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June 2013
Gearing Up for Alumni Weekend

 

Keep an eye on your mailbox for the invite to this year's action-packed reunion festivities during Alumni Weekend, September 27-29. A full lineup of compelling programs and fun events will open with "The Net: Utopia vs. Dystopia," an enlightening look at the Internet's ability to spread knowledge and democracy--and its potential risk to civil liberties and personal freedoms.

 

Other panels will celebrate the achievements and anniversaries of Boalt's East Bay Community Law Center (25 years) and International Human Rights Law Clinic (15 years), assess our financial footing five years after the economic crash, and discuss hot topics in law and technology. The weekend also features class dinners, a brunch for alums who graduated in 1963 or earlier, and the Barbara Jensen Public Service Award luncheon. The gathering concludes with a trip to beautiful AT&T Park to see the world-champion San Francisco Giants play the San Diego Padres. 

Alumni Weekend  

Bands Battle for Violence Victims

 

Battle of the Bands A who's who of Bay Area law firms--Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, Wilmer Hale, Jones Day, and nearly two dozen more--recently banded together to raise more than $96,000 for victims of domestic violence. Rock and soul groups from Bingham McCutchen, Google Litigation, Jones Day, Kirkland & Ellis, Morrison Foerster, O'Melveny & Meyers, and Quinn Emanuel competed in the "Battle of the Bands" June 13 in San Francisco; proceeds will fund appeals for survivors involved in custody disputes.

 

The event was brainchild of the Family Violence Appellate Project, a legal advocacy group formed last year by UC Berkeley Chancellors' Award winners Sonya Passi '13 and Alex Scott '13. Its core mission is to mobilize appellate representation in domestic violence cases and to ensure the safety of survivors and their children. Those interested in working with the project or supporting its work can learn more here. More than 1,000 tickets were sold to the event, and recent graduates who had given to the law school received comp tickets from Boalt's Alumni Center. 

 

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Top Gun: Collin Tierney '14

 

Collin Tierney '14 won the prestigious Top Gun National Mock Trial Competition on June 9. Held annually at Baylor Law School, the invitation-only event invites each of the nation's 16 top trial advocacy schools to pick a single advocate to represent it in the competition. Tierney's triumph, which included a $10,000 prize, marked yet another major step for Boalt's surging advocacy program. A Boalt team advanced to the final round of this year's National Trial Competition, and Grace Yang '12 was named best oral advocate at last year's National Moot Court Competition. Tierney praised the program's volunteer coaches, led by Spencer Pahlke '07 of Walkup, Melodia, Kelly & Schoenberger, for their tireless commitment and mentorship. "I had known about Top Gun for years, and it was my dream just to be invited," Tierney said. "To actually win was above and beyond."

 

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Collin Tierney

Jesse Choper to Dissect Supreme Court Rulings at Three Venues

 

Boalt professor and renowned constitutional law expert Jesse Choper will discuss recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings at three venues in the coming weeks: July 10 in San Francisco, July 16 in Los Angeles, and July 17 in Orange County. Space for each event is filling up fast, so register today at [email protected] or 510.643.9277.

 

A former law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren '14, Choper has been a Boalt faculty member since 1965 and was dean from 1982 to 1992. He served on the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools and on the executive council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, of which he has been vice president for the past decade. Choper, who has delivered more than 20 titled lectures at major universities throughout the country, won UC Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998 and Boalt's Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction in 2006. His ever-popular Constitutional Law casebook--a staple among U.S. law schools--is now in its 11th edition.

Faculty News 
Pamela Samuelson Testifies on Copyright Principles Project

 

Pamela Samuelson Boalt professor and copyright expert Pamela Samuelson testified last month before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. Samuelson launched the Copyright Principles Project in 2007--with a goal of advancing copyright law re-form--by assembling 20 copyright experts to take part in a three-year endeavor. In 2010, her group issued a major report recommending 25 substantive reforms to improve and update copyright law in an era of rapid technological change. 

 

At the May 16 hearing, Samuelson and four project colleagues testified on balancing the interests of copyright owners and users. Subcommittee members praised their diligent work and inclusive approach, with Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) saying the report contained "useful background and insight" into how parties with varying views can "engage in a constructive and respectful dialogue." Watt was "particularly intrigued by the recommendation to strengthen the exclusive right of copyright holders to control communications of their works to the public." 

 

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Boalt Hall Welcomes Avani Sood

 

Avani Sood Avani Sood has signed on to join the faculty at Berkeley Law. A former litigator at Debevoise & Plimpton who just completed her Psychology Ph.D. at Princeton, Sood will teach the Colloquium on Law and Psychology this fall and Criminal Law in the spring. She graduated in 2003 from Yale Law School, where she was editor of the Yale Law Journal. Sood went into private practice, clerked for Judge Kimba Wood in the Southern District of New York, and then spent two years at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York, tackling human rights projects in India and Kenya for the center's International Legal Program. She says her legal scholarship aims to "attach psychological insights to questions of law and invigorate legal debates through the contribution of data-driven analysis."

