Transcript Follows Matt Mcdermott ’03 and Three Other Alums Who Veered Away from the Big-Firm Path to Discover New Opportunities—And Who They Are

University of California, Berkeley, School of Law Spring 2013 Vol. 45, No. 1 Transcrip t

SPRING 2013

STATE BENEFITS Boalt’s new California Constitution Center serves attorneys, judges, and students. 11

JAZZED ON LIFE Corporate law wiz Charles Charnas ’84 finds harmony after a near-fatal injury. 20

25-YEAR SALUTE A Q&A with EBCLC leaders Jeff Selbin and Tirien Steinbach ’99 on the center’s meteoric rise. 34

Roads Less Traveled Transcript follows Matt McDermott ’03 and three other alums who veered away from the big-firm path to discover new opportunities—and who they are. PAGE 26 transcript

EDITOR & DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS Michael Bazeley

MANAGING EDITOR & SENIOR WRITER, COMMUNICATIONS Andrew Cohen

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR & PROJECT MANAGER Bob Rucker, Peterson Skolnick & Dodge

DESIGN & CREATIVE DIRECTION Arno Ghelfi, l’atelier starno

CONTRIBUTORS Tyler Gerking ’02 Jon Jefferson Ben Peterson Linda Peterson

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Jim Block Terry Colon Rick Dahms David Peterson

update your address Email: [email protected] Web: www.law.berkeley.edu/alumni/updates Phone: 510.642.1832 U.S. Mail: University of California, Berkeley School of Law 2850 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 500 Berkeley, CA 94705-7220 Visit www.law.berkeley.edu Transcript is published by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Communications Department.

SPECIAL: CAMPAIGN UPDATE

In-House Clinics Receive Transformational Gift...... 54 Alba Witkin and the Witkin Charitable Foundation are helping Boalt upgrade its clinical space to create a more practical working environment . By Andrew Cohen FEATURES alumni

Jazzed on Life ...... 20 Following a traumatic brain injury that took him within an hour of death, Charles Charnas ’84 arranges an inspiring reprise for his body and soul . By Jon Jefferson

Cover story

Thinking Outside the (Big Law) Box...... 26 Four Boalt grads came to pivotal junctions on their varied career paths . Each has found new opportunities—and happiness—by following a road less traveled . By Jon Jefferson

Q&A

25 Years and Counting ... on EBCLC ...... 34 It started with three staffers and a typewriter . Today, the East Bay Community Law Center is Alameda County’s largest provider of free legal services . By Andrew Cohen

Columns SECTIONS

From the Dean . . . 2 In Brief ...... 3 Forefront ...... 11 Advancement . . . .45 Sharpening Skills for a New Resource for State News and Notes from the Changing Profession; Constitutional Issues; Karma ...... 56 Alumni Center Insight Samuelson Clinic Students and Commitment; Common Value of a Boalt Degree “Play Fair” for Libraries; Sense for Consumers; Going Up, Not Down Kadish’s Legacy Program Still Working to Right Wrongful By Tyler Gerking ’02 Turning the Law Inside Out; Convictions; A Plea for Boalt Paving Hollywood with Dignity; New Wheeler Class Notes ...... 57 K S O N) C

JA Its Own Walk of Fame; Busy Institute at CLEE Dives into All in the Boalt Family ( Boalt Bench; Online Fracking; A Reproductive Education: Full Steam Ahead; Rights Center Is Born; Back s Dahm k Women of Color Collective to the Future? ), Ric ), Engages Members Across Generations; To Spend or Not Creative Works . . 40 to Spend; Justice Delayed, but Notable Contributions from

n a s Char EB C L C, Not Denied; New Faculty See the Boalt Community ok ( ok Boalt as Legal Mecca Fast Forward . . . .42 m bl c j i m Boalt Student Action Figures

Cover Photography by DAVID PETERSON spring 2013 | Transcript | 1 FROM THE DEAN

aturally, we’re over-the-moon excited whenever Boalt establishes a new curricular program, research center, or international partnership. But the real satisfaction comes from the lasting impact these initiatives have on our students and our school. NLast fall, we closed out our first century with an inspiring Centennial celebration that included a star-studded political roundtable (page 52) and an elegant gala (page 48). Now, as we push to complete our $125 million Campaign for Boalt Hall, I’m extremely grateful for all that our alumni and friends have enabled us to achieve. Thanks to you, we’re better equipped to meet the needs of both our students and “Boalt is in their future employers. Two of many examples: Alexa Koenig, our Human Rights Center’s new executive director, is positioning students at the forefront of major perpetual research initiatives (page 12), while Boalt’s fast-growing Professional Skills Program puts them in the best position to succeed after graduating (facing page). motion Of course, many don’t wait that long. Our students have helped deliver solutions to because copyright issues in Brazil (page 4) and justice to long-suffering Guatemalans (page 9). They have exposed the staggering cost of wrongful convictions in California (page 14) greatness and the need for those convicted to benefit from better representation at parole never stands hearings (page 44). The lone UC student regent among all 10 campuses? Boalt’s Jonathan Stein (page 42). The winner of the prestigious American Intellectual still.” Property Law Association student writing award? Boalt’s Samantak Ghosh (page 43). Our students aren’t the only ones striving to make an enduring imprint. Boalt has –Christopher Edley, Jr. embarked on a visionary online education program focused on graduates and LL.M. William H. Orrick, Jr. students. It will keep us a step ahead of our competition (page 7). We’ve also launched Distinguished Professor and Dean two unique research centers—the California Constitution Center, a vital resource for lawyers and judges (page 11); and the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice, the only one of its kind among U.S. law schools (page 18). At Boalt, as our cover story wonderfully illustrates, there is no one path to law- practice success (page 26). “Big firm or bust” is a notion both antiquated and, when held against the myriad interests and talents of our phenomenal student body, inad- equate. Thanks largely to our vigilant Career Development Office, Boalt’s large-firm employment statistics remain strong, despite the economic downturn. But to learn about Matt McDermott, Janelle Orsi, Mae O’Malley, and Harry Jackson is to savor the knowledge that our alums are fearless trailblazers on all kinds of terrain. Like them, Boalt is in perpetual motion because greatness never stands still. JIM BLOCK JIM

2 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 NEWS FROM THE BOALT COMMUNITY IN BRIEF Sharpening Skills for a Changing Profession

ince he was named director of Boalt’s litigation, research and writing, social justice, Professional Skills Program four years business transactions, and more. The program ago, David Oppenheimer has been has grown rapidly to keep pace with a shifting fearless in his job satisfaction forecast. landscape. S “If I’d been asked to design my dream job, “Legal education is responding to changes Professional my answer would have been: I want to help within the profession,” Oppenheimer explains. Skills revitalize the skills program at Boalt,” “We’re focusing more on teaching skills, both Program Oppenheimer said in 2009. “This is the culmi- to make students more practice-ready and as an at a glance nation of everything I’ve done in legal approach to teaching legal problem-solving.” education.” The program also enables Boalt students to 2009: Professional Is his outlook still rosy? “It has surpassed collaborate with students in business, public Skills Program established my expectations,” he reports. “I was unprepared policy, and other fields, where relationships for the level of commitment from faculty, between lawyers and clients are increasingly 1,749: Total J.D. and alumni, and students for this endeavor.” critical. LL.M. student skills It’s hard to argue with the results. The ramped-up emphasis on professional course enrollments Oppenheimer and Associate Director Kristen skills has also been in 2011-2012 Holmquist have led a major expansion of simu- 15%: Portion of lation courses that grow practical total upper-division skills in advocacy and course units provided 2: Number of course titles in the first-year skills program, with 24 sections taught by 7 lecturers-in- residence 35: Upper-division course titles, with 63 sections led by 4

professors, 6 lectur- SKILL DRILL: Benjamin Yood ’14 gets a taste of the ers-in-residence, and courtroom in his Civil Trial Practice course with the 50 adjunct lecturers help of lecturer Charles Denton, an attorney with

Jim Block Block Jim the Alameda County Public Defender’s office.

SPRING 2013 | Transcript | 3 IN BRIEF a powerful force in alumni engagement. “We’re While expectations about 21st-century law pleased to bring graduates back into the life of practice continue to evolve, Boalt is looking the school as part-time faculty,” says forward. As Oppenheimer says, “We’re in a Oppenheimer. “They’ve achieved much and position, once again, to lead at a critical time offer great expertise.” in legal education.” —Ben Peterson

FAIR-USE FOUR: (Left to right) Lila Bailey ’05, clinic teaching fellow; Libby Hadzima ’14, clinic student; Alexandra Wood ’14, clinic student; professor Jennifer Urban ’00, clinic co-director, in Rio de Janeiro.

and civil society groups support libraries worldwide. It capped a semester’s work on behalf of their nonprofit library clients. Working under the supervision of Samuelson Clinic Co-Director Jennifer Urban ’00 and teaching fellow Lila Bailey ’05, Wood and Hadzima presented a detailed white paper explaining flexibility in copyright law, focusing on the United States’ doctrine, that benefits libraries and their patrons. Their audience, international attendees at the Second Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Samuelson Clinic Public Interest, were able to take findings back to their home countries to support flexibility for libraries. “U.S. copyright law’s fair-use doctrine oper- Students “Play ates in a case-specific and flexible manner,” Urban explains. “As new tools emerge, from search engines to preservation and educational Fair” for Libraries tools, there’s latitude to decide what libraries can do to fulfill their missions.” hen Samuelson Law, But U.S.-style fair use is unusual worldwide, Technology & Public Policy says Wood, and libraries in other countries can Clinic students and longtime use the U.S. experience in advocating for flex- library lovers Alexandra ibility in their own laws. Says Hadzima, “Our WoodW ’14 and Libby Hadzima ’14 boarded a clients, nonprofits that work with both research plane to Rio de Janeiro in December, their mis- and local public libraries, wanted us to present sion was clear: helping international library the benefits of fair use to a global audience.”

How Libraries (and Their Patrons) Benefit from Flexibility and Fair Use

Consider two stories Howard-Tilton Memorial tively digitized 3.5 mil- protect them from accessible to peo- with very different Library collection was lion books, protecting deterioration or natu- ple with disabilities. endings: destroyed. them from natural and ral disasters. n Share content for When Hurricane In contrast, the human disasters that n Develop indexing and distance learning. Katrina hit New University of Michigan destroy physical copies. text-mining systems Orleans, 90 percent of will likely never face that Fair use can enable [to facilitate new To learn more, go to: Tulane University’s kind of loss. Under fair libraries to: fields of research]. law.berkeley. 500,000-volume use, Michigan preemp- n Digitize collections to n Make digital materials edu/15007.htm.

4 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 For Hadzima, interested in how legal frame- Wood found the timing of the project critical works stimulate economic and social develop- because ongoing international intellectual ment, the project emphasized balance. “As I property negotiations can both benefit and gained exposure to intellectual property and damage libraries’ missions. “Libby and I came technology law, I saw the importance of pro- to appreciate how important it is for libraries tecting inventors and creators, to incentivize to have advocacy strategies and materials [in research and innovation, while allowing for the place] that highlight how we all benefit from free exchange of information and ideas, equally flexible limitations in copyright law,” she says. essential for innovation.” —Linda Peterson

Kadish’s Legacy Program Still Turning the Law Inside Out

t the ceremony dedicating Boalt’s Kadish Center for Morality, Law, & Public Jurisprudence and Social Policy Affairs, which he and his late wife, June, (JSP) library in his name, former endowed in 2000. The center promotes research Dean Sanford Kadish described his and reflection on moral philosophical issues gratitudeA as “massive.” The same could be said in law and public life. for his impact on the school. “I’ve invested a good deal of my life in the In 1978, Kadish and fellow professor Philip law school,” Kadish said following the library Selznick launched the JSP Program—a unique dedication. “It’s heartwarming to be recognized Ph.D. initiative that examines legal ideas and this way.” —Andrew Cohen The institutions through the lens of disciplines such Kadish File as economics, sociology, and history. The first and only law school Ph.D. program until the last decade, the JSP Program now trains stu- 1964: dents in several cutting-edge empirical Joins Boalt faculty methodologies. 1975: “The essential premise was that the program Becomes Boalt’s would emphasize viewing the law from the dean for seven outside rather than just from the inside,” says years Kadish, who joined Boalt’s faculty in 1964 and served as dean from 1975 to 1982. 1991: Wins Berkeley JSP candidates have won the Law and Society Citation for extraor- Association’s national prize for best graduate dinary service to student paper in five of the past seven years, the university and regularly secure top research awards from leading foundations and academic 1999: Receives ABA associations. annual Research Kadish was also instrumental in fortifying Award the school’s Center for the Study of Law & Society, which works closely with the JSP 2000: Program. “Sandy’s contribution to our renown Funds Boalt’s as the world’s premier law and society research Kadish Center for Morality, Law & center is immeasurable,” says Executive ONE FOR THE BOOKS: Former Public Affairs Director Rosann Greenspan. Dean Sanford Kadish in the library that bears his name.

Jim Block Block Jim His impact is also manifested through Boalt’s

SPRING 2013 | Transcript | 5 6 Own Walk ofFame attorneys. prominent sportslaw Industry,” withfour Break Intothe and Sports:Howto “Intellectual Property hosted apanelon 2012, thejournal year. InOctober which launchedlast ence atthe can nowgainexperi- - Entertain for Journal Variety want tomakethe Boalt studentswho ment & Sports Law, Sports & ment GO-TO GUY: Donaldson ’67 film maven Michael Hollywood with Its Hollywood withIts

Steven Gonzalez ’91 won a statewide state’s SupremeCourttofillavacancy, after being appointed to Washington recently. enjoyed newsworthy moments W |

Transc ript In November 2012, some 10 months list someday Busy BoaltBench Independent Berkeley Berkeley Boalt Paving Boalt Paving

with ties to Boalt Hall with tiestoBoaltHall ing it,several judges ing history ordissect- hether theyweremak SPRING 2013

them amongrealityTV’s top-paidstars. His three cast membersofJersey Shore—making content channelandledtherenegotiationsfor breaking contractfor a YouTube original- newspaper. ment,” accordingtothedailyentertainment battles havetheshapeofentertain- changed 50 attorneys whose“recentdealsandcourt Marks ’82,andMichaelRosner’93 amongthe “A strong Boaltpresence,” hesays. W Last year, Feldman spearheaded aground Feldman joined Michael Donaldson ’67, Kevin - Feldman ’90loved whathesaw: entertainment lawyers, Dave of America’s most influential hen Tigar intheNorthern District and to theCaliforniaDistrict Courtbench, Fernando Olguin’89wereconfirmed Association (ABA). Makers Award fromtheAmerican Bar Gonzalez also won a 2012 Difference the court since its formation in 1889, justice ofMexicantositon heritage election toasix-year term.Thefirst Variety released its 2012 list Classmates Jon Tigar ’89and -

Festival. “Otherwise, itwouldnot beeconomi- had 16projectsatthisyear’s SundanceFilm ing the fair-use waters,” says Donaldson, who make theirmovies withoutourhelpinnavigat- included 134 clips under fair use. producers ofThisFilm Is NotYet Rated—which film schools, Donaldsonrecentlyadvisedthe Clearance andCopyright, usedinmorethan50 films without fear of harsh penalties. enabled many directors to make independent rial without permission from rightsholders—has which allows limiteduseofcopyrighted mate- dent filmmakers. Hisknowledgeoffairuse— legal advocatebecome the go-to for indepen- International DocumentaryAssociation,has sports talk show host Jim Rome. Singer, actress Krysten Ritter, and national bring, it’s never boring.” —Andrew Cohen Playboy shoot. “Nomatter whattheday may involved overseeing clientLindsay Lohan’s full ofsurprises,” says Feldman, whosejobonce projects. Media’s plannedexpansionandfuturefilm $350millionforRelativitydeal togenerate pivotal player in a multi-pronged, syndicated direct and negotiatedDavid O. Russell’s contractto contracts for the next two Bond installments, James Bond movie cally feasible.” clients alsoincludemovie directorBryan “Clients tell us routinely that they couldn’t Marks executed several deals involving the Author of the industry-standard reference Donaldson, formerpresidentofthe “This businessisconstantly changingand Silver LiningsPlaybook.Rosnerwas a ’62 wouldreceive itsprestigious district TheltonHenderson courtjudge college. family to attend and graduate from District since 2001, was the first in his Magistrate Judge intheCentral since2002.Olguin,aU.S.Court judge had beenanAlamedaCountySuperior Olguin in the Central District. Tigar The ABA announcedthatfederal The ABA IT’S AWRAP: keynote address attheHenderson Center’s Indian Law symposium. Skyfall, secured writing William Fletcher after his William

Online Education: ONLINE ED Full Steam Ahead TAKES OFF hen faculty members discuss What is happening? For starters, Donnelly’s 30% of U.S. under- online education, “They often team of top designers is working with distin- grads—6 million— start out saying, ‘I’m very skep- guished faculty to create engaging, multimedia- took at least one online course in fall tical,’” notes Patricia Donnelly, rich, revenue-producing courses focused on 2011 Boalt’sW chief information officer and director graduates and LL.M. students of information systems and technology. But “As a leading public institution, Boalt can no 18% of U.S. under- when they learn the details of the high-touch, longer ignore the expanded access and oppor- grads will receive high-end plan that Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. tunities afforded by online education,” says 80% of their educa- envisions for 2014 and beyond: “They say, ‘I Amelia Miazad ’02, the law school’s executive tion online in 2013 want to be part of this.’” director of International and Advanced Degree 50% of college In an era when 2.5 billion people use the Programs. “We’re perfectly positioned to presidents in a Internet, online education’s potential seems change the face of legal education.” recent survey patently obvious. Indeed, massive open online —Jon Jefferson predict that within 10 years, most of courses (MOOCs) grew so popular last year— their students will millions of students enrolled in thousands of take classes online courses—that The New York Times proclaimed 2012 “the year of the MOOC.” But MOOCs are free, noncredit courses that produce neither degrees nor revenues. Not surprisingly, law schools— whose rankings and reputations depend on high-quality degrees y colon colon y and high-quality graduates— y terr y have been cautious about ion b t ion leaping onto the online-ed tr a bandwagon. “All of my Top 10

HER). I llus HER). counterparts seem to be in a C wait-and-see mode,” says Donnelly. “Some of them ask me what’s happening

L ET (F Block Jim at Boalt.”

Thurgood Marshall Award, which rec- Berzon’s 9th Circuit colleague, ognizes long-term contributions by William Fletcher, delivered the key- legal professionals to the advancement note address at the Henderson Center of civil rights, civil liberties, and human for Social Justice’s fall symposium rights in the United States. on Indian Law and the pressing crim- In the California Law Review’s inal, environmental, and human December 2012 issue, an essay by 9th rights concerns facing Native U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Americans. Fletcher, whose lecture Marsha Berzon ’73 examined the con- focused on Indian religious practice sequences of separate writings and the First Amendment, also con- by judges on multi-judge appellate tinued teaching his popular Federal panels—and their impact on courts’ Courts course at Boalt. decision-making processes. —Andrew Cohen

SPRING 2013 | Transcript | 7 IN BRIEF 8 C In tal Section) general (Environmen- U.S. deputy attorney Padilla ’81 Margarita tion California BarFounda- executive director, Sonia Gonzales’07 State Bar dent oftheCalifornia Asian-American presi- Court judgeandfirst Los AngelesSuperior Holly Fujie’78 general counsel Former Starbucks Paula Boggs’84 ranks: Collective. Amongtheir Women ofColor populate BoaltHall’s Distinguished alumnae

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Transc ript Exc ellent Collective EngagesMembers any

SPRING 2013 Across Generations knew socialandemotional supportcouldmake diversity efforts already under way at Cal. We purpose increatingagroupwas tocomplement ing others withthesame experiences. Our Center. “Women ofcolorhadahardtimefind- for Oakland’s Sustainable Economies Law (WOCC). law school’s Women ofColorCollective with 14 other students, shehelpedlaunchthe D “The needwas clear,” says Pannu, whoworks Women ofColor of color were hard to find. Together her classmatestoseethatwomen take longforCamillePannu ’11and uring her first yearatBoalt, it didn’t 200. reached 50. Today, the group numbers nearly official. Attheendofitsfirst year, membership support system. By March2009, thegroupwas recruitment, andproviding aclose-at-hand and retaining students, supportingfaculty our law school experience more successful.” “Once womenleftBoalt,theymissedwhat munity intheprofession,” Pannu explains. alumnae beyond Boalt to “go to create a com Shalini Swaroop ’09 wanted WOCCto engage Danielle McMillian ’10, DyannaQuizon’10, and The next frontier? Abony Alexander ’10, werestraightforward:Their goals recruiting COLLECTIVE WISDOM: —Linda Peterson and 50th reunions. bers celebrating their 40th newly mintedJ.D.s tomem- tigenerational, ranging from geography,” Pannu says. using technology to overcome gaining momentum. “We’re events, the alumnae group is happy hourstoprofessional a newlylaunchednewsletter to issues.tiracial andgender From notes thatfewcover both mul- ent barassociations, Pannu professional development.” sion, throughmentorshipand low retention intheprofes- to address key issues, such as WOCC offered. We’re looking and after their timeatBoalt. help womenofcolor bothduring putting their heads togetherto and ShaliniSwaroop ’09 are Quizon ’10,AbonyAlexander ’10, Danielle McMillian ’10, Dyanna

The group is already mul While therearemany differ (Left to right)

- - -

Jim Block ing research,” says Auerbach. About defense The main blind spot they identified? spending: Measuring fiscal multipliers, which calculate how changes in spending or taxes affect eco- “Fiscal nomic activity. Auerbach’s example: “If govern- Multipliers in ment increases spending by $1 and the GDP Recession increases by $2, the fiscal multiplier is two.” With little available data on how multipliers and Expansion may differ based on existing economic condi- found that tions, Auerbach and Gorodnichenko set about the economic changing that in an innovative paper titled Fiscal Multipliers in Recession and Expansion. benefits from “Past research didn’t look at whether the econ- nonmilitary FISCAL THERAPIST: Boalt omy was in recession, for example,” explains professor Alan Auerbach spending were Auerbach, who directs Boalt’s Robert D. Burch at least 50 Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance. “Our research tried to allow for those conditions.” percent larger The scholars revealed that multipliers tended than those To Spend or to be much larger during economic downturns. from defense “Our findings haven’t stopped people from spending Not to Spend arguing about whether the stimulus should during peri- have been enacted,” Auerbach says. “But our conclusions suggest that in times of recession, ods of normal hen the American Recovery fiscal expansion through stimulus is probably growth.” and Reinvestment Act was a good idea.” passed in 2009, Boalt professor Touted by The New York Times, their research —Binyamin Appelbaum, Alan Auerbach discussed the received helpful input from UC Berkeley col- The New York Times controversialW “stimulus”—and its potential leagues. “There are so many people here with impact—with UC Berkeley colleague Yuriy expertise in various issues that relate to our Gorodnichenko. But something was missing. work—law, politics, institutions, how govern- “We didn’t have a way to analyze the possible ment programs function,” Auerbach says. “This success of the stimulus package based on exist- is a great place to be.” —Ben Peterson

Justice Delayed, but Not Denied

s the lead counsel for court condemned Guatemala for its family members of 28 actions against the 28 individuals— Guatemalans who were among 40,000 who disappeared during “forcibly disappeared” by a 36-year civil war that ended in 1996. theA country’s military, Roxanna Altholz The government was ordered to ’99 understood the stakes. “Our clients prosecute and punish those respon- had been fighting a tidal wave of injus- sible, recover victims’ remains, build tice for more than 30 years,” she says. a national park in their memory, and Altholz, the associate director of pay $8 million in damages. In a three- Boalt’s International Human Rights decade investigation, Guatemalan pros- H) Law Clinic, worked with Guatemala’s ecutors and judges failed to identify or

ERB AC AU Myrna Mack Foundation to pursue punish a single suspect, as the Ministry GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN: Relatives of justice in the Inter-American Court of of Defense concealed documents about “disappeared” Guatemalans hold photos of their loved ones.

Jim Block ( Jim Block Human Rights. In December 2012, the security forces’ criminal actions.

