News

Professor Kevin Johnson spoke to the Sacramento Bee for a Dec. 5 story and to CalMatters for a Jan.

On Nov. 22, Professor Kevin Johnson spoke as part of the workshop “Policies, Practices, and Systems to Retain and Advance Black People in SEM.”

Rithwik Gupta ’25 and Steven Li ’26 made a strong showing at the invite-only MAC Cup II: American Bar Association M&A Negotiations Competition. The pair advanced from October’s initial round of 64 teams to November’s second round of 32 teams.

Gupta and Lee skillfully negotiated a draft purchase agreement and issues list from both buyer and seller perspectives. 

Professor Lisa R. Pruitt’s career has stretched from early international work on cultural conflict to exploring how rurality affects people’s engagement with law and the state. She is now a leading expert on rural law and justice.

Professor  Chimène Keitner talked to BBC radio and blogged for Lawfare about the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants on Nov. 21 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif on war crimes charged relates to the Israel-Hamas war.

Professor Nila Bala’s forthcoming Boston College Law Review article  “Parent-Child Privilege as Resistance” received a highly positive and expansive review in Jotwell from Rutgers Law School Professor Anibal Rosario-Lebrón.

On Nov. 8, Professor Afra Afsharipour presented her article “ESG Dealmaking” (University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law, 2024) as part of the Emanuel Emroch Colloquy Series at the University of Richmond School of Law. 

Politico reporters Blanca Begert and Ry Rivard quoted Professor Rick Frank in a Nov. 18 report on how New Jersey and several other U.S. states now face drought and wildfire conditions long familiar to Californians.

Professor Gabriel “Jack” Chin spoke to David Shribman for a Nov. 16 story in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper on President-elect Donald Trump’s unorthodox Cabinet picks, including former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson spoke to Sacramento’s ABC10 news for a Nov. 22 report on whether California can afford to challenge moves made by the new Donald J. Trump presidential administration.

Professors Afra Afsharipour and Amelia Miazad moderated panel discussions at the 2024 Berkeley Fall Forum on Corporate Governance, presented by UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law and Business and Cooley Nov. 12-13.

Professor Lisa Pruitt spoke just before the Nov. 5 presidential election to reporter Catarina Maldonado Vasconcelos of the Portuguese newspaper Expresso.

The Nov. 4 article looked at the state of the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on the final weekend before the election.

Professor Carlton F.W. Larson spoke to Katie Couric Media for a Jan. 12 story on what will happen to President-elect Donald Trump’s legal cases now that he has been re-elected.

Professor Lisa Ikemoto appeared on the CBS Evening News on Nov. 12 to discuss the lack of genetic information protections for customers of struggling genealogy testing website 23andMe. The company laid off 40% of its work force recently.

Professor Lisa Pruitt presented a  work in progress, “How the Rural Lawyer Shortage and Spatial Inequality are Undermining the Criminal Legal System in Washington State,” on Nov. 15 at the Law &  Rurality Workshop at the University of Iowa College of Law.

Professor Afra Afsharipour appeared on the Nov. 7 episode of the public radio program Marketplace in a report on mergers and acquisitions as an economic indicator.

Nicole Larson ’26 and Olivia Shaw ’26 placed first at the American Bar Association Regional Negotiations Competition held Nov. 2-3 at the University of Missouri School of Law. Larson and Shaw advanced to the national competition, which will be held in January in Chicago.

Andrew Bridges ’25 and Chris Martinek ’25 won their first round at the regional championship and scored competitively overall. 

The Daily Journal has recognized Cheryl Wei ’11 as one of its “Top 40 Under 40” for 2024.

A partner at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP in Los Angeles, Wei focuses on entertainment law. She often has worked as production counsel, including for HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”

On Nov. 15, Rwanda's Minister of Justice, Dr. Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, delivered a lecture at UC Davis School of Law about the evolution of the justice sector and legal frameworks in Rwanda's journey toward justice after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. His experience and insights offered an enriching opportunity for audience members to learn about international law, justice, and governance.

Professor and arbitration expert David Horton appeared in the The Guardian and on Bloomberg’s On the Merits podcast and MSNBC’s The ReidOut program to speak about high-profile attempts by Disney and Uber to enforce arbitration clauses to which custome

Professor Darien Shanske spoke to CalMatters on Oct. 29 about California’s Proposition 5, aimed at lowering the percentage of votes needed for local government bonds to pass from the current two-thirds majority to a 55% majority.

Professor Kevin R. Johnson participated in the Los Angeles County Bar Association program ”The Case for Optimism: Doubling Down on DEI in the Legal Workforce, Workplace and Marketplace” on Oct. 29 at Loyola Law School.

The San Francisco Chronicle editorial board quoted Professor Luke Fadem in its Oct. 24 endorsement of the effort to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.

Professor Raquel Aldana presented at the American Society of Comparative Law’s annual meeting, held Oct. 17-19 at Texas A&M University School of Law.

Aldana gave a talk titled “Climate Displacement in the LAC (Latin American and Caribbean) Region: Progress and Promise for a Just Transition.”