USC Law Magazine Fall-Winter 2023

USC Law

MAGAZINE

FOR FRIENDS AND ALUMNI OF THE USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW ISSUE 21 | FALL/WINTER 2023

NEW ERA

Dean Tolson welcomes Gould’s largest incoming faculty cohort

dean’s message This issue of USC Law Magazine highlights the significant scholarly achievements of our students, alumni and faculty. However, it also comes at a time of important world events. In light of these challenging times, I want to

begin by acknowledging the difficulties faced and the hurt felt by many within our Gould Trojan Family. I’ve long felt that the strength of our community lies in its commitment to one another. As we strive to advance our educational mission and promote our unifying values, we also strive to ensure a safe, supportive environment in which everyone can learn and work.

In many ways, this fall was a historic one for the law school. We welcomed our largestever new faculty cohort, with nine award-winning scholars. Our newest professors include American Law Institute fellows; leading researchers in areas such as artificial intelligence, antidiscrimination law and property law; an author of one of the most cited law review articles of all time; and renowned national experts in student success. I invite you to read more about all of our new faculty in this magazine.

For the fifth consecutive year, we proudly welcomed an incoming JD class that set new records of academic achievement, having entered with the highest median LSAT and GPA scores in Gould history. The 1L class is also our most diverse on record. Among the other stories in our Feature section: Professor Emeritus Rob Saltzman funded a new internship for students interested in LGBTQ+ civil rights and advocacy; Ron Martinetti ( JD 1982), along with his wife, established a scholarship to honor influential Professor Allan Axelrod; Albert Mour (BS 1955, JD 1958) endowed a scholarship to help generations of USC Gould students in their pursuit of a legal education; an opera based on the life and work of Professor Elyn Saks addresses mental health stigma; and the Center for Transnational Law and Business hosted a panel at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

the fifth consecutive year, we proudly welcomed “ Fanorincoming JD class that set new records of academic achievement, having entered with the highest median LSAT and GPA scores in Gould history. ” In addition to the articles about our nine new professors, Faculty Focus spotlights the Fulbright Senior Scholar grant for Professor Dan Klerman to conduct research in Israel, the recent national awards for Professor Scott Altman and Professor Marcela Prieto, and the impactful career of Professor Emerita Sue Wright, who has shaped and mentored countless students in the Academic Success Program.

In our USC Law Family section, you can read about four Gould alumni entrepreneurs who are using their law degrees to propel their ambitions in business. Further, this issue also includes tributes to honor the inspiring memories of the late Professor Emeritus W. David Slawson, as well as alumna and trailblazer Ruth J. Lavine (LLB 1943).

As we look ahead to a new year and close the book on this past one, I wish you and your loved ones a safe, healthy and joyous holiday season.

Interim Dean Franita Tolson George T. and Harriet E. Pfleger Chair in Law

DEPARTMENTS

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2 BRIEFS 8 FEATURES 20 FACULTY FOCUS 37 USC LAW FAMILY 44 HONOR ROLL 45 IN MEMORIAM 47 DONOR REPORT 56 LAST LOOK

FEATURES

12 12 30

8 USC GOULD WELCOMES JD CLASS 9 EXPANDING PUBLIC INTEREST OPTIONS 10 “A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE” 11 “EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE TEACHER” 12 TROJAN PRIDE — ALBERT MOUR 13 THE MUSIC OF MENTAL HEALTH 14 A POWERFUL TRIBUTE 16 GETTING A-OK WITH AI 18 CONFIDENCE BOOSTER 19 SUBNATIONAL SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS

FALL | WINTER 2023 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Ben Dimapindan Melissa Masatani Leslie Ridgeway Heidi Ried-Gonzaga WRITERS Ben Dimapindan

Tess Stevenson Powell

Greg Hardesty

Larissa Puro

Matthew Kredell

Nina Raffio

Diane Krieger

Leslie Ridgeway

Melissa Masatani

Heidi Ried-Gonzaga

Kaitlyn McQuown

Julie Riggott

Nandini Mony

Becca Speier

Tatiana Overly ART DIRECTION & DESIGN ETCH Creative PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY David Giannamore Dawn Bowery

FACULTY FOCUS

Aji Claussen

Peter Konerko

Chris Flynn

Melissa Masatani

20 BERNADETTE ATUAHENE 21 SARA BERMAN 22 JONATHAN CHOI 23 JESSICA CLARKE 24 AYA GRUBER 25 DOUG MELAMED 26 MICHAEL PARENTE (JD 2012) 27 BARRETT SCHREINER 28 ADAM ZIMMERMAN 29 JORDAN BARRY 30 SUE WRIGHT 32 DAVID SLAWSON 34 SCHOLARSHIP & RESEARCH 36 DAN KLERMAN

Ethan Go

Darren Wong

OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF Albert Mour Moises Amsel Bernadette Atuahene

Brian Peck

Lawrence Cisneros

Alvin Salehi

Jessica Clarke

Michael Santos

Kelly Degnan

Wendy Shu

Jaya Loharuka

Tony Thai

Ron Martinetti

Dana Treister

Doug Melamed

Kenneth Wells

USC Law Magazine is published by the USC Gould School of Law Communications Office at the University of Southern California. Please send all correspondence to: Office of Communications USC Gould School of Law Los Angeles, California 90089-0071 magazine@law.usc.edu 213.740.9690

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USC LAW FAMILY 37 ENTERPRISING ENTREPRENEURS 40 MOISES AMSEL (LLM 2010) 41 KELLY DEGNAN (JD 1983) 42 A GRAND GOULD GATHERING

© 2023 University of Southern California Gould School of Law

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G&IP WELCOMES NEW CLASS Also new this fall: interdisciplinary master’s in microeconomics and law focusing on innovation The USC Gould School of Law’s Graduate & International Programs (G&IP) classes are in full swing for the fall semester with over 350 new students enrolled in oncampus and online programs. Also this year, G&IP has launched a new master’s degree in microeconomics and law.

Residential students represent 36 countries and online students represent 12 countries. This year’s on-campus and online cohort joins the 196 students continuing their academic journeys in G&IP programs.

New residential students were welcomed on campus in August, and online students participated in virtual orientation to kick off the 2023-2024 academic year. Orientation included presentations on academic integrity, careers and the U.S. bar exam, and work/life balance while in law school.

NEW DEGREE PROGRAM SPANS DISCIPLINES G&IP also welcomed the first class of six students into the multi-disciplinary Master of Science in Innovation Economics, Law and Regulation (MIELR) program, jointly offered by USC Gould and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Department of Economics.

“This program is an exciting opportunity for students to combine quantitative analytical approaches with how law shapes questions of innovation,” says D. Daniel Sokol, professor of Law and Business at USC Gould School of Law, who serves as co-academic director of MIELR. In this 32-unit degree program, students gain comprehensive knowledge of the economic and regulatory complexities of digital services industries and innovation-

driven workplaces that include tech and biotech. MIELR is a STEM-designated program that will equip graduates with the essential skills for work in complex areas including big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning through the lens of antitrust, privacy, data security and intellectual property laws.

MIELR joins G&IP’s robust slate of offerings including the one-year Master of Laws (LLM), two-year Extended LLM, LLM in International Business and Economic Law, LLM in Privacy Law and Cybersecurity, LLM in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Master of Dispute Resolution, ADR Certificate, Master of International Trade Law and Economics and Master of Studies in Law.

— Heidi Ried-Gonzaga

“LAWYERS, LAW AND THE LEGAL SYSTEM” GIVES HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS GLIMPSE INTO LEGAL CAREERS

Guest speakers shared their career experiences with high school students during the four-week course.

In hopes of encouraging high school students to consider careers in law, USC Gould School of Law, in association with USC Bovard College, held a four-week course, “Lawyers, Law and the Legal System,” as part of the USC Summer Pre-College Program.

Dave Campbell, a retired 35-year deputy district attorney for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, said the course immerses students in the world of a lawyer.

“By giving high schoolers the chance to participate in motions, arguments and trials in both civil and criminal law, they learned

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to think on their feet and get a taste of what the day-to-day life of an attorney is like,” said Campbell, whose experience includes litigating complex criminal jury trials as well as classroom experience teaching psychology and criminal law classes.

Topics included criminal law, personal injury, contracts, wills, family law, defamation and appellate review, as well as a firsthand look at how the legal system functions via class field trips and guest speakers.

Highlights of the class included preparing PowerPoint presentations of closing arguments for a mock criminal trial, as well as a mock family law mediation session.

“Students were intrigued by their ability to make their own arguments and presentations as if they were really presenting at an actual trial,” Campbell said.

In addition to guest speakers, the class visited Pasadena misdemeanor criminal court and Hollywood mental health court.

Students mentioned that the mental health court visit was the most surprising and impactful experience of the class, Campbell said, adding that the class witnessed a writ hearing in which the court needed to determine whether a person with a mental illness was competent to provide for their own basic needs.

— Melissa Masatani

SETTING NEW STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE

L.A. MAYOR APPOINTS DEEPIKA SHARMA AS A COMMISSIONER ON OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE Professor Deepika Sharma, founding director of the Housing Law and Policy Clinic at USC Gould School of Law, has been appointed to a citizens oversight Deepika Sharma committee supervising Measure ULA, a new property transfer tax approved by Los Angeles voters in 2022.

Sharma, appointed by Mayor Karen Bass and approved by the Los Angeles City Council in March, is a longtime tenants’ rights advocate with a 15year career in housing litigation and policymaking.

She launched the Housing Law and Policy Clinic in Fall of 2022, supervising USC law students.

“I am honored to be appointed by the Mayor to serve the City of L.A., the place where I was raised, and which I still call home,” said Sharma. “Despite

the challenges posed by the housing crisis, I am energized by the spirit of this city, which embraces immigrant families like my own, and aspires to be a beacon of inclusivity and belonging.”

Measure ULA was drafted by a coalition of service providers, nonprofits, unions and renters’ rights groups to address the growing homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.

According to the most recent count conducted by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, the number of people experiencing homelessness in L.A. County has increased 4.1% from 2020, to more than 69,000 in 2022.

The committee is composed of 15 community members, each filling a particular role and set of criteria.

Sharma fills the ninth seat, as an individual with at least five years of experience as a tenant rights or fair housing legal expert representing or advocating for tenants.

JD CLASS OF 2026 SNAPSHOT

3.88 GPA/169 LSAT Highest ever median GPA and median LSAT scores in USC Gould history

12.5%

Lowest acceptance rate on record

38%

First in their family to earn college degree or pursue graduate school

60%

% of women represented in the new 1L class

53 %

The University of Adelaide campus

From a historically underrepresented group

— Kaitlyn McQuown

Read more about Gould’s newest JD class on p. 8

2023 ANNUAL GOULD LAW AWARDS 2023 WILLIAM A. RUTTER DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AWARD ▪ Erik Hovenkamp EDWARD & ELEANOR SHATTUCK AWARDS Contributions to the law school and potential to be outstanding members of the bar ▪ Lauren Au ▪ Sophia Dominguez-Heithoff ▪ Karem Jarada ▪ Jacob Mindel ▪ Shawn Kim ▪ Samantha Shadrow DEAN DOROTHY NELSON COMMEMORATIVE PRIZE For improvement of the administration of justice ▪ Addison Morris

C. DAVID MOLINA FIRST GENERATION PROFESSIONALS PROGRAM: STUDENT OF THE YEAR For mentorship of fellow first-generation students and promoting the program’s goals ▪ Vanasis Ohanian MASON C. BROWN AWARD Commitment to public interest law and talent for trial work ▪ Rohan Garg MILLER-JOHNSON EQUAL JUSTICE PRIZE Commitment to the cause of civil and social justice ▪ Kailani Humeston INCLUSION AND BELONGING AWARD For proactively advancing policies, practices, and efforts that promote a more equitable and inclusive learning community at USC Gould School of Law ▪ Leilani Stacy

CLASS OF 2023 GRADUATE & INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM AWARDS Nominated by G&IP peers for their support of, and positive impact on, the student community ▪ Nwaf Alghamdi ▪ Priyajit Thind 2022-23 STUDENT BAR ASSOCIATION AWARDS SBA FACULTY MEMBER OF THE YEAR ▪ Donald Scotten SBA ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF THE YEAR ▪ Christina Tarr SBA STAFF MEMBER OF THE YEAR ▪ Veronica Key

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briefs WATCHING WHAT HAPPENS: SUPREME COURT PREVIEW USC Gould’s popular Supreme Court Preview took

place in mid-October with Interim Dean Franita Tolson moderating a discussion of upcoming cases on the SCOTUS docket. The panel included (clockwise) Professor Lee Epstein, Interim Dean Franita Tolson, New York Times Supreme Court reporter Adam Liptak and Professor Rebecca Brown, discussing cases involving gun rights, the boundaries of free speech in social media, gun restrictions and election redistricting. Brown noted that several upcoming cases reflected an interest by SCOTUS to restrict the power of agencies.

UNIQUE LEARNING OPPORTUNITY FOR 3L HAMEE YONG AS FASPE FELLOW This past summer, 3L Hamee Yong traveled to Germany and Poland for a unique opportunity to study ethical and moral situations in a historical context as part of the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE).

Yong was one of more than 80 graduate students and professionals in fields including law, business, journalism, Hamee Yong medicine, religion and design and technology visiting Auschwitz and other historically significant sites in Berlin and Krakow. They also attended intensive seminars where they discussed how the actions of lawyers, business leaders and other professionals enabled the Nazi regime to commit widespread human rights abuses.

Yong, who plans a career as a public defender, appreciated

the opportunity to relate the past to contemporary issues in a profound way.

“The program gave me a set of tools to think critically about what motivates me to be a public defender and how to navigate my future career as a public defender,” Yong says.

“The ability to be self-critical about your profession and your own personal goals is central to the theme of the program.”

Yong is the second USC Gould student selected as a FASPE fellow since the program launched in 2009. Katie Garcia ( JD 2020) participated in 2021.

Fellows come from multinational backgrounds, universities and organizations, providing important context with their diverse backgrounds and experiences.

“Every opportunity to talk to other fellows in the program, particularly from a different profession, was a great privilege in and of itself,” Yong says. “I learned a lot from each fellow who has led an impactful, interesting life and was not hesitant to share their personal perspectives on many modern-day challenges from global warming to social media and AI.”

— Becca Speier

INSTILLING A SENSE OF BELONGING This fall, USC Gould School of Law’s Student Affairs office launched programming that integrates diversity, equity, inclusion and student well-being to address higher rates of anxiety, depression and physical health issues among law students. “Research shows that law students who have a sense of belonging and psychological safety are more academically motivated and develop stronger friendships and mentorships, putting them in a better position to thrive,” said Nickey Woods (pictured), dean of Students and associate dean for Student Affairs, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging. Woods, Akita Mungaray, interim associate dean for Academic Services and Chalak Richards, dean of Students, Diversity and Belonging at Pepperdine University’s Caruso School of Law gave a presentation on the new programming at the National Association of Law Student Affairs Professionals Conference in June.

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GOULD PREVIEW ’23 INCLUDES NEW LEADERSHIP, GROWING ENROLLMENT

Gould Preview participants find USC landmarks during the scavenger hunt.

