october 2018  //   contact  // give  // archive  
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Alumni Reunion Weekend Shines Brightly
Over 600 alumni and friends attended the festivities October 5-6. There was a spirited alumni gathering at the BBQ on Friday night. On Saturday, our guests enjoyed the MCLE panel sessions, Supreme Court overview and the livestream conversation with Joan Biskupic, as well as the all-alumni cocktail party, and class dinners. The proof is in the pictures! Please feel free to download and share photos in the photo gallery:
With packed student gatherings and 100 graduates currently clerking for judges around the country, Berkeley Law’s annual Judge Week continues to gain momentum. The week’s events offered students valuable face time with members of the bench. Students also attended a lunch presentation with three alums who clerked in state courts: Purba Mukerjee ’15, Tim Horgan-Kobelski ’16, and Molly Frandsen ’17.
To honor the memory of Christopher Patti, a 27-year member of UC’s Office of the General Counsel and Berkeley’s chief campus counsel who died tragically in August 2017, OGC and Berkeley Law established the Christopher M. Patti Legal Fellowship, to go to a recent law school graduate interested in public service. Melissa Montenegro , a 2018 Berkeley Law alumna, is the first fellowship recipient.
As the No. 1 Top 20 law school for female enrollment, Berkeley Law aims to lower hurdles and raise awareness of corporate opportunities for female students through the  Women in Business Law Initiative.
//connect
UPCOMING EVENTS
// in brief
James Willett  '60  and  David Aladjem  '89  of Downey Brand were  named Top Lawyers  by Sacramento Magazine

Angela Glover Blackwell '77  was  awarded the 2018 John W. Gardner Leadership Award by Independent Sector  for her work at the forefront of fighting poverty in our nation

John Gilligan '77  was was re-appointed to serve as chair of the Access to Justice Committee of the Ohio State Bar

Patricia Salas Pineda '77   joined the board of trustees of Earthjustice


Joyce Wallach '88  joined  Ferguson Case Orr Paterson LLC as of counsel  in Ventura, CA

Michael Halloran '65  recently launched a new firm,   Halloran, Farkas + Kittila LLP, specializing in corporate and complex commercial matters, litigation, intellectual property, based out of Pompano Beach, FL




Michael Murphy '00  joined  Ervin Cohen & Jessup as a partner  in the Los Angeles office

Katherine Prescott '01   named among 2018 "Women Worth Watching"  by  Profiles in Diversity Journal

Sabra-Anne Truesdale '02 (née Kelin) was recently featured in a story in Modern Counsel magazine about how focusing on fitness can unite a company


Ana I. de Alba '07 has been appointed to a judgeship in the Fresno County Superior Court

Francisco Moreno LL.M. '09 was appointed by the President of Chile, Sebastian Piñera, as the Undersecretary of Finance for Chile

Zoe Loftus-Farren '11 , " Reinforcing the Need to Move Away from Meat ,"  Earth Island Journal

Riyanka Roy Choudhury LL.M. '18  was  named a Stanford CodeX fellow 
SPOTLIGHT
Cynthia (C. E.) Tobisman '98 , a partner with Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland in Los Angeles, has  won the 2018 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction  for her second published novel,  Proof . The Harper Lee Prize is awarded by the ABA Journal and the University of Alabama School of Law each year to a novel-length work of fiction that best that best illuminates the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.
Erik Stallman ’03 has returned to his alma mater as the new associate director of the Samuelson Law, Technology, & Public Policy Clinic.
Ahmed Lavalais ’17 , teaching fellow at the Policy Advocacy Clinic, supervised a group of students who helped the clinic gain a key victory in its national push to end administrative fees charged to families of youth in the juvenile justice system.
Elizabeth Cabraser '78, Kelly Dermody '93, Daralyn Durie '92, Melinda Haag '87, and Charlene (Chuck) Shimada '79  were named among 2018  Benchmark Top 250 Women in Litigation .
BOOKSHELF
In the Shadow of  Korematsu by  Eric Yamamoto '78  —This book discusses historical and current national security and civil liberties tensions, highlighting pressing questions about the significance of judicial independence for a constitutional democracy committed both to security and to the rule of law.
Mythologies of State and Monopoly Power   by Michael Tigar '66  — In this collection of  essays, veteran human rights lawyer Tigar reveals, deconstructs, and eviscerates mythologies surrounding the U.S. criminal justice system, racism, free expression, workers' rights, and international human rights.
// next gen
Four Berkeley Law students recently spent a week in Brownsville, Texas, helping detained immigrants at the United States-Mexico border. Working on behalf of the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project, the students conducted intakes with immigrants at the Port Isabel Detention Center and provided strategic guidance. Berkeley Law’s Pro Bono Program coordinated the trip.
“The five of us are from very different backgrounds and we’re exploring disparate areas of the law,” says Travis Mitchell ’19. “Discarding the myth that there is a monolithic way to be or act Black in law school is important in making Black students feel more comfortable and attain success. I also think it serves as a sign posting that Berkeley is a supportive and nurturing environment for them.”
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