February, 2012
                            Original Boalt Hall                                                            New Building                                                        New South Addition                                          School of Jurisprudence, 1912                          Renamed School of Law, 1951                       UC Berkeley School of Law, 2011 
Centennial logo


Welcome to Boalt's Centennial!

 

This year affords us opportunities to acknowledge our extraordinary shared history and celebrate our shared achievements. Dean Edley will be appearing through a series of live video conversations with alumni around the country and participating in fundraising dinners honoring members of our illustrious faculty. A celebration Reunion Weekend and spectacular Centennial Gala are planned for later in the year. Join us. You have helped shape Boalt's first century and you can continue to make a difference. Be part of it!

 

Save These Dates 

Please note that the September Reunion Weekend dates have changed.

  • September 21 ~ Roundtable: President Obama's First Term, A Report Card
  • September 22 ~ Alumni Day and Reunion Class Dinners.
  • November 9 ~ Centennial Gala Celebration
Upcoming Events 

  • February 29 ~ Reception for Portland area alumni at Markowitz Herbold Glade & Mehlhaf, camaraderie, refreshments and networking
  • March 6 ~ Reception for Hawaii area alumni at Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, socialize with old and new friends from Boalt and hear from Dean Edley via video conversation  
  • March 21 ~
    • Annual Scholarship Luncheon: Warren Room at Boalt
    • BHAA Board of Directors meeting: Dean's Conference Room
    • McBaine Moot Court Competition: 6:00pm in Booth Auditorium. We are proud to welcome all Boalt presiding judges this year: Judge Marsha Berzon '73 of the Ninth Circuit; Judge D. Lowell Jensen '52 and Judge Charles Breyer '66, US District Court, Northern District of California.
  • May 3-6 ~ Fun trip to the Kentucky Derby led by Boalt Professor and California Horse Racing Commissioner Jesse Choper.  Read more

 

Reunion Weekend 
 
With great pleasure we announce Steve Arent '67 will be joined by Kenton King '87 and Matt Sonsini '92 as National Co-Chairs for Reunion 2012. Plans are underway now for this special Centennial version of the annual Alumni Weekend - come for the exciting Roundtable on Friday evening and on Saturday, catch up with and celebrate significant anniversaries, enjoy lunch with the 2012 D. Lowell Jensen Awardee, and more during the day. If your class year ends in 2 or 7, plan to stay for your class dinner. If you'd like to participate on your reunion class committee, please contact Joe Swimmer in the Alumni Center at 510.642.7574 or [email protected].

Boalt Through the Decades 

A Centennial Retrospective from Archivist William Benemann - in this issue, the 1910s.

The law student everyone called Pinky reminisced about being a member of the class of 1914. "There was no general indoctrination of any kind. ON the contrary, we worked entirely from casebooks. Only a few years prior to this time, the Harvard Law School had adopted the casebook system, and it was copied so closely at Boalt Hall that we were expected to derive our legal training solely from the cases in our casebooks." Feeling he was being poorly prepared for the legal profession, Pinky secured an after-class job in a Berkeley law office in order to gain some practical experience... Read more
Student Updates 
 
Boalt Skills Teams Succeed Again ~ Congratulations to Berkeley Law skills teams on a remarkable series of successes across the country in a variety of skills competitions. Dean Edley stated "[n]o law school has had a better start to the spring mock trial/mootcourt season." Read more 

 

Class of 2012 Gift Campaign Kickoff: Groundhog Day all Over Again ~ Members of the graduating class, including 3Ls and LL.M. candidates, celebrated Groundhog Day with a special visit from Punxsutawney Phil, taking over the top floor of Jupiter Pizza to kick off the annual class gift campaign. More pictures    

 

Faculty Updates 
  
Professor Eleanor Swift

 

Berkeley Law's Professional Skills Program has created a new Eleanor Swift Award to recognize the public-service contributions of a student, faculty, or staff member. Program Director David Oppenheimer says the award honors "Professor Swift's 30 years at Boalt encouraging our community to engage in public-service work." The award will be presented at an April 17 reception for public-interest graduates.