SPRING 2013 | Transcript | 9 IN BRIEF “This ruling doesn’t just monetize our cli- “Without their dedication, it would have ents’ suffering,” Altholz says. “It orders been impossible to litigate 28 cases at once and Guatemala to dignify their struggle and the provide our clients with the quality legal rep- memory of their loved ones.” resentation they deserved,” says Altholz, who The court found that Guatemalan military returned to Guatemala in February and met leaders conspired with politicians and police with clients and state officials to ensure prompt to “disappear” people due to their political and compliance with the court’s orders. social views, and that victims were abducted, “This case sets a key precedent for Latin tortured, and secretly executed. America,” says Krystel Abi Habib ’11. “Many Nearly 30 Boalt students have worked on the countries there have endured similar atroci- case since 2006—conducting research and ties, and victims and their families are still interviews, reviewing evidence, drafting legal denied the right to truth and justice.” submissions, and participating in hearings. —Nancy Bronstein and Andrew Cohen

New Faculty See Boalt as Legal Mecca

ndrew Bradt, Rachel Stern, and Andrew Bradt, assistant professor Amanda Tyler had similar reac- of law tions to the stressors of moving n across the country. For Boalt Hall’s Specialization: Civil procedure, conflict of newA faculty trio, arriving in Berkeley was a laws, remedies n potent panacea. Experience: Climenko Fellow and Lecturer “If you want to be on the cutting edge of at Harvard Law School, two judicial clerk- legal issues, Boalt is a mecca,” Bradt says. “The ships, litigation attorney at Jones Day and faculty is extremely engaged and diverse in Ropes & Gray n their expertise, and there’s so much important Did you know: Received Harvard Law’s work going on here in so many areas.” Joseph H. Beale Prize for Conflict of Laws Bradt, a former lecturer at Harvard Law School, taught Civil Procedure and Remedies Rachel Stern, assistant professor of this year. Stern, an expert on China who was a law and political science junior fellow at Harvard, taught Legal n Specialization: China; the relationship Institutions and Judicial Politics in Non- between law, power, social change, and Democracies. Tyler, a law professor at George globalization Washington for eight years, taught Civil n Experience: Junior Fellow at Harvard Procedure and Federal Courts. University Society of Fellows “For someone interested in the intersection n Did you know: First book, Environmental of law, politics, and society, I don’t think Litigation in China: A Study in Political there’s anywhere better in the world,” says Ambivalence, was published in 2013 Stern, who teaches in Boalt’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program. Like Bradt and Stern, Tyler also has a close Amanda Tyler, professor of law connection to Harvard. As a student, she was n Specialization: Federal courts, constitutional treasurer of Harvard Law Review and excelled law, civil procedure, statutory interpretation in moot court. Tyler later clerked for Supreme n Experience: Professor at George Washington Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. University Law School, two judicial clerk- All three educators cite Boalt’s students as ships, appellate attorney at Sidley Austin powerful attractions for moving west. n Did you know: Named Best Oralist in “They’re incredibly energetic and invested Harvard Law’s James Barr Ames Moot in their school,” Tyler says. “I’ve found them Court Competition (3X) b lock

to be enormously impressive.” —Andrew Cohen Jim

10 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 AT THE LEADING EDGE OF RESEARCH AND SERVICE FOREFRONT New Resource for State Constitutional Issues

California Constitution Center serves attorneys and judges

or David A. Carrillo, launching Boalt fessor. “Lawyers who appear before the court, Hall’s new California Constitution judges, and Boalt students all stand to benefit Center was a simple matter of supply greatly from this endeavor.” and demand. The center offers several academic programs, “IF keep getting grateful feedback like, ‘We’ve including seminars on California constitutional been hoping someone would do this,’” says law, regular publication of articles on substan- Carrillo, the center’s founder and executive tive issues related to the state’s constitution director. “There’s no comprehensive body of and Supreme Court, and research fellowships legal scholarship on the vital state constitu- for J.D. and post-J.D. students. This fall, the tional issues facing our courts, which makes it center plans to hold a conference on the gratifying to provide a valuable service to attorneys and judges.” The center has kicked off its programming ambitiously, with a moot court for lawyers whose cases are pending before the California Supreme Court. While the lawyers get a venue to hone their arguments, Boalt students—as part of a three- unit seminar that quickly became oversubscribed—prepare bench memoranda and act as law clerks to mock jurists on selected cases. “The California Constitution Center is another example of Boalt using its outstanding scholarly STATING HIS CASE: David A. resources to make a meaningful Carrillo founded a new impact beyond the school,” says center for scholarship and research on the California Goodwin Liu, a California Supreme state constitution.

Jim block Jim Court justice and former Boalt pro-

SPRING 2013 | Transcript | 11 FOREFRONT California Supreme Court, paired with a spe- In February, the center co-hosted a one-day cial argument session the court will hold at symposium with the Municipal Law Institute, Boalt. titled “Local Governments Navigating the “This gives law students and practitioners California Constitution,” before a capacity alike a means to better understand legal trends crowd of government officials, attorneys, aca- that constantly and often uniquely emerge demics, and law students. The event tackled from the nation’s most populous, diverse, and constitutional questions involving privacy innovative state,” says San Francisco City rights, free speech and religious liberty, water Attorney Dennis Herrera. access, state finance and revenue, and the trend Carrillo, who earned J.D. ’95, LL.M. ’07, and of states limiting cities’ powers, as well as ten- J.S.D. ’11 degrees at Boalt, tapped many campus sions between local and state control. and professional colleagues to empower the Panelists included Boalt professor emeritus center’s efforts. His idea for the center first Joseph Sax—considered the father of environ- sprouted when he was preparing his J.S.D. dis- mental law—and Joseph Grodin ’51, retired asso- sertation and “encountered a California con- ciate justice of the California Supreme Court. “Unquestionably, stitutional law issue I wanted to research, but “Unquestionably, there’s a resurgence of there’s a couldn’t find much of anything about it. So I interest in the state constitution,” said Grodin, thought someone should study this area, and who pointed to the California Supreme Court’s resurgence that person could be me.” ruling on same-sex marriage and recent ballot of interest in Active in trial and appellate practice for 16 measures on how budgets are created and taxes the state years, Carrillo has been a deputy attorney gen- are raised and distributed. eral with the California Department of Justice, “Be it the state budget, redistricting, or same- constitution.” a deputy city attorney in San Francisco, and a sex marriage, the state constitution has a dra- —Joseph Grodin ’51 deputy district attorney in Contra Costa matic impact on our daily lives,” Carrillo said. County. He also worked as a litigation associ- “It’s important to understand how its provi- ate in private practice. sions affect us.”—Andrew Cohen

Karma and Commitment

HRC Executive Director Alexa Koenig does the rights thing

all it coincidence; call it karma; call it just deserts—or just dessert: Alexa Koenig, the new executive director of Boalt’s Human Rights Center (HRC),C almost skipped a career-shaping, life- altering dinner. Almost, but not quite. In the spring of 2008, Koenig was a first-year Ph.D. student in Boalt’s Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP) Program. She was also teaching night classes at the University of San SHE FIGHTS FOR RIGHTS: Alexa Koenig Francisco School of Law and caring for her leads the Human Rights Center’s work on behalf of victims in conflict zones. newborn daughter. “I was pretty exhausted,”

she recalls. block Jim

12 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 istockphoto/ Kamruzzaman Ratan n projects: that fightthroughthecenter’s threemain United States and abroad.” fight fortherightsofvulnerablegroupsin her successincombininglaw andresearch“to Koenig’s experience,aswell management delighted tohave heronboard,” praising “All ofusattheHumanRights Centerare executive director in December. an internationalsearch,shewas confirmedas center, initiallyonaninterimbasis. Following ment and fundraising, was tapped to run the prior experience included nonprofit manage position became open in 2012, Koenig, whose terror. AndwhenHRC’s executive director human rightsconsequencesoftheU.S. war on ing withFletcher andStover toresearchthe Guantanamo Effect. by the University of California Press as The and ItsAftermath,whichwas laterpublished length reportontheresearch:Guantanamo former detainees, andhelpedwriteabook- which involved interviewingmorethan60 Koenig spentalmost ayearontheproject, “By thenext morning,they’d hiredme.” resume at 11 o’clock that night,” she recalls. civil andhumanrights. “Isubmitted my to Koenig, whose prior work had focused on and subsequentstruggles—appealed strongly Guantanamo detainees abouttheirdetention neededurgently to fill. pected openingforaresearcher—which they ing, andalsotoldKoenig theyhadanunex- FacultyHRC DirectorEricStover werelaunch- an ambitiousresearchprojectthatsheand Human Rights Law Clinic. Fletcher described Laurel Fletcher, directorofBoalt’s International mal classes.” important to do something outside of my for hertogo.encouraged “He said itcouldbe the dinner,” shesays. ButKoenig’s husband wanted to meet them, I really wanted to skip students.a newcropofJSP “As muchasI want to spend an evening helping to welcome populations. and to develop ways to protect vulnerable flict zones to understand its prevalence— Researching sexual violence in global con She’ll have ample opportunity to continue In announcingherappointment,Stover said, After theGitmoproject,shecontinuedwork The research—interviewingformer He was right.At thedinner, Koenig met Understandable, then,thatshemightnot - - - - the riskofyet another, similar blow about personalfinanceincreases naivetéremains thatongoing also played arole.Andconcern financial knowledgeamongconsumers Yet many experts agree that a lack of P complex personalfinanceandbudgeting BCLBE tohelpeducatorsimprove training in for Consumers Common Sense Jeffersonthe balancing act just fine. —Jon human-rights champion,sheshouldmanage record as a researcher, teacher, manager, and completed studies. her JSP Given her track tration andresearch,” says Koenig, whojust n n unfortunately fail to attract many of of many attract unfortunately fail to training programs. expanded theirfinancialliteracy groupshaveadvocacy greatly andpublicernment agencies consumers tonavigate, many gov new, unfamiliarinstruments for try will continue to evolve and offer Recognizing thatthefinancialindus- complex agreements ofmodernlife. contracts,and mortgage andinmany other against thehazardslurkingincreditcard to theeconomy.

“I want to find a balance between adminis bring war criminals to justice. Court and domestic courts worldwide to Working with the International Criminal with their biological families Salvador’s civil war, and to reunite them children who were abducted during El Using DNA profiling to locate and identify “These well-intentioned programs “These well-intentioned programs Education isoftenthebest defense aimed atfinancialinstitutions. of 2007and 2008, muchofit around sincethefinancialmeltdown lenty ofblamehasbeenpassed . - -

FOREFRONT the people who need them most and don’t have To address those challenges, Taymor says a lasting impact on those who do participate,” FLER would be ideally suited to develop edu- says Ken Taymor, executive director of the cational and training strategies, materials, and Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the course modules specifically designed to moti- Economy (BCLBE). vate individuals to learn more about their That’s why BCLBE is pursuing funding for a finances. The programs could, in turn, serve as new initiative called the Financial Literacy and a laboratory for researching the most efficient Research Institute (FLER). FLER would build delivery methods for their content, while the on the Boalt faculty’s strengths in economic findings could be shared with organizations decision-making, financial institution regula- that provide or fund financial literacy training, tion, and social psychology—as well as its close regulators, academics, financial institutions, affiliation with the East Bay Community Law and others. Center. FLER’s experts would examine the “How to design effective programs and attract social, psychological, and economic factors that broad public participation is a substantial and have historically hampered conventional solu- complex challenge that requires skills from tions for improving consumer financial multiple disciplines, including law and regula- literacy. tion, economics, decision-making theory, and Those conventional solutions—more disclo- social psychology,” Taymor says. “We’re fortu- SMART MONEY: BCLBE Executive Director Ken sure, information, training, and self-help nate to have several faculty members at Boalt Taymor thinks a new materials—go only so far in a world in which who are experts in these fields and who want to approach to consumer everyone’s attention is fragmented and the collaborate to address the challenge.” financial literacy could help prevent another financial services industry is constantly chang- Taymor, who would like FLER up and run- financial meltdown. ing. Research shows that to be more effective, ning this year, believes that “effective improve- training must address the complex ways in ments in basic financial literacy among retail which consumers are motivated to acquire investors and consumers could go a long way information about their financial condition, as toward building a public—and an economy— well as how they process and make informed less vulnerable to financial meltdown.” decisions about what they have learned. —Bob Rucker

Working to Right Wrongful Convictions Warren Institute reveals staggering costs to California

rongful convictions usually California since 1989—costing those accused grab headlines for the injustice more than 1,300 years of freedom and taxpay- inflicted on individual defen- ers $129 million. dants. But it’s their cumulative That figure rises to $144 million when W damage that caught Rebecca Silbert’s eye. adjusted for inflation, and does not include the A senior legal policy associate at Boalt’s Chief costs of legal representation and court proceed- Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social ings needed to overturn the convictions. As Policy, Silbert spearheads the California researchers continue to review court records Wrongful Convictions Project. Working with and reach out to lawyers across the state, Silbert Hollway Advisory Services, a criminal justice expects the list of wrongful convictions to research firm, the institute has found that at lengthen substantially.

least 200 convictions have been thrown out in “This research is the first precise analysis of block j im

14 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 AP Photo/Phil McCarten Hall andthedistrict attorney’s officeinSan munities and families.” defendants and victims along with their com unfair criminal justice practices that harm Sallomi ’14. “California needstocounteract anddebate,”impact on public policy says Megan to compile research that has an immediate base. “This project offers a great opportunity reviewing casefilesandbuildingacentraldata- why convictions are overturned. tigators, orpolice,andwilltrackthereasons misconduct by prosecutors, government inves- year willreveal thecosts relatedtoconfirmed tions were overturned. parole, ordeathsentencesbeforetheirconvic- including many whoreceived life,lifewithout were initiallysentencedto20yearsormore— of individuals in theWarren Institute’s dataset convictions werethrown out.About 40percent convicted served timeinprisonbeforetheir erations. Thevast majorityofthosewrongfully 2011, California led the nation with 214 exon were wrongfully charged.” errors, including those where innocent people and dismissedduetomisconductlegal wasted on all convictions that were overturned “It will reveal the time, money, and resources the financialimpactinCalifornia,” she says. Giselle Olmedo ’13, who worked at Juvenile Boalt students have played akey rolein A detailed reporttobereleasedearlynext The findingsshow thatfrom1989through - - ing mistakes and how to fix them.” the criminaljustice system ismak provide usefuldatatoshow where Wrongful Convictions Projectcan deal withincreasedcosts. The tives tojailand looking at ways to responded by providing alterna- says. “Some countieshave offenders from the state to counties,” Olmedo ity ofhousingnonviolent andnonserious to determine the economic impact of each case. ers willvisitcourthousesandreviewcasefiles phase oftheirwork,Olmedoandother research- six appellate districts. After completing that ber oftheteamcollectingdatafromCalifornia’s Francisco beforecomingtoBoalt,isonemem- —Andrew Cohen to craft targeted, policy-based solutions.” identify the costs of the errors and enable us What we find in these and other areas will help Silbert says. “Are electedornot? thejudges tance of counsel. instructions, DNAproof,andineffective assis- rulings, invalid confessions, incorrectjury nesses, incorrectsuppression tification problems, recanting wit- rial misconduct,eyewitnessiden- include judicial error, prosecuto- pared county by county. Categories “Do theyhave apublic defender’s office?” Eventually, thedatawillbecom- “In 2011, California shifted the responsibil- - $129 million. freedom andtaxpayers than 1,300yearsof those accusedmore since 1989—costing thrown outinCalifornia convictions havebeen At least200 SPRING 2013 TRIAL TRAVESTY: misconduct. dueto police overturned left himparalyzed—was 1996 shooting—which after hisconvictionfora awarded $6.5million Ovando, right,was |

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Javier

15 FOREFRONT POPULAR BELIEVER: Lord Jonathan Sacks speaks with UC Berkeley students before his Robbins Collection lecture.

in the name of hope,” he called it a plea to “not take freedom for granted” and to respect the dignity of others. “We have been a people for 4,000 years, and the three times we went into exile were caused by the inability of brothers and sisters to live together,” he said. “Too many factions were too busy fighting each other.” Sacks thanked two UC Berkeley faculty members for their “tremendous influence” on his work: Robert Alter, professor of Hebrew and A Plea for Dignity Comparative Literature, who retired last year; and the late biblical law British rabbi’s Robbins Collection lecture scholar David Daube, who taught at electrifies overflow audience at Boalt Boalt from 1970 to 1993. Sacks also hailed Boalt’s Robbins Collection and he pressure was decidedly on when the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Lord Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of Israeli Law, Economy and Society, frequent England’s United Hebrew collaborators and co-sponsors of the lecture. Congregations, took the Booth The Robbins Collection, among the world’s AuditoriumT stage November 26. While intro- best research libraries in religious and civil ducing him just moments earlier, UC Berkeley law, is a center for comparative legal and his- Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George torical studies that attracts top students and Breslauer said a colleague told him Sacks was scholars from around the world. During the “the most electrifying speaker he’d ever seen.” 2012-13 school year, it sponsored three post- Four standing ovations later, the world- doctoral fellows studying legal traditions in “We have been renowned scholar had met those expectations Jewish Law, Islamic Law, and Canon Law. a people for during the Robbins Collection Annual Lecture The Berkeley Institute, launched in April on Jewish Law and Thought. About 500 2011, seeks to broaden Jewish and Israeli stud- 4,000 years, people—some watching on video in a nearby ies offerings at UC Berkeley. It supported eight and the three overflow room—heard Sacks’ compelling pre- courses this past school year and ran a monthly times we went sentation on “The Future of Judaism.” Earlier colloquium for faculty, graduate students, and in the day he met with undergraduates at Hillel, outside scholars to present their work. into exile were a Jewish student organization, and with vari- On March 14, the institute hosted a public caused by the ous campus deans, faculty members, and com- lecture by novelist and journalist Sayed Kashua, inability of munity leaders at Boalt. who developed the first sitcom centered on a A prolific author knighted by Queen Elizabeth Palestinian-Israeli family, Arab Labor—winner brothers and II in 2005, Sacks discussed the “Jewish voice” of five Israeli Academy of Film and Television sisters to live in Western civilization. He contrasted Greek awards this year. together.” civilization’s belief in both tragedy and fate—a “There’s a lot of interest in this type of schol- future determined by the past—with Judaism’s arship, as evidenced by the turnout for our —Lord Jonathan Sacks contrary orientation that embraces free will events, courses, and other programming,” says and the notion that the future can be altered. Boalt professor Kenneth Bamberger, the insti- Sacks stressed that legacy in critiquing sci- tute’s faculty director. “Our 16-member faculty

entific atheism, which he said undermines the board spans many campus departments, which W

notions of free will and hope. Saying the Hebrew has helped us expand existing offerings and TURBO

Bible represents a “principled defeat of tragedy develop new opportunities.” —Andrew Cohen LAURA

16 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 jim block E Dives into Fracking Dives intoFracking Institute atCLEE New Wheeler earthquakes and disrupting ecosystems. and frackingissuspectedof contributingto anddumpingalsoposeriskson thesurface, age, one sideeffectoftheprocess. Spills, poor stor could potentially contaminate groundwater as water; chemical ingredients in injected fluids experts believe theprocessriskspollutingfresh to oil andgas wells. Many environmental formations, so hydrocarbons flow more easily water, chemicals, and sand to break up shale heating up in California. onwater qualitywas fracturing (“fracking”) just as debate over the impact of hydraulic last year, thanks private to generous funding, Water Law &Policy. Theinstitute was launched to introduce CLEE’s Wheeler Institute for environmental policymakers.” think tank,butanaction-orientedresourcefor research wedo—thatwe’re not just anacademic took away anunderstanding ofthevaluable Executive DirectorJayni Foley Hein ’08. “They feedback was overwhelmingly positive,” says a productive introduction to CLEE. “Their sory board member Skinner. Nancy team led by Assemblywoman and CLEE advi state legislators, broughttogetherthrougha issuesforadiverse groupofpressing policy CLEE co-hosted apresentationatBoaltabout front andcenterinSacramento. OnMarch7, Environment (CLEE)iskeeping thatawareness promise ofrenewable energy. for more oversightandtransparency Center leadersmaketheircasetostakeholders Use ofthetechnique hasexploded.Although Fracking uses high-pressure injections of The session was alsoatimelyopportunity For most attendees, thedaylong sessionwas Boalt Hall’s Center for Law, Energy & the news about climate change andthe aboutclimatechange news Californians astheyconfrontdaily occupy agrowing mindshareamong nergy andenvironmental quality - -

takes made in other states where fracking has adds, “California shouldavoid repeating mis- DOGGR’s proposals don’tfarenough.” go Hein industry,” says Kiparsky. “Yet, wealsobelieve ency, innovation, and enforcement of the more study, oversight, transpar (DOGGR). Gas and Geothermal Resources Conservation’s Division of Oil, California Departmentof regulations proposedby the also addressesanearlydraftof alums inLosAngeles. Thepaper lators, stakeholders, andBoalt in April at a public panel of regu- Kiparsky, thattheywoulddeliver Associate DirectorMichael authored withWheelerInstitute of a white paper on fracking, that. upgrades may soon change in California, technology 500,000 U.S. fracking wells are ofthea smallpercentage — harm that may be impossible to reverse.” leave thestate ofenvironmental with alegacy wellsandwastewater“Mismanaged could “fracking cannot be undone,” Kiparsky says. nologies to track wastewater. and recycle and databasesofchemicalsused,newtech- planned fracking,moreinclusive inventorying improved systems for notifying the public of activity acrossthelifespanofevery site, owners andoperatorsthroughmonitoring for environmental stewardship.” been morewidespread,andset ahigherbar Bob Rucker Hein gave legislatorsapreview Such aproactive stance isjustified, because greateraccountabilitybyThe paperurges “We agree on the need for

- SPRING 2013 fracking inCalifornia. proactive whitepaperon Institute, co-authored a tor ofCLEE’s Wheeler Kiparsky, associatedirec- WATER WORRIES: |

Transcript Michael

17 “We’re FOREF 18 NO IVORY TOWER: rights andjustice. “R&D” forreproductive new centerfocuseson lives.” everyday in people’s laws playout how ...these interested in —Jill Adams’06

