is one of five faculty members featured in the series in 2024-25.

Professor Courtney Joslin presented a work in progress on Feb. 21 at the West Coast Sexuality, Gender and the Law Conference at UC Irvine. The next day, Joslin commented on Professor Albertina Antognini (University of Arizona) and Susan Appleton’s (Washington University) piece “Abolishing Family Law.”

On Feb. 20, Professor Courtney Joslin delivered the Evolving Doctrine Lecture Series talk at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Established in 2023, the Evolving Doctrine Lecture Series gives modern perspectives on doctrinal lectures.

Professor Courtney Joslin  was a panelist at a Feb. 6 event hosted by the Michigan Judicial Institute to educate the state’s judges about the Michigan Family Protection Act.

The act, which goes into effect April 1, updates Michigan’s parentage statutes to protect families formed through IVF and other forms of assisted reproduction.

Professor Darien Shanske is an expert on taxation, local government law, public finance, and political theory. He takes an exceptionally long view of jurisprudence, informed by his scholarship on ancient Athens. In addition to his J.D. from Stanford Law School, he holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in rhetoric, an M.A. from McGill University in philosophy, and a B.A. from Columbia University in philosophy and history.

Colleges across the United States have been enacting “neutrality” policies – whether voluntarily or under orders from state legislators – and “their timing couldn’t be worse,” writes Professor Brian Soucek in a Feb. 18 opinion piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

On Jan. 10, Professor David Sandino gave the introductory lecture for the 2025 Delta Leadership Program about the legal and policy issues associated with understanding the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The Delta Leadership Program is organized by the Delta Protection Commission and the Delta Foundation to educate Delta citizens about water issues, promote leadership and form networks. 

In February, Professor David Sandino taught his annual one-day UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education class on water law and policy. The class drew an impressive turnout of more than 25 students.

Professor Raquel Aldana gave a talk titled “Preliminary Observations of the U.S.-Mexico Border, Trump 2.0” as part of a gathering of scholars and other experts and stakeholders organized by the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy and El Colegio de México (Colmex).

Professor Emeritus Ed Imwinkelried and his coauthors recently released the ninth edition of the multi-volume McCormick on Evidence treatise. 

McCormick and the seminal Wigmore work are the most frequently cited authorities in the official Advisory Committee Notes to the Federal Rules of Evidence.  Over the years, the McCormick treatise has been cited in thousands of federal and state cases.

Professor Raquel Aldana delivered the keynote address at the “Culture of Community” grassroots movement launch event held Feb. 8 at Woodland Community College.

Professor Menesh Patel presented a paper on Jan. 31 at UC Irvine as part of a mergers and antitrust law conference presented by the UCI Law Competition, Antitrust Law and Innovation Forum.

Patel and Cardozo School of Law Professor Sam Weinstein offered a critical appraisal of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission merger review.

Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin appeared on the Feb. 11 episode of the Davis Vanguard’s Everyday Injustice Podcast with David Greenwald.

Chin and Greenwald discussed President Donald Trump’s new administration and court challenges to Trump’s executive orders and policies.

Professor David Horton ranks No. 35 among the nation’s most-cited legal scholars, according to a new paper by George Mason University law librarian Rob Willey and Associate Dean Melanie Knapp.

On Feb. 14, Professor Lisa Ikemoto spoke on the panel “Reproductive Justice and Race & Economic Justice” at the Reproductive Justice and Health Symposium at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco.

The panel focused on histories of forced sterilization in prisons and Los Angeles County hospitals and the state’s role in the disproportionate production of impairment in racially marginalized communities due to environmental factors.

Professor Mary Ziegler is a contributor to a first scholarly history of Joe Biden’s presidency. On Feb. 26, the New York Times reported on a recent two-day gathering at Princeton University of Ziegler and other academics involved with the book.

Reporter Cory Smith of The National Desk spoke to Professor Kevin R. Johnson on Feb.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke to Newsweek and CalMatters for roundup stories addressing the impact of, and legal responses to, President Donald Trump’s flurry of immigration enforcement executive orders.