MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
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DEAN RACHEL F. MORAN
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| UCLA LAW MAGAZINE
preeminent public law school like ours is a national treasure, one that represents the people’s highest collective aspirations—reflecting a profound commitment to the rule of law, democratic principles and access to justice. This is the place where we ensure that each succeeding generation will preserve the tenets of freedom of speech, equal protection and due process that make America a great country. From its inception, UCLA School of Law has been true to the special traditions that set an outstanding public law school apart. We have trained students to become leading citizenlawyers who understand that with great privilege comes great responsibility. When Roscoe Pound dedicated our law school building in 1951, he described the imperative “to teach law in the grand manner” by “rais[ing] up lawyers as conscious members of a profession . . . pursuing a common calling as a learned art in the spirit of public service.” Ever since, our graduates have gone on to achieve distinction in every sector of the profession and beyond while contributing to their communities in critically important ways. In addition, we have recognized the law school’s direct responsibility to tackle the most pressing issues of the day. Pound observed that “a duty is cast upon the faculty of the law school of a state university, both as members of the teaching profession and as members of the legal profession, to exercise the learned arts they pursue in the spirit of … taking upon themselves the role of a Ministry of Justice.” Today, our faculty continues to answer this call to service. As you will see in this magazine’s feature article, UCLA Law professors are shaping our society through research, testimony and policy reform, and they are inspiring students to do the same. What Pound could not have contemplated in the early 1950s was the rise of think tanks at the modern American law school. UCLA Law has been in the vanguard of creating impactful programs and centers, often launching initiatives that are the first of their kind. The law school is currently home to the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, one of the best in the nation; the Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment, the first law school center focused exclusively on climate change; the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, the first and only law school initiative dedicated to the study of sexual orientation law; and the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy, which is driving the agenda for research and reform in this centrally significant field. As you will discover, the work of the law school’s more than 20 interdisciplinary centers of excellence is transforming law and policy in unprecedented ways.