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ONT Boalt’s

SPRING 2013

Center IsBorn A Reproductive Rights Rights andJustice (CRRJ) to bolster the prom- the law school’s new Center on Reproductive those credentials, shefeltinspiredtolaunch Motherhood . Whilehardlyneedingtoaugment nominated ing five books, includingthePulitzerPrize- B outfit to an influential organization. Reproductive Justice, steering it from a fledgling years asexecutive director ofLaw Studentsfor munities. hadspent theprevioussix Adams experiences ofindividuals, families, andcom- conventions that influence the reproductive center to study the laws, institutions, and social ’06 tohelpherleadthenation’s first research completely re-energized me,” Luker says. ductive justice issues, and this endeavor has ofrepro- are workingtoadvanceawiderange social scientists, advocates, and activists who ising “intellectualR&D”emerginginherfield. scholars, socialscientists,advocates,andactivists First-of-a-kind research hubforges collaborationswithlegal “I wanted to build a hub for legal scholars, Luker recruitedExecutive DirectorJill Adams 37-year teachingcareerandauthor winning several awards during her established herselfasastar scholar— oalt professorKristin Luker longago Abortion andthePolitics of - abortion restrictions andexploreinnovative litigation grouptoinvestigate theeffectsof with the country’s leading reproductive rights mine if they’re asking the right questions.” reliable answers, deter and help policymakers arly inquiry, conductresearchthatuncovers issues every day toidentifyareasripeforschol- “We’re aligningwithpeoplewhoworkonthese won’t operate in an ivory tower,” Luker says. plifies thecenter’s silo-busting strategy.“We California’s welfarefamilycap. Itisalso hosting apanel in support of efforts to repeal defend against mounting restrictions. pursue proactive strategies ratherthanmerely ductive rightsprotections, whereadvocates can state withsomeofthecountry’s strongest repro- andorganizing.”advocacy CRRJ isalsoina ofto calls Oakland, a“hotbed which Adams Berkeley campusandnext pioneering UC door robust visionofreproductive justice—on the says.Adams choices aboutwhether andhow tobeaparent,” essary enablingconditionstomake meaningful everyday lives, andwhether theyhave thenec- cerned withhow theselawsplay outinpeople’s islation, andregulations, butwe’re alsocon- and restrictions appearincourtopinions, leg- seminar. disciplinary reproductive rightsandjustice year, will co-teach an inter Luker and Adams ulty, students, andcommunitymembers. Next ences; and a working group comprised of fac a virtualbibliography inlaw andthesocialsci- shop to foster new peer-reviewed scholarship; distribution by Foundation Press in 2014. reproductive rights—scheduled for national Luker todevelop thefirst legaltextbook on U.S. ing withBoaltprofessorMelissa Murray and approaches to legal advocacy. It is also work The center is publishing a white paper and The center is ideally situated to promote a In October, CRRJ willco-host asymposium Their academic-advocate partnershipexem- “We’re interested inhow reproductive rights Other programmingincludesawritingwork - - - - -

jim block Berkeley Center for Law & Technology light, with participants as eager to hear firsthand tohearfirsthand light, withparticipants aseager of Copyrights. Her address was a forum high keynote speaker Maria Pallante, theU.S. Register ter and track rights-holders. no clearinghousewiththebandwidth to regis- cultural significance or profit from it, there is Even ifcontentowners wanted topreserve its orphaned at birth from a legal perspective. no commercialvalue,andthusessentially right” as one panelist called it—is of little or digital ephemera—the“darkmatter ofcopy works that need copyright andthosethatdon’t. simply too difficult to distinguish between those they didn’t anticipate the Internet. Today, it is tected withoutregistration ornotices, however, 1970s and 1980s by allowing all works to be pro- on the works—often called “formalities.” tering claimsofcopyright andplacing notices to copyright their works had to opt in by regis- right. For nearly200years, U.S. authorswanting homemade videos—are automatically in copy many creative works—blogs, emails, photos, and theshapesuchreformsmighttake. what reformsareneededtoU.S. copyright law— sentations andaneye-openingdialogueon and privatesectorsfortwodays ofpanelpre- forum assembledtopmindsfromthepublic Berkeley CenterforLaw &Technology. The formalities intheYouTube era BCLT symposiumexplores areturn tocopyright Back totheFuture? and enablelicensedmidwives toaccept Medi- ity of patients’ sensitive health information, allowed toprovide it,protect theconfidential- ing thetypesofhealthcareprofessionals access toabortioncareinCaliforniaby expand- supporting additional bills thatwouldimprove A “The system we have is unsustainable,” said The problemisthat99percentoftoday’s therulesinlate When Congresschanged One big stressor on today’s system is that too Internet Age,” hosted by the “Reform(aliz)ing Copyright for the an Aprilconferencetitled meaty subjectwas devoured at - - -

tion and notice requirements? Whilethe a confusing system,” Pallante said. formalities is one way to bring order to by looking to the past. “Returning to to that 21st-century problem? Perhaps system toregister theircreationsisvital. Style”)—an effective andpubliclyrespected established and aspiring (think “Gangnam artists, academics, activists, musicians— 1 percent of creators who do care: writers, legal protection orroyalties. Butforthe kids’ pianorecitalsonFacebook don’t expect of technology,” she said. to sustain thecurrentandprojectedrealities of society, andisnot flexibleenough overstressed, does not meet the needs share theirown. “Copyright law is the agency’s thinkingastheywereto —Andrew Cohen trailblazing responsibility very seriously.” Luker says. “It’s newterrain,andwetake that sional center like this at any other law school,” Cal payments for out-of-hospital births. last for too many years.” —Bob Rucker ing the existence of too many copyrights that and easy. alongway Thatwouldgo toaddress- with carefullydefinedformalities inexpensive tion resourcesthatwouldmake compliance scalable globalregistries andother informa- “The Internet hasmade it possibletoestablish BCLT Faculty Co-DirectorPamela Samuelson. created theproblem,said Boaltprofessorand flexibility. some see room in the treaty for might constrain theirreintroduction, which effectively prohibitsformalities, international Berne Convention treaty, “There’s no multidisciplinary, multidimen And asolutionmay lie in the technology that Should Congress reinstitute registra- How tocraftthe21st-century solution Who cares? Most people who post their SPRING 2013

- TANGLED WEB: in theInternetage. protection complexities exploration ofcopyright atwo-day kicked off Maria Pallante(top) Register ofCopyrights |

Transcript U.S.

19 FEATURE JAZZED

Maverick ON Charles Charnas ’84 defies LIFE expectations and odds Again

By Jon Jefferson Photography by Jim Block

here are no second acts in American lives,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald. Clearly Charles Charnas ’84—now well into Act 3—didn’t “ get the memo. After a quarter-century as a high-powered T Silicon Valley attorney, Charnas suddenly reinvented himself, turning Music Man: serious, full-time student of jazz guitar and vocals. Then, in the blink of an eye—in a swift bloom of crimson in his prodigious brain—life reinvented Charnas again, laying him low as a grave.

Spring 2013 | Transcript | 21 Carpe diem, folks, because you never know when your own pants”—which Charnas sported at Halloween. That wasn’t personal asteroid might hit. Also: Never give in—never. the only whimsical fashion statement. “There was the Look how Charles Charnas has come back—clawed and enduring mystery of the baseball cap, too,” says Baskins. crawled and walked and danced and sung his way back— “Most guys in the Valley didn’t wear ties, but Charles would from the edge of the dark abyss, and beyond. show up for meetings in a tie and a baseball cap.” Beneath the cap was a detail-driven mind and a hercu- ACT 1: THE LEGAL EAGLE lean work ethic. In 18 years at HP, Charnas rode herd over Actually, before Act 1, there was a prologue that could be dozens of M&A deals. “Holy cow, that man used to work a subtitled “The Charmed Life”: Boy meets girl; boy gets girl; ton of hours,” says Paul Porrini, who joined Charnas’ team boy gets first-rate legal education; boy gets editorship of when HP acquired his employer, Bluestone Software, in California Law Review; boy gets hired by two top law firms— 2001. Now general counsel at digital-advertising giant Pillsbury in San Francisco, then Cooley Godward in Palo YuMe, Porrini marvels, “I used to see Charles leaving HP Alto—working with A-list corporate clients. every night with his laptop and two satchels of work for But Charnas wanted to be on the inside—working. the evening. He was very driven, very focused on his career, In 1989, just five years out of Boalt, he got a shot. Ann yes—but he also had an easy style with people reporting to Baskins, a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) attorney at him. I found working with him fun, and I learned a lot.” Hewlett-Packard, was swamped. Tech companies were grow- The biggest and thorniest deal Charnas worked was HP’s ing like crazy, and M&A was the growth mechanism of choice. merger with rival computer-maker Compaq. The $25 bil- “I used to say that I was ‘running the corporate M&A group’ lion deal, roughed out in September 2001, was meant to at HP,” says Baskins, “but essentially I was the corporate make HP the world’s largest manufacturer of personal M&A group. We needed to hire another lawyer, and Charles computers. HP’s management—especially CEO Carly was one of the people we interviewed. Clearly he was very Fiorina—was bullish on the merger, but members of both smart, and he had an interesting background.” the Hewlett and Packard families fought it. But other HP attorneys weren’t as wowed by the candi- In September 2006, Charnas’ boss—Ann Baskins, who’d date, Baskins recalls. “They said, ‘This guy’s too serious; risen to general counsel—left HP, a casualty of the “pretex- he’s got no sense of humor.’ But I knew that when he was ting” scandal: the revelation that the firm had hired inves- an undergrad at Stanford, he worked at the student radio tigators to spy on its own board of directors in search of station, KZSU—‘the Zoo,’ we called it. I said, ‘Anybody who information leaks, obtaining phone records under the pre- worked at the Zoo has to have a sense of humor.’ And I was text of being the directors themselves. When Baskins left, right.” Case in point? The golf pants—“incredibly loud golf Charnas was named HP’s acting general counsel. “Scandals are not necessarily great for companies,” notes Porrini, “but they can be great times for lawyers to shine. Charles had natural leadership and a calm demeanor, which is very helpful when everyone else is panicking. He also had the technical skills—the legal smarts and the solid judgment— to figure out the way forward.” Charnas had hoped to be confirmed as permanent general counsel. In early 2007, though, the job went to Michael Holston, a corporate litigator and former prosecutor who had defended HP during the pretexting scandal. Holston lasted only a few years before departing, but by then Charnas was gone; he left in early 2008. His exit was well-timed, turns out. The past five years have been a rocky ride for HP, most of it steeply downhill: The company is on its fifth CEO since Fiorina; it paid $14.5 million to settle the pretexting lawsuit filed by the California attorney general; and HP stock tanked in 2012, prompting the layoff of 27,000 workers. Charnas, by contrast, seemed to have landed in high-tech heaven: His new job was heading the Corporate Law Department at Apple Inc., which Steve Jobs—another guy who didn’t get the “no second acts” memo—had resurrected STEP BY STEP: Two years after Charles Charnas survived a with a string of chic, consumer-friendly hits, including the traumatic brain injury, his wife Margaret says: “My kids have a dad; we’re taking trips and going places.” iPod, iTunes, and the iPhone. Apple’s corporate law post Jim Block Jim had been vacant for eight years, so there was plenty of

22 | Transcript | FALL-winterSpring 2013 2008 catching up to do. Charnas jumped into overseeing acquisitions, as well as streamlining the number of outside law THE WORST OF firms on Apple’s new “preferred provider” list. But Apple turned out to be radically different from HP. At HP, the hours were long and the work was intense, but TIMES, THE BEST the culture was highly collegial. Not so at Apple. “I spent many hours with Steve Jobs,” Charnas says. “I got along fine with Steve—he was an interesting guy, and I enjoyed OF COLLEAGUES working for him. But Apple was not an easy place to work.” His wife, Margaret, puts it more bluntly. “It was a brutal, The year after her ouster, Carly Fiorina—Hewlett- mean-spirited place,” she says. “Charles really wanted to Packard’s former CEO—published a memoir, Tough work at Apple, but the culture there was horrific.” Choices (Portfolio, 2006), chronicling her career and It was time for Act 2. struggles at HP. One passage describes her feelings the day she learned that the Packard Family Founda- ACT 2: THE JAZZ SINGER tion opposed the HP-Compaq merger: To appreciate Charnas’ second act, it’s helpful to recall a watershed moment in television advertising. Almost three As I sat alone in my office late that decades after it debuted, Apple Computer’s “1984” com- Friday evening, after all the meetings mercial, promoting the new Macintosh, still ranks as one of the most powerful ads of all time. It aired only once: on were over, I felt numb. … It was Charles January 22, 1984, to an audience of 77 million Super Bowl Charnas who gave me the push I needed. viewers. The ad opens with an army of grim, gray figures He was one of the old-timers, a lawyer marching lockstep into a gray auditorium, as a gray-faced with a wicked sense of humor during Big Brother figure spews Orwellian ideology at them from a mammoth screen. Suddenly, amid the gray, a splash of off-hours who was usually pretty quiet color and motion: A lithe, strong woman—vivid in red shorts, in the office. I didn’t know him very well white singlet, tanned limbs, platinum hair—sprints into then, although I knew he was a con- the auditorium, pursued by helmeted, baton-wielding riot summate professional and good at his police. She carries something in both hands—a sledgehammer, we see—and when she nears the Big Brother screen, job. Now he stuck his head in the office. she whirls once, twice, three times and hurls the hammer, “Carly, I know you’re disappointed. We shattering the screen in a brilliant explosion. all are. I want you to know that I believe Now fast-forward to 2010, and to Charnas. Twenty months in you, and I believe in this deal and I after signing on to head Apple’s Corporate Law Department, Charnas hit Send on a brief email message: “Today is my know you will prevail.” I tried to express last day at Apple.” my gratitude, but I’m not sure he really His early, abrupt exit baffled legal observers in Silicon knew how important his gesture was. Valley. “It’s not clear where Charnas might be headed,” puzzled The Recorder’s online site. “Neither he nor Apple returned phone calls and emails seeking comment. The chance to take a serious shot at music while he still could. email obtained by The Recorder did not include details “I figured maybe I could do it at 52,” he says, “but probably about future plans.” not at 70. So I thought, ‘why not?’” But plans there were. It wasn’t a sledgehammer Charnas Charnas enrolled at the Jazzschool Institute, a Berkeley flung, figuratively, at Apple’s screens. It was a guitar. He conservatory geared to preparing musicians for profes- walked away—turned his back on one of the juiciest legal sional careers. He also took private guitar lessons from gigs in the world—to make music. Institute faculty member Danny Caron, a Grammy Award- It wasn’t as overnight a decision at it might seem. He’d winning Bay Area guitarist. After nine months of lessons— been an avid guitarist since youth. During college at which Charnas tackled with characteristic intensity—Caron Stanford—when Margaret, his girlfriend at the time, spent posed a surprising question: “Why don’t you record a CD?” a semester in Italy—Charles spent the same semester in Caron had played with big-name musicians, including France, studying guitar at a school in Villefranche sur Mer, Charles Brown, Clifton Chenier, Van Morrison, Dr. John, the first town east of Nice. There wasn’t too much time for Bonnie Raitt, and John Lee Hooker. So why this amateur? guitar during his years of frenzied M&A work. But the end “Charles had learned a lot about music in a very short time,” of his Apple gig was the start of a sabbatical, as he saw it: a Caron says. “He was doing improvisation and theory. He’d

Spring 2013 | Transcript | 23 24 Hospital, where the ambulance had gone. friends jumpedinthecarand raced toSanFrancisco General in thebathroomandfractured hisskull.” Margaret andher security guard,” she says. “He told me that a guy had fallen Margaret knew something was seriously wrong. “I found a was closing, and the car was still in valet parking. By now for some reason. No sign of him there, either. walked backtotherestaurant, thinkingmaybe he’d returned the concert, they looked for him there, but didn’t find him. recalls, “so he said he’d stand go in the back.” At the end of settled intotheirseats. “ButCharlie’s backwas stiff,” Margaret restaurant near Davies Hall, then walked a few blocks and They dined—Charles, Margaret, and two old friends—at a ACT 3: THE COMEBACK KID mind. weekend and saidband a good he’d see them in a few days. at Davies Symphony HallinSanFrancisco. Charnasbidthe greats: iconiccroonerTony Bennett, performingforSFJAZZ to getlast-minute vocal inspirationfromoneofthe all-time over theweekend—Memorial Day weekend—Charles hoped when Charles would record the final vocals. Meanwhile, low. They booked the studio again for the following week, unpolished, but something for the instrumentalists to fol some guitarandsang allofthescratchvocals— liked Charles, andthemusicwas good.” Charnasplayed in twosix-orseven-hour days. gig,everybody Itwas agood sessions reallywell,” says Caron. “We finishedthetracking standards, half of them tunes by Charnas. “Charles ran the quickly laiddown thetracksforadozen songs:halfjazz studio. With backing from A-list studio musicians, they tated, initially daunted, then decidedfor it. to go ous about learning to play guitar and sing.” Charnas hesi begun writing tunes. He’d gotten very excited and very seri “General’s a pretty rough hospital,” says Margaret. “We They hurriedbacktothesymphony hall;the building They didn’t findhiminthelobby, oroutfront,sothey Life had other 3 in plans in mind forhim. Life had Act In May 2011, CharnasandCaronbooked aBerkeley sound

Transc ript board oftrusteesSFJAZZ. JAZZED UP: Charnas, anaccomplishedmusician,issecretary ofthe

| Spring 2013 - - -

irrigate it,he’llbedeadwithinanhour. Pleasesignthis part oftheskull,andfindbleedcauterizeit said,geon ‘Ifwedon’t operatenow andremove amajor cation he had been taking for a few years. “The neurosur the blow tohisheadandCoumadin,ablood-thinningmedi- toma—a brain bleed—resulting from a deadly combination: him to die—from bleeding, or from clotting?’” him to die—from bleeding, or from clotting?’” we puthimback onbloodthinner?Whichway dowewant clot. “The question then,” Margaret relates, ‘Do “became, counteract the Coumadin. But that step a blood triggered the brain bleed, the trauma team gave him medication to his brain stem and killed him. the inexorable swelling and pressure would have crushed ters. If Charnas hadn’t had the craniectomy, Manley says, allowing thewoundedtobetaken toadvancedtraumacen- By relieving intracranial pressure, the procedure buys time, soldiers suffering head woundsin Iraq and Afghanistan. as6500B.C.)—hasago beenhelpingsave thelives ofU.S. ible version of trepanation (used to treat seizures as long to expand.Inrecentyears, craniectomy—a high-tech,revers- portion oftheskull,togive theinjured,swelling brain room flap,”craniectomy: temporarilyremoving a “bone a large graduate student, we didn’t even try to treat.” have many peoplesurvivingtraumasthat,whenIwas a We’ve beenrealpioneersinresearchandtreatmentwe say, even bother?’ Butwehave ‘Why alot ofexperiencehere. in apatientwho’s onbloodthinners?Most placeswould that canbeaself-fulfillingprophecy. Traumaticbraininjury is very nihilistic about outcomes for patients like this, but ment andcardiaccareby 50years. “Themedicalcommunity many hospitals, hesays, brain-traumacarelagscancertreat- internationally recognized authority on neurotrauma. In fied foratraumaticbraininjuryprogram;Manleyisan In 2011, SFGeneralbecamethenation’s first hospitalcerti- Geoff Manley, SF General’s chief of neurosurgery. Indeed. paper.’ I signed the paper.” By 2 a.m., he was in surgery. But even after surgery, Charnas faced long odds. To stop Charnas’ only hope, says Manley, was adecompressive “Charles was at the right place atthe right time,” says Dr. walk into the ER in our dress clothes, and that Charleshadamassive subduralhema- neurosurgeon came out and told Margaret He was whisked away forascan;soon, a seizure,andhisvitalsstarted cutting out.” even know me,andthenhestarted having “really outofit,” Margaret says. “He didn’t social worker tookhertoCharles, whowas trouble.” she says. “Iknewwewereinreal a socialworker comesoutwithaclipboard,” looking forCharlesCharnas. “Inaminute, watching them.” Margaret said shewas we seepeoplecuffedtogurneys, withpolice The troublewas just beginning.The -

Jim Block Fortunately, he avoided both fates. After a week in inten- sive care, he was transferred to three different Kaiser facili- LISTEN UP. ties for 2½ months before returning home, where Margaret

and their two college-age children, Nate and Juliet, took

Lewis – drums, John Shiﬄett – bass bass – Shiﬄett John drums, – Lewis

John R. Burr – piano, Erik Jekabson – trumpet, Jason Jason trumpet, – Jekabson Erik piano, – Burr R. John primary care of him. That’s when the real work began. “We bass – Shiﬄett

Charles Charnas – vocals, Danny Caron – guitar, guitar, – Caron Danny vocals, – Charnas Charles John R. Burr – piano, Jason Lewis – drums, John John drums, – Lewis Jason piano, – Burr R. John

6. When Walking (5:48) Walking When 6. Charles Charnas – vocals, Danny Caron – guitar, guitar, – Caron Danny vocals, – Charnas Charles

DRINK UP. (4:58) Up Wake I When 12.

Shiﬄett – bass – Shiﬄett

John R. Burr – piano, Jason Lewis – drums, John John drums, – Lewis Jason piano, – Burr R. John

got an amazing team of nurses,” says Margaret, “and he had bass – Shiﬄett John drums, - Lewis Charles N. Charnas, Charles Charnas Music Publishing Company, 2012 Charles N. Charnas Charnas N. Charles 2012 Company, Publishing Music Charnas Charles Charnas, N. Charles

Charles Charnas – vocals, Danny Caron – guitar, guitar, – Caron Danny vocals, – Charnas Charles John R. Burr – piano, Joe Cohen - tenor sax, Jason Jason sax, tenor - Cohen Joe piano, – Burr R. John When I Wake Up Up Wake I When 4:58 12.

5. House Where Nobody Lives (5:04) Lives Nobody Where House 5. Charles Charnas – vocals, Danny Caron – guitar, guitar, – Caron Danny vocals, – Charnas Charles Charles N. Charnas, Charles Charnas Music Publishing Company, 2012 Charles N. Charnas Charnas N. Charles 2012 Company, Publishing Music Charnas Charles Charnas, N. Charles

Walk Indian 4:26 11. 11. Indian Walk (4:26) Walk Indian 11.

Wallace - trombone trombone - Wallace Maria Teresa Vera Morva, Sociedad General de Autores de Espana de Autores de General Sociedad Morva, Vera Teresa Maria

lots and lots of therapies—everything we could possibly Anos Veinte 5:15 10. Santos – percussion, John Shiﬄett - bass, Wayne Wayne bass, - Shiﬄett John percussion, – Santos bass, Wayne Wallace – tenor sax tenor – Wallace Wayne bass,

Camilo Lauder - tres, Jason Lewis - drums, John John drums, - Lewis Jason tres, - Lauder Camilo – drums, John Santos - percussion, John Shiﬄett – – Shiﬄett John percussion, - Santos John drums, – Charles N. Charnas, Charles Charnas Music Publishing Company, 2012 Charles N. Charnas Charnas N. Charles 2012 Company, Publishing Music Charnas Charles Charnas, N. Charles

Sleepyhead Sleepyhead

4:46 9.

Charles Charnas - vocals, John R. Burr – piano, piano, – Burr R. John vocals, - Charnas Charles

Tall Drink of Water, Charles Charnas’ Lewis Jason tres, – debutLauder Camilo sax, tenor - Cohen

Irving Berlin, Irving Berlin Music Company Company Music Berlin Irving Berlin, Irving 4. Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise (4:26) Sunrise Morning a in as Softly, 4. Charles Charnas – vocals, John R. Burr – piano, Joe Joe piano, – Burr R. John vocals, – Charnas Charles

If I Had You You Had I If 3:58 8.

throw at him. He still walks stiffly, and he’s got a dent in (5:15) Anos Veinte 10.

Charnas N. Charles 2012 Company, Publishing Music Charnas Charles Charnas, N. Charles organ, Jason Lewis - drums, John Shiﬄett - bass bass - Shiﬄett John drums, - Lewis Jason organ,

Smoke Signal Signal Smoke

4:52 7.

R. Burr - piano, Wayne de la Cruz - Hammond B3 B3 Hammond - Cruz la de Wayne piano, - Burr R. Lewis – drums, John Shiﬄett – bass bass – Shiﬄett John drums, – Lewis

Charnas N. Charles 2012 Company, Publishing Music Charnas Charles Charnas, N. Charles

Charles Charnas - vocals, Danny Caron - guitar, John John guitar, - Caron Danny vocals, - Charnas Charles

CD, contains a dozen mellow tunes—half Jason sax, tenor - Cohen Joe piano, of– Burr R. John When Walking Walking When

5:48 6.

3. Please Send Me Someone To Love (5:02) Love To Someone Me Send Please 3. Charles Charnas – vocals, Danny Caron – guitar, guitar, – Caron Danny vocals, – Charnas Charles

Tom Waits, Jalma Music Music Jalma Waits, Tom

his head, but look—two years later, here we are, having a (4:46) Sleepyhead 9.

House Where Nobody Lives Nobody Where House

5:04 5.

organ, Jason Lewis - drums, John Shiﬄett - bass bass - Shiﬄett John drums, - Lewis Jason organ,

Sigmund Romberg and Oscar Hammerstein, Bambalina Music Publishing Co. Publishing Music Bambalina Hammerstein, Oscar and Romberg Sigmund Cohen - tenor sax, Wayne de la Cruz - Hammond B3 B3 Hammond - Cruz la de Wayne sax, tenor - Cohen Lewis – drums, John Shiﬄett – bass – Shiﬄett John drums, – Lewis

Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise Sunrise Morning a in as Softly, 4:26 4. Charles Charnas - vocals, Danny Caron - guitar, Joe Joe guitar, - Caron Danny vocals, - Charnas Charles

them jazz standards, the other half songsJason sax tenor - Cohen Joe piano, – ofBurr R. John Percy Mayﬁeld, Sony ATV Songs ATV Sony Mayﬁeld, Percy 2. What Is This Thing Called Love? (3:53) Love? Called Thing This Is What 2. Charles Charnas – vocals, Danny Caron – guitar, guitar, – Caron Danny vocals, – Charnas Charles

Please Send Me Someone to Love Love to Someone Me Send Please

5:02 3. life. My kids have a dad; we’re taking trips and going places; (3:58) You Had I If 8.

