RUSSELL KOROBKIN NAMED UCLA LAW’S INTERIM DEAN

UCLA School of Law professor Russell Korobkin has been appointed to serve as the law school’s interim dean. He assumed his duties on June 13, replacing the outgoing dean, Jennifer L. Mnookin. In May, Mnookin was announced as the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Korobkin is the Richard C. Maxwell Distinguished Professor of Law and previously served as UCLA Law’s vice dean for graduate and professional education. In that role, he oversaw the law school’s innovative Master of Legal Studies program, which he developed over many years and established in 2020 to provide nonlawyer professionals with a rigorous course of study in legal principles, along with the school’s LL.M. degree program for international and domestic lawyers. From 2015 to 2019, Korobkin served as vice dean for academic and institutional affairs.

In announcing Korobkin’s appointment, Michael Levine, UCLA’s former interim executive vice chancellor and provost, said, “Throughout his career, Professor Korobkin has demonstrated a deep commitment to educating and elevating the next generation of lawyers and legal scholars. He is highly regarded for his energy and enthusiasm, his collaborative leadership style and his fair-minded approach to problem solving. Chancellor Block and I are confident that he will be a capable steward for our law school during this period of transition.”

Korobkin will serve as interim dean until a new dean is selected through a comprehensive national search. He is the third interim dean in the law school’s history, following Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Acting Chancellor Emeritus Norman Abrams, who served from 2003 to 2004, and David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus Stephen Yeazell, who was the school’s interim dean from 2009 to 2010.

“Russell is among the best leaders, educators and scholars with whom I have ever had the pleasure of serving,” Mnookin said, “and he has been a tremendous partner in the law school’s administration during the seven years of my deanship. Those in the UCLA Law community who have not had the chance to work with him will soon learn another fundamental truth about Russell: He is a thoroughly decent person and good friend. I am delighted that he has agreed to serve as interim dean—and to see just how much the law school will benefit from his leadership.”

A member of the UCLA Law faculty since 2001, Korobkin is among the nation’s leading authorities in the fields of negotiation and behavioral law and economics. He teaches courses in negotiation, contracts, private law, and law and economics, and he has published widely on these subjects. His book The Five Tool Negotiator: The Complete Guide to Bargaining Success (Liveright) received broad acclaim within the legal academy and beyond when it was published in 2021, and the article that he and Thomas Ulen published in the California Law Review in 2000, “Law and Behavioral Science: Removing the Rationality Assumption From Law and Economics,” is among the most cited law review articles of this century.

Korobkin is also the author or coauthor of textbooks on negotiation (Negotiation Theory & Strategy, 3d ed.) and contract law (K: A Common Law Approach to Contracts, 3d ed.), as well as coauthor of Stem Cell Century: Law and Policy for a Breakthrough Technology (Yale University Press, 2007).

Before he came to UCLA Law, Korobkin held appointments at the University of Illinois’s College of Law and its Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He has also served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of Texas School of Law and has taught courses at the University of Arizona, the University of Houston, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Pepperdine University and Vanderbilt University, as well as at law schools in Germany, Israel, and Australia.

Korobkin earned his undergraduate and law degrees at Stanford University, clerked for Judge James Buckley on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and was an associate at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C.

“To say that Jennifer leaves huge shoes to fill is a major understatement,” Korobkin said, “and I am honored to be able to build on her accomplishments as interim dean. UCLA Law has been a tremendous home to me for the past two decades—intellectually, creatively and personally. I am excited by the opportunity to give something back to the institution that I love and to try to help make it an even more excellent place. From our faculty, who are both world-renowned scholars and committed teachers, to our students, who bring passion and intellect to the study of law, to the best and most dedicated staff around, the people here truly make UCLA Law a fabulous place to be.”

Russell Korobkin

With the start of the 2022–23 academic year, UCLA School of Law has welcomed a talented class of 310 J.D. students that is one of the most capable and promising in the school’s history.

The incoming Class of 2025 includes people from a wide range of backgrounds who have already proven themselves to be skilled and successful scholars, advocates and professionals. They are the best-credentialed in the school’s history, with a median LSAT score of 171 and a median undergraduate GPA of 3.90.

To mark the start of the new school year, incoming students and their families joined UCLA Law professors, staff members and

alumni on UCLA’s Dickson Court to celebrate the law school’s annual convocation ceremony.

In greeting the newest members of the UCLA Law family and setting them on their paths to success as lawyers and leaders of distinction and integrity, Interim Dean Russell Korobkin, Student Bar Association president Max Roemer ’23, and distinguished alumna Rasha Gerges Shields ’01 delivered speeches that underscored the law school’s abiding values of service, excellence, and community. Students also swore an Oath of Professionalism, which will guide them as they pursue their law degrees.

The new J.D. students were selected from nearly 7,300 applicants.

Students of color make up 58% of the incoming class. At least 18% of the class are first-generation students—the first in their families to have earned a college degree—a measure for which UCLA Law continues to stand out among all top-20 law schools nationwide. And seven members of the class graduated from the UCLA Law Fellows Program. The new J.D. students range in age from 20 to 45, their average age being 25. Women make up 58% of the class, 58% are California residents, and overall, students come from 33 states, the District of Columbia, and eight foreign countries. All told, they are fluent in at least 25 languages.

The class includes many undergraduate leaders, elite athletes, scientists, teachers, four Ph.D. holders, two Fulbright Award recipients, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, an Emmy Award winner, an ordained minister, a stand-up comedian, a chess master, two holders of black belts in martial arts, a certified barbecue judge from the Kansas City Barbecue Society, a performer of Xiangsheng traditional Chinese comedy, and a student who has hiked the full Pacific Crest Trail. In addition to a

&veteran of the U.S. Army, many members of the Class of 2025 are deeply committed to service in the public interest. They have worked for organizations including the Central Park Conservancy, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Planned Parenthood and Public Counsel.