Ask the Archivist 
Brain Trust Brawler

 

Hugh Johnson Q: The year 2013 marks the 80th anniversary of the creation of the National Recovery Administration, one of President Franklin Roosevelt's early New Deal agencies. General Hugh S. Johnson, a graduate of Berkeley Law, was the first head of the NRA. What can you tell us about General Johnson and his academic career at Boalt Hall?

 

--PT, Fresno 

 

A. Anyone who has endured a sweltering Boalt Hall commencement exercise has no doubt wondered if the class valedictorian so earnestly wafting platitudes from the stage of the Greek Theatre would ever go on to accomplish anything of real substance in life. The perspiring parents who listened to Hugh S. Johnson on May 17, 1916 no doubt wondered the same thing. But Hugh "Iron Pants" Johnson (1881-1942) would prove to be Boalt Hall's answer to Forrest Gump, popping up in the most unusual places to play very significant roles--though not roles one might expect from a typical Berkeley grad.

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Alumni News 
An Award-Winning Boalt Couple

 

Mary Jo Shartsis '72 and her husband Arthur Shartsis '71 received the Judge Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish Committee on June 12 in San Francisco. The award honors leaders in the legal field for professional excellence and meaningful contributions to the legal community. Founding partners of the law firm Shartsis Friese in San Francisco, Mary Jo and Arthur were hailed for their work on behalf of human rights and civil liberties, and for championing much of what Judge Hand represented--the rights of the individual and the importance of democratic values in an orderly society. Mary Jo has been named a Northern California "Super Lawyer" in business litigation each year since 2004. Arthur, a pioneer in training state and federal judges in modern settlement techniques, is a founding member of several public organizations and coaches the University of California mock trial program.

 

Thelton Henderson '62 Honored

 

U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson '62 will be given the American Bar Association's Thurgood Marshall Award August 10 at a dinner in San Francisco. The award recognizes long-term contributions by members of the legal profession to the advancement of civil rights, civil liberties, and human rights in the United States. The first African-American lawyer in the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Henderson went on to an illustrious career as in public interest work, as an assistant dean at Stanford Law School, in private practice at Rosen, Remcho & Henderson, and on the bench. He was appointed to U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in 1980, and gained senior status in 1998. A longtime advocate for equal rights, Henderson has presided over numerous landmark cases involving constitutional issues. For more information about the dinner or to reserve tickets, please call 202.662.1030.

 

Honoring the Legacy of the Late Judge Lawrence Mana '41

 

Lawrence Mana In addition to their generosity during their lifetime, the late Judge Lawrence Mana '41 and his late wife Mary Ann (Fissori) Mana provided for the law school with a generous bequest of $25,000 in support of the Boalt Hall Fund. After graduating from Boalt, Lawrence joined the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison in San Francisco for one year before serving in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1943. He then joined the City Attorney's office of San Francisco until 1956, when he was named Chief Deputy Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. He was appointed Judge of the Municipal Court of San Francisco in 1962 and Judge of the Superior Court of San Francisco in 1969, serving until his retirement from the bench in 1984.

 

Judge Mana was active in many organizations, including the Salesian Boys' Club, Lawyers Club of San Francisco, American Bar Association, American Judges Association, American Legion-Salesian Post, and Piemontesi nel Mondo. For his community and civic work, he received both the Knight of the Order of Merit and the Italian Cultural Medal from the Republic of Italy, Boys' Club of America Medallion, and Salesian Old Timers "Father Trinchieri Memorial Medal."

 

Judge Mana passed away at age 90 on September 2, 2007, and Mary Ann passed away at age 95 on September 3, 2012. In providing for the law school in their will, Judge Mana spoke of his fondness for Boalt Hall. We are grateful to Judge and Mary Ann Mana for their commitment to Boalt and are honored to carry on their legacy through the work of the law school. Judge Mana's obituary is available here.


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connectionsOnline Alumni Networks

 

All law school graduates are invited to join AlumNetwork. Just email [email protected] for your security ID, then visit AlumNetwork here to activate your profile. The online community includes: a directory of alumni, Class Notes, your own personal profile, alumni/ae profiles, events and registration, and more.... 
And be sure to join our other groups: Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. LinkedIn is a great resource for referrals, job listings and career development advice from Robert White, Boalt's director of alumni career services.


Calendar Cruising

 

July 10 - Supreme Court Update with Jesse Choper (San Francisco)

 

July 16 - Supreme Court Update with Jesse Choper (Los Angeles) 

 

July 17 - Supreme Court Update with Jesse Choper (Orange County)

 


Career Corner

 

Support for your career development doesn't end with graduation. The Career Development Office provides resources for alums, including access to the b-Line jobs database and individualized confidential career counseling: resume review, job search strategies, career exploration (including careers outside of law practice), and more. See the Alumni Resources page on the CDO website.

 


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notesClass Notes  
Keep your fellow alums up-to-date with your important life changes by submitting a Class Note. To submit a class note, you will need to use your AlumNetwork ID and password. If you do not have your ID, email [email protected]. We'll publish your news on the web and/or the alumni magazine, Transcript.