Cole Porter, WB Music Corp. Music WB Porter, Cole trombone trombone

Love? Called Thing This Is What

3:53 2.

percussion, John Shifflett – bass, Wayne Wallace – – Wallace Wayne bass, – Shifflett John percussion, Lewis – drums, John Shifflett – bass bass – Shifflett John drums, – Lewis

Charnas N. Charles 2012 Company, Publishing Music Charnas Charles Charnas, N. Charles Calloway – ﬂute, Jason Lewis - drums, John Santos – – Santos John drums, - Lewis Jason ﬂute, – Calloway John R. Burr – piano, Joe Cohen - tenor sax, Jason Jason sax, tenor - Cohen Joe piano, – Burr R. John

Guy That about Something There's

4:34 his own writing—all sung in Charnas’1. heart-

Charles Charnas - vocals, John R. Burr – piano, John John piano, – Burr R. John vocals, - Charnas Charles

he’s upbeat and making dinner, and that’s wonderful— guitar, – Caron Danny vocals, – Charnas Charles 1. Something about That Guy (4:34) Guy That about Something 1. felt, unpretentious tenor. One (4:52) Signal Smoke 7. wonderful—considering how everything had been Tall of Drink Water Tall taken away.” of them, “When I Wake Up,” Drink of Charles Charnas Danny Caron John R. Burr John Shiﬂett Jason Lewis Joe Cohen The real work continues. “I go to speech therapy three Water sounds writtenProduced by Danny Caronwith and Charles Charnas the benefit Recorded at San Pablo Recorders, Berkeley, CA Engineered by Jon Evans Mixed by Bruce Kaphan, Niagara Falls Studios, Niles, California times a week,” Charnas says, “and I spend an hour a day Mastering Engineer - Ken Lee Mastering of post-traumaGraphic design by Blumberghindsight. Design In Additional photographs by Margaret Charnas Inspiration by Nate and Juliet Charnas doing Luminosity, online crosswords, and other brain exer- All vocals were recorded live at San Pablo Recorders, except Veinte Anos fact, says DannyWith many thanks for theirCaron, encouragement and support to theMargaret, Nate and CD’s Juliet Charles Charnas; gifted teacher Rick Heizman; Barbara Linn; Susan Muscarella and the entire Charnas

Jazz School community; Randall Kline and SFJAZZ; Lawrence Shore, Marc Shuman Charnas Charles cises.” Also online, he’s finished earning a master’s certifi- and Jamie Goodman; Tom Casciato; Ken Weinrib; Jon Evans and San Pablo Recorders; lead guitaristKen Lee, andGail Blumberg; Todd Gascon;co-producer, OUM; and the extraordinary musicians with whom I had the privilege of recording - John R. Burr, John Shiﬂett, Jason Lewis, Joe Cohen, Erik Jekabson, Wayne Wallace, John Calloway, John Santos, Camilo Lauder, cate through Boston’s famed Berklee College of Music, a Wayne de la Cruz and especially Danny Caron.

the song—whichCCR001 he calls “pre- program he’d started before his injury. scient”—was penned months One day last year, guitarist Caron’s phone rang. “It was Charles,” Caron says, “and he said, ‘Hey, weren’t we making before the close brush with death. a CD?’” Caron was pleasantly surprised. “I’d gone to visit The opening lines of “When I Wake Up” are: four or five months after his accident,” he says, “and he barely remembered me; barely remembered playing guitar. Six There’s a little thing I say to myself, all months later, he’s wanting to finish the CD.” And so they did, my own editing and mastering the 12 tracks, tweaking the mix, and A watchword I repeat that’s just for me releasing his CD, Tall Drink of Water, in January 2013. Charnas has been ramping up on other fronts besides When I wake up with the dawn and music. Now secretary of the board of trustees of SFJAZZ, I greet the morning sun he helped raise the money to build SFJAZZ Center, which JazzTimes calls a “breathtaking” new facility. He’s also When I wake up and begin a brand joined the board of directors at San Francisco General new day Hospital Foundation. One of his foundation colleagues is I look into the mirror, I look right Dr. Manley, who calls Charnas “an outstanding example” at myself of swift, successful treatment. With Charnas’ persuasive, power-of-example help, Manley hopes to raise millions to And I promise that today will be okay create “the neuro ICU of the future.” That’s not all. This past spring, Charnas dipped a toe into Two other lines in the song also seem preter- the legal pool, back at Boalt, an invited guest in professor naturally apt: “No, I can’t foretell the future Eric Talley’s Mergers & Acquisitions class. It’s only a first and the past is now long gone,” goes one. The step—after all, he could have taught this course three years other: “Predictable it’s not, and that’s the ago—but an important, hopeful step. “I’m starting to think beauty of the road.” about practicing law again,” he says. “I love corporate law; Tall Drink of Water—Charnas’ love song to I just love it.” jazz and to life—is available on Amazon.com Margaret concurs. “Except for his family, he loves the and iTunes. law more than anything in life. Before his accident, when he was studying music and working on the CD, he was already starting to talk to people about another law job. improvisation—nimble, virtuosic, even startling improvi- We’ll have to see what happens. But he loved being back on sation—that the art and the genius really shine. n campus this spring, loved being back in the mix.” The mix: It matters, in music and in life. Charnas’ own Freelancer Jon Jefferson is a New York Times bestselling life—three acts and counting—looks a lot like jazz at this novelist. Collaborating with renowned forensic anthropolo- point. Underneath, there’s theory and structure and order. gist William Bass as “Jefferson Bass,” he’s written seven But jazz requires a lot of improvisation, too. And it’s in the crime novels, as well as two nonfiction books.

Spring 2013 | Transcript | 25 CROSSED THAT BRIDGE: After launching his career at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York, Matt McDermott ’03 decided to return to his home state, Iowa, where he soon made partner at a 35-person firm in Des Moines.

26 | Transcript | Spring 2013 Thinking Outside The (Big Law) Box

Boalt alums find happiness on the road less traveled By Jon Jefferson

ig Law: As career paths go, it’s the high road—high salaries, high Iowa T-shirt, Italian Shoes prestige—and for law school graduates with the mindset and the Matt McDermott ’03 thought he’d shaken the Iowa dirt off his shoes. skills, it’s the road most traveled. Or at least it used to be, before the Turns out he thought wrong. economic downturn began transforming it into a limited-access high- An archetypal small-town boy with way. Of 2011 law school graduates reporting their job-search outcome smarts and ambition, McDermott grew to the National Association for Law Placement, just 12 percent were hired by up in Carroll, population 10,000. His B father sold seed to farmers. Des Moines firms of more than 100 attorneys; 20 percent, by contrast, joined firms of two was a hundred miles and another world to 10 attorneys or went solo. away. “It was the big city,” he recalls. “The place we’d go every year before The picture is different—and far rosier—for Boalt alums, who weren’t hit nearly school started, to get our new shoes.” as hard by the downturn. For them, the doors of Big Law remain wide open, As a senior at the University of Iowa, according to stats from Assistant Dean Terry Galligan of the school’s Career McDermott landed a summer intern- ship in Washington, D.C. “That was Development Office: Of the class of 2012, 54 percent took jobs at firms of more the first time I’d spent much time out- than 100 attorneys, while only 3 percent went to firms of two to 10 attorneys, side of Iowa,” he says, “and it was a and none into solo practice. But even for Boalt students, options have narrowed, great experience. So when I came back that fall and started applying to law notes Galligan, with fewer offers to choose from than before the recession. schools, I applied everywhere but the Galligan attributes the tightening to “structural changes” in the legal market- Midwest. I had this George Bailey-It’s place, including technology advances and the rise of outsourcing. “Those changes a Wonderful Life thing going, you know? I just wanted to get out of where are here to stay,” he predicts. I was from.” Alternative paths can be harder to find and tougher to navigate. But they can Berkeley was a glittering new world. “I remember walking into the library also offer unique rewards, more interesting journeys. These four Boalt alums—all and just being blown away,” he says. of whom have ventured off the beaten track of Big Law—are living, lawyerly proof. “Boalt was this impressive place in this photography BY David Peterson Spring 2013 | Transcript | 27 impressive city in this impressive region, and there was so dreamer who travels over the rainbow to a challenging, much going on—so much energy. I wanted to be part of that.” dazzling city, then chooses to return home—bringing back As a 2L, he interviewed for summer internships in New wisdom, gratitude, and a great new pair of shoes. York. “It was early October of 2001,” he recalls, “and the ruins of the World Trade Center were still smoldering. New Share and Share Alike York at that time was unlike any place I’d ever been.” When it comes to sharing with others, Janelle Orsi ’07 McDermott felt drawn to the city; also to Cravath, Swaine practices what she preaches. When it comes to balancing & Moore, where he’d landed an interview, and then an offer. work with other things, not so much. That next summer, McDermott—whose good shoes had Orsi, an Oakland solo practitioner, specializes in a new always come from Des Moines—walked into Saks Fifth Avenue niche: “sharing law.” She even wrote the book on it: and walked out with a pair of black Salvatore Ferragamos. Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy (ABA Books, 2012). “Awesome shoes,” he says. “They cost, I don’t know, 450 Orsi became fascinated with the concepts of sharing and bucks or something. Suddenly it hit me: ‘When did you start community during law school, when she lived in “casual caring about Italian dress shoes? ’ It unnerved me a bit— cohousing”: a house and two condos, bought by a group of though not enough to not buy the shoes; I still have them.” friends who pooled their money. The group also shared a But the question was a seed, germinating in a crevice of car, a vacuum cleaner, a garden, meals. Orsi liked living in McDermott’s mind that fall after he returned to Berkeley. community, and decided to launch a law practice to help Also germinating was another seed, planted two years others do so, too. before. One day in Café Zeb, McDermott had struck up a Going solo straight out of law school was a bold, unortho- conversation with a 2L—Des Moines native Nate Barber dox move. But Orsi—homeschooled from age 10 and enrolled ’02—who’d noticed McDermott’s University of Iowa T-shirt. in community college at 14—was accustomed to marching “Nate said, ‘Have you thought about going back to Iowa to to a different drummer. “I felt that it was OK to do some- practice?’ I said, ‘No way, man. I’m done with Iowa. That’s thing completely different,” she says, “and that I could make why I’m here.’ Nate said, ‘Well, if you change your mind, I it work.” know a firm in Des Moines…’” The fall of his third year, Her navigation has been good—she’s right on course—but McDermott did change his mind. “A lot of people at Berkeley her timing’s way off, in a positive way: Orsi is running sev- were surprised when I said no to Cravath so I could head eral years ahead of the sensible pace she’d envisioned. “Like back to this flyover state to practice at a 35-person firm,” anybody trying to start up a law practice,” she recalls, “I he says. “But I’d done a lot of thinking after I came back got out and met a lot of people, went to a lot of events, told from New York about what I wanted to do—about who I lots of people, ‘Hey, I’m a new lawyer in town, and I focus wanted to be”—and he’d decided that being a small cog in on sharing—sharing housing, cars, child care, gardens.’ At a big machine wasn’t it. Even McDermott’s Italian shoes, the time, most people had never heard of sharing law, but turned out, had picked up a tenacious dusting of Iowa soil. they seemed to think it was pretty cool.” Orsi’s website Eight years later, McDermott is firmly rooted in Des Moines summarizes her practice like this: “She works with social and firmly rooted—already a partner—at Belin McCormick, enterprises, nonprofits, cooperatives, community gardens, where he specializes in civil and criminal trials and appeals, cohousing communities, ecovillages, and others doing inno- along with commercial litigation and agricultural law. It is vative work to change the world.” Iowa, after all. Married and the father of two, with a third Six months out, Orsi gave her sharing spiel yet again— on the way, he’s also deeply involved in his kids’ schools this time to Nolo Press editor Emily Doskow—who sug- and his community. At age 29—drawing on his Berkeley gested a book on sharing. “I’d dreamed of doing a book,” experience at the East Bay Community Law Center— says Orsi, “but I’d thought it would be after years of prac- McDermott became board president of Iowa’s largest shel- ticing, not six months!” Orsi and Doskow co-authored The ter for homeless people. “One of the great things about Des Sharing Solution (Nolo, 2008), and Orsi gave dozens of talks Moines,” he says, “is that if you’re willing to work hard and and interviews when it came out. Good reviews and wide show initiative, you can quickly take on meaningful lead- exposure put her practice on the fast track. That’s not to ership roles.” say it was easy, or lucrative. “I didn’t make much money The same holds true, he notes, of practicing in a mid-size my first two years,” she concedes, “but I kept my cost of firm. “I’m sure I’ve gotten to handle more types of cases, living and my overhead low, and I made it work.” and have more client involvement, much sooner at Belin Two years after starting her practice, Orsi and another McCormick than I would have at Cravath. I liked Cravath, community-minded attorney, Jenny Kassan, co-founded a and I’m grateful for the opportunity they offered. But here? national nonprofit organization, the Sustainable Economies I’ve got what I want in a career and what I want in my life.” Law Center. There, lawyers and apprentices help individu- If McDermott evokes George Bailey, he also evokes als and groups overcome financial, legal, regulatory, and

another archetypal film character: Dorothy, the restless other barriers to unconventional ventures, particularly

28 | Transcript | FALL-winSpring 2013ter 2008 photography BY JIM BLOCK FAIR SHARER: on “sharinglaw.” other endeavorfocused ties LegalCafé—yetan- at theResilientCommuni- helps herillustratepoints hobbythat cartooning—a writing books,and nonprofit sheco-founded, through acommunity legaladvice tice, offering between runningherprac- Orsi ’07divideshertime

Janelle Spring 2013 |

Transcript

29 FLEX TIME: Most of the 50 attorneys at Paragon Legal Group, including founder Mae Tai O’Malley ’98, enjoy the firm’s flexible work hours and predictable schedule—part of a competitive employment package particularly appealing to women.

30 | Transcript | Spring 2013 socially or environmentally progressive ones. This endeavor, O’Malley’s story began, like most good stories, somewhere which Orsi directs, has also grown faster than she expected. other than where it’s led: Her out-of-the-box tale started “The organization recently launched a new Bay Area proj- squarely inside the box—at the San Francisco mothership ect,” she says, “the Resilient Communities Legal Café. One of Morrison & Foerster. Two years later, O’Malley went in- day a week, we offer legal advice and resources at a local house, at a client firm. “The timing seemed really good,” she café or some other casual setting. It’s sort of one-third legal recalls, “because the company was about to go public.” advice clinic, one-third living classroom for lawyers and The year was 2001, and the economy was booming—but law students, and one-third community-building salon.” not for long, it turned out. “It was right at the tail end of Third by third, half by half: It’s not just a shared life Orsi the market boom,” says O’Malley. “Right before the bust. I leads; it’s also a busy, fractionated life. “The Sustainable went in-house, the company went public, and then the Economies Law Center and the café are now taking about company went bankrupt.” O’Malley was laid off, though 30 hours in a week,” she says. “So between that and my law rehired as a contractor. practice, I work”—she pauses, tallying—“probably 60 hours For the next few years, she worked a patchwork of con- a week.” Orsi laughs. “This is bad!” A fraction of a second tract legal jobs, including a part-time gig at a startup com- later, she adds, “But it’s a much happier way to live when pany. That’s when a game-changing opportunity arose: a you have a support community.” request for legal help—as many hours as O’Malley could provide—from a good friend who worked in-house at Google. Paragon of Contractual Virtue O’Malley said “yes” to the Google project. “But I wanted to Most CEOs would kill for a business model like Mae Tai hedge my bets,” she says, “so I hired someone to do the O’Malley’s ’98. Her overhead is practically nil; with 50 startup company’s work until the Google project was done.” employees on the payroll, she rents office space for just Instead, the Google project mushroomed, and O’Malley four. She doesn’t advertise, yet her revenues have grown hired more attorneys for more contract work. by double digits every year since 2006 and clients beat a Like her, most were women with young children. When path to her door, as do aspiring employees. Oh, and the O’Malley started Paragon in 2006, she had just given birth business—Paragon Legal Group—appears recession-proof, to her third child. A set number of hours and a predictable or “cycle-proof,” in O’Malley’s words. schedule soon became part of the company model, and Clearly the result of a brilliant strategic-planning effort, seven years later, O’Malley says about 85 percent of right? Paragon’s 50 attorneys are working mothers. The high per- Actually, no. It was more a matter of O’Malley figuring centage isn’t by design; in fact, O’Malley has tried to lower out a life/work balance that worked for her, and then find- it. “But we’re a very flat organization,” she says. “Everybody’s ing that it worked—really, really worked—for lots of others, paid exactly the same rate, and we don’t have a hierarchy too: not just other attorneys, but clients as well. or a partnership track. Maybe that’s one reason we don’t Changing Times, Changing CDO o help Boalt students adapt to the in qualifying public-interest jobs. “We have place, so it takes more work to figure out job market’s changes and new probably the best loan-forgiveness program what’s out there.” realities, the Career Development of any public law school now,” says Not every law school grad fits the needs Office (CDO) has made changes, Galligan, “and it’s helping a lot of our alums of a small or mid-size firm, Selim says. Ttoo, says Terry Galligan. It now has three who are interested in taking that path.” “These firms are looking for particular staffers who focus on helping students find A recent addition to the CDO staff is strengths. They want people with initiative, alternatives to the Big Law career path. Samorn Selim ’09, who helps connect entrepreneurship, and business develop- Melanie Rowen and Alex Lee, both of whom students to small, mid-size, and boutique ment skills—the ability to come in and help have experience in nonprofit organizations, firms, which generally lack the recruiting grow the business.” work to assist students interested in resources of large firms. Selim—who By the same token, the work in small and public-interest and public-sector careers. specifically sought (and successfully found) mid-size law firms doesn’t necessarily fit the “As a public institution, Boalt has a a job at a mid-size firm after graduating— needs of every student. “If you want more culture that strongly supports those career explains that the search process is structure, training, and supervision, it might choices,” Galligan notes. “Also, the dean different, and at times daunting. “It takes not be for you,” Selim concedes. “But if has recently made further improvements to more initiative,” she says. “Unlike Big Law, you’re like me—if you want to hit the ground our LRAP”—the Loan Repayment Assis- there’s no comprehensive list such as Vault running, and if you want to be writing motions tance Program, which covers up to or the National Law Journal that lists all and managing your own cases within a $100,000 in law-school debt for graduates boutique, small, and mid-size firms in one couple of years—it can be a great fit.”

photography BY JIM BLOCK Spring 2013 | Transcript | 31 attract many men,” she shrugs verbally. “We built the house, Cargill, Merck, banks, also lots of wealthy estates.” The pay and who comes, comes.” was good, and it needed to be: By the time he’d finished law Paragon’s attorneys work anywhere from 10 to 40 hours school, Jackson had one child in diapers and another on per week, with the average around 30. They receive what the way; two more followed in swift succession. “There O’Malley calls very competitive pay and benefits. Paragon’s were a lot of bills to pay,” he laughs. approach—embedding senior-level attorneys onsite within But underneath the tightly cinched collar, Jackson was client companies, on a project basis and an agreed-to starting to chafe. After eight years at Chickering & Gregory, schedule—works as well for O’Malley’s clients as it does for he jumped ship, becoming secretary and counsel at one of her employees. So far, it’s also worked in good times and bad. the firm’s clients. He spent five years there, then leapt “When the economy is robust, client need increases,” she again—into solo practice—representing a large land devel- explains, “and when things are lean and they’re laying people oper and a trade association. But San Francisco felt confin- off or unable to hire, we’re a great interim solution.” ing and in 1980, Jackson—his children grown and his The ABA Journal named O’Malley a “legal rebel” in 2009, marriage over—headed north, to Napa Valley. “I bought 10 titling her profile “Mogul Mom.” Paragon’s Google gig is acres in Calistoga back when things were still cheap, hung over, but plenty of other big clients have signed on, includ- out a shingle, and became a storefront lawyer,” he says, “a ing Netflix, Autodesk, Salesforce.com, SanDisk, and general civil and trial practitioner.” This time he stayed put LinkedIn. Asked whether she plans to take the company for a decade, a record for him, before moving on. nationwide, O’Malley hedges. “I want to be very careful Jackson grew up in Seattle, and he’d always imagined with quality control,” she says. returning to the Northwest. In 1990, he made the move, to About that strategic plan? “I don’t have a 5-, 10-, or Port Angeles, a waterfront town of 19,000 on the Olympic 20-year plan,” she concedes. “I probably should.” Or maybe Peninsula. “I found a place right on the Strait of San Juan not, she decides after a moment. “When you’re not locked de Fuca,” he says: open water once again; a storefront law into a plan, you’re more able to change and to flex. We’re practice once more, along with teaching at the local com- very lean, very nimble.” munity college. He also teamed up with a few other mav- Flexible, but predictable. Just the way she likes it. ericks to form a volunteer legal-aid clinic, Clallam County Pro Bono Lawyers. Swimming Across the Current Now 81, Jackson still works one day a week in the clinic, Halfway across the Golden Gate—not the bridge, but the often on collections and tenancy disputes. He also serves strait itself—a 37-year-old lawyer stops in mid-stroke and as a court-appointed attorney, usually representing juve- treads water. The man, like the span overhead, is suspended: niles and parents in delinquency and custody cases. He poised 250 feet below the hanging roadway, 372 feet above finds the work—the clientele—deeply satisfying. “Even back the sea-channel’s floor, steady amid currents of water and in law school,” he says, “it struck me that there’s a funda- air. “Swimming underneath that bridge, looking up at it mental disparity between those who can afford legal from below, is just amazing,” says Harry Jackson ’56. “One representation and those who can’t. But justice is for every- of the most exciting experiences I’ve ever had.” body—or should be. The bullying that goes on, by those Jackson—a serious swimmer for decades—swam the with wealth against those without it—it’s disgraceful.” He Golden Gate only that once, in 1969. But the feat seems pauses, treading water. “I represented the rich and power- emblematic of his 57-year legal career: He likes open water, ful for 30 years. Now I’m representing the underdogs. unmarked lanes, uncrowded territory. Goodbye, cognitive dissonance.” It took some time for Jackson’s nonconformist colors During Jackson’s San Francisco Bay swimming days, he to show. His first dozen years in practice were conven- once swam from Alcatraz to Fisherman’s Wharf. “I got tional—possibly because of parental influences: the values caught in an ebb current,” he says, “and it took me way off instilled by his mother and father, and the financial pres- course. That was over 40 years ago.” sures posed by his early, prolific procreation. “I grew up Here’s the thing about an ebb current: It’s too powerful during the Depression,” Jackson says, “and the work ethic— to outswim; too strong to oppose directly. A swimmer’s only ‘get a job and earn your pay’—was drilled into me early.” hope is to angle across it; change course; embrace a new During law school, he juggled three jobs: two part-time heading, a different direction. campus gigs during the week, plus weekend shifts in an That way lies survival. Adventure and fulfillment, too, envelope factory. judging by Jackson, O’Malley, Orsi, and McDermott. n After Boalt, he clerked in federal district court in San Francisco and then took an associate’s job doing transac- Freelancer Jon Jefferson is a New York Times bestselling tions and litigation at Chickering & Gregory, a firm whose novelist. Collaborating with renowned forensic anthropolo- three dozen lawyers made it fairly large, by 1958 standards. gist William Bass as “Jefferson Bass,” he’s written seven

“We represented big companies,” Jackson says, “Caterpillar, crime novels, as well as two nonfiction books.

32 | Transcript | Spring 2013 photography BY Rick Dahms MAKING WAVES: With a move to Washington state in his late 50s, Harry Jackson ’56 formed a solo practice and a volunteer legal-aid clinic for the disadvantaged, an undertaking he finds “deeply satisfying.” 25 Years and Counting ... on EBCLC

Tirien Steinbach ’99 and Jeff Selbin consider the East Bay Community Law Center’s rise from three staffers sharing a typewriter to its role as a major legal resource Interviewed by Andrew Cohen

irien Steinbach ’99 and Jeff Selbin talk about the and health care. As federal and state budget cuts to myriad services threaten East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) the way the stability and security of disadvan- proud parents talk about their children. Which taged families, EBCLC has carefully makes sense, given the time and care both have expanded its programming while giving Boalt students invaluable clinical T invested in guiding the center’s development. experience. The growth of EBCLC, which celebrates its 25th anniversary Steinbach, an EBCLC staffer for 12 this year, was as unlikely as it is inspiring. Founded by a group years and executive director since 2007, has won numerous fellowships of persistent Boalt students and launched with a skeleton and awards for her tireless work on behalf of the disenfran- staff and donated supplies, it has blossomed into a local chised. Selbin, EBCLC’s faculty director and a leading figure institution—and Alameda County’s largest provider of legal in clinical education and anti-poverty law, founded the services to low-income residents. center’s HIV/AIDS Law Project in 1990 and preceded With 30 full-time employees, EBCLC now assists several Steinbach as executive director from 2002 to 2006. Together, thousand clients and many community groups each year they co-teach “Community Law Practice at EBCLC,” a com- with legal matters directly affecting their income, shelter, panion seminar for the roughly 80 Boalt students who work

34 | Transcript | Spring 2013 photography by JIM BLOCK TWO FOR ALL: Jeff Selbin and Tirien Steinbach ’99 have built the East Bay Community Law Center into Alameda County’s largest provider of legal services to low-income residents.