Incoming students have also worked at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Ten have worked for senators, 13 have worked for members of the House of Representatives, and others have worked for the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section, the Centers for Disease Control, the Geological Survey, the Census Bureau, and the Patent and Trademark Office.

In the private sphere, incoming J.D. students have worked at top companies in the media, technology, entertainment, business and the law, including Microsoft, Capital One, the New York Yankees, TikTok, NBC’s Today show, HBO and many top law firms.

UCLA CLASS OF 2025 Ranges in age from 20 to 45 is made up of 58% women 58% are California residents

Alongside its outstanding new class of J.D. law students, UCLA School of Law has welcomed many exceptional lawyers, scholars, and professionals who are pursuing LL.M., S.J.D., and M.L.S. degrees during the 2022–23 academic year.

The 230 lawyers who are pursuing an LL.M., or master of laws degree, hail from 36 countries on six continents and range in age from 20 to 52; 58% are women. They hold law degrees from many renowned schools, including Cambridge University, the Sorbonne, the University of Tokyo, the London School of Economics, Renmin University of China, the University of British Columbia, Seoul National University, the University of Munich, and the University of California, Berkeley.

All are successful legal professionals, having worked at leading international law firms; organizations including KPMG, Panasonic, and the State Bar of California; and international groups such as the Northern Australia Aboriginal Justice Agency, the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons in India, the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the South African Human Rights Commission, the Hungarian Ministry for Innovation and Technology and the Icelandic Ministry of Social Affairs. One has worked for the vice president of Paraguay. Two are judges. Five are Fulbright Scholars.

The three new S.J.D., or doctor of juridical science, students are leading scholars whose projects include an investigation of an Islamic framework for climate justice, research regarding the Colombian Council of State’s consultative function, and an examination into the regulation of encrypted messaging platforms.

UCLA Law’s incoming students who are pursuing an M.L.S., or master of legal studies degree, are topflight and mostly midcareer professionals who are seeking an in-depth education in the law that does not lead to a career in the practice of law.

They total 50 students, 36 of whom are attending classes parttime. Sixty-four percent identify as female, and 68% are members of historically underrepresented groups. They range in age from 21 to 61. Nearly 30% hold advanced degrees in the sciences, business, education and more. They earned undergraduate degrees from Brown, Emory, Stanford, Yale, and UCLA, among other leading universities.

A large number of the incoming M.L.S. students are accomplished executives and professionals: 54% are chief executives, vice presidents, directors or managers, with an average professional work experience of 13 years. They have held leadership positions with premier companies, such as a biomedical firm, a resort and casino, a homeless service authority, a food company, and entertainment production companies. They include a public safety and criminal justice reporter, a UCLA football athlete, an award-winning screenwriter, a judicial courtroom assistant, a software engineer and a pharmacist.

During an invitation-only event on January 28, 2022, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and White House staff members applauded UCLA School of Law and other law schools nationwide for their work in addressing the country’s housing and eviction crisis.

The law schools joined forces after Garland issued a call to action last year, asking for a united effort to confront the crisis. Since then, students from 99 law schools worked more than 81,000 hours to provide legal assistance to people who are unhoused or housing insecure.

“Five months ago,” Garland said, “I asked the legal community to answer the call to help Americans facing eviction. Law students and lawyers from across the country stepped up to take on cases and assist their clients and communities at a time when our country needed it the most.”

For members of the UCLA Law community, the call was easy to answer.

Says Brad Sears, associate dean of public interest law and David Sanders Distinguished Scholar of Law & Policy, “From providing eviction defense and mediating disagreements between tenants and landlords, to conducting cutting-edge research measuring the scope and impact of the eviction crisis, the UCLA Law community has played a critical role in addressing the housing crisis in Los Angeles.”

Numerous ongoing projects at the law school are addressing the needs of housing-insecure Angelenos, and in response to Garland’s call, UCLA Law launched additional efforts to curb a housing crisis that has grown worse during the pandemic.

The school placed an eviction defense and prevention fellow with the Eviction Defense Project of the nonprofit law firm Bet Tzedek who was tasked with client intake, preparing training materials for pro bono attorneys to assist individuals with applications to the U.S.’s Emergency Relief Assistance Program, helping lead “know your rights” workshops for vulnerable populations and providing direct counsel and advice under the supervision of Bet Tzedek attorneys. Additionally, the school’s clinics mobilized to meet the housing challenge: The Veterans Legal Clinic began advising households on landlord-tenant issues, and the Immigrant Family Legal Clinic began providing legal consultations to housing-challenged families of students in the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools, where the clinic is located. Students also volunteered with El Centro Legal Clinics and performed 1,485 hours of pro bono work on housing matters. They collaborated with community organizations dedicated to tenants’ rights, workers’ rights, reentry from incarceration, survivors of domestic violence, and unemployment insurance. “When the attorney general issued his call for the legal community last fall,” said former Dean Jennifer L. Mnookin, “I knew we would see an outpouring of support and action from our UCLA community, and I am terrifically proud of what everyone has done and continues to do. We are also very fortunate to have excellent community partners in Los Angeles—the legal services providers who are on the front lines of fighting the housing crisis. “The breadth and depth of what our community has done to help people during the crisis of the past two years is incredibly impressive, but it also shouldn’t surprise anyone. That is the UCLA Law way.”