BOLD NEW TALENT

Nine legal minds are diversifying faculty expertise and student learning at Santa Clara Law

BY ALICIA K. GONZALES ’09

Since 2020, seven professors, one senior clinical fellow, and one deputy director have arrived to teach on the Mission campus at Santa Clara Law. They can be found in classrooms and clinics, educating law students as well as publishing influential papers in top law reviews and academic journals. Their research interests range from “spoofing” in stock markets to governance of military activities in outer space, and two have received tenure-stream endowed professorships named in honor of Albert J. Ruffo J.D. ’36—a reflection of their commitment to scholarship, teaching, and service. Two are also Santa Clara Law alumni who have returned to their alma mater to share thier wisdom and experience with law students.

SUE S. GUAN (Fall 2020)

Albert

J.D.,

J. Ruffo Assistant Professor of Law

Yale University

Sue S. Guan’s teaching and research interests include financial markets, securities regulation, corporate law, and contracts. Her current research focuses on social media and retail trading, stock market information and price discovery, and emerging forms of market manipulation such as spoofing. Prior to arriving on campus, Guan was the postdoctoral research scholar for the Program in the Law and Economics of Capital Markets at Columbia Law School and Columbia Business School after working in private practice at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where she focused on multiple benchmark-related antitrust class actions. She also represented pro bono a class of detainees at Rikers Island in a Section 1983 lawsuit.

MARY PROCACCIO-FLOWERS (Fall 2020)

Assistant

J.D.

’12, Santa Clara University School of Law

In fall 2020, Mary Procaccio-Flowers J.D. ’12 joined the Santa Clara Law faculty full-time to teach, among other courses, Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing. Prior to SCU, she worked in private practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, representing technology companies in intellectual property litigation before federal, state, and appellate courts, as well as before the International Trade Commission. She also advised companies regarding the impact of intellectual property and intellectual property litigation on a variety of corporate transactions. While in private practice, Procaccio-Flowers represented several clients pro bono, including individuals seeking asylum and conservation organizations in environmental litigation.

NICHOLAS SERAFIN (Fall 2020)

Albert J. Ruffo Assistant Professor of Law

J.D., Yale University

Nicholas Serafin works at the intersection of moral and political philosophy and anti-discrimination law and policy. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy in 2019 from the University of Michigan and was a finalist for the Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. While completing his J.D., he worked for the International Refugee Assistance Project and the ACLU LGBTQ Rights Project. Serafin’s work is published in the Fall 2020 BYU Law Review and has been featured in Slate. He is currently interested in the foundations of moral equality and the moral basis of anti-discrimination law.

TAYLOR DALTON (Fall 2022)

Assistant Professor of Law

J.D., Cornell Law School

Taylor Dalton’s teaching and research interests include international law and courts, international humanitarian law, foreign relations law, and civil procedure. Dalton completed his doctorate at USC’s Political Science and International Relations (POIR) program. His current research examines how international norms, law, and institutions affect both state and nonstate behavior. Specifically, his subject areas of interest include state exit from international institutions; arming and arms control; governance of military activities in outer- and cyberspace; and appellate procedures in international courts and tribunals. Dalton has more than 10 years of experience as a civil litigator in courts throughout California. During his years of practice, he provided immigration and naturalization services pro bono through the Public Law Center in Southern California.

SEAN BLAND (Fall 2022) Assistant Professor of Law J.D., Georgetown University Law Center

Sean Bland’s work focuses on law and public health. He is interested in legal and social issues that impact the health and well-being of marginalized communities, including racial and ethnic minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people; people who engage in sex work; and people who use drugs. His scholarship draws on his background in public health research and policy work related to the HIV epidemic and the intersecting epidemics of other infectious diseases and substance use disorders. He has authored and co-authored publications in the Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet as well as numerous reports and policy briefs. Before joining Santa Clara Law, Bland was a senior associate at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. Prior to that, he worked as a litigation associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP and as a law clerk with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; the American Psychological Association; and Lambda Legal, where he held the 2011 Tyron Garner Memorial Fellowship for African American LGBT Civil Rights.

LINSEY KROLIK (Fall 2022 )

Senior Clinical Fellow and Assistant Director, Tech Edge J.D. J.D. ’00, Santa Clara University School of Law

Linsey Krolik J.D. ’00 is a senior clinical fellow in the Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic. She is also director of the interdisciplinary Bronco Entrepreneurs Advisory Clinic Hours (BEACH), where she trains volunteer attorneys and students to counsel clients seeking legal advice for startups, as well as an assistant director in the Tech Edge J.D. program. Krolik has been an attorney advising companies of all stages—from startups to global companies—for more than 20 years. She began her career at large companies such as ARM and Palm, working on IP licensing transactions and trademarks. She then started a solo law practice, functioning as an outsourced general counsel for many startups in the Bay Area. In November 2022, Krolik was appointed to the Consulting Group on the Establishment of a Legal Specialization in Privacy Law, which provides recommendations to the California Board of Legal Specialization.

FIONA MCKENNA (Fall 2022) Associate Clinical Professor of Law J.D., American University Washington College of Law

Fiona McKenna teaches Professional Responsibility, Legal Analysis, and Research and Writing at Santa Clara Law. Prior to joining Santa Clara, she taught Appellate Advocacy, Legal Writing and Research, and Professional Responsibility and directed the legal writing program at Golden Gate University School of Law. McKenna is an active member of the legal writing community, currently serving as co-chair of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) Biennial Program Committee. She previously served as co-chair of ALWD’s Leadership and Development Committee. She has also presented at several legal writing conferences across the country and served on the editorial board of The Second Draft. Prior to entering academia, McKenna practiced as a litigator, representing clients in business disputes and employment matters. Her pro bono work included representing foster parents in juvenile dependency proceedings. As a first-generation college and law student, McKenna particularly enjoys supporting and mentoring first-generation students.

BRITTON SCHWARTZ (Fall 2022) Deputy Director, International Human Rights Clinic

J.D., Harvard Law School

For more than a decade, Britton Schwartz has focused on and taught international human rights law and environmental justice, with expertise in the Inter-American Human Rights System, Indigenous Peoples’ rights, communitydriven policy reform, and local implementation of human rights norms. She is the deputy director of the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) and helped develop the program as an inaugural clinical fellow and supervising attorney for IHRC. Schwartz has also worked extensively on the human right to water and related environmental human rights, beginning with a Berkeley Law Foundation fellowship at the Community Water Center. As co-chair of the U.S. National Coalition on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation, Schwartz supported dozens of community-based groups to advocate before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights, various U.N. special procedures, and U.S. federal government agencies.

MELODY SEQUOIA (Fall 2022) Assistant Clinical Professor of Law

J.D., Chicago-Kent College of Law

As a full-time faculty member, Melody L. Sequoia teaches Contracts and Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing to firstyear law students, among other courses. Previously, she taught Advocacy, the third semester of Santa Clara Law’s Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing program, and Advanced Legal Writing: Bar Exam, which focuses on developing the skills necessary for the essay and performance tests of the Bar Exam. Sequoia has also served as a faculty grader for the Honors Moot Court Internal Program and enjoys working with students to build confidence in their research, writing, and oral advocacy skills. She is the founder of the Sequoia Law Firm in Menlo Park, focusing on consumer protection litigation, including unfair and abusive business practices, predatory lending, FDCPA and Rosenthal Act violations, and false advertising. She is licensed in both California and Illinois.