March, 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


Bursting into Spring 

 

As Spring settles in at Boalt Hall, our Centennial Year continues unfolding with events and activities across campus and around the country. Over the last month, alumni have gathered in Portland [see pictures] and Honolulu celebrating Boalt Hall. The Boalt Hall Alumni Association Board of Directors convened on campus, crafting ambitious plans for engaging alumni throughout this centenary. We celebrated our student scholars and their benefactors at the annual Scholarship Luncheon [see pictures]. The McBaine Moot Court convened for another year of outstanding oral and written advocacy, with a celebratory dinner following [see pictures]. More celebrations are planned, culminating in an exciting Political Roundtable on September 21, the All-Alumni Weekend on September 22 and a grand Centennial Gala on November 9. We look forward to seeing you at an event soon. 

 

Boalt Hall Profiled in San Francisco Chronicle  

In its Sunday, February 26, 2012, edition, The San Francisco Chronicle's Insight section reported on Boalt Hall's Centennial Year with a front-page cover photo and articles by, among other faculty members, Dean Edley. The coverage also included short biographies of prominent Berkeley Law alumni through the years. Click here to read the series of articles at The Chronicle's on-line site.

Save These Dates   

Please save-the-date for these special Centennial Year Events.

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

  • April 17 - Washington, D.C. Alumni and Admitted Student Centennial Reception
  • April 17 - Spotlight on Leadership Celebration at Boalt Hall
  • April 19 - New York City Alumni and Admitted Student Centennial Reception
  • May 1 �- Los Angeles Alumni and Admitted Student Centennial Reception
  • May 2 -San Francisco Alumni and Admitted Student Centennial Reception
  • May 3-6 -Kentucky Derby Trip led by Boalt Professor and California Horse Racing Commissioner Jesse Choper.  Read more
  • May 7 - Centennial Reception in Boston featuring Videoconference with Dean Edley 
  • May 8 - Silicon Valley Alumni and Admitted Student Centennial Reception
  • May 21 - Centennial Reception in Seattle featuring Videoconference with Dean Edley
  • May 22 - Centennial Reception in Portland featuring Videoconference with Dean Edley

 

All-Alumni Weekend and Reunion Class Dinners 
 
Planning for All-Alumni Weekend 2012 and Reunion Class Dinners is in full swing. Scheduled for September 21-22, Friday evening features an engaging Political Roundtable and Saturday offers a chance to catch up with classmates, attend topical panels for MCLE credit and enjoy lunch with the 2012 D. Lowell Jensen Awardee. If you are a member of a class ending in 2 or 7, your class dinner Saturday night caps a great weekend.

Reunion 2012 Class Committees Forming 
 

Reunion 2012 Class Committees are forming now. Over 80 alumni have committed, thus far, to breaking previous reunion records in this centenary. The Reunion '12 Campaign kicks off in early-May and is led by Steve Arent '67, Ken King '87 and Matt Sonsini '92. Will you help drive participation by your classmates this Centennial Year?

 

Contact Joe Swimmer in the Alumni Center at 510.642.7574 or [email protected] to join your class committee.


Boalt Through the Decades 

Boalt by Decade: 1920s 

As the Twenties in America began to roar, Boalt Hall settled into a period of Jazz Age gentility, a time of raccoon coats, cloche hats, hip flasks, and student "smokers" where fine points of the law were debated in a blue tobacco haze. The communal student telephone in the basement of the law school had been removed for the duration of the Great War, but in October 1919 it was reinstalled and law students were once again hooked into a wide world madly careening toward 1929.  Read more

Student Updates 
 

Boalt Students Take Top Spots in Writing Contest for Second Year in a Row 

   

Berkeley Law students finished first and second in the Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition, a national disability law writing competition sponsored by the Mercer University School of Law and the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. The first place winner was Martin Daniel Quinones '13, and taking second was Rachel Schwartz '13. Last year Berkeley students also finished first and second, and in 2009 a Boalt student finished first.   