Spring 2013 | Transcript | 35 there each year—some of whom return after graduating to use the toolbox metaphor. Our goal is to help students launch or lead center initiatives. assemble a wide range of tools to identify and resolve cli- Recently, Steinbach and Selbin spoke about EBCLC’s ents’ legal issues. To quote Jeff: “If you only have a hammer, remarkable rise with Senior Communications Writer and everything looks like a nail.” Clients come to EBCLC with Transcript Managing Editor Andrew Cohen. different needs, capacities, competencies, and options. No one mode of lawyering is more important than another; it’s Andrew Cohen: How did EBCLC grow from such a humble about what works to move clients beyond the crisis or con- beginning to its current position serving thousands of mar- cern that brought them in the door to a place of greater ginalized clients each year? stability and opportunity. Jeff Selbin: I’d start with the vision and choices of the founding students. They diagnosed two pressing needs— The center has been consistently popular among Boalt stu- clinical training opportunities for law students and legal dents. What is it about EBCLC’s approach that successfully services for low-income clients—and hard-wired them into leverages their talents year after year? EBCLC’s mission. Next, they hired a dynamic executive JS: I think the center appeals to them at several levels. director, Bernida Reagan, who inspired staff, students, and First, most students come to law school because they want community stakeholders to maximize EBCLC’s impact in to make the world a better place. We’re an obvious outlet both dimensions. They also persuaded the law school to for their justice aspirations. Second, most students plan to support the center while maintaining its independence. practice law, and we provide them with a hands-on experi- Many staff members, students, clients, board members, and ence that’s hard to come by in many schools. Finally, I think donors have been instrumental to our success, but these we have an exceptional office culture. We expect a lot from core ingredients—a clear mission, inspiring work, and a the students, but we also treat them, each other, and the foundational partnership with the law school—have allowed clients with tremendous respect. So it’s a win-win for the EBCLC to grow and thrive. students and a huge benefit to the community.

What is the biggest challenge to EBCLC’s mission? It seems EBCLC students also forge quite a track record Tirien Steinbach: The biggest challenge is the general trend of success after graduating. of “trickle-down justice.” Government support for legal TS: I’m so proud of our alums, who go on to work in every assistance for those who can’t afford private attorneys has legal field and many professions beyond law. They’re judges, been on a fairly steady decline since the 1980s, when law firm partners, public interest attorneys, government President Reagan zero-funded the Legal Services lawyers, filmmakers, teachers, parents, and politicians. Corporation in his budget, although three-quarters of that Whenever I talk with alums, I’m always awed and touched was restored by Congress. EBCLC does not accept this by how much they tell me they gained from their experi- funding because of its restrictions on service provisions, ence at EBCLC. They often remember their former clients but we’re still impacted by the downward trend in support in vivid detail. More important, they recount the lessons for legal access and investment in law as a tool to combat they learned from both their failures and successes. I remind poverty’s causes and conditions. them that the learning and growth is reciprocal; that EBCLC, the community, and clients have benefited as much or more How gratifying is it that EBCLC alums return to lead major from the energy and effort they put into their time here. initiatives and how vital is that to the center’s growth? JS: It’s incredibly gratifying. Fourteen of our current law- How impactful is it for law students to be exposed to the yers and fellows are Boalt graduates, and most of the non- daily struggles your clients face? Boalties interned at EBCLC during one of their law school JS: It speaks to one of EBCLC’s signature contributions. summers. We never planned for EBCLC to play that role, Some of our students grew up in poverty, but most did not. but it’s been a huge bonus. The attorneys are loyal to the And regardless of their backgrounds, relatively few of them school and absolutely devoted to the center. Students ben- will spend a career working in a community-based setting efit from that passion and connection. In recent years, we’ve like EBCLC. But all of them will leave the clinic having seen become more intentional in our postgraduate training. In some of the pain and hardship of poverty. And all of them fact, postgraduate fellowships are a central piece of EBCLC’s will learn something about the capacity and limits of the 25th anniversary campaign. law and lawyers to make a difference for people living in poverty. We know from national research that clinics sus- EBCLC assists clients with consultations, referrals, full tain students’ civic commitments beyond law school, and representation, negotiation, and case management. Is one we know from our own course evaluations and alumni sur- component most critical? veys that the clinic experience is transformative for many

TS: Good lawyers are problem-solvers. Jeff and I both often students.

36 | Transcript | FALL-winterSpring 2013 2008 As the legal needs of low-income citizens evolve, how do service needs and assets in the community we intend to you decide where to allocate resources? serve. We reach out to stakeholders—legal and nonlegal TS: Over the years, we’ve developed a process to help decide service providers, government agencies, organizers, clients if, how, and when to expand programs and allocate resources. or potential clients, professors and researchers—and We start with EBCLC’s core mission of training students collect feedback on priorities. Finally, we think about sus- and providing client services, and review proposed projects tainability and ask: Do we have the staffing and expertise in the context of our five broad program areas: housing, necessary for success, and can we build that staffing over health and welfare, economic security, immigration, and time? Can we secure long-term resources to launch, grow, youth and education. We ask: Does this fit with expressed and sustain a program? How will we evaluate success and learning goals for students? Does it substantively or stra- respond to challenges? How do we ensure that this new tegically expand experiential opportunities? Would a new program will still be here tomorrow, providing relevant or expanded program broaden students’ options for train- and impactful training and services? ing and practice? Does a new program better serve existing or potential clients? Is there a significant or new need or EBCLC engages first-year students through its Community gap in services in the community that EBCLC’s unique Legal Outreach (CLO) Program. How important is that to model can fill? developing a strong infrastructure within the center? JS: CLO has existed in one form or another since EBCLC’s Are there ever conflicts within EBCLC about priorities? earliest days. It’s another testament to our founders’ vision TS: There are inherent tensions and trade-offs whenever and to the seemingly boundless capacity of Boalt students resources are allocated in one place or another. But a to do good. CLO allows 1Ls to get a taste of lawyering and thoughtful and reflective process for decision-making yields the clinic before they enroll for academic credit in their results that mitigate the conflicts and maximize long-term second and third years. It also allows us to reach even success. We try to map the legal landscape to see both the more clients in need. In addition to CLO, for almost

A quarter-century later, the center—since renamed EBCLC—is the East Bay’s largest provider of legal services to low-income residents. Now armed with 30 full-time Determined to staffers, the center has trained more than 1,200 Boalt students. “In my 25-year career, I’m the most proud Make a Difference of my involvement with EBCLC,” says Pugh, Morrison & Foerster’s firm-wide pro bono The arduous journey to establish EBCLC was fueled by counsel. “So many student-led efforts die when their original student leaders equal parts desperation and inspiration graduate, but almost everyone who comes to EBCLC seems committed to making it n the early 1980s, major budget cuts to donations from law firms, foundations, and even stronger.” social service programs created a glaring corporations to form the Berkeley Commu- Whether with housing, health care, or I need for legal services. When the Alameda nity Law Center. At the center’s September immigration, EBCLC has always been busy County Legal Aid Society had to slash its 1988 opening, Berkeley’s then-Mayor Loni helping people. With its data showing one attorney roster from 54 to 13—and close Hancock thanked the students and said lawyer for every 200 middle- and upper- its Berkeley office—a group of indignant their program would “fulfill a tremendous income Californians compared with one for Boalt students sprang into action. need.” every 20,000 low-income residents, that “Homelessness was rampant,” says Kathi The center’s original three-person staff pace will surely continue. Pugh ’90, then an elected official on the City included Brad Adams ’88, who had led the “The diminishing size of legal aid budgets of Berkeley’s Rent Stabilization Board. “We students’ efforts. has made EBCLC even more important than went to law school because we wanted to “Launching the center took a lot of work we’d imagined,” says Adams, now executive help people, but in 1988, there weren’t any and a little luck,” says Adams, who remains director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia clinics. We wanted a hands-on experience thankful that Robert Raven ’52—then Division. “Every once in a while I’ll meet that we weren’t getting in the classroom, president of the American Bar Association— someone, even overseas, who also worked and we felt like the law school had an attended the opening. “To have someone of at EBCLC. It reminds me how many obligation to give back to the community.” his stature there, speaking so supportively, dedicated people have been there over the The determined Boalt students spent two that really boosted our credibility and years, and how grateful I am to be part of

years raising more than $200,000 in fundraising.” this legacy.” —Andrew Cohen

Spring 2013 | Transcript | 37 38 back benefits that werewrongfullydenied to aclient;when cesses withstaff and students: When wewin$20,000 in TS: I’m fortunate to witness andcelebratethedailysuc- In whatareashasEBCL achieved itsgreatestsuccess? students. CLO projects, and many ofthemreturn asclinic inspiring workevery nightoftheweekthroughvarious Clinic involving dozens more1Ls. in 1Lsareengaged 20 years, EBCLC has hosted the weekly Workers’ Rights EBCLC’s strike to quiver in arrow newest the for long take didn’t It Policy Public at Aim TakesClinic Center’s New L services,” saysPAC studentEmilySoli’14. encouraging homelesspeopletoseek and thattheselawsare at ineffective sit-lie lawsactuallycreate costsfor cities, the measure byasmallmargin. economic activity. Berkeleyvotersrejected improve homelessservicesandincrease lack thereof—that theordinance would urged voterstoconsidertheevidence—or coverage. Ittooknoofficialposition,but the report garnered somelocalmedia “Does Sit-LieWork?” data—the clinicproduced areport titled an economist,andcrunchingretail sales officials, consultingwithacriminologistand with similarordinances—interviewing city After researching dozensofmunicipalities commercial districtsduringbusinesshours. banned homelesspeoplefrom sitting in “Our research seemedtoindicatethat Released before theNovemberelection,

“sit-lie” ballotmeasure thatwouldhave Clinic (PAC) tookaimatBerkeley’s aunched lastfall,thePolicyAdvocacy Transcript

| Spring 2013 safety netandworkstoimprove health, Affordable Care Actstrengthens thepublic implementation ofthePatientProtection and timely policybriefonhowtoensure that victims ofhatecrimes;andare writing a helping gayandtransgenderimmigrant created afirst-everadvocate’s guideto pending before theCalifornialegislature; Homeless Persons’BillofRights,now clients. Studentsdraftedapathbreaking pressing issuesfacingEBCLC’s individual partnerships. that explores law-related policymethodsand building. Theclinicalsoincludesaseminar rulemaking, amicusbriefs,andcoalition inadministrative lobbying, participation analysis, legislativedrafting,negotiationand methods are datacollection,research and Director Selbin.Amongitspolicy Jeff will helpshapethispolicyarea.” associated withcriminalizinghomelessness, research,“Further especiallyonthecosts Early projects havebeendrawnfrom The newclinicisledbyEBCLCFaculty

STRATEGY SESSION: more equitabletreatment ofthepoor. combine research andlegalskillstoguidepublicpolicytoward greatest successes. to meandstood upformy rights,” thosearesomeofthe or whenaclientsimplysays, “I’m gratefulsomeonelistened in itshomebecauseofEBCLC’s successfulintervention; abuse becauseofEBCLC’s whenafamilystays advocacy; tobetterchanged protect tenantsfromdiscriminationand or citizenshipbecauseofEBCLC’s work;whenalaw is and offthe street”; whenaclientisgrantedlegal residency lawyers saved my life by getting me on disability benefits a clientcomesbackyearslatertosay, “Thankyou.Your Students inEBCLC’s PolicyAdvocacyClinic dimension oflawyering.”—Andrew Cohen sustained experienceinthisimportant students canreceive traininganda and without havingtomakethattrade-off, project, wecanfocusonsystemicissues priority,” Selbinsays.“Bylaunchingthis individual clientswithemergencies take advocacy withdirect serviceworkbecause comprehensive policyclinic. care—fueled thecreation ofamore ties, suchasincome,shelter, andhealth for legalassistancerelated tolifenecessi - pressing clientdemands efforts—including practices. Butconstraintsonthose state laws,cityordinances, andadjudicative in theworldseemslimitless.” involve ourstudentsinmakingadifference expand overtime—butthepotentialto work thanwecando—andhopeto possible projects! There willalwaysbemore twoweeks,wehad32 Selbin says.“Within identify policyneedsandopportunities,” interviewed EBCLC’s clinicdirectors to economy. reduce poverty, andgrow California’s “It’s beentoughbalancingpolicy EBCLC hasalwayspushedtochange “Last summer, astudentofmine

Jim Block How vital are your collaborations with other area organizations? TS: Few things are more vital to our Funding a Future success. Symbiotic collaboration is at EBCLC’s core, as manifested in our Two-year, $1 million campaign will support both partnership with the law school. In innovation and evolution at EBCLC each program area, our lawyers and students also work with other legal BCLC recently launched a two-year, $1 million campaign—the “Fund agencies like Centro Legal, Bay Area for the Future”—to establish a permanent in-house postgraduate Legal Aid, Lawyer’s Committee for Civil E fellowship and to bolster client services. Rights, International Institute of the Sixty percent of fund contributions will go toward the fellowship to Bay Area, and Homeless Action Center; support a recent Boalt graduate’s development of a new clinical project to social service providers like Building expand existing programs at EBCLC. Forty percent will go toward high-tech Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency and upgrades that include mobile technology for more efficient client intake and counseling; flexible satellite sites closer to clients, courts, and community Alameda County Public Health; orga- services; and a mobile law office that delivers legal information, counseling, nizers like All of Us or None and Causa and advocacy where needed. Justa; institutional stakeholders like “This campaign will enhance EBCLC’s service and teaching missions,” the courts, the public defender’s office, Executive Director Tirien Steinbach ’99 says. “It will also continue our and the city attorney’s office; and policy tradition of innovation and evolution to meet the growing needs of our advocacy groups like Public Counsel, clients and students.” EBCLC has become the East Bay’s largest provider of free legal services the ACLU, and the Western Center by developing high-impact programs in housing, health, welfare, immigra- on Law & Poverty. At EBCLC, we tion, prisoner re-entry, consumer law, homeless rights, community believe that success is always a shared economic development, policy advocacy, and youth education. enterprise. “As a law intern and even as an alum, I assumed EBCLC was fully funded by Boalt,” says Nery Castillo-McIntyre ’10, the center’s pro bono and What’s the most rewarding part of communications coordinator. “Only after becoming a staff member did I running EBCLC? learn that EBCLC raises 75 percent of its funds from individual donors, foundations, firms, and other supporters.” JS: For me, it’s both immediate and Boalt supporters can earmark contributions to EBCLC at givetocal. deferred. Watching students grow right berkeley.edu. To learn more about the fund, visit fundforthefuture.ebclc.org. before your eyes—in their confidence, —Andrew Cohen competence, and commitments—is really rewarding. At the same time, it’s amazing to hear from our graduates 5, 10, 15 years out, who mated the next 10 years. All I can say is that EBCLC’s mis- now play prominent roles in the public and private sectors. sion—preparing law students for practice and serving the They speak so fondly about the formative impact of EBCLC legal needs of low-income clients and communities—is and Boalt in their professional development. It sounds corny, more important now than at any time in its history. but I think of them as the many ripples of justice emanating Sometime soon, I believe the best law schools will require from EBCLC. a clinical rotation for students and the most humane communities will narrow the justice gap for poor people. I’m What’s the hardest part? confident that EBCLC will be at the center of both efforts. TS: That a part of me wants to work in every program and every clinic that EBCLC runs. When a law student tells me As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, the center will about arguing in court that morning or a lawyer describes hold regional parties for EBCLC alums in New York, a great case outcome or I see a thank-you card from a cli- Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. What are your hopes ent to one of our intake specialists, I get a little pang of for those events? longing for when I directly supervised students and repre- TS: To bring alums together to celebrate a quarter-century sented clients. However, the pride and joy—and also tears of work, to preview our plans for the next 25 years, and to and struggles—that I have the privilege of sharing with our inspire them to invest in EBCLC. When alums support the staff, students, clients, and colleagues every day far out- center, with donations or through pro bono service, it’s a weigh the longing I feel to practice law directly. clear demonstration that they valued EBCLC as part of their legal education, that they understand it exists because Where do you see EBCLC 10 years from now? many people and institutions come together to fund justice, JS: If you asked me this at any point since I arrived at and that they want to be part, however small or large, of EBCLC in 1990, I’m pretty sure I would have underesti- ensuring EBCLC is here for years to come. n

Spring 2013 | Transcript | 39 NOTABLE CONTRIBUTIONS from the boalt community CREATIVE WORKS

music: Sheri Showalter, Boalt human resources director Tribute Band Is in the Pink

heri Showalter—Boalt years, she was a natural choice for Human Resources Director the new band. The only snag? “I by day, singing sensation by didn’t really like Pink Floyd.” night—has experienced many That gradually changed as she lis- surreal S moments in music. But none tened closely to live recordings of top last September’s tour of India songs like “Great Gig in the Sky,” with House of Floyd, her “tribute” which Showalter now belts out to band that pays homage to the iconic standing ovations. After she signed rock group Pink Floyd. on as one of two background singers, Concerts in soccer stadiums House of Floyd lined up Bay Area before thousands of people. Multiple gigs and eventually toured the Were Here, and The Wall albums. press conferences and photo shoots Northwest, Midwest, and now India. “Their songs mix jazz, rhythm and in each city. Meals with various dig- “The songs are the easy part,” blues, classical, you name it,” nitaries. Even VIP entrance to the Showalter says. “The tough part is Showalter says. “Many of them are Taj Mahal. trying to replicate the visual aspects also long, which can make choosing “People started recognizing us in of Pink Floyd shows, which are very our set lists quite challenging.” airports and would rush over for elaborate.” Showalter has slain many chal- autographs and photos,” Showalter The same could be said for the lenges in her professional life. After says. “There were building-sized bill- music itself—layered, often haunting managing food services for a San boards promoting our band. On one songs, typified by Pink Floyd’sThe Francisco financial firm, she began flight, the pilot came out of the cock- Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You working at UC Berkeley and eventu- pit to ask where our next gig was.” ally was named director of business Surreal—much like Showalter’s services at Cal Performances. She entire ride with House of Floyd, later got recruited to become Boalt’s which her husband, Mark, formed in first human resources director, and 2005. An accomplished singer who now manages a 10-person staff. had performed cover songs for many “I suppose I bring some conflict- management skills to both worlds,” Showalter says with a laugh. “At work or with the band, I think about what I can do to help defuse tense situations and move things forward.” —Andrew Cohen

To learn more about the band, visit dirkbag (3x) dirkbag TOUR DE FORCE: Sheri Showalter www.houseoffloyd.com BOOK: JESS BRAVIN ’97 Terror, Torture, and Kafkaesque Trials It sounds like a dark, 21st-century retell- HE LOVES LUCY: Gregg Oppenheimer ’77 ing of Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial: people abducted and whisked away to a forbidding CREATIVE WORKS RADIO PLAY/AUDIOBOOK: GREGG OPPENHEIMER ’77 prison, where they’re brutalized and held for years in legal limbo—ineligible for trial, because there’s no admissible evidence, but deemed too dangerous to release. Loving Lucy This surreal-but-real tale—suspected al- Qaeda terrorists, captured and sent to Guantanamo Bay for military trials as Runs in the Family “enemy combat- ants”—is told by Jess t age 4, Gregg I Love Lucy DVDs, tackling every- Bravin ’97 in The Oppenheimer ’77 told his thing from designing DVD menus to Terror Courts, which very first joke to a very editing video bonus material. Kirkus Reviews calls a tough audience. His This year, Gregg’s I Love Lucy: The “damning, brave father,A I Love Lucy creator Jess Untold Story debuted as an audiobook.” Bravin, Oppenheimer, had just introduced book on the 60th anniversary of TV's Supreme Court correspondent for The Wall young Gregg to Lucille Ball, who most widely viewed event: the birth Street Journal, has spent more than a asked, “Where did you get those big of Little Ricky, Lucy’s son. decade covering the military commissions brown eyes?” Gregg’s deadpan How much did America love Lucy? created by the Bush administration. response: “They came with the face.” “That episode was watched by 44 The book’s unlikely hero is Lt. Col. Stuart Lucy cracked up. million viewers, 15 million more Couch, a U.S. Marine Corps prosecutor itch- That moment helped fuel his eclec- than would tune in to President ing to bring terrorists to justice. But as tic and creative career. Although Eisenhower’s inauguration the next Couch—who had lost a friend in the 9/11 Gregg enjoyed his brushes with show day on all networks,” Gregg says. The attacks—began preparing for trials, he dis- business on the I Love Lucy set and episode’s astonishing 98.6 percent covered that much of the evidence was as a rehearsal cameraman on The Nielsen share is still unmatched. tainted by torture. Risking his career, Couch Debbie Reynolds Show, his father What’s more, Lucille Ball was the refused to prosecute tortured suspects. encouraged him to pursue something first visibly pregnant actress to The commissions were intended to more secure. A degree in art and appear on network TV—and the first impose swift, stern justice on terrorists design from MIT followed, then law to have her pregnancy written into a through streamlined trials. Instead, Bravin school at Boalt. In 1986, he became a script. The audiobook describes says they have become “an ad hoc experi- partner at O’Melveny & Myers. behind-the-scenes negotiations with ment without a clear rule book,” marked by After Jess Oppenheimer’s death in sponsors and the network censors, underqualified judges and administrators; 1988, Gregg used his research and among other details. agencies rife with confusion and conflict; and writing skills to complete his father’s Gregg has retired from practicing maneuverings to conceal abuses. memoirs. Laughs, Luck … and Lucy: law to write full time. What delights Created in 2001, the military commission How I Came to Create the Most him most is something he learned at experiment has yielded only seven verdicts. Popular Sitcom of All Time went age 4: “I love to make people laugh.” “It just drifts along in this kind of stasis,” through seven hardcover printings —Linda Peterson Bravin marvels. Kafka might be less sur- ) before its paperback release. Adapta- prised. —Jon Jefferson tions and radio play versions fol- Editor’s note: Gregg’s I Love Lucy: The Untold lowed, and soon Gregg became a Story audiobook is available from audible.com, The Terror Courts go-to steward for all things Lucy. He Amazon.com, and iTunes. Sale proceeds benefit By Jess Bravin ’97 H E IM R (OPPEN Schmitt R ich even produced the award-winning the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Published by Yale University Press, 2013

Spring 2013 | Transcript | 41 Boalt Student Action Figures FAST FORWARD A Seat at the Table

ry pursuing a J.D. and a master’s in public policy, all while serving as the only student regent for the T entire University of California system. Jonathan Stein ’13 is proof that it’s possible, though not without some serious sleep deprivation. “The student regent job requires 40 to 50 hours per week,” he esti- mates. “I travel the state hosting LONE VOICE: University of California student regent Jonathan Stein ’13 forums and town halls on all 10 UC campuses to hear student perspec- system, and few avenues to a better “Sometimes I need to take exten- tives and concerns, and also to edu- life. Prospects improved markedly sive research on online education or cate my student constituents.” when her older brother earned a potential reforms to the UC financial Thanks to remarkable internal scholarship to attend college in aid system and present that informa- drive and faculty members sympa- America. Once employed, he brought tion on a single PowerPoint slide,” he thetic to his go-go schedule, Stein the family to the United States, says. “When students view some- says, “it’s been the most challenging where a world of possibilities opened thing complicated in a straightfor- and insane 18 months of my life, and for Vishakha, and later for her son. ward way, they understand it more the most rewarding.” “I saw what a difference one young clearly and are better positioned to Stein relished the opportunity to man getting a scholarship could take action.” influence state and UC policy and make for an entire family,” says Stein helped lead a voter drive that advocate for his fellow students. “It’s Stein. “As the UC student regent, I registered 52,000 UC students a great way to be a policymaker and can fight to open similar opportuni- before the 2012 election. He also ral- professional-level student organizer ties for other people.” lied young Californians to help pass while still in school,” he says. But the And fight he has, drawing on his Proposition 30—the temporary sales seeds of his involvement were education and work experience. As a and income tax increase that, in part, planted decades earlier. former campaign correspondent and prevents major cuts to education. Growing up in India in the 1950s blogger for Mother Jones, Stein made “It could have been the beginning and 1960s, Stein’s mother, Vishakha, complex subjects accessible to the of the end for the UC system,” he faced daunting obstacles: a low- very people they affect. That skill has says. “Thankfully, the voters showed

income family, a poor public school served him well with fellow students. that they value public higher educa- block Jim