Now in its third year, Gould Preview featured new leadership, new programming and more students than ever joining the five-day, preorientation program that gives 1Ls an advance look at the rigors and expectations of law school.

More than 40 1Ls signed up for the program known affectionately by alumni as “GP,” led by two new Gould faculty members: Sara Berman, professor of Lawyering Skills and director of the Academic Success Program and Barrett Schreiner, associate professor of Lawyering Skills and associate director of the Academic Success Program.

“Gould Preview provides a powerful infusion of skills and substance training for these new law students,” said Berman. “They get the opportunity to experience real law school content and participate in real classroom exchanges. Students also bond during preview week and end up making life-long friends and connections.”

Students most appreciated opportunities to meet colleagues in a small setting and to experience a practice class series culminating in an exam.

GP ’23 kicked off with a welcome reception sponsored by Reed Smith LLP, featuring Nickey Woods, dean of JD students and associate dean for Student Affairs, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, and, keynote speaker, Reed Smith Partner and Gould Adjunct Professor Daniel Ahn ( JD 2004).

New this year was Lunch with the Librarians, introducing students to the valuable resources available to them through Gould’s Law Library.

The popular scavenger hunt was back, sending students across campus in a fun team-building exercise to familiarize them with the campus.

Faculty including professors Greg Keating, Jody Armour, Erik Hovenkamp and Lybby Carroll, along with Berman and Schreiner, JD student fellows and staff members and deans from Admissions, Student Affairs, Events and other departments all rounded out Gould Preview.

“The focus of Gould Preview is to give students a sense of belonging and confidence,” said Berman. “They learn that getting their JD is a challenging but doable process. And, becoming familiar with all of the resources available to them before classes begin is extremely helpful.”

— Heidi Ried-Gonzaga

GOULD QUOTABLES When a litigant starts suing opposing experts, that’s very aggressive.

It sends a message that the gloves are off.”

ADAM ZIMMERMAN on the Johnson & Johnson lawsuit which involves researchers who potentially harmed the company’s reputation, Reuters, July 13, 2023

These are the folks struggling the most.”

DEEPIKA SHARMA on lax enforcement of Los Angeles laws intended to preserve residential hotels as safety net housing for vulnerable tenants, ProPublica, July 10, 2023

It doesn’t make sense to me that patients in L.A. are more seriously psychotic and dangerous than patients at a general hospital in San Francisco.”

ELYN SAKS in an investigative story on restraint of psychiatric patients at Los Angeles General Medical Center, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 19, 2023

Fall | Winter 2023 5

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USC GOULD WELCOMES INAUGURAL FIRST-YEAR COHORT FOR BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN LEGAL STUDIES Students join USC’s new undergraduate degree from across the nation and globe The USC Gould School of Law welcomed its inaugural first-year cohort of undergraduates into the Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies this fall. There are now more than 300 students enrolled in Gould’s undergraduate degree and minor programs.

“I feel really proud to be a part of this program,” says Laisha Campos, a member of the Class of 2027. “I am really grateful for the opportunity to be here and to be able to be working with such wonderful professors and mentors. Knowing that I got to be a part of the first admitted cohort for the BS in Legal Studies continues to give me that motivation to further succeed.”

The inaugural cohort comes from 11 states — including an international student — and was selected from a large pool of applicants from across the U.S. and beyond. These students will earn a bachelor’s degree from Gould, taking classes taught by some of the top legal minds in their field.

“As an international student, I was scared that I would struggle as a Legal Studies major. However, it has become clear to me that an international background was not a hindrance to my academic experience at all at USC — rather, I love the comparisons I can make based on my personal experiences, meeting other diverse students, and sharing our stories,” says Rin Choi, who joins USC from Korea.

USC Gould offers more than two dozen undergraduate law courses, tailored for the Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies as well as its minor programs in Legal Studies, Law and Social Justice, Law and Migration Studies, and Law and Technology. The classes have various interdisciplinary foci including economics, history, philosophy, psychology and sociology. Offerings will continue to expand as the program grows.

“We are excited to contribute to [the students’] development as future leaders of our society,” says Professor Bob Rasmussen, faculty director of USC Gould Undergraduate Law Programs. “Law is ubiquitous and those who wish to lead must attend to its consequences.”

For more information on the BS in Legal Studies, visit gould.law/bs-legal-studies or contact undergraduate@law.usc.edu.

— Melissa Masatani

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MEET USC GOULD’S 2023 JOHN PAUL STEVENS FOUNDATION FELLOWS Two USC Gould School of Law students were selected as 2023 John Paul Stevens Foundation Fellows, which funds full-time summer internships in public interest law. Fellows are selected on the basis of a keen interest in public interest and social justice law, as well as academic achievement. Both Gould students are from the JD Class of 2024.

Jaya Loharuka hopes to practice immigration law, with a specialty in deportation defense.

“I know I want to use my degree to empower people to combat the inequities of our legal system and advance towards better futures,” she says. “This fellowship has allowed me to remain committed to a field that is much less lucrative, yet far more rewarding, than the typical big law route. Without this fellowship, I would have been completely unpaid for my work this past summer, which would have meant more student loans.” Loharuka adds that the fellowship will help her to remain connected to the Gould alumni network as she pursues her career in public interest law. She has interned at the Esperanza Immigration Rights Project and Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) and worked as the lead lien negotiator at Jacoby & Meyers. She also served as a law student representative in USC Gould’s Immigration Clinic.

From childhood, Edgar Preciado knew he wanted to be a public defender. “When I was 12 years old, I wrote a character letter on behalf of my father for his sentencing in federal criminal court,” he says. “As an impressionable young man who grew up in South Central L.A. around gangs, my father made some mistakes, but the prosecutor showed little sympathy. I remember being outraged by how the prosecutor characterized my father.” Preciado also appreciates the fellowship for connecting him to public interest advocates in a wide range of fields. Before law school, Preciado worked as an admissions officer at Princeton University, his alma mater. He has served as a law clerk at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and is currently in an apprenticeship at the Los Angeles County Alternate Public Defender. As an undergraduate Preciado was a judicial operations intern at the Compton Courthouse, Department Three.

— Nandini Mony

CLASS PAPER BY 3L BRYCE LOURIÉ ACCEPTED BY LAW JOURNAL FOR PUBLICATION When 3L Bryce Lourié submitted a paper he wrote for his Ocean and Coastal Law class to Environs, the law journal of the University of California, Davis School of Law, he kept his expectations low.

So, he was pleasantly astonished when the paper, “The Legal Battle to Save Bryce Lourié the Southern Residents” was accepted and publication was scheduled for December.

“I’m super surprised and happy about this being published,” Lourié says. “Professor [Robin] Craig encouraged me to submit this paper for publishing.

She was very supportive during the process and gave great feedback while I revised my paper.”

The paper focuses on the dwindling population of Southern Resident killer whales, a small population of orcas that live in the Pacific Northwest. According to Craig, the Columbia River/Snake River dam system, which limits salmon access to and from the Pacific Ocean and north into Puget Sound, near Seattle has had a negative impact on the Chinook salmon population, the orcas’ main food source.

Today, according to Lourié, only about 74 orcas remain in the area.

Craig felt the broad view Lourié took of the issue, expanding it beyond the threats to the killer whales, made the paper interesting to a wider audience.

“Bryce really dug into the topic from the perspective of helping the orcas, making it clear that the dams weren’t just a problem for the fish,” Craig says. “His paper thus adds to the ongoing debate about the hydropower dams, and he did an excellent job of distinguishing between dams that actually could be taken out without causing a power supply problem and those dams that probably aren’t going anywhere because they are too critical to powering the Pacific Northwest, including parts of California.”

For Lourié, long interested in ocean and coastal law, Craig’s class helped him decide on a career in environmental law. When he graduates in May 2024, he plans to continue advocacy work in marine conservation and biodiversity at Greenberg Glusker LLP in Los Angeles, which has a robust environmental practice.

— Heidi Ried-Gonzaga

MICHAEL SANTOS (JD 2013) ELECTED CHAIR OF ABA COMMISSION ON HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY

Michael Santos (JD 2013) has been named chair of the American Bar Association Commission on Homelessness and Poverty. Santos, associate director of U.S. poverty policy at RESULTS, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit lobbying organization, plans to use his new role to educate the legal community and the public about the legal problems of people experiencing homelessness and poverty. “During my three-year tenure, I hope to leverage my work with the Commission to find creative legal solutions to end and prevent homelessness and poverty on the national, state and local levels, particularly addressing the growing trend of criminalization and achieving economic justice for low- to no income households,” Santos says.

SCHOLARSHIP SUPPORTS 2L DEL SMITH’S CAREER ASPIRATIONS As a first-generation law student, Delphert (Del) Clayton Smith III uses his experiences as motivation to help underrepresented communities interface with government bodies.

The 2L’s aspirations, determination and work ethic have earned him a scholarship from California Change Lawyers, a Del Clayton San Francisco-based organization founded in 1989 by the State Smith III Bar of California to support budding lawyers, judges and activists.

“Being awarded the California Change Lawyers Scholarship is an honor and something that I am grateful for,” says Smith, who is considering a career as a government litigator. “More than anything else, being awarded this scholarship helped me see that there are people who believe in me, something I appreciated navigating my 1L year.”

With the scholarship, Smith has access to networking opportunities and guidance from legal professionals and scholars. This inspires Smith, who plans to serve as a resource and give back to young lawyers and law students in the future.

“As someone with varying career aspirations, one of the most valuable aspects about these conversations is learning [that] there is no one set path in accomplishing a goal. More than anything else, this network has provided me with encouragement and support to pursue my various career aspirations.”

Smith will bolster his experience and knowledge next summer as a 2L summer associate at WilmerHale in Los Angeles.

“While [at WilmerHale], I hope to gain experience in their commercial litigation group along with their various government facing practice group(s),” he says. “Although I can’t say if there is a specific role or title I want to hold in my career, I ultimately want to continue to be given opportunities to build my legal knowledge and make a positive impact on the greatest number of people possible.”

— Becca Speier

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FEATURE

USC GOULD WELCOMES JD CLASS

THAT RAISES STANDARDS OF ACHIEVEMENT

Class of 2026 hits high marks in LSAT, GPA scores

By Melissa Masatani The Class of 2026 is a diverse group of individuals from a breadth of geographic and academic backgrounds.

For the fifth consecutive year, the USC Gould School of Law’s incoming JD class has redefined the standards of scholastic achievement and professional accomplishment.

The Class of 2026 entered the law school with a median LSAT of 169 and a median GPA of 3.88, both recordsetting marks. In addition, the acceptance rate was Gould’s lowest ever, at 12.5%.

“This is — statistically — the strongest JD class to ever enroll at USC Gould,” noted Interim Dean Franita Tolson.

“All of these students have earned their seat at Gould.

We are fortunate to be able to teach such a strong group, and I have no doubt that their presence will enrich our community over the next three years.”

BREADTH OF BACKGROUNDS Among the 189 new JD students, more than half — 53% — self-identify as members of a historically underrepresented group, making this cohort the law school’s most diverse to date. Women comprise 60% of the class, and 38% are first-generation college students or the first in their family to pursue a graduate degree.

The Class of 2026 also represents a breadth of geographic and academic backgrounds. Students come from 25 states, 79 undergraduate institutions and nearly 50 undergraduate majors, with 10% earning a degree in a STEM discipline such as environmental sciences, biology, chemical engineering and math.

DIFFERENCE-MAKERS IN DIFFERENT FIELDS In addition to their strong academic accomplishments, the newest JD students represent a diverse assortment of

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professional and personal experiences, including Fulbright Scholars, a Peace Corps volunteer, world champion athletes, entrepreneurs and more. Students’ passions range from public interest and social justice-related work to social entrepreneurship and education reform.

The class includes founders of organizations that support undocumented and DACA students; a coalition of unhoused women and allies; an NGO that designed therapy for refugee children with mental health issues; and a company that designed zero-waste biodegradable paper products from elephant droppings. Students also volunteered for organizations such as Greenpeace, Heal the Bay, Amnesty International, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, the French Refugee Council in Paris, and others.

Several bring notable military service, including a combat medic in the U.S. Army and a platoon commander in the Marine Corps.

Creativity and athleticism are also abundant among the 1Ls, from film and theater producers to decorated athletes in basketball, tennis, fencing, gymnastics, soccer, water polo and football, along with a three-time national champion on USC’s beach volleyball team.

In his remarks to the Class of 2026, Associate Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid David Kirschner shared his aspirations for the cohort.

“It is my hope that over the next three years, those of us who you will meet, the faculty and deans, the staff, and your classmates, can help you finish law school just like you started today: with optimism, with a sense of humor and a sense of duty, and with a passion for justice,” he said.

EXPANDING PUBLIC INTEREST OPTIONS

Professor Emeritus Rob Saltzman funds new summer internship grant for students interested in LGBTQ+ civil rights or public policy advocacy

By Leslie Ridgeway

Professor Emeritus Rob Saltzman hopes his donation expands opportunities for law students who want to do public interest work.

When Professor Emeritus Rob Saltzman was in law school, his career interests were in public service and public policy, but the options were limited. He hopes to help open up those kinds of opportunities for USC Gould School of Law JD students with interest in advocacy for LGBTQ+ communities by funding a summer internship stipend offered through the Barbara F. Bice Public Interest Law Foundation.

Saltzman, an associate dean and professor of lawyering skills at USC Gould for 27 years before retiring in 2015, is currently supporting the new Rob Saltzman Public Interest Summer Grant and has designated a bequest in his estate plans that funds the grant in perpetuity.

“A number of people go to law school wanting to do good deeds through public interest work; to be involved in public policy and public service, but structurally, the opportunities can be hard to find,” he says. “There’s been a disconnection in the amount and variety of opportunities for students who want to do this kind of work, and I hope this internship helps to rebalance that.”

The stipend is open to students who want to pursue LGBTQ+ civil rights or public policy advocacy and supports a 10-week summer internship at a nonprofit organization or in a government position anywhere in the U.S. Saltzman says he sees his donation as constructive action in a political climate that leaves many wondering what they can do to benefit marginalized communities.

“Given everything negative that’s going on with respect to LGBTQ+ people and issues, I wanted to do something specific that would be positive, productive, helpful and

give back to Gould,” he says. “Gould stands out in its commitment to public interest and public service and being aggressive about creating those opportunities. I’m pleased to see Gould’s public interest law focus is robust, and I hope there are more students interested in it.”

3L Daniella Henry, selected as the second student to receive the Saltzman grant, used the grant for a summer internship with the ACLU of Southern California, where she worked with the Education Equity team on indigenous justice related to education, the arts and mental health resources, as well as litigation.

“It’s amazing to have this option, especially since not many funding resources focus on queer students,” says Henry, whose career goals include seeking out fellowships to work on indigenous justice and education in rural areas.

“Queer students are more likely to struggle in school. The work we do [at the ACLU] is important, and this grant makes it financially feasible to do it.”

Interim Dean Franita Tolson praised Saltzman for his donation providing more flexibility to JD students exploring their career options.

“We are grateful for Rob’s generous support of our students, both now and in the future,” Tolson says. “This opportunity undergirds our public interest law program and gives our students the chance to pursue their legal careers in the nonprofit and public policy arena.”

