Center for Litigation and the Courts Annual Report 2023-2024

Center for Litigation and Courts at UC Law – SF

2023-2024

CLC ANNUAL REPORT

CLC Founding Director Professor Scott Dodson

MESSAGE FROM THE FACULTY DIRECTOR Scott Dodson

The Center for Litigation and Courts has had quite a year.

Most prominently, CLC took on pro bono representation of Stuart Harrow, a longtime federal employee, in an employment case before the U.S. Supreme Court. CLC was counsel of record, wrote the successful cert petition and merits briefs, argued the case, and prevailed in a 9-0 unanimous opinion issued in May. The case is Harrow v. Department of Defense.

Meanwhile, CLC has continued to produce original research, publishing important scholarship in California Law Review, Notre Dame Law Review, Emory Law Journal, and others. It produced its first white paper, a Report on Class-Action Settlement Distributions in the Northern District of California, which generated substantial media attention. CLC sponsored and hosted the Ninth Annual Civil Procedure Workshop, the premier academic conference for American proceduralists. Its California Appellate Advocacy Project organized more than 25 moots for appellate advocates around the country. CLC, in partnership with Huntington National Bank, will organize and host the third annual Complex Litigation Ethics Conference this fall. And the UC Law SF Trial Team advanced to the national tournament for the second year in a row.

CLC is playing its part to expand and disseminate knowledge of civil litigation and courts. Please join me in supporting that effort.

HARROW v. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE When longtime federal employee Stuart Harrow’s employment dispute before the Federal Circuit was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds because his petition for review was filed late, he looked for someone with the experience and capacity to help him.

He found CLC Director Scott Dodson, the worldwide leading expert on what makes a federal “CLC

statutory

deadline

jurisdictional.

doesn’t

usually

provide

representation,”

Dodson

said,

direct

“but

Mr.

Harrow’s case was so compelling, and the issue was so squarely within CLC’s mission and expertise, that we just had to.”

Dodson and CLC Research Professor Josh Davis, who is also a shareholder at Berger Montague, represented Harrow pro bono in an appeal to the Supreme Court.

They filed the cert petition in July 2023. The government, represented now by the Solicitor General, opposed the petition, but the Court granted cert in December.

Merits briefs were filed in early 2024, and the Court heard oral argument on March 25. Davis argued the case. Early in the argument, Justice Gorsuch asked why the government was resisting the case so strongly. “That’s when I thought we had pretty good chance,” Dodson said with a smile.

The Court issued a unanimous decision in Harrow’s favor in May. “We’re both honored and delighted to have obtained this result for Mr. Harrow,” Dodson said, “but it’s also a win for justice and fairness everywhere.”

OTHER UPDATES The Judges’ Book This annual compilation of UC Law faculty scholarship of particular interest to judges is published and mailed, free of charge, to all federal judges nationwide and all California state judges. The eighth edition will be published in 2024.

California Appellate Advocacy Project CAAP offers oral-argument prep to appellate practitioners appearing before the California Supreme Court and other appellate courts across the nation. CAAP will hold its 40th moot this year.

Impact Research CLC’s 2023 white paper on class-settlement distributions was the topic of a conference held at Berkeley Law and has sparked conversations with judges from the Northern District of California.

STAFF & AFFILIATES

CLC

Scott Dodson Founding Director and Distinguished Professor of Law

Leah Spero Director, California Appellate Advocacy Project

Joshua P. Davis Research Professor

The Hon. Vaughn Walker (ret.)

Visiting Scholar

ADVISORY BOARD

The Hon. Edward J. Davila U.S. District Judge

Dena Sharp Girard Sharp LLP

Richard S. Flier ADR Services, Inc.

Claude Stern Formerly of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP

Kelly Matayoshi

Farella Braun + Martell LLP

Elise Traynum ACLU of Northern California

Special Thanks To: Chancellor and Dean David Faigman Provost and Academic Dean Morris Ratner CLC Staff and Affiliates CLC Advisory Board Huntington National Bank

Donate to CLC

Connect with CLC! Website: sites.uclawsf.edu/clc Email: clc@uclawsf.edu Twitter: @LitCenter