 

All Boalt Panel Judges McBaine Moot Court

   

The final round of the 2012 McBaine Moot Court Competition took place on March 21, 2012 in Berkeley Law's Booth Auditorium before an audience of approximately 200 students, alumni, faculty and friends. The panel featured three Berkeley law alums - Judge Marsha Berzon of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, and Judges Charles Breyer and Edward Chen of the Northern District of California. David Rosen and Jordan Thompson, both second-year law students, competed, with David emerging as victor after a hard-fought round. Danielle Serbin and Nicole Schwartzberg, both third year law students, won the Crowell & Moring LLP Best Brief Award. [See pictures]

 

 

Annual Scholarship Lunch Brings Donors, Student Scholars and Boalt Hall Alumni Association Board Together

 

On May 21, student scholars and fellows, faculty, generous donors and Boalt Hall AlumniAssociation Board Members joined together for lunch at Boalt Hall in celebration of student achievements and to thank donors to student scholarships and fellowships. Professor Eleanor Swift addressed the assembled, thanking donors and reminding everyone of the important role scholarships and fellowships play in making Boalt affordable and accessible. [See pictures]

 

Faculty Updates 
  
Professor David Sklansky Receives Distinguished Teaching Award

Professor David Sklansky

  

David Sklansky, Yosef Osheawich Professor of Law, was selected as a recipient of this year's Distinguished Teaching Award by the Campus and the Academic Senate. The Distinguished Teaching Award recognizes individual faculty for teaching rising to a sustained level of excellence; the kind of teaching that incites intellectual curiosity in students, inspires departmental colleagues, and makes students aware of significant relationships between the academy and the world at large. The campus celebration for David Sklansky will be held on Thursday, April 26, at 5:00 pm in the Zellerbach Playhouse, with a reception to follow in the Toll Room of the Alumni House.

  

Dean Edley, Five Alumni Honored as Influential U.S. Black Lawyers

 

Dean Christopher Edley, Jr. 

Dean Christopher Edley, Jr., and five Berkeley Law graduates were named to an inaugural Power 100 list of the nation's most influential African-American attorneys by On Being a Black Lawyer (OBABL). In addition to Dean Edley, Paula Boggs '84, Marcelyn Cox '89, Dannye Holley '71, Billy Hunter '70 and Eva Paterson '75 were recognized in the Power 100. OBABL, a social media firm, produces newsletters, events and online platforms to engage African-American legal professionals.

   

Professor Harris Elected President of American College of Construction Lawyers


Professor Alan E. Harris 

 

Construction law Professor Alan E. Harris was elected president of the American College of Construction Lawyers (ACCL). Harris has been a Fellow with the ACCL since 1992. The ACCL is one of the premier legal associations in America. Founded in 1990, the College is comprised of the top one percent of the construction bar including lawyers, professors and judges from the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and France. Professor of construction law at Boalt Hall, Harris is a frequent speaker on construction claims and defenses. He has been recognized by Chambers USA, The Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, Who's Who Legal: California and Legal 500 USA. Harris received his J.D. from Boalt in 1968 and is Of Counsel with Farella Braun + Martell.


Centers / Institutes / and Clinics
 
Students Play Key Role in Proposed Consumer Protection Bill

Rachel Baum '13 spent her winter break feverishly preparing fact sheets on the Fair Debt Buyers Practices Act for California state senators, staffers and journalists. She was supposed to start working on the vital project in January at the
East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC). But, the urgency of the project-convincing the California Senate to pass the act-couldn't wait. Read more
 
Announcing Select Upcoming Center Events

BCLBE and BBLJ Present: The Foreclosure Crisis: Challenges and Solutions to the Mortgage Meltdown   

Home foreclosures continue to plague the US economy and wreak havoc in the lives of individuals, families and communities. On April 13, 2012, the Berkeley Business Law Journal (BBLJ) and Berkeley Center for Law Business and the Economy (BCLBE) will host a Symposium on "The Foreclosure Crisis: Challenges and Solutions to the Mortgage Meltdown."