To set up an estate gift to benefit future generations of USC Gould JD students, please contact Margaret Kean, assistant dean of Development at mkean@law.usc.edu or call (213) 821-6342.

Fall | Winter 2023 9

FEATURE

“A life-changing experience” IHRC faculty, students, alumni and partners celebrate impact, growth

By Melissa Masatani

Hannah Garry (right), with Henna Pithia (center) and Kelsey McGregor (left) at the IHRC celebration.

For more than a decade, the USC International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) has been a champion of international criminal justice, refugee rights and protecting vulnerable populations across the world.

With more than 100 clinic alumni already forming the next generation of human rights advocates, the IHRC is continuing its work educating law students and making a difference in global justice and accountability.

based violence and female incarceration; filing an asylum application for a young woman who fled Afghanistan after U.S. troops withdrew from the country in August 2021; helping a Ukrainian family escape war and find safe passage to the United States in December 2022; and traveling to The Hague to raise awareness of human rights atrocities in Ukraine, Armenia and Cameroon. In collaboration with the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s TrialWatch initiative, the IHRC is preparing a report on fair trial rights violations that occurred during the trial of a human rights defender in Kyrgyzstan.

“It’s a testament to the clinic and our students’ strong work that the majority of the students who wanted to, were able to apply and be accepted to internships and fellowships at human rights organizations, international courts and tribunals over the years,” said Garry.

MISSION DRIVEN AND FORWARD FOCUSED

Earlier this year, the clinic marked its 12th cohort of students, led by Founding Director Hannah Garry, who recently transitioned into the role of executive director of UCLA’s Promise Institute for Human Rights, and Interim Director Henna Pithia, as well as senior supervising attorney Kelsey McGregor, who joined the team for six months as part of WilmerHale’s Pickering Fellowship. Both Pithia ( JD 2015) and McGregor ( JD 2015) are clinic alumnae.

“IHRC is such a life-changing experience not only by allowing us to conduct incredibly important work that can make a difference around the world, but also by letting us witness our students’ growth as they work on some of the most pressing human rights concerns of our time,” said Pithia, IHRC interim director. “I wake up every day feeling lucky that I get to do the work that I do.”

Recent clinic activities include a trip to Malawi over spring break for a fact-finding report on the intersection of gender-

10 USCLaw magazine

In spring 2023, IHRC held a celebration marking its decade-plus of work in the human rights space. The event gathered clinic alumni, partner organizations and supporters to recognize the importance of the work that the clinic has accomplished and continues to do.

The speakers included rising 3L Maramawit Abera, who shared how her experience as the child of Ethiopian immigrants informed her work with the clinic and her fight for justice. During her speech, Abera explained how it was humbling to realize that human rights work cannot be done by one person alone.

As the clinic prepares for a new cohort of students, Pithia shared her goals for IHRC in this second decade of advocacy.

“My vision for the clinic moving forward is to continue and expand our focus on accountability for mass atrocities, while simultaneously working on individual client representation matters for individuals fleeing atrocity situations,” Pithia said. “And ideally, we would be able to grow the clinic, to offer more students the opportunity to learn about human rights advocacy.”

“Everybody’s favorite teacher”

Ron Martinetti (JD 1982) and wife establish scholarship to honor influential Professor Allan Axelrod

By Leslie Ridgeway Ron Martinetti (second from left) with his wife Ky (second from right), their children and Professor Allan Axelrod (center, back).

A years-long friendship struck over a love of quirky humor and commercial law is the inspiration for an endowed scholarship for JD students at USC Gould School of Law. Ron Martinetti ( JD 1982), at the encouragement of his wife, Ky, has established the Martinetti Family Endowed Scholarship Honoring Professor Allan Axelrod. Axelrod was a highly regarded professor at Rutgers University who, as a visiting professor, taught over a period of 10 years at USC Gould. An expert on contracts, bankruptcy and commercial law, Axelrod’s influence led Martinetti to a successful legal career and enriched Martinetti’s family’s life in many ways.

It was the case of a wealthy woman donating her fortune to her cat that sealed the bond between student and teacher.

“One day I brought him that case, and he loved it,” Martinetti says. “Allan liked offbeat people. In addition to having a great analytical mind, he was very witty, didn’t take himself seriously, and he loved irony. He would recommend a novel and say the writer was an ‘ironist’ — that was his highest intellectual compliment.”

Martinetti shared a love of the classic novel “Ivanhoe” with Axelrod, as well as strong opinions about academics in their area of scholarship and teaching. Martinetti remembers drawing the ire of the dean at a law school where he was teaching by remarking that a certain scholar was an “idiot” in the classroom.

“I told Allan, and he said [the scholar] is an idiot,” Martinetti says. “That’s the person he was. My classmates and I saw him as one of a kind. He was everybody’s favorite teacher.”

Axelrod was a visiting professor at law schools all over the country, as long as they were in cities that had a chamber orchestra, Martinetti says. His wide-ranging experiences and connections gave him the long view that led him to urge Martinetti to spend his third year of law school as a visiting student at the University of Chicago, where Axelrod said one of the best scholars in contracts was teaching. Axelrod even wrote a letter of recommendation, Martinetti says.

Martinetti and his wife made the decision to create the endowment after learning that the USC Gould Class of 1982 was creating a scholarship in the name of Class President Patrick Jordan. They could think of no better way to recognize an unforgettable mentor than by honoring his example.

“He was very special to my wife and me; and we both miss his friendship and wise counsel,” says Martinetti, who is of counsel at Bazan, Huerta and Associates, Inc. “Often in my practice, instead of looking before leaping, I would wonder, ‘How would this sit with Allan?’ And then — of course — I’d go ahead and leap. He would not have had it any other way.”

Fall | Winter 2023 11

FEATURE

Trojan pride inspires endowed scholarship Double Trojan Albert Mour (BS 1955, JD 1958) gives back to honor his relationship with law school, USC

By Julie Riggott Albert Mour (JD 1958, with wife Darlene) hopes the Darlene and Albert Mour Scholarship Fund will help law students secure successful careers.

It’s been 65 years since Albert Mour (BS 1955, JD 1958) graduated from the USC Gould School of Law, but he still feels a strong connection to the place that launched his career — so strong that the 90-year-old alumnus decided to endow a scholarship last year.

“A lot of my success was through being a lawyer and ’SC and what it did for me, and I wanted to give something back,” says Mour, a double Trojan whose bachelor’s degree in public administration is from the Sol Price School of Public Policy.

He also knows firsthand the difference a scholarship can make, having benefitted from one for his last two years at the law school.

“By the second year of law school, I had pretty good grades. So, I applied for a scholarship,” he says. “And even though the tuition maybe wasn’t very much at that time, it was still a struggle for me.”

The Darlene and Albert Mour Scholarship Fund will help generations of USC Gould students earn a law degree that Mour hopes will set them on a path as successful and fulfilling as his.

After graduating, Mour was a civil trial lawyer in Los Angeles. He then spent a decade as general counsel for several hospitals, including Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage and Scripps hospitals in San Diego.

In the ’70s, he and five colleagues started their own firm,

12 USCLaw magazine

Weissberg & Aronson. He was managing partner of the firm for five years and upon his retirement in 1988, the firm had offices in five cities, and employed about 90 lawyers.

“Most of the time, I really enjoyed everything about being a lawyer. The firm was successful, and I was happy at it,” he says. “But then after 20 or 25 years, I was ready for something different.” That’s when Mour became the president and CEO of Eisenhower Medical Center.

“As a lawyer, I would advise people, but I wouldn’t make the decision,” he says. “When I got to Eisenhower as the CEO, it was my responsibility to make the decisions, and I really enjoyed it.”

Over the years, Mour has supported Women of Troy, KUSC, the Galen Center and USC Athletics. At Gould, he has supported the General Scholarship Fund, the Dean’s Strategic Fund, and most recently, the New Building Fund. While he has consistently made a gift to USC for the past 23 years, his total giving spans 50 years.

Mour met his late wife, Darlene, at Julie’s Restaurant near campus. A USC dentistry school graduate, she worked as a hygienist. They were married for 63 years and had two children, one of whom graduated from USC. Two grandchildren also attended USC, and his two greatgrandchildren may follow in their footsteps.

“I’m just really proud of being a Trojan,” Mour says.

The music of mental health Opera based on Professor Elyn Saks continues her story and aims to address mental health stigma

By Leslie Ridgeway Kenneth Wells (front) with Professor Elyn Saks (third from right) and her husband Will Vinet (center) with cast members from “The Center Cannot Hold: Part 1, The Illness,” staged in 2016.

Seven years ago, a chamber opera based on USC Gould School of Law Professor Elyn Saks’ groundbreaking memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness moved audiences with the drama of Saks’ diagnosis with schizophrenia as a Yale Law School student and her resilience as she learned to cope with the diagnosis.

The second half of Saks’ memoir was presented in three staged performances in June, with music by UCLA psychiatrist Kenneth Wells and libretto by Wells and Saks.

“The Center Cannot Hold: Part 2, Recovery” begins as her academic career at USC Gould School of Law takes off and includes her falling in love with her husband Will Vinet, a former staffer in USC Gould’s law library.

“I’m very happy that Part 2 focuses on some of the most important things in my life,” says Saks, director of the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy and Ethics. “It feels a little weird to have an opera written about you, but Ken is a wonderful musician as well as a wonderful psychiatrist, and I think it’s really brave [to write an opera about my story].”

Both Parts 1 and 2 reflect Wells’ abiding love of music and performance, and are part of his ongoing research. As co-founder of the Media and Medicine for Communities (MMC) and Healing and Education through the Arts (HEArts) program at the Semel Institute, Wells studies how the arts can be used to address mental health stigma among diverse populations.

Of the effect of the arts, “We have seen in evaluations of prior events that people feel more committed to interacting with people with mental health issues, with understanding them and providing services,” says Wells, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Health Services and Society of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. “We want to keep the data coming forward.”

The June performances were presented by HEArts with funding from the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and California Mental Health Services Administration’s Take Action Los Angeles for Mental

Health. “Recovery” included pre-performance talks by Saks, nonprofit community service agencies, community partners affiliated with Healthy African American Families II and Lisa Wong, director, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health ( June 17) and Curley Bonds, chief medical officer, LACDMH ( June 23).

Those in attendance were offered an opportunity to provide valuable data through a voluntary survey intended to gauge how attitudes toward mental health are impacted by the arts.

“Part 2: Recovery” depicts Saks working through the challenges of treatment, including changes in medication and communicating with her doctors; her acceptance of responsibility for self-care; and the importance of support and interaction with friends as she begins her career as a scholar and teacher. “Recovery” features Saks helping her students as they learn to respond to people with mental health issues and eventually, as they begin to open up about their own mental health struggles. It also covers her meeting her husband Will and what her relationship with him means to her recovery.

Wells, whose love of opera dates back to childhood, spent 20 years writing his first opera, about First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt coping with her grief over the loss of her husband President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

It was staged in 2010. Wells is currently at work on a third opera based on military veterans and their family members, informed by a study he conducted at the VA Los Angeles. He remains inspired by Saks and her embrace of change through art and other avenues.

“I look at all that Elyn has done, and in a sense that’s art, too — how you make things happen and bring [forth] the things that matter to you in world,” he says.

Fall | Winter 2023 13

FEATURE

A pow

For 30 years, Adam Freeman Scott Grant supports dreams shared by alumnus gone too soon

By Matthew Kredell A grant established to honor Adam Freeman Scott (JD 1993) continues to help law students achieve their goals.

For nearly 30 years, the Adam Freeman Scott Memorial Grant has enabled USC law students like Ben Conway (JD 2006) to devote their summer to public service without sacrificing their financial needs.

“I don’t come from money,” Conway says. “My ideals were very important to me. But, at the end of the day, I needed a summer job that would pay the bills and nonprofits don’t do that. Having this external source of funding allowed me to do this internship that helped me create a network and launch my career.”

14 USCLaw magazine

The grant continues the promise of Adam Freeman Scott ( JD 1993), who tragically died five months after earning his law degree.

USC Gould Professor Scott Altman remembers Scott, who took his property law class, as an extraordinary student and person.

“In my 35 years of teaching, Adam stands out as one of the smartest and most passionate students I’ve ever had in class,” Altman says. “He was focused on making the world a more just and humane place. He spoke regularly and with great conviction, always on behalf of those neglected by the legal system.”

Dana Treister ( JD 1994), Adam’s friend from law school, and his wife Toi came up with the idea to create the grant in Adam’s memory. Treister brought the idea to then-USC Gould Dean Scott Bice and Adam’s father, Jack Scott, who at the time was president of Pasadena City College.

“The support from the law school community and Adam’s friends and colleagues enabled us to raise enough funds to permanently endow the grant,” says Treister. “Jack Scott often says to me that 100 years from now, someone is going to get this grant in Adam’s name. That means a lot to his family and to me.”

Treister still chairs the grant selection committee, along with Jack Scott, his son Gregory, granddaughter Nicole, Altman and past winners. The grant annually provides two USC Gould law students with $9,500 to pursue the sort of public service work that Adam would admire.

“He would have done amazing things as a lawyer but he didn’t get the chance,” Treister says. “A driving force behind this grant was thinking about what Adam would have done had he lived longer. Every year we’re taken aback by the quality of applicants we get. After the interviews, we ask each other who reminds us most of Adam. That’s not the only factor, but it’s kind of how we pick.”

erful tribute Altman remembers Adam as uncommonly kind, the type of person who was well-loved by people who agreed and disagreed with him on an issue, because he was respectful to both.

“I so admired Adam and the kind of lawyer he wanted to be,” Altman says. “That’s why I’m happy to have spent the past 25 years with Adam’s family honoring him.

Each year, we meet smart, young people who want to

Nadia Danilovich ( JD 2015) also ended up getting a full-time job from her internship. The grant funded an internship at the National Immigration Justice Center in Chicago, where she represented low-income asylum seekers for the LGBT Initiative Rights Project.

“It was obviously very sad but also inspiring to hear how the grant came about,” Danilovich says. “Most internships in social justice are unpaid, so the grant

“ The support from the law school community

and Adam’s friends and colleagues enabled us to raise enough funds to permanently endow the grant.”

— Dana Treister ( JD 1994), pictured left

lead the kind of life Adam wanted to lead, hear about their projects and passions, and honor him by picking from the best of them.”

Conway used the grant to intern at the ACLU of Southern California, working on their Lesbian and Gay Rights Project. From the ACLU, Conway got his first full-time job out of law school on the recommendation of Professor Clare Pastore, who worked with him there. Conway is now deputy attorney general for the California Department of Justice’s civil rights enforcement section.

“We’ve given out about 50 grants and a lot of the recipients say it was a real springboard for them in terms of their careers in public service,” Treister says. “We’re very proud of that.”

really helped me that summer. After the internship, I continued that trajectory working with asylum seekers.”

Danilovich now works for the American Bar Association’s Children’s Immigration Law Academy, where she leads national webinar trainings and workshops on issues affecting unaccompanied immigrant children.

After Adam’s death, his father, a longtime educator, was inspired to go into public service, spending 12 years in the California legislature.