42 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 Jim block S Wrong Sideofthe(Natural)Law Star Student:Supreme Courton search committee to select the new “I’magenda. the only student on the tion in California.” ruled patentable, while purified line, and Vitamin B12 have been years, purified Vitamin K1, adrena- their derivatives. Over the past 60 delineate natural products from sistent, as courts have struggled to 150 years, case law is far from con eligibility has existed for more than ing natural phenomena from patent poor vehicle for doing so.” years,” adding that the case “was a which had been untouched for 30 natural phenomenon doctrine, the court, he says, “recalibrated the to apatient was not patent-eligible, method of administering medication try from Stanford. By ruling that a helped lead him to a Ph.D. in chemis sizing artificial variations of DNA asserts Ghosh, whose work synthe- natural law. ciently beyond merely identifying a claim for failing to extend suffi- rejected a drug-related patent Mayo v. Prometheus Supreme Court’s recent opinion in ramificationsthe policy of the U.S. nation’s topstudent paperof2012. gave himitsannualaward forthe Property Law Association,which convinced theAmericanIntellectual ing ourfuturesociety. He certainly Two big tasks remain on Stein’s Although the doctrine of exclud “The court got the science wrong,” Ghosh’s winning entry dissects cesses willbecriticalinshap- ents covering naturalpro- the legalframeworkforpat- amantak Ghosh’13believes . The verdict - - - of natural genes, their chemical it,” Merges says. “His understanding stage, and his work surely deserves ting recognition on such a grand Robert Merges and Kathryn Abrams. a Boalt course co-taught by professors Legalpaper Scholarship, in Advanced in this area.” leaves a lot of uncertainty for patents science, it’s hopelessly unclear. That them. The law not only lags behind courts to figure out how to apply eral principles, leaving it to the lower the court merely described some gen make matters worse, decades,” he says. “To of patents for relied on these kinds ventions and have personalized inter cesses to provide apply natural pro medicine industries. and personalized effect on the biotech forecasts a troubling administered—and non doctrine will be the natural phenome new standard of how questions the court’s been ruled ineligible. ing chlorophyll have and extracts contain Vitamin C, glucoside, I hope to see that completed later professional schools, including Boalt. rewriting UC’s governance for policy president,”UC he says. “And I’m “It’s fantastic that Samantak is get Ghosh drafted his award-winning “Both industries Ghosh’s paper -

- - -

- - information and then provide using diagnostic tests to obtain care quality—and reduce costs—by medicine can greatly improve health ally. Ghosh believes personalized estimated to cost $170 billion annu of treated patients—an inefficacy are effective in fewer than 60 percent drugs prescribed in the United States area.”policy courts are looking for in this delicate carefully reasoned analysis that the sort of informed, nuanced, and instrumental to his approach. This is structure as well as function, was — some well-earned Z’s. this summer.” Ben Peterson Multiple studies show that most Maybe then Stein can finally catch Spring 2013 Samantak Ghosh ’13 |

Transcr ipt

NATURAL LAWYER:

43 -

FAST FORWARD patient-specific treatment. Unless cautions against abandoning the nat- tion group this fall. “If it is to be misguided patent law gets in the way. ural phenomenon doctrine. “The rejected, that should be based on its Although concerned about how doctrine allows tools of future inno- merits rather than on the occasional the court’s ruling will affect the per- vation to emerge,” says Ghosh, who mistakes of courts applying it.” sonalized medicine industry, Ghosh will join Wilmer Hale’s patent litiga- —Andrew Cohen

HEARING AIDES: Ioana Tchoukleva ’14 and Katherine Katcher ’13 legal research and writing, and oral argument.” In addition to co-leading P-CAP, Katcher has worked at the Prison Law Office in Berkeley, which offers free legal services to California inmates through class action and other impact litigation, and at Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in San Francisco. She also volunteered for Wattley’s nonprofit Uncommon Law, which guides prisoners facing parole and their families. Tchoukleva spent many Thursday nights last year hashing out restorative justice issues with inmates at San Quentin State Prison. “Some of An Appealing Program them had great insight into the factors that influenced their crimes, took full responsibility for what they for Potential Parolees did, and contributed to peace and security inside the prison,” she says. or most of society, prison- appeals if they were denied parole. “Yet, even though they had spent ers are literally out of sight “It’s a real injustice to keep people decades behind bars and posed no and out of mind. Not so for in prison who are truly rehabilitated, threat to society, many were repeat- Ioana Tchoukleva ’14 and prepared to reintegrate into society, edly denied parole.” Katherine F Katcher ’13, who help pro- and no longer threaten public Tchoukleva and Katcher are heart- tect one of the few rights prisoners safety,” Katcher says. ened by recent trends, though. Eager retain—to be considered for parole. P-CAP is one of the law school’s 20 to reduce its overcrowded prison California “lifers” have a statutory Student-Initiated Legal Services population, California is approving right to counsel in parole hearings, Projects. It is supervised by Oakland more parole hearings and grants. yet most are represented by parole attorney Keith Wattley, who has The passage of Proposition 36 also board-appointed lawyers who, for overseen similar programs at UCLA means that about 3,000 convicted various reasons, often fail to provide and Stanford, and has worked on felons serving life terms under the competent representation. “Many of prisoner and parole cases for 15 Three Strikes law will become eligi- them meet their attorneys literally years. Students devote 30 or more ble to petition for reduced sentences. minutes before their parole hear- hours per semester to P-CAP. “We wanted to tap into our stu- ings,” says Tchoukleva. Katcher says the zealous counsel dents’ passion and talent and offer Enter Boalt’s new Post-Conviction of Boalt students “vastly increases them a way to hone valuable legal Advocacy Project (P-CAP)—led by lifers’ chances of receiving a fair skills,” Tchoukleva says. “To do that Tchoukleva and Katcher—which parole hearing.” In doing so, the stu- while addressing mass incarceration, helps inmates navigate the parole dents “strengthen their skills in cli- which impacts so many people, is

process and assists them with ent counseling and interviewing, extremely gratifying.” —Andrew Cohen block Jim

44 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE ALUMNI CENTER ADVANCEMENT Our Spirited Campaign

pril 1 marked my fourth anniver- Campaign for Boalt Hall—with $10.1 million sary at Boalt Hall. It’s been a to go as of May 1. As we prepare for the diffi- rewarding ride, as I’ve come to cult challenges of the next few years, we better know people throughout remain mindful that state support won’t our A special community. increase—and will likely diminish even more Our alums are supportive, generous, and as California grapples with its budget woes. often instructively inquisitive about Boalt’s This year’s graduates will carry an average future. Our revered faculty readily share loan debt of more than $140,000 well into their time and expertise. Our research cen- their careers. The best way Boalt can combat “We thank ters shape policy on tough issues facing these challenges is by increasing the per- all of you California and the nation. And our students centage of alums who support their school. who have amaze me with their remarkable achieve- Our goal this past fiscal year was to double ments and how deeply they care about Boalt. the participation rate from 19 percent to supported Our Centennial celebrations continue 38 percent. Although friends and alumni have Boalt, and through June with faculty panels and pre- increased their individual contributions this encourage sentations nationwide. We encourage you to year, giving participation is down. We thank all attend these dynamic events, catch up with of you who have supported Boalt, and encour- those who fellow grads, and learn about Boalt’s exciting age those who have not to consider making a have not to new programs. If you’re in our neighbor- gift within your budget. Many alumni are close consider hood, come tour the gleaming South to joining our Centennial Society Honor Roll, Addition and see our vastly upgraded facili- and the Centennial Society Wall still has space making a ties, including the new donor walls honoring if your name isn’t on it already. gift within those who have helped make Boalt the I’ll close by thanking you for all you do on your world’s best public law school. our school’s behalf and for helping us finish Dean Edley is tirelessly exploring revenue the Campaign for Boalt Hall. Please join us budget.” options to help Boalt maintain its Top 10 for Alumni Weekend, September 27 to 29, standing and to offset our students’ financial and see how Boalt has grown and glimmered burdens. We’re developing an innovative over the past 100 years. We all have a stake in online education program that includes this great institution, and we should take courses with strong revenue potential. Our pride in what it has accomplished—and will summer LL.M. program has expanded, we continue to accomplish—for years to come. are broadening our executive education initiatives, and the dean is discussing a J.D. pro- Centennial regards, gram for foreign students. Robert G. Sproul, Assistant Dean for We’re approaching the finish line of the Development and Alumni Relations

SPRING 2013 | Transcript | 45 —Lynn Pasahow’72 best “…the to face.” Boalt isface involved at more alumni way toget 46 ADV Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. Boalt HallFundChair President Elect Lynn Pasahow ’72 Past-President Charles Breyer’66 President Evan Cox’87 Executive Committee Boal The Social Network, Old School The SocialNetwork,OldSchool

Transcript NT ANCEME t Hall Alumni Associa

SPRING 2013 Car (Ex-officio) Chair Class Campaign Vice President,Reunion Matt Sonsini’92 Co-chair (Ex-officio) Class Campaign Vice President,Reunion Kenton King’87 Co-chair (Ex-officio) Class Campaign Vice President,Reunion Steve Arent’67 tion that put us on a path for successful tuition-free. We obtained a top-flight educa to thatBoaltgeneration could virtually go Pasahow says. “I was lucky to belong to a time low; tuition is at an all-time high,” the school’s financial circumstances. with alumni about the current transition in chance for board members to communicate setting. But Pasahow also sees them as a and ideas, and reconnect in a relaxed social together alums to learn, share information events nationwide 50), to (page bring expansion of the board’s BoaltNet alumni alumni involved at Boalt is face to face.” ing. “I just think the best way to get more counts online alumni outreach and fundrais against its rivals. It’s not that Pasahow dis enforcing Amazon.com’s 1-Click® patent complex patent litigation work has included working meanstoLynnPasahow ’72. The realsurprisemay beinwhatsocialnet- Alumni Association’s incomingpresident. I “State funding for Boalt Hall is at an all- That’s why he fully supports the ongoing “I’m old-fashioned,” says Pasahow, whose atop his agenda astheBoaltHall atop hisagenda attorney wouldplacesocialnetworking Silicon Valley intellectualproperty t’s hardlyasurprisethatleading Steven Walther ’68 Gail MigdalTitle’70 Kathi Pugh’90 Lynn Pasahow ’72 Terry O’Reilly’69 Michael Martinez’78 Ellyn Lindsay’84 Lindsee Granfield’85 Nancy Fineman’86 Benson Cohen’04 Gillian Brown’99 Karen Boyd’96 Steve Arent’67 expiring in2013 Terms Directors tion Board

Darren Trattner ’94 Art Shartsis’71 Alisa Nave’04 Heather Mewes’99 Yury Kapgan ’01 Lawrence Hobel’76 Tyler Gerking’02 Daniel Floyd’85 Robert Evans’71 Evan Cox’87 David A.Carrillo’95 Charles Breyer’66 Mario Barnes’95 expiring in2014 Terms of Direct

- - - the school’s future.” —Bob Rucker ward and welcome more responsibility for schools, alumni to have are going to step for and realize that, as with many other law ing of Boalt as astate-supported institution a terrific job of encouraging us to stop think school,” Pasahow says. “Dean Edley has done manual for the bench. Management Judicial Guide other center affiliates) of Patent Case co-author (with professor Peter Menell and Center for Law & Technology, Pasahow is the polymerase chain-reaction invention. Cetus’ patents on its Nobel Prize-winning established the validity of biotech pioneer patent-protection suits. He led a team that Berkeley—onfrom UC their most important and their faculty-inventors—including many innovators, he has worked with universities representing Amazon.com and other leading and the life science industries. In addition to focusing on software, the Internet, hardware, at Fenwick & West LLP in Mountain View, lenging period.” school, and its students, through this chal- careers. Now I feel a duty to help lead the “This is a time of transition for our Also active with the law school’s Berkeley Pasahow is a partner in the litigation group Mitch Zuklie ’96 Mitch Zuklie’96 Charles Stevens’82 Jay Shafran’63 Sean Selegue’91 Noah Rosenthal’05 Jim McManis’67 Mark Lubin’77 John Kuo’88 Timothy Hughes’10 expiring in2015 Terms ors FISCAL

Noel Nellis ’66 Noel Nellis’66 Art Shartsis’71 Centennial CommitteeCo-chairs James McManis’67(VicePresident) Noel Nellis’66(Ex-officio) UC BerkeleyFoundation Robert Sproul Staff Eleanor Swift Jesse Choper Faculty Elizabeth Kim’13 W. HamiltonJordan’13 Student Representatives YEAR , a best practices

2013

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You Can Count on Me Centennial Society donors go the distance

all was in the air and celebration As for the future, Pircher says, “The most was in the room, as more than 100 exciting thing to me about the evening was members of the Centennial Society the confidence of our participants that gathered on November 9 for a Boalt’s greatest years lie ahead, and their donor F wall dedication outside Booth dedication to the task of making that come Auditorium. Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. true.” wielded some larger-than-life golden shears For those who share that confidence, it’s for the ribbon cutting, and applause followed. good to know there’s still an opportunity to There was plenty to cheer. The Centennial be included on that elegant donor wall. Boalt Society honors the very spirit of loyalty and plans to rededicate the Centennial Society in perseverance, recognizing Boalt donors who early 2014, and celebrate both new members have made lifetime gifts of $100,000 or more of this special group and existing members to the law school. who make additional gifts or pledges through Says Dean Edley, “It was an inspiring December 31, 2013. Both the indoor and out- moment to see so many of the school’s clos- door walls were designed by San Francisco- est alumni and friends come together to cel- based Debra Nichols Design, and carving on ebrate the tradition of giving. The sense of the outdoor wall was completed by a master pride and community was palpable, and I carver, one of only a few such craftsmen in was touched by the outpouring of support.” the country. —Linda Peterson The Centennial Society was created to honor Boalt’s 100th anniversary and the For more information or to make a gift, please Campaign for Boalt Hall, chaired by Elizabeth contact the Alumni Center at 510.642.2590 or Cabraser ’78, Leo Pircher ’57, and professor [email protected]. Pamela Samuelson. “I came from a working-class family in Berkeley and was the first in my family to graduate from high school, let alone college,” Pircher says. “Through good fortune, I happened to live in the city that was home to one of the world’s great universities and law schools. Whatever success I’ve had, I owe in no small part to the education I received at Berkeley, and in particular, from the great professors at Boalt. It has been my great privilege to be able to give something back to the law school that has meant so much to me.” Centennial Current number of Centennial Society members ...... 304 “Giving back has never been Society LEVELS OF RECOGNITION: more important,” adds Edley. Fast Facts $100,000 to $249,999 ...... Partners “Dwindling public funding and $250,000 to $499,999 ...... Patrons rising tuition costs mean that $500,000 to $999,999 ...... Benefactors philanthropy will be critical to $1,000,000 and up ...... Builders of Boalt the school’s continued success To be included in the rededication or to reach a different level, make a gift by December 31, 2013.

JIM BLOCK JIM in years to come.”

SPRING 2013 | Transcript | 47 ADVANCEMENT

A: Carol Rumpf and Steve Arent ’67

B: Boalt Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. and his wife, faculty member Maria Echaveste ’80

C: Clockwise from front right: Professor Pamela Samuelson, Elizabeth Cabraser ’78, Nina Pircher, Stephanie Deaner, and Leo Pircher ’57

D: Luke Ellis ’75, Karen Fluegge, and Robert Fluegge A B

E: Professor Dick F Buxbaum ’53 enjoying the festivities

F: Juliana Marques ’12, Amir Hassanabadi ’12, Kim Tran, Marko Blagojevic, Sarah Axtell ’12, and Kelly Yang ’12

E Centennial Gala: A Sparkling Celebration

Boalt Hall rang in its 100th birthday in style November 9 with a glittering gala celebration at the Pauley Ballroom. The elegant festivities included cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a lavish dinner, dancing to the famed Dick Bright Orchestra, an a cappella group performance, amusing antics from Oski the Bear, and a stirring Centennial video presentation.

48 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 Photography by Drew Alitzer Photography G: Alumni and friends tear it up on the dance floor.

H: Valerie Cox and her husband, Evan Cox ’87

I: Lise Pearlman ’74 and her husband, Peter Benvenutti ’74

J: The Dick Bright Orchestra fills the air with music.

G H

I K: California Supreme Court Justice and former Boalt professor Goodwin Liu with his wife, Boalt lecturer Ann O’Leary ’05, and L Washington, D.C., Bar President Tom Williamson ’74

L: Noel Nellis ’66 with his wife, Penelope Nellis, Art Shartsis ’71, and Robert Sproul

M: Larry Sonsini ’66 with his wife, Barbara Sonsini, and Mark Bertelsen ’69

SPRING 2013 | Transcript | 49 HAPPY HOUR: Boalt alums are all smiles at a February BoaltNet event in Washington, D.C. Clockwise from top left: Catherine Meza ’05 and Jamie Crook ’06; Giselle Bourns ’09 and Mike Sawyer ’10; Jeewon Kim ’04 and Jonathan Singer ’10; Megan Snyder ’08, Hector Huezo ’08, and C’Reda Weeden ’07.

is a powerful vehicle to build a sense of unity among the law school’s far-flung graduates. “The genesis for this approach came from realizing that there was an unsatisfied appetite among the alumni community to get together with each other more often than at Network News the occasional five-year reunion,” Cox says. “By drawing on our BoaltNet building strong alumni bonds nationwide growing ranks of BoaltNet alumni volunteers, we greatly magnify the hen Sarah Weiss ’10 gradu- capacity of Alumni Center staff to support ated from Boalt and moved more events, especially outside of the San back to her hometown of Francisco and Los Angeles areas. For volun- Chicago, fellow alumnae and teers, it’s a great way to network with fellow ChicagoW resident Jennifer Kobayashi ’01 alums in the lead-up to the events approached her about galvanizing an alumni themselves.” community there. BoaltNet, which seeks volunteer leaders in “As a new attorney from an out-of-state various geographic areas, has a strong advo- school, I really felt the need for an alumni cate in Weiss. The Chicago group started network in Chicago,” recalls Weiss, a litiga- with regular happy hours and brunches, each tion associate at Jenner & Block. “Jen and I event drawing a few more new people. Last worked together to build the group from the summer, the group hosted Dean Christopher ground up, starting with a list of 10 local Edley, Jr. for a well-attended Centennial alums that’s now up to almost 200.” celebration. Such efforts helped inspire the newly “Our alumni community in Chicago pro- launched BoaltNet, a network of volunteer- vides an opportunity to preserve the feeling led affinity groups that will meet quarterly or that we’re still connected to Boalt,” Weiss semi-annually. These groups can be orga- says. “Chicago feels far away from Berkeley, nized around class year, geographic region, especially during the snowy, cold winters. practice area, or other criteria. Boalt’s The community is very small compared to Alumni Center supports volunteer leaders by Boalt alumni groups in other major cities emailing invitations to graduates in the tar- and other peer law school alumni groups in geted group and managing RSVPs. Chicago, so BoaltNet is a great way for alums Recent BoaltNet gatherings have included to stay connected and network for potential a Class of ’71 Bay Area happy hour in jobs or business. It’s also really fun to hear Oakland, all-classes get-togethers in Los stories about some of our favorite professors Angeles, Washington, D.C., and San Diego, from other alums and to meet current Boalt and a dinner in Chicago. Outdoor activities, students who are working in Chicago for the videoconferences with Boalt faculty, and summer.” sports outings are some other ways alumni Graduates interested in spearheading a new groups can congregate. BoaltNet chapter can contact the Alumni For Evan Cox ’87, outgoing president of Center’s Rachel Barley at 510.642.9045 or the Boalt Hall Alumni Association, BoaltNet [email protected]. —Andrew Cohen

50 | Transcript | SPRING 2013

have made Bob Raven very proud.” Professor recting of the image citizen lawyer would rights,” Martin says. “Her success in resur her advocacy for bilingual education and civil remarkable career, her academic work, and have been associated with Dean Moran’s of Law. sor Rachel Moran, now School dean at UCLA The Raven Chair was long occupied by profes president of the American Bar Association. ations of San Francisco and California and as accepted leadership roles with the bar associ influence spread across the profession as he pion of pro bono work,” Martin says. Raven’s minorities at our firm and cham was a huge “Bob Raven opened the door to women and Boalt in honor of one of its revered partners. the Robert D. and Leslie-Kay Raven Chair at communities we serve.” courts, businesses, legal aid societies, and the clients, it also betters the legal system, the mutual not goal only helps us better serve our ing and nurturing talent,” Martin says. “That $1 million. philanthropy to the law school has exceeded Builders of Boalt—those whose cumulative school’s Centennial Society donor wall as of nearly 50 supporters honored on the firm, known by the shorthand “MoFo,” is one managing partner at Morrison &Foerster. His relationship with Boalt,” says Craig Martin, fits that have come from our long and ongoing graduates. makes themlikely employers forrecent proximityAnd, ofcourse,theirgeographic and acommitmenttopublicinterest work. international law, civilrights, socialjustice, intellectual property, environmental and with areaswhereBoaltisanationalleader— “It was a tremendous honor for our firm to In 1994, Morrison & Foerster established “MoFo shares with Boalt an interest in find “It’s impossible for us to calculate the bene Bay Area lawfirmsfindcommon ground infundingBoalt’s alumni andtheirworkoftendeals porters. Many werefoundedby firms areamongBoalt’s biggestsup- erhaps it’s naturalthat Bay Arealaw Firm Support mission atthehighestlevels ------ops and nurtures.” fied and deserving students that Boalt devel diversity of talent that comes from the quali If we don’t, we risk losing the potential of the ingly important for law firms to support Boalt. times, especially in California. It’s increas “Great public universities are in challenging ing with little or no debt,” Bertelsen says. education at a very reasonable cost, graduat including Boalt, and received a world-class its support. partners. That fact figures strongly in grads—including founders and many has along history of employing Boalt Boalt and, like Morrison &Foerster, schools in intellectual property law. Boalt’s No. 1 ranking among all U.S. law Technology—the driving force behind Berkeley Center for Law & co-founder and director of the nomics of intellectual property, and a Merges, a leading authority on the eco most effectively on the world stage.” where the United States competes outstanding academics in an area “We wanted to support the work of Bertelsen ’69, a partner in the firm. often outstrips the law,” says Mark erty, where the pace of technology advance thinking in intellectual prop area of law and technology. Chair to support a legal scholar in the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati 2012. In 1997, the firm established the school’s Centennial Gala in November was the presenting sponsor of the school for most of its 50-plus years— another firm with deep ties to the law Chair. most recent appointment to the Raven ship, immigration, and identity, is the Leti Volpp, a leading scholar on citizen “Many of us wentsystem, through the UC Wilson Sonsini is also a Builder of The chair is held by professor Robert “We wanted our contribution to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati— —Bob Rucker

- - - - SPRING 2013 - - - ADV PARTNERS INPROGRESS: staunch support ofBoalt. staunch support sustaining theirfirms’ tivate toplegaltalentby & Rosatihavehelpedcul- Sonsini Goodrich Wilson ’69of Mark Bertelsen Morrison &Foersterand (top)of Craig Martin NT ANCEME |

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ADVANCEMENT A Right and Left Brain Function

