Berkeley Law's action-packed Alumni Weekend is right around the corner. A record number of graduates attended last year's festivities, and this year's reunion Sept. 20-21 promises to be even better. Come see all the exciting new things happening at your law school. Meet our new dean, Sujit Choudhry, and hear his vision for the school's future. Reminisce with classmates about the trials and triumphs of your time in Berkeley. Check out an exciting slate of events that explore critical issues, honor distinguished alumni, and provide ample food, drink, and frivolity. Don't miss out on the fun! Learn more about the reunion and register here.

Sujit Choudhry has hit the ground running since officially taking over as Berkeley Law's dean on July 1. Alumni Weekend provides the perfect chance to gather with fellow graduates to meet our new dean and hear him discuss his vision for the law school. Dean Choudhry will give his State of the School address Sept. 20 at 11:15 am in Room 110. His remarks will touch on opportunity and diversity, academic excellence and innovation, globalization, and alumni engagement.

The Berkeley Initiative for Mindfulness in Law will host an eye-opening introduction to the topic Sept. 20 from 1:45 to 2:45 pm. Director Charlie Halpern and Associate Director Dan Carlin '13 will provide an overview of the practice of mindfulness -- and how it helps legal practitioners become better at their job. They will also describe related courses and programming currently offered at Berkeley Law. The session will include a short, guided meditation, track developments in bringing mindfulness into legal education and law practice, and offer information on how alumni can participate and benefit.

Dean Sujit Choudhry and Assistant Dean of Admission Edward Tom will join three prominent alums to discuss the issue of diversity at Berkeley Law on Sept. 20 at 3 pm. Roxanna Altholz '99, associate director of the school's International Human Rights Law Clinic, will moderate a panel discussion with Choudhry, Tom, Bruce Quan '74, and Andrea Guerrero '99. 

The class of 1999 was the last Berkeley Law class admitted under affirmative action policies. After California voters passed Proposition 209 banning affirmative action, the number of minority students at Berkeley Law plummeted. The school has launched new policies to promote diversity within the confines of "race-blind" admission policies, but still has not fully recovered the diversity levels found prior to Prop. 209. Panelists will discuss the past, present, and future of diversity at the school from the perspective of students, alumni, and administration leaders.

The law school is proud to host U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella. On Sept. 9, Justice Kennedy will deliver the inaugural Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence lecture entitled "Some Thoughts on the Role of the Supreme Court." His lecture, to run from 4:00 to 5:15 pm, is co-sponsored by the Institute for Legal Research and the Kadish Center for Morality, Law & Public Affairs. No available seating remains, but the lecture will be shown on video in Room 175.

On Sept. 10, Justice Abella will also be welcomed as a Distinguished Jurist-in-Residence. She will deliver a lecture entitled "Identity and Reversing Discrimination" from 5:00 to 6:15 pm in Booth Auditorium. It will also be shown on video, in the event of an overflow crowd, in Room 100. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, the Center for the Study of Law & Society, and the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice.

The California Constitution Center is bringing legal writing expert Bryan Garner to Berkeley Law. On Saturday, October 25, Professor Garner will present his daylong seminar on "Advanced Legal Writing & Editing." The program will teach you how to seize a reader's attention, produce clear writing, and write with confidence. 

More than 150,000 lawyers and judges have attended this seminar since it was first offered in 1991. Garner is the Distinguished Research Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law, and the author of the authoritative modern texts on legal writing. 

Boalt alumni receive a 20% discount with the promotion code: OskiBear. Register here and learn more about the seminar by calling 510.642.1741.

Most authors are bound by exclusive contracts that give sole rights to their publishers. But writers can now challenge publishers with help from the Authors Alliance, a non-profit co-founded by Berkeley Law professors Molly Van Houweling and Pamela Saumelson. Their initiative provides a voice -- and legal tools -- for authors eager to get their rights back. 

The group already boasts over 400 members since its May launch; its advisory board includes two Nobel Laureates, a Poet Laureate of the United States, and three MacArthur Fellows. "We want to demystify copyright law, demystify contracts, and empower writers so they can make their works more widely available," Samuelson said. 