“The grant has meant a great deal to us,” Jack Scott says. “We’re very touched by the powerful work that these students do each summer. There’s nothing that can bring back my son, but his memory lives on through these passionate young people who are changing lives through their projects.”

Fall | Winter 2023 15

FEATURE

GETTING A-OK WITH AI USC Gould aims to expand expertise in teaching, researching artificial intelligence

By Greg Hardesty

In June, a federal judge fined two New York accident attorneys for submitting fake legal history in documents supporting an aviation injury claim.

The lawyers blamed the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT for developing bogus judicial opinions and citations.

For some time now, AI-assisted technologies like ChatGPT have been transforming industries across the board including the legal profession.

“ We want to be thought leaders in the AI space — innovators on the teaching and the research side.”

— D. Daniel Sokol

With its ability to process large volumes of data far beyond the capabilities of mere mortals, AI is helping lawyers when it comes to electronic discovery, vastly speeding up the process of collecting, exchanging and reviewing information related to specific cases — especially when it comes to reviewing hundreds of documents.

Law practices also are using AI tools for document management, due diligence, litigation analysis and more.

For example, litigation analytics by judge, firm, etc., are

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available on places like Lex Machina. And other AI tools are helping with research tasks, even reviewing lawyers’ draft briefs and suggesting new cases.

Now, at USC Gould, AI is becoming more present in the classroom in both curricula and as a teaching tool.

“Probably a quarter of USC law faculty are experimenting with ChatGPT in the classroom,” says Professor D. Daniel Sokol, the Carolyn Craig Franklin Chair in Law and professor of law and business.

“The general-purpose technology of AI is being applied across areas of law and different functions within law,” Sokol adds. “And like most law schools, we’ve had offerings here and there that focus on AI-related issues, but not in a comprehensive way.

“We’re now trying to achieve this with our curriculum.

The idea is to create a greater sense of coherence both in our existing course offerings and what we need to do to fill in gaps when it comes to AI.”

TWO NEW AI OFFERINGS In May 2023, USC Gould began offering a Master of Science in Innovation Economics, Law and Regulation (MIELR).

The joint course with USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences’ Department of Economics is a STEMdesigned course about big data and machine-learning innovation through the lens of antitrust privacy, data security and intellectual property law.

And now in the works is a new AI minor for undergrads.

“If not the first, it will be among the first course of its kind,” Sokol says.

Undergraduate students began enrolling in a data analytics class this fall to apply toward the new minor, expected to launch in Spring 2024. Students in the JD program also will be able to enroll in a new data analytics course in 2024.

“We want to be thought leaders in the AI space — innovators on the teaching and the research side,” he says.

MANY QUESTIONS REMAIN How big has AI become?

No greater authority than Pope Francis has come out with a warning about the need to be vigilant about its use, saying it must be used ethically. He specifically called out the fields of education and law in remarks he made this summer.

“The Catholic Church has 1.2 billion people under its jurisdiction,” Sokol notes. “For most of these people, these guidelines are like binding law even though they aren’t binding law.”

Professor Jef Pearlman, director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Clinic (IPTLC) at USC and a clinical associate professor of law, says AI touches vast of areas of law.

“Certainly, IP is a big one,” says Pearlman, noting a flurry of recent lawsuits involving AI and intellectual property.

At least one person has filed a patent application on behalf of AI as the sole inventor, Pearlman says. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected the concept. That same person also tried to register a copyright on behalf of an AI tool. The copyright office and a federal court both turned down that request, saying human authorship is required. But just how much human inventorship or authorship is required is still an open question.

Regulation remains a big question when it comes to AI and the law, Pearlman and Sokol agree.

Questions about central regulation vs. companies relying on self-regulation have been asked in many areas of law, and are now being considered in the context of AI, the professors say.

“It’s both old and new at the same time,” Sokol says.

For now, USC Gould will focus on the best ways to equip its students to answer these and other questions when it comes to AI. Says Sokol: “We’re trying to make AI more relevant in a way that faculty and students understand the value and the problems of this technology when it comes to legal processes and outcomes — both the costs and the benefits.

“AI matters now and is going to matter more, so we should get ahead of this.”

For more on what’s happening with AI at USC Gould, read the profile on Professor Jonathan Choi on page 22.

Fall | Winter 2023 17

FEATURE

Confidence booster New course offered by C. David Molina First-Generation Professionals program gets results

By Diane Krieger To the right: Malissa Barnwell-Scott Below: Students enrolled in the new course offered by the C. David Molina First-Generation Professionals program learn skills like note-taking and exam prep.

18 USCLaw magazine

In 2016, USC Gould School of Law was one of the first law schools to launch a program aimed at the growing number of students who were first in their families to graduate from college.

“Nearly 40 percent of our incoming class identifies as either a first-gen college graduate or a first-gen professional,” says Malissa Barnwell-Scott, director of Gould’s C. David Molina First-Generation Professionals Program and Student Care.

Continually attuned to building students’ confidence, FGP in 2022 contracted with Claremont, Calif. attorney and independent educator Lisa Blasser, founder of the Law Student Success Institute (LSSI), to conduct workshops for USC Gould first-generation college graduate 1Ls. As a template, Blasser uses her book Nine Steps to Law School Success, a research-based system she developed after her own experiences in law school.

Now in its third semester at USC Gould, 20 1Ls are currently enrolled in Blasser’s course, which meets four times per semester, starting a week before classes with a three-hour Zoom session on basic study skills. She integrates her assignments with existing course syllabi and meets individually with students for additional support. Students who have enrolled in the workshops can attest to the difference they have made.

“Within the first few weeks of 1L, we learned how to take brief notes, create outlines and prepare for exams,” says 2L Natalia Rojas, a legal secretary enrolled at Gould on a Gold Honors Scholarship. Specialized workshops coincided with important law school deadlines and exams throughout the year, “which truly paid off in my studies.”

Blasser’s book plots a linear, chronological study method drawn from her own and other law school graduates’ experience backed by qualitative research.

After landing on probation in her first semester, Blasser graduated with high honors in 2004. “I proudly hang my probation letter next to my Juris Doctorate and my license to practice law on my office wall,” she says.

3L Bancy Makavana enrolled in the LSSI workshops as a 2L after struggling in law school despite excellent results in elite bachelor’s and master’s programs in STEM fields. She says she saw improvements after following tips on time management, stress reduction and work-life balance.

“It’s a holistic approach, recognizing the intensity and demands of law school,” says Makavana, past president of Gould’s Health Law Society.

2L Charles Murphy, a professional Hollywood cameraman for 11 years before applying to law school, says the LSSI workshops “helped me keep an eye on the big picture. This paid off in the classroom and was a large factor in my positive exam performances.”

Murphy is now on the staff of the Southern California Law Review and co-president of the First-Generation Professionals student organization and the Older Wiser Law Students club.

More than 400 students have participated in FGP, which offers peer mentorships, networking opportunities, need-based scholarships, special resources and stipends for third-year students in need of support while focusing on bar prep.

SUBNATIONAL SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS Center for Transnational Law and Business hosts panel presentation at World Trade Organization

By Diane Krieger From left, Brian Peck, CTLB executive director, Fangfei Dong, CTLB associate director, Emily Desai, deputy director, international affairs and trade, California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and Christine Peterson, director of international trade and investment, Office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

For the third time in recent years, USC Gould’s Center for Transnational Law and Business (CTLB) led a panel discussion at the World Trade Organization’s public forum in Geneva, Switzerland.

The prestigious four-day gathering met in midSeptember, bringing together 3,400 international participants and 630 speakers. USC’s panel was one of 134 sessions devoted to the forum’s 2023 green-trade theme, “It’s Time for Action.”

CTLB’s unique niche as one of the few law schoolbased centers studying regulatory regimes with an impact on cross-border transactions makes it stand out from other organizations applying to host panels at the WTO. “Major organizations and foreign governments typically host these panels, and we’re a relatively small center out of USC,” says CTLB executive director Brian Peck, whose session focused on creative ways cities and states can accelerate the transition to a global, low-carbon economy.

“WTO members are national governments, so most of the sessions address national-level collaboration or initiatives. We took it in a different direction,” Peck says.

Panelists included CTLB associate director Fangfei Dong, an expert on international trade policy; Christine Peterson, director of international trade and investment in the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass; and Emily Desai, deputy director, international affairs and trade, California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development.

SUBNATIONAL ADVANTAGES IN POLICY-SETTING Cities and states can be more nimble than nations when implementing sustainable policies, Peck explained in introductory remarks at the session.

“Tensions are obviously increasing in the relationship between Washington and Beijing, but when you get down to the subnational level — for example, the state of California and the Chinese province of Guangdong — there’s more flexibility for collaboration,” he said. A new joint initiative between California and the island province of Hainan to combat climate change illustrates his point.

“Not only can subnational governments play a critical role in helping national governments achieve their greenhouse gas emission targets, but they can also develop and share new technologies and collaborate on utilization of clean tech and clean energy,” Peck noted.

Dong’s presentation focused on the increasing importance of subnational government engagement to advance green trade from a broader global perspective, utilizing specific examples from China. Peterson highlighted Los Angeles’ subnational agreements, including green shipping corridors with Singapore, Shanghai, and the Japanese ports of Tokyo, Yokohama and Nagoya.

Desai described California’s latest sustainable trade deals with Canada and Australia. She also presented a best-practices case study of a groundbreaking watertreatment agreement between California and the Mexican state of Baja California.

Peck hopes to keep the USC-WTO connection going and is already drafting a new panel proposal for the 2024 public forum, with the theme, “Inclusive Trade.”

The WTO includes 164 members representing 98% of all world trade, and operates a global system of rules designed to ensure that trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible. The organization settles trade disputes between member nations while supporting the needs of developing countries.

Fall | Winter 2023 19

faculty focus

BACK TO L.A.

Professor Bernadette Atuahene brings experience with property law, community organizing to USC Gould

By Leslie Ridgeway

Professor Bernadette Atuahene calls coming to USC Gould School of Law “a full-circle L.A. moment.”

Bernadette Atuahene

20 USCLaw magazine

Born, raised and educated in Los Angeles County, Atuahene majored in political science and African-American studies at UCLA, becoming a community organizer in her senior year. After graduation, she took a year off before Yale Law School to continue organizing work at Community Coalition, which was then led by executive director Karen Bass, now Los Angeles’ mayor.

“Karen Bass and the Community Coalition are the reason why I now work at the intersection of law and community organizing.

I owe them all so much,” says Atuahene, a property law scholar whose research focuses on land stolen from people in the African diaspora. She comes to USC Gould from the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Atuahene’s research has taken her across the globe to South Africa, where she studied the issue of reparations for land stolen from Black residents by whites during colonialism and apartheid. She compiled the results of her work in a book, “We Want What’s Ours” (2014, Oxford University Press) featuring interviews with 150 dispossessed individuals and families, and an award-winning short documentary focusing on the struggles of one of the families to regain their land. Her approach for her next project, which won funding from the National Science Foundation, sprang

in part from uneasiness over the research’s view of its Black subjects.

“The work made me uncomfortable in many ways because it looked at Black people as victims,” she says.

Atuahene followed up with an ethnography on squatting.

She chose Detroit, where squatters’ rights were a major issue. From her conversations with squatters as well as data analysis, she identified a more pernicious issue — that between 2009 and 2015, property tax assessments in Detroit had been made at more than 50% of market value, violating the Michigan State Constitution. Consequently, since 2009, one in three properties in Detroit had been foreclosed on, she found. She changed her focus to property tax foreclosure and, with local community groups, formed the Coalition for Property Tax Justice in Detroit to fight for justice.

y USC students are “ Msmart and dedicated.

They are just awesome.”

— BERNADETTE ATUAHENE

“I’m studying Black victimization again, but I can’t see all this injustice and walk away,” she says. “Through the Coalition, we’re working with the ‘Holy Trinity’ — law, research, and community organizing — to slay this dragon [of property tax injustice].”

At USC Gould, Atuahene is teaching the Public Interest Housing Practicum, in which students collaborate with the Coalition on projects that work towards ending racialized property tax inequity in Detroit and throughout the nation.

“My students have just finished the first part of the practicum and will be working with the Coalition for the second part,” Atuahene says. “My USC students are smart and dedicated. They are just awesome.”

LET THERE BE LIGHT BULBS Professor Sara Berman embraces opportunities to help students and improve legal education

By Leslie Ridgeway Sara Berman

It was in law school that Professor Sara Berman first discovered the rewards of teaching and supporting students in pursuing legal careers.

Berman, professor of lawyering skills and director of USC Gould’s Academic Success Program, enrolled in the Street Law course while a student at UCLA Law School, learning about legal education pedagogy and teaching basic contracts, torts, and criminal law to high school students.

“Translating ‘legalese’ into plain English for nonlawyers was an empowering experience; it helped me to better understand my own legal education and to share the importance of law and lawyers in our society,” says Berman. “Teaching gave me hope that those kids would feel a greater sense of ownership and belonging in our democracy and would go on to help make the world a better place.”

Berman brings the same passion to her work with law students, which she has done for decades in other schools prior to joining Gould.

“You see the connections clicking in students’ minds between what they are learning and who they want to be as future lawyers,” she says. “Seeing those bright, shiny light bulbs when students develop new insights and understandings is the most rewarding part of teaching.”

see the connections “ You clicking in students’ minds

between what they are learning and who they want to be as future lawyers.”

— SARA BERMAN

Berman considers herself a catalyst for change in legal education, advocating for thoughtful, deliberate adjustments in areas such as distance learning, professional identity formation and reforming licensing to better align with the legal profession. Berman works closely with leading legal educator Joan Howarth ( JD 1980), author of “Shaping the Bar: The Future of Attorney Licensing” and other scholars as part of the Collaboratory on Legal Education and Professional Licensing, and is committed to student wellbeing, serving on the ABA’s Committee for Mental Health and Wellness in Legal Education. In November, she moderated a panel on mental health in law schools at the AccessLex 2023 Legal Research Symposium.

Berman also writes extensively on student success and for self-represented litigants. She has co-authored books on the criminal and civil justice systems for Nolo.com for nearly three decades and is currently authoring several volumes in a Law School Success series published by West Academic.

As the new director of Gould’s Academic Success Program (working with Associate Director Barrett Schreiner), Berman says, “We inherited a strong program that helps all of our students to thrive here at Gould.” Berman and Schreiner have added inspiring new components to Gould Preview, a pre-orientation program helping incoming students transition to law school. With the assistance of student fellows, they also provide workshops for JD students throughout the year, from 1L skills training sessions to 3L bar exam success sessions.

Berman says her values are reflected in every corner of USC Gould, adding that the school “prioritizes community and belonging alongside excellence in legal education.” On the first day of classes, she found a handwritten note from Interim Dean Franita Tolson. “The 360-degree welcome — from faculty and students alike — has been heartwarming.”

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EYE ON AI

Professor Jonathan Choi looks into impact of artificial intelligence on the law

By Leslie Ridgeway Jonathan Choi

The disruption of artificial intelligence — specifically how it will affect the practice of law — is one of the difficult issues Professor Jonathan Choi wrestles with in his research and scholarship.