More Information:
 http://www.law.berkeley.edu/bclbe.htm
Friday, April 13, 2012
International House; 8:30 am - 1:30 pm

 

Berkeley Center for Law & Technology Present: Berkeley Law Privacy Forum - Silicon Valley

 

Join the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology for cutting-edge BCLT scholarship and discussion surrounding real world information privacy law problems. Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor, will present the Keynote Address.

 

More Information: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/bclt.htm 

April 26, 2012

Four Seasons Silicon Valley

Palo Alto, CA   

For Other Center and Clinic Events Please Visit: www.law.berkeley.edu 

 

Ask the Archivist 
When the Great Communicator Communicated 

 

Q.           A buddy bets me that Ronald Reagan spoke at Boalt Hall when he was governor of California. I was at Boalt in the Sixties and there is no way he would have ever showed his face on campus. Please confirm.

                                                                                                                                DCC, San Jose

 

A.            The answer turns on a technicality, so we will let the two of you duke it out. Reagan indeed spoke at Boalt Hall on March 11, 1966 - during his run for governor. If the reporting in the Daily Californian is to be believed, he didn't mince words despite facing a very hostile audience at the law school. Read more

 
Alumni Updates / ClassNotes

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Michael Fitzgerald '85 Confirmed to U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

 

Boalt alumnus Michael Fitzgerald '85 was confirmed by the United States Senate to a vacancy on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on March 15, 2012. President Obama nominated Fitzgerald, a former federal prosecutor, in July. The Senate confirmed Fitzgerald on a 91-6 vote. "The federal bench in California will gain an extremely talented new judge as a result of today's historic vote," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who recommended Fitzgerald to Obama. Fitzgerald, 52, was a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles from 1988 to 1991 and has worked at private law firms since then. He has also been a lawyer for the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners and for a panel that investigated police wrongdoing. Fitzgerald joins two other openly gay and lesbian confirmed nominees and one sitting federal court judge.

 

Vermont Law School Names Marc Mihaly '74 as President and Dean

 

The Vermont Law School (VLS) Board of Trustees announced the appointment of Marc Mihaly '74 as the law school's eighth president and dean. Mihaly, one of the nation�s leading environmental lawyers, who joined VLS in 2004, received his BA degree from Harvard College and his JD from Boalt Hall. After serving in the U.S. Peace Corps in Central America, he served with the environmental unit of the California Attorney General�s Office and with the San Mateo County Legal Aid Society. In 1980, he co-founded Shute, Mihaly and Weinberger in San Francisco, one of the nation�s leading public interest environmental law firms, serving as its managing partner for 17 years.

 

Stephanie Skaff '95 Named Chair of Farella's Intellectual Property Litigation Group

 

Farella Braun + Martel appointed Stephanie Skaff '95 chair of its Intellectual Property Litigation Department. Skaff handles complex litigation matters, including patent, copyright, trade secret, licensing, antitrust and other complex commercial disputes. In addition to her leadership roles within the firm she is also the co-chair of the ABA Litigation Section's Intellectual Property Committee and the treasurer of the Bar Association of San Francisco.

 

Ronald Turovsky '83 Named Top 100 Lawyers in California

 

Ronald Turovsky '83 was named as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal for 2011. He is a partner with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in its Los Angeles office.  

Ana de Alba '07 Honored for Pro Bono Services to the Underserved

 

Ana de Alba '07 was honored at the Board of Directors of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) for her extraordinary commitment to providing equal access to justice through private attorney involvement with Central California Legal Services. Ms. de Alba has been an associate at Lang, Richert & Patch since 2007 and its Pro Bono Coordintor since 2009. She works primarily in the area of employment law and sits on various state bar committees related to the provision of pro bono services to the underserved.

 

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