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Former Berkeley Law Dean and Professor Emeritus Sanford Kadish, one of the world's foremost criminal law scholars, died Friday, Sept. 5, in Berkeley of kidney failure. He was 92. 

"Without a doubt, Sandy was the leading criminal law scholar nationally of his time," said longtime Berkeley Law Professor Jesse Choper, who succeeded Kadish as dean. "He was among a small handful of the most distinguished faculty members we've ever had." 

His family will soon announce plans regarding a memorial service for friends and members of the UC Berkeley community. The family also requests, in lieu of flowers, to please give memorial gifts to the Kadish Center for Morality, Law & Public Affairs.

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Q: My mother was given the enclosed diploma when my father graduated from Boalt Hall in 1962. Is this still a practice? (I doubt it.)

--LP, Belle Fourche, SD 

A. The practice of rewarding a supportive spouse with a Ph.T. degree (Putting Husband Through) -- aka the Good Wife Diploma -- is one of those quaint customs that current admissions patterns have rendered obsolete. That and a slew of nasty divorce cases in which the valuation of spousal support during a degree program became a bone of contention.

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Michele Roberts '80, recently named executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, is the first woman to lead a major pro sports union in the United States. The winner of many high-profile cases and awards for her litigating prowess, Roberts became interested in the position last year after watching an NBA player interviewed soon after the union's leader was unceremoniously dismissed. 

"The player was asked if the union had been damaged beyond repair," Roberts recalled. "His response was a powerful 'no', and that the players intended to take their union back and make it stronger than ever. His passion touched me, and I remember thinking, 'Wow, that would be an exciting job.'" Roberts looked into the position, conveyed her interest, was contacted by the union's search committee -- and now holds one of the most powerful legal jobs in all of sports.

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Berkeley Law recently welcomed four top educators to its faculty ranks: Kenneth Ayotte, Catherine Crump, Steven Davidoff Solomon, and Christopher Tomlins. 

Ayotte, who has taught at Columbia Business School and Northwestern Law, is an expert on bankruptcy, corporate finance, and law and economics. Crump is the new associate director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic. Davidoff Solomon, who pens a New York Times column on mergers and acquisitions called "The Deal Professor", practiced corporate law for nearly a decade before entering academia. Tomlins, a prominent legal historian, recently served as the Chancellor's Professor of Law at UC Irvine.

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Once again, Berkeley Law has brought in a remarkable new class of JD students. The 274 students come from 107 undergraduate schools and 14 different countries of origin. More than half (58 percent) are women, and 34 percent are people of color. The group includes Ph.D. recipients in neuroscience, chemistry, cell biology, immunology, and electrical engineering. 

There are eight students from active military status or overseas deployment-one of whom received the Purple Heart. Several of the new students are raising children, some as single parents. Among its members' varied backgrounds, the class features a duck pond game operator in a traveling carnival, a competitive ballroom dancer, a Medieval Latin translator, a chocolate candy company founder, a naval intelligence analyst, and a judo instructor.

Clinical Professor Jeff Selbin calls Berkeley Law's Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice "the conscience of the law school." Assistant Professor Bertrall Ross describes it as "central to the school's public mission." Finding inspiration, it seems, won't be an issue for the center's new faculty co-directors. 

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Alumni Online

Join us online on 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.

From the Boalt Calendar:

September 11: Dean's Welcome Reception, Contra Costa

September 12: Berkeley Law: State Bar of California Annual Meeting Reception

September 20-21: Alumni Weekend 

October 24-25: Advanced Legal Writing & Editing Seminar with Bryan Garner 

Berkeley Law is currently looking to fill the following open positions. You can view full job descriptions by visiting the Berkeley Campus job site at jobs.berkeley.edu and doing a keyword search for the corresponding job numbers:

Dean's Chief of Staff - #18550

Senior Assistant Dean, Chief Operating Officer - #18556

Assistant Dean for Advancement - #18193 

Private Sector Career Counselor - #18532 

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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