Choi, who comes to USC Gould School of Law from the University of Minnesota Law School, specializes in law and artificial intelligence, tax law and statutory interpretation. In the Fall semester, he taught a new course, “AI and the Future of Law,” exploring with students the ways AI can impact the law and how it regulates society.

“My students are curious about how the law will be used to regulate AI, how IP laws will apply to new AI models, and the ethical and professional issues around the use of AI,” he says. “These are big, open questions.”

Choi and co-authors took a step toward some answers this year in a pair of papers forthcoming in the Journal of Legal Education, putting ChatGPT to the actual test by giving it law school exams. He found that AI models are rapidly improving and, in some cases can outperform real students on law school exam questions.

students are hard“ Our working, talented and have a professional mindset ... and the faculty is world-class.”

— JONATHAN CHOI

“ChatGPT struggled with the most classic components of law school exams, such as spotting potential legal issues and deep analysis applying legal rules to the facts of a case,” Choi told CNN, one of several news outlets to cover the research. “But ChatGPT could be very helpful at producing a first draft that a student could then refine.”

22 USCLaw magazine

Choi’s current research includes evaluating the use of large language models on traditional empirical legal scholarship, demonstrating how to use ChatGPT to analyze legal documents, and identifying best practices for the use of large language models in research. Another study examines the subjective costs of tax compliance, which surveyed taxpayers to probe what aspects of tax compliance ordinary people find most burdensome.

“By conducting surveys, we can understand consumer preferences around tax filing and hopefully understand what tax simplification reforms are most pressing,” Choi says.

As a teacher, Choi takes a cue from one of his favorite professors, Anne Alstott, the renowned Yale Law School tax and tax policy expert, who he says excels in reading the room to bring up the energy or explore a new topic of interest.

“Anne had the ability to gauge students’ understanding of difficult topics and adjust her teaching style accordingly.

I hope to bring the same sensitivity and understanding of students’ needs to my own teaching,” he says.

At USC Gould, Choi says he’s excited to be in the midst of a “great intellectual community.”

“Our students are hard-working, talented and have a professional mindset,” he says. “And the faculty is world-class.”

MENTOR INSPIRATION

Professor Jessica Clarke motivated by clerkships, writing and research

By Leslie Ridgeway

Clerkships — especially the judges she worked for — helped Professor Jessica Clarke define the vision of her career.

Jessica Clarke

see my role as giving them “ I[my students] the skills they need to find solutions to their clients’ problems.”

At Yale Law School, she enjoyed writing law review articles, and one she wrote as a student was published. But big law seemed like the best direction after graduation and completing a — JESSICA CLARKE clerkship with Judge Shira Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New “They made it in the legal profession at a time York. Judge Scheindlin, noted for keeping in touch with past when most women were secretaries, not lawyers,” clerks, checked in to see how things were going. she says.

“They got no breaks and had to be twice as “She could tell I wasn’t happy as a law firm lawyer,” says smart. It was inspiring to see them both as bosses.”

Clarke, who comes to USC Gould School of Law from Clarke is now at work on an article scheduled to Vanderbilt Law School. “I sheepishly said I wanted to be a be published this year in the Virginia Law Review professor and write law review articles. She didn’t put [that about how lower courts have interpreted the Supreme idea] down. She told me I Court’s 2020 decision Bostock v. Clayton County, needed to clerk for a circuit prohibiting discrimination against gay, lesbian and court judge. She had high transgender employees. Many civil rights scholars standards for law clerks, have criticized Bostock’s reasoning because it is and getting that vote of highly formalistic. Clarke’s article asks whether confidence from her meant Bostock’s reasoning could nonetheless lead to favorable a lot.” outcomes in novel civil rights controversies.

Judge Scheindlin served As a teacher, Clarke considers herself a coach, a as a reference when Clarke view she refined as a coach at debate camps for high applied to clerk for Judge school students.

Rosemary Pooler of the “I like the Socratic method, but I also ask the U.S. Court of Appeals students to work on hypothetical problems in teams, for the Second Circuit, which is more like what lawyers do,” she says. “I see another important mentor. my role as giving them the skills they need to find As a circuit court law clerk, solutions to their clients’ problems.”

Clarke could get more of She’s impressed with the USC network and feeling an academic experience of community at Gould, plus the fact that so many by writing opinions students and faculty are interested in the same topics and doing research. she studies.

That led to a teaching “I like that Gould has a diverse faculty and fellowship and her career students who are interested in discrimination, and in scholarship, exploring the wealth of colleagues I can talk with about my antidiscrimination, sex, research who were already generous readers of my gender and sexuality. And, a work,” she says. “It made a lot of sense for me to lifelong appreciation for the join Gould.” path her mentors cleared.

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TURNING THE PAGE

Led to practice law by legal legends and popular author, Professor Aya Gruber finds career fulfillment in academia

By Leslie Ridgeway

Professor Aya Gruber’s influences include legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow, Supreme Court Justices Louis Brandeis and William J. Brennan, legal giant Charles Ogletree, critical legal studies movement founder Duncan Kennedy, and feminist/queer legal scholar Janet Halley. And then there’s Stephen King.

Aya Gruber

24 USCLaw magazine

Yes, that Stephen King, author of horror classics including “The Shining,” “The Stand” and “Pet Sematary.”

Gruber, whose scholarship focuses on criminal law and procedure, violence against women and critical theory, credits King’s literary techniques for helping her to understand and accept human nature.

“I love the way he draws in readers and presents characters that are conflicted and complicated. In the law — especially criminal law — we often hear black and white narratives,” says Gruber. “But people’s stories are always more complex. We have to live with that uncertainty.”

Gruber comes to USC Gould from the University of Colorado and in her first semester at Gould, is teaching criminal procedure. Other topics include criminal law and a seminar on race, gender and criminal law.

After graduating from Harvard Law School magna cum laude, Gruber worked in Washington, D.C. and Miami, Florida as a public defender. She gravitated toward academia after mentoring a student law clerk, and hoped that through writing and teaching she could help tackle the problems of the overbroad and racially biased American carceral system. She welcomed the opportunity to conduct research that would change policy — and minds.

Her work covers subjects that provoke strong opinions and emotions, including how the law treats sex crimes, why policing is a poor solution to social ills such as homelessness, and feminism’s relationship to mass incarceration — a subject she explored in her first monograph, “The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women’s Liberation in Mass Incarceration” (2020, UC Press). She’s working on a book tracing the origins and development of sex-crime laws in the United States.

“Everyone wants sexual abuse to be regulated, but at the same time, history reveals that concepts of who is a sexual transgressor, deviant and groomer has underwritten extreme political discrimination against sexual minorities and other oppressed groups,” she says. “The book traces how societal preoccupation with sex has shaped criminal law and contributed to the current state of American mass incarceration. Sex is a topic that makes many people uncomfortable, but somebody needs to talk about it.”

For Gruber, her arrival at USC is a kind of homecoming.

During World War II, the government forcibly removed her family from their California home and incarcerated them in a military detention camp for Japanese Americans.

After release, they settled in the Los Angeles suburb of Lincoln Heights, and two of her aunts and her uncle eventually graduated from USC. “The faculty at the law school is second to none — I’m impressed by my new colleagues and humbled to be part of this faculty,” she says. “And I’m over the moon to be teaching students that are so bright, diverse and interesting.

I’m grateful for that.”

COVERING COMPETITION Scholar-in-Residence Doug Melamed looks forward to opportunity to explore antitrust law topics

By Leslie Ridgeway Doug Melamed

As a scholar-in-residence at USC Gould School of Law, Doug Melamed will continue to explore his interests in competition law and antitrust and serve as a resource for faculty and students.

Melamed is known for his role as senior vice president and general counsel of Intel Corp. from 2009-2014.

His resume also includes chairing the Antitrust and Competition Practice Group at WilmerHale and serving in the U.S. Department of Justice as acting assistant attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division. He comes to USC Gould after having been Professor of the Practice of Law at Stanford Law School for eight years.

As the author of many widely-cited articles on antitrust law, patent law and law and economics, Melamed looks forward to tackling trending competition issues, including when actions by large digital firms like Google and Meta negatively affect competition.

“What has interested me most in antitrust over last 20 years is dominant firm behavior and what the rules are — when does a big firm cross the line?” he says. “Big firms should be able to compete aggressively as long as they compete on the merits, but they cross a line when they engage in conduct that harms competition and does not provide offsetting benefits. Buried in that general principle are a number of doctrinal problems that have not been resolved, and one of those problems may be addressed by the current Google case.”

hat has interested me most “ W in antitrust over last 20 years

is dominant firm behavior and what the rules are — when does a big firm cross the line?”

— DOUG MELAMED

Melamed counts among his influences Judge Guido Calabresi, senior circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and former dean of Yale Law School.

Calabresi was a visiting professor at Harvard University

when Melamed was a law student. They collaborated on “Property Rules, Liability Rules and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral,” published in the Harvard Law Review in 1972. The article remains one of the most widely-cited law review articles of all time.

“Guido was one of the early founders of the law and economics tradition. He not only influenced my way of thinking but inspired me to consider an academic career, although I didn’t pursue that until very late in my career,” he says.

Melamed is currently at work on two papers with co-authors that will be published in the coming months, one a survey of antitrust and innovation over the past 130 years, the other a proposal on permitting workers to bargain collectively in some circumstances without working through a traditional labor union, in theory giving workers more bargaining power without the formality imposed by unions.

Coming to USC Gould provides an opportunity for Melamed to work more closely with business law scholars he admires, including Professor D. Daniel Sokol, Professor Erik Hovenkamp and Professor Jonathan Barnett. It was Sokol who first encouraged Melamed to join the USC Gould Law School faculty.

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THE POWER OF HANDS-ON LEARNING Clinical Professor Michael Parente (JD 2012) returns to PCJP to motivate young lawyers

By Leslie Ridgeway Michael Parente

While studying for a PhD in economics, and later teaching economics, Professor Michael Parente (JD 2012) became interested in the power of hands-on learning and relationships between institutions and human behavior. That led him to law school, the USC Post-Conviction Justice Project, and a career as a federal public defender.

This year, those interests have aligned in his new position — co-director of PCJP. As a teacher, Parente taught abstract economic concepts through classroom experiments showing how individual choices form prices, and how institutional rules affect those choices. Studying institutions, he was inspired by the role of the criminal defense attorney in the legal profession.

was always kind of on my “ Itmind as a dream job — the

chance to blend practice with teaching.”

— MICHAEL PARENTE

“I admire their role in protecting the rights of indigent defendants, people without resources and marginalized people,” says Parente, who for 10 years served as a deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles. “When we protect those people, we are protecting all our rights.”

Parente’s enthusiasm for post-conviction work was stoked by former PCJP Co-Director Michael Brennan and PCJP’s current Co-Director Heidi Rummel, who both contributed

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to his growth as a lawyer via the PCJP mission — giving students responsibility over every aspect of working a case, from client meetings to appearing in court.

“I vividly remember sitting next to Mike Brennan and Heidi Rummel during parole hearings for clients and having the sense I was the lawyer on the case,” he says. “I want PCJP students to have that experience where they feel — because they are — the lawyer in that hearing. I don’t want them to feel they are assisting us.”

Parente also looks forward to the policy side of PCJP, working with students on advocacy and legislation to change laws to ensure equity and fairness in the sentencing and parole process. When Parente was at PCJP, the clinic was instrumental in passage of California Assembly Bill 593, expanding habeas relief for people with a history of intimate partner violence related to their crime, and AB 1593, requiring the parole board to consider the history of intimate partner violence when deciding whether to grant parole. “PCJP’s mantra is, if we can’t get relief from the law, we have to change the law,” he says.

When the opportunity to return to PCJP as a clinical professor presented itself, Parente jumped to take it. “It was always kind of on my mind as a dream job — the chance to blend practice with teaching.”

As word got out in the alumni community about Parente’s appointment, classmates reached out to congratulate him and reminisce over their time in the Project — a reminder of the profound effect of clinical education, and the shared camaraderie of the more than 700 students who have passed through PCJP in its 40year existence.

“It’s a shared experience across generations, and that’s what makes Gould special,” he says.

STUDENTS FIRST

Professor Barrett Schreiner leverages personal experience and learning science to help law students succeed

By Leslie Ridgeway Barrett Schreiner

Professor Barrett Schreiner’s approach to legal education is inspired by his own memories as a law student.

“I vividly recall my own days in law school,” says Schreiner, first in his family to enroll in law school. “It was really destabilizing at a deep level, and I was full of anxiety, a sense of inferiority and felt that I didn’t belong. My hope is that no Gould student will have that experience, and I want to do what I can to build students up on the academic side so they develop confidence and a sense of belonging.”

noticed on my first day here “ Ithat it [at USC Gould] feels like a real community.”

— BARRETT SCHREINER

Schreiner, associate professor of lawyering skills and associate director of Gould’s Academic Success program, comes to USC from Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, where he was an assistant professor of law and practice

and director of Academic Mastery. After graduating from UCLA School of Law, he took a job at a big law firm in Downtown L.A. Seven years later, he opened a small practice, and as that was taking shape, began teaching as an adjunct at Pepperdine. That’s when the appeal of teaching and advocating for students took hold, inspired in part by one of his mentors at UCLA, Professor Jack Beard.

“He was a fierce advocate for students and their wellbeing, and challenged law school orthodoxy,” Schreiner says. “I learned to push back on law school orthodoxy in my own way. Traditional law school pedagogy is not a great match for all students, and a lot of my work is about equity in legal education … giving students the access, opportunities and support they need to thrive academically and otherwise. It’s about creating a level playing field.”

With Director Sara Berman, Schreiner is picking up the Academic Success program where former Director Sue Wright left off, using his passion for student achievement as a guide. Schreiner team-teaches Legal Analysis of Evidence for 2Ls with Berman, helping students refine their analysis and writing skills, and also will team-teach the 1L course Topics in Legal Analysis with Berman. He also meets with students for advising — a big part of his role at Gould.

Schreiner is especially concerned with helping students understand the science of learning so they can become better learners. He also works with them on overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic’s disruption of learning, as well as fractured attention spans rooted in distractions such as digital devices, the internet and multitasking.

Schreiner is excited that Gould’s focus lines up with his own student-centered goals, which was obvious from the get-go.

“I noticed on my first day here that it feels like a real community, and I’m very impressed by the sense of collegiality I’ve experienced in my interactions with students, staff, faculty and administrators,” he says. “What I’m doing at Gould is an extension of what I was doing before, and I appreciate that all of the law school is behind that mission.”

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BEYOND THE BREAD AND BUTTER ISSUES Professor Adam Zimmerman sees mass torts law as doorway to learning

By Leslie Ridgeway Adam Zimmerman

Professor Adam Zimmerman enrolled in law school to pursue a career in public interest law.

Like so many law students, his focus changed, but those goals remained the same. His journey inspires him in his teaching and scholarship.

Zimmerman, who comes to USC Gould from Loyola Law School, teaches Tort Law, Civil Procedure, Administrative Law and Mass Tort Law. When he entered law school, his goal was to do civil rights work with nonprofits, school districts and neighborhood councils to accomplish broader institutional reforms. Things changed, however, when he clerked after law school for Judge Jack B. Weinstein, a legendary jurist and procedural scholar known for his work in the Brown v. Board litigation and who is often known as the “founding father” of mass tort litigation.