Roundtable politicos’ pre-election joust draws huge Centennial crowd

our political heavyweights and a con- Distinguished Practitioner of Law and Public tentious election just six weeks away Policy, said Obama’s domestic agenda was made for a rousing kickoff to Boalt’s routinely thwarted by House Republicans Centennial celebration last fall. who “have signed pledges not to cooperate F Before a full house at San Francisco’s with him.” Asserting that too many Herbst Theatre, former Michigan Governor Republican congressmen “are ideologues, Jennifer Granholm, former U.S. Labor not legislators,” Reich said Obama would Secretary Robert Reich, political strategist help protect a middle class that “has lost its Dan Schnur, and former U.S. Senator and purchasing power because of how much California Governor Pete Wilson ’62 money is concentrated at the top.” exchanged viewpoints and salvos on Wilson disagreed, noting that Obama had a RIGHT MINDS: Former President Obama’s first term. Moderated by Democratic-majority House and Senate dur- U.S. Senator and California Governor Pete Boalt Dean Christopher Edley, Jr., the politi- ing his first two years in office. When Wilson ’62 (left) and cal roundtable was the first in a series of Republicans regained control of the House in Republican political strat- high-profile events celebrating the law 2010, Wilson said some members felt justifi- egist Dan Schnur discuss President Obama’s first school’s 100th anniversary. ably slighted after Obama “jammed through” term with Dean Fittingly, Granholm and Reich sat on the his 2009 economic stimulus bill. Christopher Edley, Jr. left side of the stage; Wilson and Schnur sat Granholm praised Obama’s support of on the right. Granholm, a UC Berkeley same-sex marriage and women’s right to choose, “particularly in the face of 26 states adopting 90 pieces of legislation that would restrict that right.” When Wilson asked why Obama did not openly support same-sex marriage until 2012, Granholm asked if he was cynical about the president’s “evolving” views. “Cynical? No, skepti- cal,” Wilson replied. Granholm and Reich, who were members of Obama’s 2008 presidential transition team, hailed his foreign policy record. Granholm said, “Our country’s position in the world has improved,” while Reich praised Obama’s handling of the Arab Spring. Unmoved by those assess- ments, Wilson lamented Obama’s “policy of disen-

52 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 Gregory Urquiaga (2X) —Andrew Cohen ple who don’t agree with everything you say.” Schnur said. “It’s important to listen to peo- to read David Brooks Will,” and George Rachel Maddow and my left-leaning students affirm their beliefs. of people choosing media outlets that simply than ever and decried the “alarming trend” called Washington “more nasty and bitter” today’s political climate. He applause for his assessment of Schnur received booming of Governmental Studies, Berkeley’stor at UC Institute Politics and an adjunct instruc California’s Unruh Institute of University of Southern intentions. impact on Iran’s nuclear Benjamin Netanyahu, and its with Israeli Prime Minister cerns about Obama’s decision not to meet would be a net plus.” But he did voice con president since JFK whose foreign policy bid, credited Obama as “the first Democratic tions for John McCain’s 2000 presidential oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. and said Obama should have done more to for departing Afghanistan “very dangerous,” siveness.” He called the unnamed deadline markedgagement” by “timidity and indeci “I tell my right-leaning students to watch Now director of the Schnur, national director of communica - —Dan Schnur “ and George Will.” to read DavidBrooks my left-leaningstudents Rachel Maddowand students towatch I tellmyright-leaning - - - LIBERAL THINKERS: 100th anniversary. that helpedmarkBoalt’s record inaspiritedevent defended Obama’s Jennifer Granholm Reichand Robert icons Democratic Party

alumni. pation from clinic 100 percent- partici paign with agoal of sary fundraisingcam- launched an anniver- IHRLC has also faculty andstaff. as well as former alumni andfriends, host adinner for its That night, IHRLC will day, September 28. afternoon of Satur- accountability forthe on humanrights organizing apanel 200 students—is trained more than clinic—which has Weekend. The during Alumni versary celebration its15th anni- kick off Clinic (IHRLC) will Human Rights Law Boalt’s International SeptEMBER 28,2013 Saturday IHRLC! Anniversary, Happy SPRING 2013 | ,

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53 CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Clinical Expansion In-House Clinics Receive Transformational Gift

hen Alba Witkin pondered Thanks to a recent $300,000 gift from the the best way to honor one of Bernard E. and Alba Witkin Charitable Boalt Hall’s most influential Foundation, Boalt’s clinics will soon get a graduates, her late husband, long overdue upgrade to their work environ- WBernard Witkin ’28, she quickly homed in on ments. The renovation of the professional the school’s clinical program. After all, office space on the law school’s third floor is Bernard was a fierce advocate of pragmatic set to begin by year’s end. It includes funds legal training, and helping students gain for technological enhancements such as tele- hands-on experience is a priority of the conferencing equipment, interactive white- Campaign for Boalt Hall. boards, and large-screen projectors to enable Skype and video screening. “This generous gift will allow students to better experience the collaboration that is funda- mental to real-life legal practice,” says clinical professor Laurel Fletcher, who directs the International Human Rights Law Clinic. “For the first time, all in-house clinic students will be able to work side by side in the same space. This space will include individual meeting rooms to foster student team collaborations and use of state- of-the-art, multimedia technology for teaching and practice.” Boalt’s in-house clinics currently work in three adjacent rooms designed to accommodate six to eight students each. With approximately 50 to 60 students in the three clinics each semester, the rooms are badly overcrowded.

IN HIS HONOR: Boalt’s clinics will get an office-space upgrade thanks to a generous gift from the Bernard E. and Alba Witkin Charitable Foundation, headed by Alba Witkin, widow of influential

legal thinker Bernard Witkin ’28. r pi n ski S ko Peg

of the bar, and advocate for legal reform, his to experienced and aspiring judges members tises. A prolific writer and lecturer, teacher into four“Summary trea of California Law” Style Manual California rules of appellate practice, wrote the Reporter of Decisions, he regularized the Supreme Court’s clerk and California resource to scores of judges. As the state tive treatises on California law, an invaluable dents for successful practice.” was of critical importance in preparing stu- felt passionately that clinical law experience memory of my late husband,” Alba says. “He Berkeley 34). (see page tice areas, is housed off-campus in south low-income clients in various clinical prac Bay Community Law Center, which serves Samuelson Clinic. A fourth clinic, the East Rights Law Clinic, and the Clinic, International Human school: the Death Penalty in three clinics within the law deliver pro bono legal services ognized faculty, students and guidance of nationally rec hub for 15 years. gram, a practical legal training supported Boalt’s clinical pro- Charitable Foundation has long tive areas.” work together across substan architecture of legal practice, where lawyers vated space will more faithfully mirror the when the work is finished “this newly reno Technology & Public Policy Clinic, says that ’00, co-director of the Samuelson Law, to accommodate space was designed clinics’ current Students thatthe 18-24 Bernard is best remembered for his defini “I’m pleased to provide this funding in Under the close supervision Created in 1982, the Witkin Assistant clinical professor Jennifer Urban , and grew his - - semester that spaceeach actually workin Students who 50-60 —Nikki Davenport ’13 ’13 —Nikki Davenport seen “I’ve school.” ment withinour and theexcite- of ourstudents elevates thespirit space beautiful how functional, - - - - —Andrew Cohen space where this critical work is done.” their work. It’s important to feel proud of the says. “Clinic students are passionate about excitement within our school,” Davenport elevates the spirit of our students and the same area—enabling them to work together. journal staff and advocacy groups in the the new Student Center, which houses legal “transformational.” She likens the project to the Witkin Charitable Foundation gift will be Clinic student Nikki Davenport ’13 predicts school-wide renovations, Death Penalty Bernard “almost single-handedly raised the in 1995, Boalt professor Herma Hill Kay said than 20,000 times. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal more treatises have been cited by the California

“I’ve seen how functional, beautiful space Having seen the impact of Boalt’s recent At a memorial service following his death Charitable Foundation Boalt by theWitkin Cumulative givingto $623,200 clients.” ductively to better serve our allow us to work more pro- Death Penalty Clinic. “It will director of the law school’s fessor Ty Alper, associate this gift,” says clinical pro benefit tremendously from is immense.” legacy “his ple to the nation” and that this state became an exam until the legal profession in California Bar and judiciary intellectual standards of the SPRING 2013 “Everyone involved will |

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55 Insight: Value of a Boalt Degree Going Up, Not Down

BY TYLER GERKING ’02 governance, health care, business law, intellectual property law, and the environment. t seems a growing number of people are I’ve heard our dean, Christopher Edley, Jr., saying it’s not worth going to law school proclaim that the world needs talented new now. Tuition is up, job prospects are lawyers, for they will have the tools neces- down. There’s no shortage of screams sary to creatively meet our most difficult Ifrom the bandwagon warning aspiring lawyers challenges. He’s right. Private and public sec- to stick with their current jobs, and forgo law tor demand is not diminishing for lawyers school, or else find themselves three years with practical problem-solving skills honed later back in the same job with loads of debt. by these efforts—it is growing rapidly. “Boalt This generalization does not apply to pro- Therein lies Boalt’s strength. Its students, spective Boalt Hall students. No doubt, Boalt professors, instructors, and alumni are lead- graduates graduates in the last few years faced a far ers in thriving and growing job markets, more challenging job market than those many of which extend far beyond the tradi- enter a before them. But in several key respects, Boalt tional U.S. law firm context, where demand community offers determined students the opportunities for new graduates has slowed. Many Boalties to pursue fulfilling and impactful law careers work where the law intersects with business, with an that many other law schools do not. policy, and social justice—in government, expansive Employers are demanding that law schools venture capital firms, Bay Area startups, and better equip their students with the practical nongovernmental organizations. In other horizon that skills to hit the ground running after passing words, Boalt graduates enter a community urgently the bar exam. Boalt is responding. The with an expansive horizon that urgently school is expanding its skills-based course needs the skills our school fosters. needs the offerings, which already include classes on Crucially, the entire horizon—not just the depositions, negotiations, interviewing and high-paying portion of it—is within graduates’ skills our counseling, and trial practice, among others. financial reach. Boalt has one of the most gen- school Boalt also encourages students to get erous loan-forgiveness programs of any law hands-on experience representing real cli- school in the country. With the debt relief it fosters.” ents, where lawyering skills and judgment provides, Boalt graduates gain the freedom to are truly developed. Boalt students have choose perhaps lower-paying, but highly many clinical options, and they can also do rewarding, jobs critical to the public interest. real legal work through semester-long field Simply put, the decision to attend Boalt placements with nonprofits and government Hall is the right one for determined, aspiring agencies. Employers want students who take lawyers who want to make a real-world the initiative to get such real-world lawyer- impact. ing experience, and Boalt continues to broaden these opportunities. Boalt students also participate in cutting- Tyler Gerking ’02 is a partner in the San edge research and problem-solving in the Francisco office of Farella Braun + Martel. law school’s research centers. These centers His commercial litigation practice mainly help develop policy solutions to problems in involves insurance coverage issues.

56 | Transcript | SPRING 2013 All in the BOALT family CLASS NOTES

and an expert on fair-use 1968 law, has worked with A. Lou Benassi and his scholars to create a wife, Patricia Benassi ’69, 180-degree turnaround in were honored to again be the culture surrounding selected as Leading fair use. Michael was an Lawyers and Super integral part of the recent Lawyers for the state of Lee Storey Smile ’Til It Illinois for 2013. Hurts: The Up with People Story case, in which the documentary film community claimed victory against the IRS. He filed a 1963 Friend-of-the-Court brief Michael Antin writes, in the case on a pro bono “After rave reviews and basis, which noted, “A production runs in judicial pronouncement Hollywood and New York, that documentary film- my third musical comedy, makers are not engaged in Your Sophia, has been selected a profit-making activity Classmates for this summer’s would have a chilling Want to Manhattan International effect on the documentary Hear from Music Festival. Following filmmaking industry, as Frank Schreck was named You! the festival, it will finish an documentarians would no a “Star Individual” by extended run in New longer be able to claim Chambers & Partners in its York.” Renewal, Michael’s deductions for their busi- 2013 global rankings. He CONTACT US musical comedy about ness expenses.” Post- was honored for his strong, ONLINE: finding the strength and victory, Michael said, successful record in both www.law.berkeley.edu/alumnetwork perseverance to start anew “Even if it takes six years, Internet- and land-based BY EMAIL: after tragedy, will open the making of a documen- gaming. The ranking rec- [email protected] this fall in New York and tary, in spite of educa- ognizes the breadth of his BY MAIL: then run in Hollywood. tional and public good, is expertise and stated that Boalt Hall Alumni Center also a business. The win is Frank is the primary point University of California, Berkeley School of Law particularly important of contact for several high- 2850 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 500 because the issue has profile clients and peers Berkeley, CA 94705-7220 1967 Michael Donaldson, one of rarely been addressed by a seeking advice on Nevada the fiercest advocates for court in such a direct gaming laws. He was also documentary filmmakers fashion.” recognized as a “Star

spring 2013 | Transcript | 57 CLASS NOTES

William Edlund ’53 Taking Aim at Gun Violence

Four decades after graduating from Boalt, litigator William Edlund ’53 embarked on an additional career: crusader. On July 1, 1993, a man walked into the offices of Pettit & Martin, a downtown San Francisco law firm. He was holding a grudge—an inco- herent but powerful grievance against lawyers—as well as 700 bullets and three pistols, two of them fitted with Hellfire trigger systems capa- ble of spraying up to 500 bullets per minute. He opened fire, killing eight people and wounding six more before taking his own life. Like many Bay Area attorneys, Edlund was shocked by the shooting. Unlike most, though, he was also spurred to act. He and a few other lawyers—many from Pettit & Martin; some, like Edlund, from other firms—formed the Legal Community Against Violence (LCAV) to take what they thought would be swift action. “Here’s how naïve I was,” Edlund recalls. “At one of our first meetings, I said, ‘Let’s do something simple that no one will oppose—let’s get assault weapons banned nationwide.’ It took us a year, and then Congress allowed bar organizations, as well as heading alumni and fundraising activi- the ban to expire in 2004, unfortunately.” ties at Boalt. Today LCAV, now known as the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Most people his age—he’s 83—have long since retired, but is a national clearinghouse for information about firearms law and Edlund’s not interested. Now at Bartko Zankel Bunzel & Miller, where Second Amendment litigation. It’s also the only organization exclu- he’s been for 10 years, he represents corporations and individuals in sively dedicated to providing pro bono legal services to legislators major antitrust, securities, defamation, malpractice, and general proposing “smart gun laws” that restrict the size of ammunition mag- commercial litigation. “I’m still practicing full time,” he says. “Still try- azines, require background checks and waiting periods, and limit the ing cases.” Indeed, in a recent trial where Edlund served as lead law- carrying of concealed weapons. The center’s work is frequently cited yer, the arbitrator praised his skills as “materially higher than those in the media and judicial opinions, and Edlund—now its president— displayed by other counsel with similar expertise and experience.” speaks and writes often about gun violence. But curbing gun violence is his cause. Despite high-profile heart- Edlund had already built a distinguished career by the time he tack- breaks like the December 2012 massacre at an elementary school led this issue. Admitted to the bar in 1953, he served a two-year in Newtown, Connecticut, Edlund harbors hope, pointing to Califor- hitch in the U.S. Army and then became Boalt’s first Ford Foundation nia’s progress since the shooting that galvanized him. “There were fellow, studying at the London School of Economics. Next he joined 4,955 gun deaths in California in 1991,” he notes. “In 2011, there Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, where he practiced for 43 years, chairing were 2,972—nearly 2,000 fewer.” The message he draws from his the firm’s litigation group and serving on its executive committee. He center’s crusade, California’s laws, and the state’s drop in deaths? has also held many leadership positions in local, state, and national “Smart gun laws save lives.” —Jon Jefferson

Individual” in the ness group. His nearly 40 In addition to represent- Chambers & Partners 2012 years of experience ing his clients’ gaming 1969 USA Guide. A shareholder includes personally repre- interests in Nevada, he Patricia Benassi, in addi- at Brownstein Hyatt senting premier public participates in interna- tion to being honored as a Farber Schreck, Frank and private gaming com- tional gaming-related Leading Lawyer and Super chairs the firm’s gaming panies on licensing mat- matters in Japan, Macau, Lawyer in Illinois for law group and is a member ters and all other aspects Puerto Rico, Spain, and 2013, was selected as one of the corporate and busi- of regulatory compliance. Great Britain. (Continued on page 61)

58 | Transcript | spring 2013 Jerry Brady ’62 50 Years Where the Accion Is

“I was just a kid from Idaho Falls who happened to write a letter whose access to microloans energized businesses from hauling to The Wall Street Journal.” So says Jerry Brady ’62, looking back on bananas to renting chairs for weddings. what led him to co-found Accion, a grassroots organization that One such interaction occurred in the back room of a tiny grocery. became a pioneering force in global microlending. “I was surrounded by bananas,” he says. “Ten women in pink and Brady’s fateful letter rebuked an editorial criticizing President John orange saris came together, as they had every month for years, to F. Kennedy’s creation of the Peace Corps in 1961. Brady had just make payments on their small loans.” This was nothing unusual— returned from a tour of Africa between graduating from Notre Dame Brady says 98 percent of the microloans issued to women in India and starting at Boalt, and his passion for addressing injustice ran are repaid in a similar way. high. “It was significant for me,” he recalls, marveling at the opportuni- “This was a time of great idealism, and many of my classmates ties made possible by a three-man organization he helped start in a were deeply involved in the civil rights movement,” he says. “The Berkeley garage. “I thought, ‘How fortunate can I be to witness this!’” Peace Corps was exactly what I had in mind. The fact that anyone —Bob Rucker would oppose it did not sit well.” Fellow Boaltie Joseph Blatchford ’61 happened to read Brady’s five-paragraph letter to the editor. Although they’d never met, he recognized a kindred spirit. Blatchford was living in a garage off Tele- graph Avenue, rounding up money and volunteers for Accion—a goodwill organization of his own. In Brady’s journalism experience with his family’s newspaper business, Blatchford saw a gifted com- municator who could make important contacts for fundraising and news coverage. The two enlisted a third Boaltie, Gary Glenn ’64, to help recruit volunteers, and Accion took off. Within a few months, 30 volunteers departed for the barrios of Venezuela to dig sanitation ditches and build schools. Over time, the organization evolved. Brady moved on to other interests, but never lost touch. Then in 2011—after a career that included the directorship of a congressional committee, a private law practice, two runs for Idaho governor, and many years managing his family’s media interests—Brady attended Accion’s 50th anniversary party in New York. In five decades, local volunteers had mostly replaced Americans, and Accion had embraced microlending: issuing very small loans to impoverished borrowers who lack traditional means of satisfying conventional lenders. “At that party, I heard inspiring stories from many of Accion’s new and wonderful colleagues,” says Brady, now 76. “ I began to wonder whether they might consider a request from one of its founders to join their international volunteer program, as an Accion Ambassador.” He applied. Accion accepted. The result was a three-month mission to India last fall, chronicled at jerrybrady.blogspot.com. Brady worked alongside local partners and met many entrepreneurs,

spring 2013 | Transcript | 59 CLASS NOTES

Rick Sherman ’74 True Love, True Lies

Creative philanthropy, the desire to surprise and honor a spouse, vant to the practice of law in the 21st century,” he says. Thus, the and a web of little white lies began a tale that ends very happily Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professorship of Law and Infor- indeed. In 2003, Rick Sherman ’74 traveled to San Francisco with his mation was born. It is currently held by Pamela Samuelson, who wife, Heidi, to attend a black-tie event at Tiffany’s. Or so he was told. holds a joint appointment at Boalt and the School of Information, and “We flew from Southern California the night before the event and is faculty co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. had dinner at our hotel,” Rick recalls. “The next morning, I suggested Rick, a partner emeritus at Irell & Manella, continues to support going out to walk around Union Square, but Heidi had scheduled a the professorship out of gratitude for his experience at Boalt. “It was massage for us in the room and had sent all of my clothes to the always an intellectual place, but as students we were given a lot of cleaners. I should have figured out something was up, but I was freedom,” he says. “The faculty not only taught us the skills of analyz- clueless.” ing the law, but they also taught us how to think. That became very So, what was up? There was no Tiffany event. Instead, Heidi had important in my career, certainly as a young lawyer.” spent months arranging a surprise dinner at Fleur de Lys with Rick’s —Ben Peterson friends, family, and colleagues to announce a distinguished Boalt professorship that she established in his name. All the guests were tucked away within a four-block radius of the Four Seasons, where Heidi and Rick were staying. “She was worried that if I even went out for some fresh air, someone might see me and spill the beans,” he says. That night, Rick came to the lobby in formal wear and was stunned to find his entire family waiting for him. He was delighted, but an explanation for their presence would have to wait until dinner. All was revealed at Fleur de Lys that night, where 150 friends from Boalt and his professional life greeted and congratulated him. “When I first arrived, I still didn’t know about the professorship right away,” he says. “I couldn’t figure out why they were congratu- lating me.” Over dinner, Rick was toasted by many in atten- dance, including his children, Carol ’99 and Michael, and the mastermind behind the cloak-and-dagger affair, Heidi. “The whole thing was so elaborate,” Rick says of Heidi’s meticulous planning. “To put the funding together, to bring in that many people and keep it all a surprise was very impressive. It was a tremendous gift of love.” Of course, that dinner was just the beginning of the story. “The Boalt administration asked me what I wanted do with the fund, and it was very important to me that the resources go toward something rele-

60 | Transcript | spring 2013 Brenda Harbin-Forte ’79 A “Somebody for Others”

Brenda Harbin-Forte ’79 was the first African-American woman to serve as class president at Boalt Hall, president of the Alameda County Bar Association, and dean of California’s B.E. Witkin Judicial College. Blazing new trails? Old hat. But when she became a judge 21 years ago, her excitement was interests of African-American lawyers, judges, and law students. dampened by a jarring dearth of minority colleagues. “With intelligence, compassion, and unabashed determination, “California is almost 60 percent ethnic minorities,” says Harbin- Brenda almost single-handedly helped the judicial branch and State Forte, who spent seven years as a municipal court judge in Oakland Bar leaders see that a diverse judiciary positively impacts the public’s before becoming an Alameda County Superior Court judge in 1999 trust and confidence in our court system,” says Donna Clay-Conti ’80, through court unification. “I thought our judiciary would be greatly a senior attorney at the Administrative Office of the Courts. enriched by reflecting that diversity.” One of 12 children, Harbin-Forte grew up on public assistance in In 2005, Harbin-Forte was appointed to a State Bar task force Mississippi. Her son, Ken, was born before her junior year of high charged with finding ways to increase diversity throughout the legal school, and she moved with her family to Oakland just two weeks profession. At the time, there was no easy way to obtain data about later. Despite those trying circumstances, Harbin-Forte finished sixth the gender, racial identity, or ethnic background of California’s judges. in her high school class, received financial aid to attend UC Berkeley At Harbin-Forte’s urging, the State Bar convened a judicial diversity and then Boalt, and delivered commencement addresses at her high summit in 2006, where she presented the findings of a working school, college, and law school graduations. group she chaired that had canvassed California courts. Those find- She later practiced complex civil litigation at a large Bay Area firm ings compared the percentage of minority judges with that of resi- and was named partner at Thelen, Marrin, Johnson & Bridges before dents in various counties. joining the judiciary. “People couldn’t believe our bar graphs and pie charts,” Harbin- “When I was a teen parent wondering if I could make something of Forte says. “We had counties without a single minority judge.” Soon my life, somebody came along to encourage me,” she says. “When I after, California passed SB-56, which requires the collection and wanted to attend law school and then become a judge, somebody sup- annual public reporting of demographic data about California judges. ported my efforts. When I needed a job, somebody, John Burris [’73] “We’re still not where we want to be, but we are making progress.” gave me an opportunity. Whenever I got discouraged in life, somebody In December 2012, Harbin-Forte received the Hall of Fame Award was always there urging me to succeed. That’s why I’m so grateful to from the Charles Houston Bar Association, which represents the be perceived as a ‘somebody’ for others.” —Andrew Cohen

