News

The Georgetown Environmental Law Review published an article by Sarah Chen Small ’23 titled “Toxic Film: Analyzing the Impact of Films Depicting Major Contamination Events on the Regulation of Toxic Chemicals.”  

Professor Darien Shanske spoke at the California Budget & Policy Center’s “Policy Insights” conference on April 16 in Sacramento. The annual event gathered policy experts and others to share ideas and strategize about pathways toward creating a more inclusive state.

Professor Dennis J. Ventry, Jr. was a panelist for the April 12 Brookings Institution webinar “The Past and Future of Public Tax Preparation.” 

The panel addressed the IRS' recent rollout of its Direct File program, a free public alternative to commercial tax preparation software, and where it stands within the context of previous efforts to make tax preparation free, simple and public.

Professor Shayak Sarkar discussed his forthcoming California Law Review article “Internal Revenue’s External Borders” at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law in April. The talk was part of the law school’s Tax Policy Workshop Series.

Pepperdine law Dean Paul L. Caron posted on the TaxProf Blog about Sarkar’s talk.

Professor Shayak Sarkar gave a talk on April 24 titled “Taxing Domestic Workers” as part of the American Bar Foundation Speaker Series. Sarkar discussed the experience of taxation for domestic workers, particularly childcare workers in private households.

UC Davis School of Law Professor Andrea Cann Chandrasekher and Information Technology staff member Andrea Lopez Arguello received the 2024 Chancellor’s Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community. 

Now in its 21st year, these prestigious awards honor outstanding efforts embodying community principles. 

Professor Dennis J. Ventry, Jr. was part of the panel “Professional Responsibilities and the IRS Whistleblower Program: The Black, White and Grey,” on May 3 at the 2024 American Bar Association May Tax Meeting in Washington, D.C.

IRS Office of Professional Responsibility Director Sharyn Fisk and Whistleblower Office Director John Hinman joined Ventry on the panel.

On April 10, Professor Dennis J. Ventry, Jr. testified before the California State Senate’s Revenue and Taxation Committee on behalf of Senate Joint Resolution 14.

The 56th UC Davis School of Law commencement, held Friday, May 10 at the University Credit Union Center, celebrated the achievements of the more than 300 students composing the J.D. and LL.M. classes of 2024. As the smiling graduates led the processional into the venue, friends and family waved from up above in their seats. 

Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Afra Afsharipour spent spring break as a visiting scholar in Hong Kong.

Afsharipour presented her recent scholarship on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in merger and acquisitions transactions at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, City University of Hong Kong and before an audience of attorneys at the Law Society.

The Guardian published an in-depth article May 2 on Woodland’s Chicago Café and Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin’s continued research into the café’s history as the oldest Chinese restaurant in California and probably the United States.

Professor Donna Shestowsky presented the talk “What Motivates People to Use ADR” at the Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, held April 18-19 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Dean Kevin R. Johnson spoke to the Los Angeles Times’ Anita Chabria for a May 2 column on the political implications for President Joe Biden of current widespread perceptions of an urgent immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Professor Katherine Florey researches and teaches private international law, federal Indian law, civil procedure, and public health law and policy. She particularly focuses on the extraterritorial application of law, theories of jurisdiction, and tribes’ regulatory and adjudicative powers. She has published scholarship in prestigious legal journals, including the NYU Law Review, Virginia Law Review, California Law Review, and UCLA Law Review, while also writing and commenting for media outlets, including Newsweek and CalMatters.

Patrick W. Emery ’74 is Of Counsel at Abbey, Weitzenberg, Warren & Emery in Santa Rosa, California. As a trial lawyer in Sonoma County for over 35 years, Pat has received recognition as a Super Lawyer of Northern California, one of the Best Lawyers in America, an elected member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and a recipient of the Sonoma County Bar Association’s Award for Careers of Distinction.

UC Berkeley Professor of Law Khiara M. Bridges will be keynote speaker at UC Davis School of Law’s Class of 2024 commencement on Friday, May 10.

On April 26, the University of Northumbria's Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies will host a program on legal advice (attorney-client) privilege and litigation privilege (work product immunity). The presenters will include faculty members from Cambridge University, King's College London, Newcastle University, and Northumbria University. 

Professor Shayak Sarkar examines the structure and legal regulation of inequality by studying financial regulation, employment law, immigration, and taxation. His far-ranging education includes a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University; a J.D. from Yale Law School; two master’s degrees from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, in Economics for Development and Evidence-based Social Intervention; a master’s in statistics from Harvard University; and a bachelor’s from Harvard in applied mathematics. He was also a law clerk to Hon. Guido Calabresi, U.S.

UC Davis ranks No. 2 historically in student diversity, according to the new Northwestern Pritzker School of Law paper “Affirmative Action and Racial Diversity in U.S. Law Schools, 1980-2021.”

The paper by New York University Professor Richard R.W. Brooks, Northwestern Law Professor Kyle Rozema and Yale Law Professor Sarath Sanga studies racial diversity in American law schools and the impact of state-level affirmative action bans.

On March 22, the Center for Innovation, Law, and Society (CILS) and the California International Law Center (CILC) hosted Members of the European Parliament for a Transatlantic Tech Exchange Roundtable. The German Marshall Fund and UC Davis School of Law co-sponsored this important event.  While the U.S. and Europe face similar challenges concerning emerging innovations and digital technologies, European legal and policy solutions are often different from those in the United States.

In an April 1 opinion piece in The Hill, Professor Eric Fish writes about how, under the First Step Act, FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried likely will spend less than 60% of his 25-year sentence for fraud and conspiracy charges in federal prison.

Professor Donna Shestowsky won three prestigious awards for her stellar work in alternative dispute resolution.

The Advisory Committee Notes to the Federal Rules of Evidence cite two treatises, McCORMICK ON EVIDENCE and WIGMORE, EVIDENCE, more frequently than any other authorities on Evidence law. For the past three editions, Professor Ed Imwinkelried has been one of the major contributors to McCORMICK. One of the chapters Imwinkelried authored is the chapter devoted to the admissibility of expert opinion testimony.

David Sandino will direct UC Davis School of Law’s Water Justice Small Farmer Clinic, an extension of the law school’s Aoki Water Justice Clinic. The new clinic will launch in July 2024.

Professor Amelia Miazad spoke to the New York Times for a March 6 story on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval of rules for companies to reveal climate risks. The rules were far less strict than first proposed, the Times reports.