Zimmerman realized how his own goals intersected with the way Judge Weinstein approached large tort cases impacting people across the country.

t’s important in a world of “ Ichanging norms ... that we

have a deeper understanding of what motivates the law and makes the law change.”

— ADAM ZIMMERMAN

“Judge Weinstein’s view was that mass tort cases — which today range from opioids cases and climate change litigation to cases involving social media addiction — were as much a form of public interest litigation as foundational civil rights cases to desegregate our schools in the 1950s

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and 1960s. And so, he thought the procedural tools to respond to them should be the same,” Zimmerman says.

“Mass torts sits at the boundary line of many different areas of law and requires creative approaches. A lot of policy and our society is defined by it, so it deserves the scholarly attention the bread and butter courses in law school, from contracts to constitutional law, often receive.”

Zimmerman’s work experience includes serving as appointed counsel to Kenneth Feinberg, then the special master to the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and litigating a wide variety of mass torts in private practice. The work fed Zimmerman’s scholarly interest in developing tools to compensate victims as well as how society views remedies to victims.

Zimmerman prepared himself for an eventual career in academia by teaching for three years as a lawyering fellow at NYU School of Law. There, he realized that litigation and negotiation were hands-on opportunities to take a deeper view of the law and the philosophy behind it.

His innovative teaching approach has garnered national recognition and awards.

His scholarship includes a forthcoming paper in the Yale Law Journal, titled “Ghostwriting Federalism,” that looks into joint areas of policy and law between federal agencies and state legislatures.

Zimmerman is excited to be on the same faculty as Professor Greg Keating — “an institution at USC and in the world of torts” — and relishes Gould’s priority on interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

“It’s important in a world of changing norms and laws that we have a deeper understanding of what motivates the law and makes the law change — including philosophy, economics, political science, sociology and history,” he says. “That is something USC uniquely brings to bear in its scholarship.”

Leveling the selling field Professor Jordan Barry co-authors study demonstrating antitrust issue in real estate

By USC Law Magazine staff Professor Jordan Barry’s co-authored study has direct implications for two multibillion dollar federal lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors and two brokerages.

A new empirical study co-authored

by Professor Jordan Barry presents the first systematic, nationwide evidence that buyer’s agents regularly steer clients away from properties that offer lower buyer’s agent commissions.

The paper, “Et Tu, Agent? Commission-Based Steering in Residential Real Estate,” was co-authored by Professor John Hatfield at the University of Texas at Austin and Will Fried, senior data scientist at True Footage and former data scientist at REX Real Estate. Barry and the coauthors plan to publish the article in 2024.

The study has direct implications for two multibilliondollar federal lawsuits against the National Association of Realtors and two of the largest national brokerage firms. On Oct. 31, the jury in the first of these lawsuits found NAR and brokerages liable for about $1.8 billion in damages for conspiring to keep commission prices artificially high. NAR will appeal the verdict.

The study was covered in articles in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and real estate news outlets including Inman and HousingWire.

“Since the 1970s, regulators and policymakers have been concerned that commission-based steering keeps real estate commissions high, but they have lacked hard data,” says Barry. “Our paper provides that data.

It’s the first paper to provide systematic, nationwide evidence that buyer’s agents steer clients away from low-commission listings. We hope that our findings will help empower regulators to act. Reforms here could save U.S. consumers tens of billions of dollars per year.”

The study includes an analysis of user activity on the brokerage website Redfin. All else being equal, listings that offer commissions below the going rate in a given market tend to receive less traffic than listings that offer at least a going-rate commission.

This decline in traffic becomes more severe the lower the commission, suggesting that buyer’s agents frequently skip over low-commission homes in favor of high-commission homes when choosing which listings to forward to their clients.

The researchers linked this behavior with real-world consequences. Compared to listings that offer going-rate commissions, homes that offer the lowest commissions take 33% more time to sell. “And that assumes that these homes sell at all,” Hatfield says. “In a typical market, such properties are 75% more likely to remain unsold.”

“In a lot of ways, the people who are hurt most by this are sellers who offer going-rate commissions because they are worried about steering,” Barry says. “For most homeowners, their house is by far their largest asset. Giving up 6% of the sale price in commissions is a real burden.”

The study covered more than 30 major U.S. real estate markets, including Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange County, Chicago and Houston.

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Right place, right job Professor Emerita Sue Wright (JD 1987) looks back on rewarding career helping students in Academic Success program

By Leslie Ridgeway

Not many people get to work for their alma mater, but Sue Wright, professor emerita of lawyering skills, counts herself among the proud and lucky few.

“I am a rah-rah SC person,” says Wright ( JD 1987), who retired from USC Gould School of Law after 11 years of teaching in the Academic Success program. “It’s been fun to attend events on campus and to be around the students.

I feel like I was in the right place and found the right job.”

Wright became a full-time lawyering skills professor at Gould in 2012 after a decade as a lecturer, teaching Pretrial Advocacy and 1L Legal Writing and Advocacy.

But her USC association goes back all the way to when she enrolled in the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. She eagerly took part in one campus activity in particular — the renowned USC Trojan Marching Band, where she played the clarinet.

“I had been in a not-very-good 30-piece high school band, so it was exciting to join the TMB, which is so well-known, and be an ambassador for the university,” says Wright. “And like many college activities, you make friends for life, and that’s also where I met my husband [Craig Steele, JD 1992, who played trombone].”

An avid sports fan, Wright enjoyed playing at football games and men’s and women’s basketball games. She also marched in the Rose Parade, once traveled with the football team to Japan and played in the opening ceremonies for the 1984 Olympics at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

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When Wright and Steele saw their daughter Kelly — also a USC and TMB alum — play at the famed Hollywood Bowl, which they had also done several times, the full experience hit home.

“In school we probably took for granted some of the amazing gigs, so it was wonderful to see Kelly perform on a big stage and realize how lucky we were,” she says.

After graduating magna cum laude from Annenberg, Wright enrolled in USC Gould “because I didn’t know what else to do,” she says with a laugh. At her first job out of law school, working in litigation at Latham and Watkins, she realized the appeal of researching and writing. She later worked in-house for Atlantic Richfield and then part-time at a boutique firm in Pasadena while raising three children.

When one of her husband’s partners suggested she take over the Pretrial Advocacy course he had been teaching as a lecturer, she found she loved it and stayed for five years.

After teaching in the 1L writing program as an adjunct with Jean Rosenbluth, now federal magistrate judge of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Wright accepted a full-time position in the Academic Success program, co-teaching with Professor Cap Coleman and Professor Emeritus Rob Saltzman.

“When I worked with Rob and Cap, we would recap every class, which taught me a lot,” she says. “They are both amazing, talented and caring people. Working with them was like taking a master class in teaching.”

The USC Trojan Marching Band helped Sue Wright celebrate her retirement.

After her own experience practicing law, Wright understands how important writing skills are to communicating in the right tone to a variety of audiences in myriad documents.

“New law students may not understand this, given that lawyers in the movies are shown standing up in court and having important meetings, but in reality, lawyers spend a lot of time putting words on paper,” she says. “And it’s hard to get good at [writing]. I tell my advanced writing students ‘You will work on this for your whole career.’”

Wright considers developing the Gould Preview pre-orientation program with Professor Laura Riley ( JD 2010) three years ago to be her most memorable Gould experience. She’s proud that the program is fulfilling its goals to introduce incoming students to law school fundamentals while also building a community with their classmates. Developing the program also introduced her to more of her Gould colleagues.

“I worked with so many more people at Gould than I had before,” she says. “Events, communications, admissions and more were very involved. Gould Preview was a real community effort.”

For now, “retirement” still means teaching for Wright, at the San Luis Obispo campus of the Monterey College of Law and at Gould, driving down with Steele several weeks in the semester to teach Advanced Legal Writing on Fridays and take in USC football games on Saturdays.

For Wright, nothing beats seeing students growing and developing in law school.

“In Academic Success, some students take a little longer to figure out law school than some of their classmates and it’s so rewarding when those light bulbs go on,” she says. “They don’t always know they can do it — but you know they can.”

am a rah-rah SC person. It’s been fun to “ Iattend events on campus and to be around the students. I feel like I was in the right place and found the right job.”— Sue Wright

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“A true Rena Professor David Slawson remembered for influential research, wide-ranging curiosity, generosity

By Leslie Ridgeway Professor David Slawson

The USC Gould School of Law community mourns the passing of esteemed Professor W. David Slawson, Torrey H. Webb Professor Emeritus of Law, on July 18. Slawson was an important and influential member of the law school faculty for nearly four decades, interrupting his teaching only once, to serve as general counsel of the Price Commission in the Federal Economic Stabilization Program in 1971. That is just one example of Slawson’s far-reaching impact on the world around him.

Slawson’s broad curiosity about the world was reflected in his career at the law school. Though ostensibly an expert in contract law, his fellow faculty remember his willingness to teach a variety of courses, including antitrust, administrative law, agency and insurance. His students and colleagues certainly benefited from the care and insightfulness he brought to his teaching and scholarship.

“He is a true Renaissance man,” said then-Dean Scott Bice — one of Slawson’s former students — in the 2005 issue of USC Law Magazine. “Few faculty have taught as wide a range of classes, and Dave’s willingness to do so was a testament to his dedication to our students’ needs.”

Over the course of his remarkable career, Slawson was a guiding force in historical events, including serving on the Warren Commission, charged with investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; working as attorney-advisor with the U.S. Department of Justice for two years where he helped write the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and advising renowned labor activist Cesar Chavez about the legality of the grape boycott under antitrust laws.

After graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, Slawson earned a master’s degree in theoretical physics at Princeton University, where he was also a National Science Foundation fellow. It was there he realized that physics, for him, was too limiting. As he told

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USC Law Magazine, “Not until I got to grad school did I realize that in studying physics, my most likely fate was to work on very complicated mathematical problems, such as the make-up of distant stars. It seemed very isolating and not the kind of life I wanted. But I didn’t know what else to do.”

So, he joined the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956, and during this period, visited a friend in law school while on a leave and sat in on some classes. He later watched a university moot court competition, chatted with the law school librarian, and something clicked. Upon his discharge, he entered Harvard Law School on the G.I. Bill and earned his LLB in 1959.

He was working at a private firm in Denver when he was tapped for the Warren Commission. That experience

issance man” Professor David Slawson speaking in 2013 as part of an American History C-SPAN panel on the Warren Commission.

pointed him toward teaching. “I thought that being a law professor would give me the freedom to explore a variety of subjects,” Slawson commented.

Slawson will always be associated with thoughtful change and transformative action. He came to USC in 1967, arriving around the same time as Martin Levine, George Lefcoe and Christopher Stone, part of an academic

“His article ‘Standard Form Contracts and Democratic Control of Lawmaking Power,’ published in the Harvard Law Review in 1971, remains one of the most important articles on contracts of adhesion,” says Professor Greg Keating. “It’s a landmark on the subject.”

Slawson spent his retirement, characteristically, exploring his interests that included research and

e is a true Renaissance man. Few faculty have taught as “ H wide a range of classes, and Dave’s willingness to do so was a testament to his dedication to our students’ needs.”

— Former Dean Scott Bice

movement to revolutionize law education with a greater focus on multidisciplinary teaching. His scholarship in contract law is widely cited by fellow legal scholars, including his co-founding (with Professor Robert F. Keaton) of the contracts doctrine of legal expectations.

He is also remembered for his noted books, Binding Promises: The Late 20th Century Reformation of Contract Law, and The New Inflation: The Collapse of Free Markets.

writing. He will be remembered for his generosity and reflectiveness with his fellow faculty.

“Dave embodied a rare combination of wisdom and warmth,” says Professor Dan Simon. “He was a perfect mentor — thoughtful, sharp, generous, unassuming and kind. I will always cherish the stabilizing and soothing effect that he had on the faculty. It is an honor to have been his colleague.”

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SCholarship Research A selection of recent scholarly work and honors of USC Gould faculty SELECT RECENT PUBLICATIONS SCOTT ALTMAN “Are Parents Fiduciaries?”

Law and Philosophy (2023) BERNADETTE ATUAHENE “A Theory of Stategraft” New York University Law Review (2023) JONATHAN BARNETT “Killer Acquisitions Reexamined: Economic Hyperbole in the Age of Populist Antitrust” University of Chicago Business Law Review (Forthcoming) JORDAN BARRY and D. DANIEL SOKOL “Data Valuation and Law” Southern California Law Review (Forthcoming) JONATHAN H. CHOI (with ARIEL JUROW KLEIMAN) “Subjective Costs of Tax Compliance” Minnesota Law Review (Forthcoming)

MUGAMBI JOUET “Humanity, Race, and Indigeneity in Criminal Sentencing: Social Change in America, Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand” New York University Review of Law & Social Change (Forthcoming) THOMAS D. LYON “Child Maltreatment, the Law, and Two Types of Error” Child Maltreatment Journal (2023) JOHN MATSUSAKA “Is Direct Democracy Good or Bad for Corporations and Unions?”

The Journal of Law and Economics (2023) EDWARD MCCAFFERY (with DARRYLL K. JONES) “The Curiouser and Curiouser Case of Carried Interest” Arizona Law Review (Forthcoming)

JESSICA CLARKE “Sex Discrimination Formalism” Virginia Law Review (Forthcoming)

A. DOUGLAS MELAMED (with STEVEN C. SALOP) “An Antitrust Exemption for Workers: And Why Worker Bargaining Power Benefits Consumers, Too” Antitrust Law Journal, ABA (Forthcoming)

ROBIN CRAIG “Tribal Water Rights and Tribal Health: The Klamath Tribes and the Navajo Nation During the COVID-19 Pandemic” St. Louis University Journal of Health Law and Policy (2023)

MARCELA PRIETO “War and Coercion” Southern California Law Review (Forthcoming)

LEE EPSTEIN (with PABLO DAS and MITU GULATI) “Deep in the Shadows?: The Facts About the Emergency Docket” Virginia Law Review (2023) AYA GRUBER “Sex Exceptionalism in Criminal Law” Stanford Law Review (2023) ERIK HOVENKAMP “Restraints on Platform Differentiation” Yale Journal of Law & Technology (2023) FELIPE JIMÉNEZ “Private Law Legalism” University of Toronto Law Journal (Forthcoming)

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D. DANIEL SOKOL (with JONATHAN REMY NASH) “The Summary Judgment Revolution That Wasn’t” William & Mary Law Review (Forthcoming) ADAM ZIMMERMAN (with DAVID L. NOLL) “Diversity and Complexity in MDL Leadership: A Status Report from Case Management Orders” Texas Law Review (2023)

To view the full list of articles, awards and presentations, visit: gould.usc.edu/faculty/ scholarship/

SCOTT ALTMAN WINS BEST ESSAY AWARD FROM JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY

AWARDS & NOTES

Professor Scott Altman’s article “Selling Silence: The Morality of Sexual Harassment NDAs” this past April was honored with the Journal of Applied Philosophy’s Best Essay Prize. The article, in which Altman argues against sexual harassment nondisclosure agreements, was published in the Journal of Applied Philosophy in May 2022.