(Continued from page 58) as a fellow into the ABA’s continues to serve as a of Regents, and as presi- College of Labor and member of the Alumni dent of the university’s of the Top Ten Women’s Employment Lawyers. Association’s board of Alumni Association. Plaintiff’s Employment directors and is also a Lawyers for downstate Ronald Rubenstein trustee of the UC Santa Illinois and one of the Top recently completed a two- Barbara Foundation. 1971 100 Women’s Plaintiff’s year term as president of Ronald is now serving the William Bedsworth notes Employment Lawyers for the board of directors of University of California in that in a desperate attempt the state of Illinois. She the UC Santa Barbara two new capacities: as a to keep up with his daugh- was previously inducted Alumni Association. He member of the UC Board ter, Caitlin, who graduated

spring 2013 | Transcript | 61 CLASS NOTES

from Boalt in May, he has western United States, and Roger Booth, a partner at begun teaching Appellate 1980 is headquartered in Irvine, Booth & Koskoff in Advocacy at the UC Irvine Kelvin Filer reports that on California. “I should have Torrance, California, is co- School of Law. “Early September 14, 2012, he was done this six years ago author of Personal Injury returns show Caitlin sub- honored with the Lifetime when I was first offered the Handbook, a practice guide stantially ahead,” he writes. Member Achievement position,” Ignacio writes. recently published by William also says that Award by the National “I look forward to never James Publishing. “classmates who don’t get Association for the preparing a timesheet enough laughs out of my Advancement of Colored again. I also enjoy getting Bruce Shepherd, a partner opinions will be reassured People (NAACP). Kelvin home earlier by commut- in the finance department to know my nationally syn- says he “was one of the ing with my wife, Denise, at Latham & Watkins, was dicated column, ‘A first members to take out a and taking the HOV lane recognized in SD Metro Criminal Waste of Space,’ lifetime membership with together.” Magazine as one of San won its fourth California the Compton Branch of Diego’s “Best Attorneys in Newspapers Association the NAACP in 1985.” 2013.” Bruce, who has award for excellence. Last broad experience in real year, it won one of George estate development, con- Mason University’s Green 1982 struction, and joint ven- Bag awards. The other two Lynne Urman writes, ture and finance transac- winners in my category “After writing numerous tions, has also been named were Jeffrey Toobin and law books as a ghostwriter one of California’s Top 20 Nina Totenberg, company I and legal editor, I decided real estate “deal makers” seldom get mentioned in.” to write one under my own by the Los Angeles Daily name: Insights and Journal. He is a member of Observations of Trial Court the San Diego Regional 1979 Research Attorneys. The Economic Development Gregory Zaragoza writes, book is based on my expe- Corporation and last year “I hope you get a chance to riences (and those of some 1983 completed his third term watch one or more of the colleagues) as a research Patricia McCoy was as a publicly elected mem- movies that I have recently attorney in the law and appointed by Elizabeth ber of the Coronado completed. I have a role in motion department of a Warren (now a U.S. sena- School Board, serving as The Perfect Family, with California Superior Court. tor, D-Mass.) in 2011 to president in 2001, 2002, Kathleen Turner, and I am I am pleased to announce head the mortgage mar- and 2009 through 2012. the lead actor in Jordan.” that my book has been kets section of the You can learn more about published by Thomson Consumer Financial Gregory’s work on IMDB Reuters/Aspatore Protection Bureau, where 1987 at imdb.com/name/nm095 (February 2013).” For she oversaw all of the Sandra Levin was 3340/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1. more information, visit bureau’s mortgage initia- appointed executive direc- http://legalsolutions. tives. That same year, tor of the Los Angeles Law thomsonreuters.com/ Oxford University Press Library Board of Trustees law-products. published her new book, in December and was also The Subprime Virus, co- named one of California’s Ignacio Lazo recently left authored with Kathleen Top 25 municipal lawyers Cadden & Fuller LLP to Engel. In 2012, Patricia in 2012. She had served as accept a position at 4G returned to her teaching the library’s general coun- Wireless, Inc. as its gen- post at the University of sel, and has spent 25 years eral counsel and vice pres- Connecticut School of Law in the legal profession in a ident for corporate legal as the Connecticut Mutual variety of roles. As a affairs. The company is a Professor of Law and founder, owner, and co- Verizon Wireless retailer director of the Insurance manager of her law firm, with 120 stores in the Law Center. Colantuono & Levin,

62 | Transcript | spring 2013 Sandra is responsible for already generated more approximately 20 employ- than 17,000 downloads ees. A former mayor and from the Berkeley In Memoriam city council member of Electronic Press website: Martin Pence ’28 Culver City, California, http://works.bepress.com/ William L. Blackenburg ’39 Sandra had firsthand expe- david_pimentel/. Frank Pestana ’40 rience overseeing a budget Harley J. Spitler, Jr. ’40 of more than $80 million, Otis L. Frost ’41 with hundreds of employ- Evelyn S. Holzman ’47 1992 St. John Barrett ’48 ees and diverse municipal Nadira Clarke, the leader Mary Ellen H. Etcheverry ’48 operations. She has been a of Beveridge & Diamond’s Bruce B. Bales ’49 principal at Colantuono & white-collar defense and Russell R. Kletzing ’49 Levin since 2001, and was environmental crimes Oliver J. Northup, Jr. ’49 previously a principal at practice group, was chosen Walter G. Olson ’49 Riordan & McKenzie. by the Minority Corporate John J. Golden ’50 Counsel Association as one Robert P. MacDonald ’50 Kenneth Nagel ’50 of 12 “Rising Stars” hon- William F. Sharon ’51 ored for their legal accom- Sheila S. Kato ’52 plishments and their Jerome P. Solari ’52 commitment to diversity Aaron M. Greenberg ’53 and inclusion in the legal Paul C. Maier ’54 profession. Nadira was fea- Robert I. Conn ’56 Donald M. Cahen ’57 tured on the cover of the Eugene Manthey ’57 March/April 2013 issue of John M. Thorpe ’57 Diversity & the Bar. James M. Gifford ’58 Richard W. Kessell ’59 Warren S. Levin ’61 Henry J. Faitz ’63 Richard Julien, Jr. ’63 Lawrence F. Hilton ’64

Sanford Svetcov ’64 Merritt S. Yoelin ’65 1988 Patrick A. Randolph, Jr. ’69 David Pimentel recently Melanie L. Schodde ’69 accepted a position at Ohio Philip E. Decker ’72 Northern University in Camille E. LeGrand ’73 Ada, Ohio, as a visiting Mark S. Branner ’74 Barbara A. Cushin ’75 associate professor, teach- Daniel E. McNulty ’75 ing in the school’s M.T. Perry ’75 Democratic Governance William F. Mack ’78 and Rule of Law LL.M. Christopher J. Hunt ’79 Program. David recently Howard Shelanski has Mark E. Zatt ’80 was employed at the been nominated by Scott R. Rutherford ’83 Mary W. Filson ’84 Florida Coastal School of President Obama to direct Mark R. Sieke ’84 Law as an associate profes- the Office of Information John C. Rayburn, Jr. ’90 sor of law, but spent the and Regulatory Affairs, Linda W. Verheecke ’93 2010-11 school year at the which oversees all federal Peter J. Wong ’93 University of Sarajevo on a regulations. Howard, who Matthew K. Africa ’00 Fulbright award. His forth- taught at Boalt from 1997 Jennifer K. Gendel ’01 coming article on overpro- to 2009, is currently direc- Tedra E. Fox ’02 Rebecca C. Nichols ’10 tective parenting and the tor of the Federal Trade “free-range kid” has Commission’s Bureau of

spring 2013 | Transcript | 63 CLASS NOTES

Matthew Close ’96 Details to the Defense

Everywhere he looks, Matthew Close ’96 sees people taking rate pension plan after it invested more than $100 million with a firm shortcuts. Lawyers ignoring the fine print. Investors dismissing accused of operating a Ponzi scheme. He also gained dismissals long-range strategies. Media pundits blaring knee-jerk accusations. for Bank of America in several derivative and class-action suits A third-generation lawyer, Close isn’t wired that way. Attention to against the company stemming from its 2008 acquisition of mort- detail is what guides his securities litigation practice at O’Melveny & gage lender Countrywide Financial. Recently, he helped resurrect Myers, where he is a partner based in the Los Angeles office—and CenterStaging—a music production company forced into bank- what makes it so successful. When the economy started unraveling ruptcy after an effort to expand into the online music industry failed. in 2008, and blame-seeking missiles filled the airwaves, Close “A good lawyer is a good problem-solver,” Close says. “You’re not defended his clients by marshaling the details. just operating in the narrow prism of legal issues; you’re trying to “Financial crises and business collapses are usually the last part make life easier and more gratifying for your clients. People put a lot of long, interconnected stories involving many participants and vari- of faith and confidence in lawyers, and it’s important to earn that ables,” he says. “They often get reduced to oversimplified storylines respect.” —Andrew Cohen about who’s to blame. My job is to understand the full story and present it in a straightforward way to judges and juries who haven’t invested hundreds of hours mastering the subject matter.” Close’s grandfather was a longtime law partner in Massachusetts with former U.S. Congressman Tom Lane, and his father still practices transactional law in Southern California. At O’Melveny & Myers, Close represents corporations and their directors and officers in securities fraud, derivative suits, and breach of duty litigation, with extensive experience handling complex issues for international clients involved in cross-border business. He also litigates commercial disputes as well as unfair competition and deceptive trade practice actions. In 2010, Law360 named Close one of the United States’ “Ten Ris- ing Stars Under 40” in securities litigation. His articles on the subject have appeared in Bloomberg Law Reports, Los Angeles Daily Journal, and International Financial Law Review. Close’s submissions likely require little editing. Last year, he won a 2012 Distinguished Legal Writing Award from the Burton Awards for Legal Achievement—run through the Library of Congress— which annually recognizes the best legal writing from the nation’s top 1,000 law firms. “A big part of good legal writing is not taking it for granted or thinking that you can’t improve,” he says. “Every step of the way— high school, college, Boalt, clerkship, firm—I’ve been surrounded by people who put a priority on writing.” As an undergraduate majoring in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Close pursued his interests in business and finance. Those interests grew stronger at Boalt and carried into his clerkship with federal district court judge Mariana Pfaelzer, whose docket included many high-end business disputes. At O’Melveny & Myers, Close helped restructure a major corpo-

64 | Transcript | spring 2013 Economics and a law counsel and executive societies and a leading careers in the labor move- professor at Georgetown director of the Litigation center for policy research. ment. More information is University. He previously Council of America. A Since its founding in 1780, available at Ochoa Legal served as chief economist at founding partner in the AAAS has elected leading Group’s website, www. theFederalCommunications new firm, Benjamin has “thinkers and doers” from union-attorneys.org. Commission. prosecuted securities and each generation. The cur- consumer fraud cases rent membership includes against some of the largest more than 250 Nobel lau- 1993 publicly traded U.S. com- reates and more than 60 Allison Claire was recently panies and directed Pulitzer Prize winners. appointed as a U.S. magis- nationwide consumer pro- The new class will be trate judge in the U.S. tection suits. He received inducted at a ceremony on District Court for the high honors at Boalt, and October 12 in Cambridge, Eastern District of was Phi Beta Kappa and Massachusetts. Tom is cur- California in Sacramento. magna cum laude as an rently Leo Spitz Professor Prior to taking the bench, undergraduate at Duke of International Law, Allison enjoyed a 17-year University. Visit www. Ludwig and Hilde Wolf career at the Federal andersenbanducci.com for Research Scholar, and pro- Defender’s Office, most more information. fessor of political science recently as a supervising at the University of assistant federal defender Chicago Law School. in the Capital Habeas 2001 Unit. Cinnamon Carlarne was 1999 promoted to associate Ricardo Ochoa and his law professor by The Ohio 1996 partner, Dovie Yoana King, State University Board of Benjamin Schwartzman both union-side labor Trustees within the uni- has helped found attorneys at Ochoa Legal versity’s Michael E. Andersen Banducci PLLC, Group in San Diego, were Moritz College of Law. A a high-stakes civil litiga- acknowledged in the new leading expert in environ- tion practice in Boise, Labor and Employment mental law and climate Idaho. In addition to Law Career Guide for their change law and policy, her Benjamin and several panel presentation at the scholarship focuses on the other rising legal stars, the National Association of evolution of domestic and firm boasts two of the Law Placement’s Public international environ- Gem State’s most note- 1997 Service Section mental governance and worthy civil trial lawyers, Vadim Braslavsky has been Conference in Washington, includes a book on com- Steven Andersen and named to the California D.C., “Putting a Law parative climate change Thomas Banducci. Super Lawyers list as one Degree to Work for law and policy with Andersen Banducci trial of the top attorneys in Workers: The New Oxford University Press. attorneys were lead coun- California for 2013. No Landscape in Workers’ Cinnamon holds a B.C.L. sel for verdicts and settle- more than 5 percent of the Rights Careers.” Richard’s and master’s degree in ments in excess of $400 lawyers in the state are law practice is a full-ser- environmental change million and have won selected by Super Lawyers. vice labor and employment and management from the landmark cases against firm dedicated to repre- University of Oxford. She some of the nation’s larg- Tom Ginsburg has been senting labor unions and is on the editorial board est law firms. “This is the elected to the American their members. The firm for the Climate Law firm you simply don’t Academy of Arts and has also established the Journal and the newly want to see on the other Sciences (AAAS), one of inaugural Workers’ Rights established Transnational side of the case,” says the nation’s most presti- Scholarship for California Environmental Law G. Steven Henry, general gious national honorary law students interested in Journal.

spring 2013 | Transcript | 65 CLASS NOTES

the jury found that Lidia sionals building the Bay 2002 and Heather’s team proved Area’s future. A partner at 2005 Seth Shelden was granted a an overcharge of at least Carroll, Burdick & Lauren (McBrayer) Miller Fulbright award to teach $500 million. As a result, McDonough and the chair writes, “I’m thrilled to U.S. Intellectual Property the maximum fine now of its diversity committee, announce that my debut Law at the University of faced by each company has Jodi specializes in litigat- novel, Parallel, came out Latvia for the fall 2012 jumped from $100 million ing class action, complex from HarperTeen on May semester. to $1 billion. business, and insurance 14, and I’m hoping to be on cases. She also served as campus at Berkeley in the Lidia Maher and Heather first vice president and fall for a signing.” Parallel Tewksbury were among the treasurer of California is available for pre-order recipients of the U.S. Women Lawyers. at amazon.com. Attorney General’s Award for Meritorious Public Service on October 17, 2004 2012. These awards were Winslow Taub has been pro- given to members of the moted to partner within team that successfully the San Francisco office of prosecuted AU Optronics, Covington & Burling LLP. among others, for price-fix- He practices patent litiga- ing. This case represented tion and general commer- the first time that the cial litigation. Winslow has Department of Justice’s 2003 worked on a variety of pat- Antitrust Division litigated Austin Ku writes, “After ent infringement matters, the issue of ill-gotten gain passing the California bar from pre-litigation coun- before a jury. “This year’s and working as an enter- seling and negotiation Tamara Freeze writes, “In award recipients have tainment lawyer, I went through trial, with a partic- my first career appeal, I made significant contribu- back to graduate school for ular focus on patents cov- won a unanimous decision tions across, and far theater in 2007. I am now a ering computer hardware from the California Court beyond, the Department of professional actor based and software. He clerked of Appeal, 2nd District, Justice and helped to pro- out of New York City, and for Judge Marilyn Hall convincing the court that tect the rights, safety, and am currently on the 2012- Patel of the U.S. District big-law firm Bingham best interests of the citi- 2013 international tour of Court of the Northern McCutchen LLP’s arbitra- zens we are privileged to the Broadway play District of California. tion agreement with a for- serve,” U.S. Attorney Chinglish.” The play had a mer associate was invalid.” General Eric Holder said. run at Berkeley Repertory James Metz was elected Tamara’s firm filed a law- “I am grateful for the dedi- Theater from August 24 to partner at Latham & suit on behalf of her for- cation and passion that October 21 last year, and at Watkins LLP in November. mer Boalt classmate these extraordinary public South Coast Repertory A tax lawyer, he is focused Hartwell Harris, an ex- servants bring to their Theater in Costa Mesa, on executive compensation Bingham associate, in work, and I am honored to California, from January and employee benefits 2011. The suit alleged count them as colleagues.” 25 to February 24. Visit matters. James specializes wrongful termination on Heather notes that the www.Austin-Ku.com for in equity incentive plans, the basis of Harris’ disabil- defendants “played a piv- more information. employee stock purchase ity. The trial court denied otal role in a global con- plans, health and welfare Bingham’s motion to com- spiracy that had an unprec- Jodi Swick was named by plans, mergers and acquisi- pel arbitration on the edented impact on the San Francisco Business tions, and federal and state grounds that the provision pocketbooks of American Times as one of the Bay securities laws. He is also was not enforceable under consumers.” Not only was Area’s ‘40 Under 40’ most involved in employment Massachussetts law AU Optronics and its U.S. interesting, interested, and agreements and severance (Bingham’s choice of law subsidiary convicted, but innovative young profes- agreements for executives. provision). The Court of

66 | Transcript | spring 2013 Zoe Savitsky ’11 Setting the Stage for Equal Education

While an undergrad at Harvard, Zoe Savitsky ’11 took part in Savitsky was introduced to youth causes while working on juvenile roughly 20 theater productions as an actor, costume designer, and justice issues at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, producer, among other roles. Little did she know how well that train- Alabama. At Boalt, she co-directed the Juvenile Hall Outreach pro- ing would serve her on a different kind of stage. gram and Advocates for Youth Justice, worked on a journal of youth “Law and theater are surprisingly similar,” Savitsky says. “In both, law and policy, and helped the Henderson Center for Social Justice you use tools such as words, movement, stillness, and emotion to complete a groundbreaking study on restorative justice practices. try to create a persuasive narrative.” She also helped teach an undergraduate juvenile justice course and Savitsky’s success has persuaded the U.S. Department of Justice volunteered as a health counselor for homeless youth. (DOJ) to give her major responsibilities early in her career—not to From racially disproportionate student discipline to the abusive mention the John R. Dunne Award for achievements in advancing civil treatment of incarcerated youth, Savitsky knows the obstacles are rights. She has taken the lead on major investigations to enforce fed- often daunting. Yet, she says, “Seemingly intractable problems can eral civil rights statutes that ban discrimination in schools on the be addressed by the perseverant and creative work of dedicated basis of race, color, national origin, sex, language status, religion, attorneys tasked with defending the public good.” and disability. “It’s intense and very challenging,” Savitsky says, “but With each new case and each new stage, Savitsky is asked for an also exciting and exhilarating.” encore performance. “I put everything I have into this work,” she Her cases confront barriers to equal education for undocumented says. “It’s incredibly rewarding.” —Andrew Cohen and English-language learner students, harsh disciplinary sanctions that often push students into the school-to-prison pipeline, and school-district segregation. Soon after Alabama passed its controversial anti-illegal immigration law in 2011, Savitsky conducted interviews with affected students, parents, educators, and community members. She worked with state officials—both cooperatively and combatively—to resolve issues stemming from the law’s impact on Hispanic and undocumented youth. On February 26, Savitsky settled a huge case in Florida for the DOJ. As a result, Palm Beach County—the nation’s 11th-largest school district—must enroll all area students regardless of background or immigration status, provide translation and interpretation services to students and families, and limit discriminatory discipline measures that remove students from classrooms. On March 22, Savitsky and her colleagues entered into a landmark settlement with the Meridian Public School District in Mississippi to prevent and address racial discrimination in student discipline, amending a long- standing desegregation decree in that district. The goal, Savitsky says, is to ensure that schools are “places where safety and security derive from upholding, rather than deny- ing, everyone’s civil rights.” Quoting Frederick Douglass, she adds: “It’s easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

spring 2013 | Transcript | 67 CLASS NOTES

Appeal affirmed 3-0, certi- global communities. ate attorney at Hughes the University of Colorado fied the decision for publi- SAMYA specializes in creat- Hubbard & Reed’s Miami Law School, specializing in cation, and ordered ing programs for legal pro- office, Rebecca is a dedi- race and immigration, and Bingham to pay plaintiff fessionals. Visit www.samy- cated public interest advo- Stephen is a supervisory costs on appeal. apractice.com to learn cate with a passion for attorney with the U.S. more. assisting low-income Department of Education’s women, children, and Office for Civil Rights. 2007 Hector Huezo and the immigrants. Her practice Maya is fittingly named for Azmina Noorallah Jasani Transportation and focuses on complex product civil rights pioneers Maya and Faheem Karim Amin Transportation Security liability litigation in federal Angelou and Maya Lin. Madhani were married in Law Section (TTSL) were and state courts. In 2010, February in San Juan, recognized by the Federal she contributed more than Puerto Rico. Soon after, Bar Association at its 1,000 pro bono hours, the they had a religious cere- annual meeting last highest number in her firm. mony at Manhattan Ismaili September. Hector, the Rebecca’s pro bono work Jamatkhana, the prayer TTSL Chair, received the spans several different center where they met in 2012 Section Chair Award, areas of substantive law, 2009. Azmina is an associ- which recognizes distin- and includes direct services ate in the Manhattan office guished service to the and appellate work. She was of the London law firm Federal Bar Association also recently featured in Withers Worldwide. and its sections or divi- Florida Trend magazine as a sions. TTSL also received “Pro Bono Star.” the Outstanding 2008 Newsletter Recognition Jennifer Gomez was Award for the stellar work Lauren Groth is the 2013 recently appointed by New of its newsletter, recipient of the Francis York Governor Andrew TransLaw, as a way to com- Lieber Prize for her article Cuomo to serve as special municate with the mem- “Transforming assistant at the New York bership and encourage Accountability: A Proposal State Office of Temporary participation. for Reconsidering How and Disability Assistance Human Rights Obligations in Albany. She is currently Are Applied to Private participating in the gover- 2009 Military Security Firms” nor’s inaugural Empire Kim Natividad was recently (Hastings International State Fellows Program. named Boalt’s director of and Comparative Law Jennifer was previously Student Services. She Review 35:29, 2012). employed at the New York joined the office in 2012 as Bestowed annually by the City Council as legislative its Student Services 2011 American Society of counsel. adviser. Previously, Kim Ming Hsu Chen and International Law’s Lieber was an associate at Hughes Stephen Chen announce Society on the Law of Flynn Coleman recently Hubbard & Reed in New the birth of their daughter, Armed Conflict, the award founded SAMYA Practice York City. Maya Hsu Chen, on honors an author 35 years LLC, a social enterprise in February 8, 2013. Maya of age or younger for out- New York that fosters posi- Rebecca Sosa received was born on the eve of the standing scholarship in the tive change by designing the 2013 Florida Bar Chinese New Year, in time field of the law of armed yoga-centric programs for Young Lawyers Division to be considered Year of conflict. Lauren is an asso- organizations and individu- Pro Bono Service Award at the Dragon. The new fam- ciate attorney in the litiga- als seeking balance and a January 31 presentation ily resides in Boulder, tion department of Steptoe transformation. It also at the Supreme Court of Colorado, where Ming is & Johnson LLP in gives back to local and Florida. A litigation associ- an associate professor at Washington, D.C.

68 | Transcript | spring 2013 HTTP://GIVE.LAW.BERKELEY.EDU Smart investors INVESTING demand a good return on their investment.

That’s why at Boalt, we make sure we put our donors’ gifts to work. 1O1 In the past year, contributions have helped Boalt:

Provide need-based scholarships to students

Expand our professional skills and field placement programs

Compete with better-funded law schools for first-rate faculty

Launch a water law and policy center

Investigate wrongful prosecutions in California

Launch our California Constitution Center

There’s more—lots more. But the point is this: An investment in Boalt pays immediate dividends, directly supporting our students and faculty and allowing us to remain competitive with the nation’s other top law schools. That’s a return that would make any investor happy.

To make a gift: Please use the attached remit form or visit give.law.berkeley.edu.

http://give.law.berkeley.eduhttp://give.law.berkeley.edu University of California, Berkeley School of Law Alumni Center 2850 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 500 Berkeley, CA 94705-7220

THE NEXT 100 YEARS

ALUMNI WEEKEND 2013

Friday, September 27 Save the dateS! the Net: Utopia or dystopia? Join us for an enlightening and provocative evening as we September 27-28 explore the Internet’s double-edged sword: its ability to spread knowledge and democracy and its potential risk to civil liberties and personal freedoms. be part of boalt’s alumni Weekend celebration.

SatUrday, September 28 back-to-boalt day—Return to your alma mater and join your classmates in taking a look at what lies ahead for Boalt’s next 100 years! Enjoy catching up with friends, faculty, and fellow graduates, seeing what Boalt Hall looks like now, hearing informative and engaging presentations (CLE credit given), and much, much more. Class dinners—Food! Wine! Fun! Join your Boalt colleagues for celebratory dinners honoring those whose graduation years end in 3 or 8.

For Up-to-date iNFormatioN: law.berkeley.edu/alumni | [email protected] | 510.643.9949

spr13TransBoutsideCover3FInal_REV1.indd 1 5/21/13 1:00 PM