 

Professor Anne Joseph O'Connell

The Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction honors Berkeley Law professors who have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to teaching. This year's awardee, Professor Anne Joseph O'Connell, joins seventeen colleagues since the first Award in 1995.

 

The award is made possible by California legal research pioneer William Rutter, who passed away peacefully on February 2, 2012 surrounded by his wife and family. Philanthropist, lawyer, educator, author and founder of the Rutter Group, Bill was awarded the Bernard E. Witkin Medal by the California State Bar Board of Governors for having "altered the landscape of California jurisprudence." Read more

 

Centers ~ Institutes ~ and Clinics
 

The International Human Rights Law Clinic is pleased to announce that Werner '53 and Mimi Wolfen have made a generous gift to support the work of Allison Davenport '04. Allison has practiced immigration law, founded the immigration services program at Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland, and recently spear-headed our Clinic's human rights work in California by developing a Know-Your-Rights program for immigrants detained at the Richmond county jail as well as documenting access to water in the Central Valley from a human rights perspective. 

 

Israel's high-tech industry, a strong player in the global marketplace, took center stage Feb. 1-2 at a conference organized by the Berkeley Institute for Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society. "We tried to do what Berkeley Law does best: bring our academic lens to bear on policy issues that are important to our broader community," said Professor Kenneth Bamberger, the institute's faculty director. "By bringing students and faculty from Haas School of Business and the law school together with local and Israeli business and legal leaders, we were able to address a critical issue for the Bay Area tech community-the future of Israel's high-tech sector and its deep collaboration with Silicon Valley." Read more 

Criminologist Barry Krisberg says closing California's Department of Juvenile Justice is a bad idea. Krisberg, Ph.D., Director of Research and Policy and Lecturer in Residence at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy, said that in the end, he'd prefer to see California keep a few hundred beds for juveniles at the state level and enact strong policies and provide adequate funding for monitoring and improving local treatment. Read more

 

Ask the Archivist 
 Two Cheers for Boalt Hall

Q: After the attacks on Jews that has become known as Kristallnacht, the Faculty of Law at the University of Amsterdam circulated a petition urging other law faculties to condemn the Nazi atrocities. I know that the law professors at Uppsala University declined to sign the statement on the grounds that a public university should not take a political stand. Were American law schools contacted and what was their response? - RN. Berkeley

 

A: American law schools were indeed contacted, but the most vocal and effective response came from college students, particularly Harvard undergraduates. Boalt Hall would eventually welcome many Jewish professors fleeing Nazi persecution, but in this particular instance we did not exactly cover ourselves in glory. Read more

Alumni Updates ~ ClassNotes

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Jim McManis '67 led his firm McManis Faulkner to be named "The Best Family Law Firm" in The Recorder for the second consecutive year. Read more

Frank Martin '04 has renewed his support for a post-graduate fellowship in memory of Professor Philip Frickey. This is the only post-graduate fellowship at Boalt, and it supports a recent Boalt alum doing public service work at Centro Legal de la Raza.

 

Bryan Wahl '05, partner at Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear has been named by the Daily Journal as one of the top 20 attorneys in California under the age of 40. Read more

 

Judge Deborah Chuang '95 was appointed to the Orange County Superior Court in 2009. Before she was a judge, Judge Chuang was an appellate prosecutor in the California Attorney General's Office where she successfully argued cases before the United State Supreme Court
and the California Supreme Court.  In 2007, she received the California Attorney General's Award for Sustained Superior Accomplishment.  She joined the Attorney General's office after spending a year working for Rutan & Tucker following a clerkship with Ninth Circuit Judge Melvin Brunetti.  

 

More Class Notes    

 

Making a meaningful gift, large or small, in honor of a reunion, funding student scholarships, supporting faculty or programs or in recognition of the Centennial is only a click away. Use the button below to make an online gift or send your gift to: 

 

Boalt Hall Alumni Center

UC Berkeley School of Law

2850 telegraph Avenue, Suite 500

Berkeley, CA 94705-7220