In the article, Altman notes that the #MeToo movement and reliance on NDAs by Harvey Weinstein inspired some states to make NDAs legally unenforceable, a position Altman supports.

The article challenges three justifications for NDAs — that without them, victims will be denied compensation for abuse; that accused perpetrators may be subjected to excessive boycotts, shaming or shunning; and that singling out victims who sign NDAs is unfair since victims are permitted to remain silent for other reasons. In Altman’s view, NDAs are wrong because they help perpetrators to evade responsibility, facilitate future wrongdoing, and make victims and the state complicit in those wrongs.

INTERIM DEAN FRANITA TOLSON wrote an expert report explaining how Texas Senate Bill 1 “operates like prior voting restrictions and practices in the state that have minimized the political power of minority communities.”

Tolson delivered expert testimony at the S.B. 1 federal trial on Oct. 4 at a district court in San Antonio.

—Leslie Ridgeway

PROFESSOR ELYN SAKS received the Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) 2023 President’s Award.

MARCELA PRIETO WINS NEW AUTHORS BOOK HONOR

PROFESSOR BERNADETTE ATUAHENE was a keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Law Review Annual Symposium in November, which focused on national and international cases of stategraft.

PROFESSOR ERIK HOVENKAMP won the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award for Antitrust Scholarship in recognition of his paper, “The Antitrust Duty to Deal in the Age of Big Tech,” in Yale Law Journal (2022). PROFESSOR D. DANIEL SOKOL won Best Antitrust Article of 2022 in the Common Ownership category, for “Debt, Control, and Collusion,” Emory Law Journal (2022).

PROFESSOR JEAN REISZ was selected for a three-year term as a Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference Lawyer Representative, which acts as a liaison to judges in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and is involved in the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference.

PROFESSOR FELIPE JIMÉNEZ’s article, “Tradition in Constitutional Adjudication,” was selected as an honorable mention in the 2024 Scholarly Papers Competition by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).

Professor Marcela Prieto’s first book, “The Morality of the Laws of War: War, Law, and Murder” (Oxford University Press), has been named the winner of the 2023 American Branch International Law Association (ABILA) New Authors Book Award. Just completed this year, Prieto’s book explores her scholarly interests in international law, international armed conflict and moral philosophy.

Each year, the ABILA gives the New Authors Book Award to the best first book published on international law by an author who has not previously published a book on international law or any other subject.

Prieto’s book is an expansion of ideas developed in her JSD dissertation at New York University, “The Laws of War: The Fragility in Regulating Killing,” which won the 2021 NYU University-Wide Outstanding Dissertation Award in Social Sciences.

— Heidi Ried-Gonzaga

PROFESSOR ADAM ZIMMERMAN ELECTED TO AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE Professor Adam Zimmerman was elected in July to the American Law Institute, bringing the number of current USC Gould professors among the ALI membership to 15.

Zimmerman, who teaches Tort Law, Civil Procedure, Administrative Law and Mass Tort Law, is eager to join ALI’s work on civil adjudication reform, an area where he sees the greatest amount of court innovation — from novel efforts to address housing issues before they reach courts, to growing experiments with artificial intelligence and remote proceedings over Zoom.

— Heidi Ried-Gonzaga

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faculty focus

Learning from Legal Systems Professor Dan Klerman awarded Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to conduct research in Israel

By Leslie Ridgeway Dan Klerman

As the 2023-24 academic year gets underway, Dan Klerman, Edward G. Lewis Professor of Law and History at USC Gould School of Law, will conduct research at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel thanks to a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant award.

Klerman, who was a Fulbright Fellow as a law student at the University of Chicago, chose Hebrew University to gain insights and study data from scholars there who are researching the Israeli legal system on issues including settlement rates and immigration integration policies.

“ Israel is fascinating for researching immigration, as it is primarily immigrants who arrived from other countries in the past century.”

— Dan Klerman

“Israel has a hybrid legal system that borrows elements from different parts of the world,” he says. “I want to note which aspects of these different legal systems lead to lower settlement rates. I have written several papers on settlement in U.S. and other parts of world.”

Immigration is a new area of research for Klerman.

While at Hebrew University, he plans to compare Israeli

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immigration policies to U.S. immigration policies in hopes of determining ideal ways to integrate refugees into the population.

“Israel is fascinating for researching immigration, as it is primarily immigrants who arrived from other countries in the past century,” he said. “I want to see what policies there might reduce resentment from people already in the country.”

The Fulbright Senior Scholar award provides an important in-person opportunity to establish collaborations with Hebrew University academicians over four months, Klerman said.

“I’ve done cross-border collaboration on Zoom and written papers with people in the Far East and Europe that way, but with the nature of research, it’s important to be in a particular place to talk to people, and face-toface is often the best way to generate ideas,” he said.

Klerman is the second USC Gould faculty member to win a grant from the Fulbright Foundation. Former Professor Hannah Garry, founding director of the International Human Rights Clinic, was awarded a grant in 2021 to study enforcement of international refugee law at the University of Oslo Law in Norway.

Klerman’s research has been interrupted by the conflict in the region, but he hopes to return to Israel in March 2024.

The Fulbright Scholar program is highly competitive, with an acceptance rate of under 20%.

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ENTERPRISING ENTREPRENEURS

Four USC Gould alumni use their law degrees to propel their ambitions in business

Lawrence Cisneros (JD 2014)

Alvin Salehi (JD 2013)

Wendy Shu (JD 2012)

LAWRENCE CISNEROS (JD 2014) Drnxmyth As Lawrence Cisneros (JD 2014) tells it, Drnxmyth — the world’s first fresh-bottled cocktail — was a challenging and perhaps unlikely entrepreneurial venture. Luckily, he had a USC Gould education backing him up.

“I started a capital-intensive, intellectual property-heavy business in a highly regulated industry during a recession when I was 26 with no industry experience and no money,” he says. “So yeah, the degree was one of the only things I had going for me.

“In particular, having investors trust you with their cash at such a young age would likely have not been possible,” he says. Plus, his courses helped him navigate everything from patents and trademarks to alcohol regulatory law and venture capital financing; while professors like Michael Roster, Ron Goldie and Michael Chasalow have advised and mentored him throughout the process. “My VC law professor, Chris Schoff, ended up representing the VC firm that was our first VC investment. He invited me back to class one day, and we did a mock shark tank for the class, which was a blast.”

Tony Thai (JD 2014)

Cisneros’ initial interest was in criminal law and becoming a public defender, as a way to help the Latino community. “Over time I thought trying to figure out how to make a lot of money and give it back would be more impactful.”

While in school, he started a few unsuccessful ventures, and then landed on the idea for Drnxmyth, which he developed in 2013 with Brandon Schwartz, who earned his BS from the USC Marshall School of Business. Challenges included inventing new packaging — “a patented bottle technology that separates spirits from cold pressed juices inside a two-chamber bottle, so the consumer rotates the bottom chamber to freshly mix a cocktail.”

Then, finding a new supply chain. “No distillery or alcohol manufacturer in the U.S. had the ability or regulatory license to handle fresh juices.”

Since fresh juice goes bad quickly, they use a pressure-technology to stabilize the cocktails for up to eight months without heat pasteurization or preservatives. “It’s a technology widely used throughout the world, but with its first application in the alcohol industry in our company.” Finally, they had to convince early investors they could pull all this off without a product in hand.

“A lot of ‘firsts’ but all were necessary to create what we initially thought was a simple but powerful idea — and something people in the industry only dreamt of and believed was impossible. They just didn’t have the fortitude to fight on,” Cisneros says.

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usc law family Cisneros was invited in 2022 to speak on a panel on different paths in law. There, Cisneros met Lori Lilly ( JD 1995), senior VP of legal at Live Nation, and gave her some samples. “I asked her if she could make some introductions to LiveNation people, and she did without hesitation,” he says. “Long story short, we’re going to supply cocktails, in a string of concerts over the next year, starting at Skyline, a 20K-person concert produced by Insomniac at Expo Park.

Who knows what’s next?”

— Julie Riggott

ALVIN SALEHI (JD 2013) Shef

Alvin Salehi (JD 2013) and Joey Grassia started Shef, an online marketplace for homemade food, to help immigrants (like their parents from Iran and Italy) earn a living selling home cooking in their local communities. The “she” in Shef is a tribute to the founders’ moms. “[My parents] opened a restaurant, but the operational costs were so high that they eventually had to close,” says Salehi. “There are thousands of stories just like these, underscoring just how difficult it can be for so many families to make ends meet in the U.S. — a plight that is oftentimes compounded by antiquated laws.”

Up until recently, it was illegal in many states to cook and sell food from home. So, in addition to building his entrepreneurial venture, Salehi had to get the law changed.

His USC Gould degree came in doubly handy. Salehi says they have worked with lawmakers across the country to help introduce safe and well-informed home-cooking legislation.

“As of a few months ago, every state in the country now has a law on the books that allows for the sale of various homemade foods,” Salehi says.

“Building a company is hard enough as it is, but adding legislative reform on top of that can feel like a herculean task in the absence of a strong legal education and rigorous training,” Salehi adds. “Whether it was learning how to incorporate a business, draft an ironclad contract, or present an oral argument in front of a three-judge panel, Gould gave me the foundation I needed to take bold bets and pursue an ambitious set of goals with confidence.”

He also credits Gould Senior Director of Development Chloe Reid, his “guardian angel” and Professor Michael Roster for their inspiration and support.

When Salehi was working as a senior technology advisor in the Obama White House, where he wrote the

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country’s first Federal Source Code Policy and launched Code.gov, he took a trip to the Syrian border to meet with refugees. “I came back deeply motivated to identify ways to ease the transition for immigrants and refugees starting a new life in the United States.” The idea for Shef took hold after he met Grassia at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in 2018, where Salehi was recognized for his law and policy work and Grassia for his food and drink ventures.

Since 2019, cooks on Shef have served millions of meals around the country and earned tens of millions of dollars.

Currently, 85% of all cooks on the platform are women, and 80% are people of color.

Salehi said Shef is about more than just a great meal; it’s about bringing people together. “Every Shef meal comes with a handwritten note from the person who made your food — a reminder that this meal was made with love, just for you.”

— Julie Riggott

WENDY SHU (JD 2012) Eravant

Without knowledge about millimeter-wave technology, you may need a primer to understand what Wendy Shu’s (JD 2012) company actually does. Eravant designs and manufactures “off-theshelf” electronic components for RF engineers. RF engineering involves products that transmit radio waves, and the extremely high frequency (EHF) work that Eravant does supports applications in emerging technologies such as 6G, autonomous driving and the Internet of Things (IoT). Eravant’s customers can be found across verticals like aerospace and defense, test instrumentation and wireless communications.

Shu has the perfect analogy to explain what makes the company unique — that “off-the-shelf ” approach to the market.

“I think of it like fashion,” she says. “Millimeter-wave conventions traditionally resembled those of haute couture, which involves going back and forth with the client and designing something exquisite and customized together.

Haute couture is extremely expensive because of all the labor and time.

“Contrast that with ready-to-wear. By offering our customers this ready-to-wear solution, and defining the measurements (here’s what a size 10 looks like), we’ve enabled our customers to accelerate their R&D and go to market faster.

When they’re ready for production, we can then take that size 10 and tailor it slightly, which is much more affordable.”

High tech was not on Shu’s radar when she started at USC Gould with an undergraduate degree in international relations and East Asian languages. But when she graduated, her parents were one year into Eravant and invited her to help with export compliance, contracts and human resources.

“At the time, my emphasis was on soft IP, and truthfully, it wasn’t that compelling for me. So, I decided to be an entrepreneur and focus on finding how I could contribute to a very technical industry. I’ve been doing that ever since,” she says.

Eravant faced some unique challenges early on, Shu says.

“When you’re working with commercial applications, there is this demand for cheaper, faster and better. You need to be able to scale up and produce these really precise instruments at volume. Those challenges are new for our industry. There is no best practice. We’re doing something that people have said is not possible.”

And her Gould education helped the company navigate that new territory.

“You really need to pull together the right people, enable them to collaborate and work on the pressing problems. Being able to do that has made a huge difference in my career and in the business,” Shu says.

“Having the legal background helps me navigate and negotiate us through challenges. It also helps me to break down complex issues into something approachable, whether they are related to operations, product, people or revenue.”

— Julie Riggott

TONY THAI (JD 2014) HyperDraft

When Tony Thai (JD 2014), a software engineerturned-attorney, started his first legal job, he was shocked at how outdated the legal industry’s technology was. His work was interesting and challenging, but he didn’t understand why lawyers spent countless hours on tedious tasks that diverted their attention from counseling clients and thinking strategically. With his experience as a software engineer, he came up with a solution: HyperDraft, a document and workflow automation platform designed to simplify legal document creation, review and collaboration.

“I spent years searching for, and had even advised other companies on how to build something that lawyers could use, says Thai, who worked at four big law firms and was assistant general counsel for two large technology companies. “Eventually, I started building software. Soon after, my in-house clients and law firm colleagues were asking to use it. That’s when I started building HyperDraft out as a commercial solution that other legal professionals could also use.”

Today, HyperDraft is a trusted technology partner to Fortune 500 health care, private equity, financial and technology companies across the U.S., helping them to transition legacy processes into digital workflows.

Thai built HyperDraft with the mission to help lawyers work at their best without unnecessary sacrifices of their time.

“All lawyers are entrepreneurs. For many, instead of risking capital, they risk their time. Time is a fundamental resource that you’ll never be able to get back,” he says.

“Invest in it so you can grow your skill set and your relationships.”

Thai never thought he would practice law. An entrepreneur at heart, he was tired of having to hire and pay for attorneys for his projects and decided to go to law school himself. He fell in love with the profession much to the surprise of his friends and family who thought he would return to his life as an engineer and entrepreneur after graduating from Gould. “I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy practicing law. I stayed practicing, and soaked up as much learning as I possibly could, knowing that I wanted to be a builder again at some point,” he says.

For Thai, the most important takeaway from his Gould education was learning how to build community.

“I went to a large public school for undergrad, and I didn’t understand the major difference between being at a private institution that invested so greatly in community building until attending Gould,” he says. “Trojans are a part of every major business conversation, and the community is quick to accept, mentor and help other Trojans. Witnessing the power of the Trojan Network taught me the importance of community and how to build my professional network.”

With HyperDraft, Thai is building a community of lawyers who hope to innovate the legal industry and push it in a more positive direction.

“We are providing value to our customers, building a community, and sharing knowledge to push the legal industry forward,” he says.

— Julie Riggott

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Law and the love of storytelling As an executive, Moises Amsel (LLM 2010) spotlights Latinx voices in entertainment

By Tatiana Overly Moises Amsel (LLM 2010) This story was featured in the USC Gould Alumni Newsletter.

When Moises Amsel (LLM 2010) was five years old, he fell in love for the first time — with television.

His mother, a producer for a popular Venezuelan TV show, brought him to an active film set, leaving a lasting impression. “It was the first time I understood that what I watched on TV was being created by people, was all being built in a sound stage, and actors were playing characters,” Amsel recalls.

Today, Amsel is the executive director of production at Gato Grande, an MGM Company, channeling his passion into a powerful mission — developing groundbreaking stories that elevate Latinx voices in both the U.S. and Latin American entertainment markets.

SEEKING JUSTICE AND FINDING PURPOSE As the child of parents who came to Venezuela to escape the Holocaust, Amsel found identity and belonging in theater in high school and college. Then, at age 19, his life took an abrupt, harrowing turn that led him in a new direction.

Amsel was kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom for two agonizing weeks. Deeply traumatized and eager to bring his abductors to justice, he enrolled in law school, at Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas. It was there that he realized how unlikely it was that he would ever track down and charge the kidnappers with a crime.

“That’s not how it works in Venezuela,” he says, knowingly.

The experience brought a clarity that led him to combine his love of the arts with his legal knowledge by coming to Los Angeles and USC Gould’s LLM program.

JOURNEY TO HOLLYWOOD With a goal of working in entertainment law, Amsel faced the daunting challenge of breaking in, but his LLM degree

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and the Trojan Network gave him an edge. He landed an internship at a talent agency that led to a job managing A&R accounts at Sony Music, a significant milestone in his budding career.

But an arts-inspired twist was in store. Amsel realized that a legal career was not the right fit, and he decided to write a script based on his kidnapping. As a first-time screenwriter, he sold his show to Fox Studios, and even though it was never developed, his storytelling prowess caught the eye of MGM and its company, Gato Grande, which was searching for its next executive director of scripted development.

SHAPING THE NARRATIVE In his role at Gato Grande, he sees himself as broadening the Latinx identity through new movies and TV shows.

He has plenty of ideas to champion overlooked stories of Latinx trailblazers and influences.

“Why haven’t we told the stories about the Latino leaders in the American civil rights movement or the landmark Supreme Court cases that were argued by Hispanic lawyers in the 1950s?” he says.

From the writer’s room to marketing, Amsel ensures that Latinx voices are elevated at every step. His journey from mesmerized child to leader in the entertainment industry is a testament to the power of passion.

Scribbler, sailor, attorney, ambassador

Kelly Degnan (JD 1983) travels adventurous path to career as diplomat

By Diane Krieger Kelly Degnan (JD 1983) This story was featured in the USC Gould Alumni Newsletter.

Since 2019, Kelly Degnan (JD 1983) has been the U.S. Ambassador to Georgia. But Degnan, 63, has worked as a journalist, a sailor and a government lawyer for former U.S. territories in the Pacific.

“I’ve had four careers, and they all built on each other,” says Degnan, speaking by Zoom from the embassy in Tbilisi.

Since joining the Foreign Service in 1993, Degnan has worked 12 assignments in eight countries, including seniorlevel posts in Italy, Kosovo and most recently Georgia.

Earlier postings took her to Pakistan, Botswana and Turkey.

She personally assisted two Secretaries of State — Madeline Albright and John Kerry — and three undersecretaries for political affairs in Washington, D.C. For her work as a diplomatic attaché to Brigade Combat Team Salerno in Khost, Afghanistan, she received the Secretary of State’s Expeditionary Service Award in 2008. Degnan’s term as Ambassador to Georgia ended in fall 2023.

FAMILY ROLE MODELS Degnan’s peripatetic career synchs with a nomadic childhood.

Her dad worked for Hilton Hotels, and the family moved around a lot. Her mom juggled a career as a graphic artist while raising three daughters, all of them high achievers.

“My sisters were my role models, and they set the bar very high for me,” says Degnan, the youngest of the trio. Kim Degnan is a space industry executive; Kate Degnan made her career in IT marketing.

Kelly Degnan majored in journalism at Northwestern University. After working on magazines in Chicago and L.A.,

she decided to get her JD and move into communication law, choosing USC Gould because it shared a campus with the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

After passing the bar, Degnan worked at Hahn Cazier & Leff, a mid-sized L.A. law firm where she focused on corporate transactions. Then in 1987, she took a year’s leave of absence and embarked on a cross-Pacific sailing adventure with her then-boyfriend. They had a sailboat built in Taiwan and planned to sail it to the U.S., where they would sell it to pay for the trip. The hardships of an opensea voyage, however, took a toll.

“It was just a hard beat all the way,” Degnan says, of the sail from Hong Kong to French Polynesia. For the next couple of years, kismet seemed to lead the way, with Degnan finding work as a government attorney for the Federated States of Micronesia when money got tight.

A former U.S. trust territory, Micronesia follows Ninth Circuit law, and Degnan was “the perfect candidate — a California lawyer who’d just sailed right into their harbor,” she says.

Degnan also found work when the pair sailed to the Republic of Palau — another former U.S. territory — as legal counsel to the chief of the Palau Supreme Court.

Degnan taps her legal background regularly in carrying out her diplomatic duties, which can range from interpreting regulations to negotiating treaties.

“Law school changes the way you look at the world,” she says. “It teaches you to problem solve and organize issues.”

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A GRAND GOULD GATHERING Members of the USC Gould School of Law Classes of 1978, 1983, 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2018 met on Sept. 23 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre courtyard for an evening of sharing old memories and making new ones. The evening also featured a special event for the Class of 1973, which celebrated its 50th reunion. Interim Dean Franita Tolson was on hand to celebrate with Gould alumni. For information on upcoming reunions, email reunion@law.usc.edu.

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USC LAW MAGAZINE IS GOING GREEN! To reduce our environmental impact and to align with the university’s continued focus on sustainability, Gould is excited to announce that the Spring/Summer issue of USC Law Magazine is shifting to a digital format.

We invite you to take a moment to ensure that your contact information is up-to-date.

Sign up for our digital mailing list or update your email today.

Fall | Winter 2023 43

2023 class notes

HONOR ROLL Jerrold Abeles (JD 1988) was appointed as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

Rob Ajemian (JD 1988) has been promoted to assistant general counsel at The Home Depot in Atlanta, Ga.

Richard Benes (JD 1976) received the 2023 California Lawyers Association’s Appellate Lawyer Hall of Fame award.

Dawn Bittleston (JD 1998) was appointed to serve as a Kern County Superior Court judge.

Ana Bruzzese Biegert (BA 1997, JD/MBT 2000) was promoted to senior vice president of tax at Mattel in El Segundo, Calif.

Cristyn Chadwick (JD 2011) joined TroyGould PC as senior counsel and was installed as president of the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice.

Maria Hall (JD 2003), along with her organization, Los Angeles Incubator Consortium, was chosen by legal technology firm Clio as a finalist for its 2023 Legal Impact Award.

Abbey Greenspan (BS 2005, JD 2010) was promoted to deputy regional counsel for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Region IX office in San Francisco.

Lynette Gridiron Winston (JD 1990) was appointed

by Gov. Gavin Newsom as a judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Becky Newman (JD 2010) joined For Purpose Law Group as of counsel in the firm’s nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations and charitable giving groups.

Cynthia Organ (JD 2013) was promoted to partner in the litigation department at Glaser Weil.

Stephen Pfahler (JD 1990) recently published “The Whole Truth for Lawyers: A Complete Guide to Flourishing in Your Life and Career.”

In his book, Judge Pfahler provides a practical and comprehensive manual for thriving in and outside work.

Joseph E. Porter, IV (JD 2017) and Sara V. Pitt (JD 2017) were married on April 15 in Carmel Valley, Calif.

Sofia Rinvil (MSL 2019) joined the New York City Council as a legislative fellow for the Office of NYC Council Member Carlina Rivera.

Robert Scott Jenkins (JD 1979) retired from practicing business and real estate law at Hahn & Hahn LLP on June 29.

Lisa Harrington (JD 1993) was appointed as an independent board director and audit committee member at Slam Corp.

Whitney Hodges (JD 2010) was named a 2023 Commercial Real Estate Visionary by the Los Angeles Times.

Shaun Gordon (BS 2011, JD 2014) has been named to Variety’s 2023 Legal Impact Report as part of Weintraub Tobin’s Audio Team.

Timur Tusiray (JD 2015) has joined PayPal, Inc. as senior legal counsel.

Ryan Williams (JD 2001) was appointed to serve as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.

Annette A. Wong (JD 2012) was included in the 2024 Best Lawyers “Ones to Watch” list.

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IN MEMORIAM MICHAEL H. DOUGHERTY (JD 1966), 88, passed away on July 10, 2023, surrounded by family at his San Clemente, Calif.

home. Upon graduating from USC Law School, Dougherty joined the Los Angeles County Counsel’s Office, where he worked for 20 years before he retired.

Dougherty is survived by his wife of 60 years, Carole, their three daughters, seven grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

The family requests that anyone wishing to honor Dougherty’s memory pick up a good book and read it in bed, one of his favorite activities.

ALEXANDER W. KAPLAN (JD 2014) passed away on June 18, 2023.

TOM GILFOY (BS 1958), 90, passed away on Jan. 12, 2023. Gilfoy worked as a corporate lawyer for Southern California Edison for 33 years.

He is survived by his wife Dody Gilfoy; children Chuck Gilfoy (Becky), Steve Gilfoy (Marie), Susie Colbath (Russ); eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

AMY ALDERFER (JD 1999) Amy Bridget Alderfer ( JD 1999), 49, president for four years of the USC Gould Alumni Association and a member of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors and USC Board of Councilors, passed away on May 3 at her home in Coto de Caza, Calif.

Alderfer was honored in 2022 with the USC Alumni Association’s 2021 Widney Alumni House Volunteer Award, given to outstanding alumni serving across a variety of alumni organizations.

“I never would have expected to serve as president of the Gould Alumni Association, then to have all of this recognition and these new roles, but as the opportunities came up I was open to them and I really fell in love with the chance to give back and be part of something bigger,” Alderfer said at the time.

Alderfer was born in Las Vegas, Nev. She met her husband James “Jamie” Bernald ( JD 1999) at USC Gould and they were married at St. Viator Parish in Las Vegas in 2003.

An accomplished litigation attorney, Alderfer was a member of the California and Nevada State Bar

Associations and former partner in the Santa Monica, Calif. office of the Cozen O’Conner law firm. At the time of her death she was a principal attorney for The Walt Disney Company at the Disneyland Resort, her dream job. Alderfer also served as past president of the Century City Bar Association.

Alderfer attributed her enthusiasm for giving back to USC Gould to the strength of the Trojan Family.

“My connection to USC throughout all of this has been really important to me and instrumental in my career,” she said. “I feel that people really do take an interest in each other, not just alumni from the law school but other alums from the larger university, and they really care about seeing other people succeed.”

Alderfer is survived by her husband, Jamie Bernald, sons William Bernald and Ryan Bernald, her parents John and Barbara Alderfer, her brother Kevin Alderfer, her sister Karen Alderfer, brother-in-law Michael Truong, niece Bridget Truong, mother-in-law and father-in-law Gene and Mary-Lynne Bernald, and brother-in-law and sisterin-law Jeff and Melissa Bernald.

The family requests donations to the Sister Stella Foundation, Attention Treasurer, P. O. Box 492515, Los Angeles, CA 90049, or Every Mother Counts at everymothercounts.org

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2023 in memoriam

RUTH J. LAVINE LEAVES LEGACY OF SUPPORT FOR WOMEN IN LAW Ruth J. Lavine (LLB 1943) died July 25 at age 103, leaving an impressive legacy of legal practice, support of women lawyers, and giving back to USC Gould School of Law. Lavine’s contributions as a lawyer include serving as a partner at Fain, Lavine, Kaufman and Young; being elected the first woman president of the Los Angeles County Bar Foundation as well as president of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles; founder with husband Richard (LLB 1942) of the Richard and Ruth Lavine Family Foundation, and being instrumental in the creation of the Ruth J. Lavine ’43 Women in Law Symposium.

In fall 2020, USC President Carol Folt hosted a Zoom celebration of Lavine’s 100th birthday, noting Lavine’s example of the law school’s history of graduating accomplished women lawyers.

“I’ve been able to see many changes for women in the law,” Lavine said on the Zoom meeting. “More women in law schools, law firms and the judiciary. It would be nice to think that I’ve contributed in a modest way to those changes.”

Interim Dean Franita Tolson praised Lavine for the qualities that made her a valuable asset to the law school.

“Ruth Lavine is an inspiration to so many — through her incredible story of perseverance, as a pioneer in legal practice and a model of support for generations of women in law,” says Tolson. “At USC Gould, we admire and are grateful for her passion, dedication and leadership, including her support of the Ruth J. Lavine Women in Law Symposium, which has become an outstanding annual tradition for our students as well as the entire law school.”

Former U.S. Representative and Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke ( JD 1956), who also spoke at Lavine’s 100th birthday celebration, noted the example that Lavine set as a trailblazer in law.

“I deeply appreciate the dedication of Ruth Lavine to increasing the participation of women and people of color in the fabric of the Gould School of Law,” Burke says.

Born Ruth Jacobson, Lavine immigrated with her family from Germany to England in 1933 and to the U.S. in 1938. She was one of five women in her class at USC Law School. After meeting

46 USCLaw magazine

Above; Ruth Lavine with her daughter Cathy Unger at the inaugural Ruth J. Lavine Women in Law Symposium Inset; Ruth as a young woman.

her husband Richard in the USC Law School library, they were married in 1944 and had two children, Cathy and Raymond. Her career included working at a law firm owned by Robert Thompson (LLB 1942). At Fain, Lavine, Kaufman and Young, many of her clients were German immigrants who she helped to understand American law.

Daughter Cathy Unger remembers her mother’s enthusiasm for awarding scholarships through the foundation. Lavine was known for mailing handwritten letters to the winners and keeping up with them as they began their careers. “She got such joy meeting her scholarship students in person,” she says.

In her position at the forefront of support for women in the legal profession, Lavine became the namesake of the Ruth J. Lavine ’43 Women in Law Symposium, which annually brings alumnae and other female legal practitioners to Gould to share their experiences with female law students.

Lavine was also a friend to many, including University Professor Geoffrey Cowan, Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership, who met Lavine through Unger.

“My wife and I knew Ruth for almost half of her life, and through all those years she was smart, innovative and great fun,” he says. “Ruth was a devoted mother, grandmother and great grandmother — but she was almost as devoted to USC Law School where she was proud to have been one of the first female graduates.”

Unger takes pride in her mother’s achievements as a role model in education, career and family life.

“Nobody does it all — but she came as close as one can get,” she says.

Lavine was preceded in death by her husband Richard in 1994. She is survived by Cathy (Len), Raymond (Barbara); grandchildren Laura (Randy), Dan (Maura) and Amanda; and six great-grandchildren.

Donor Annual Report 2022-2023

USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW | 2022-2023 DONOR ANNUAL REPORT

Thank you for your support of the USC Gould School of Law. We strive to maintain accuracy in the preparation of the Donor Annual Report. This report includes gifts recorded as of June 30, 2023. If your name is misspelled, omitted or incorrectly listed, we sincerely apologize. Please contact us in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at 213-821-3560 with any questions or to inform us of any errors.

LEADERSHIP DONORS

Stanley ’67 and Ilene Gold

Victoria Jeannette Dodd ’78*

Norton ’60 and Loretta Karno

Iran and Christopher Hopkins ’00

This list acknowledges individuals who made gifts, new pledges and pledge payments of $1,000 or more from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

Ujwala Mahatme, Sandy Mahatme, Alyssa Mahatme ’21 and Ryan Mahatme

Patti and Thomas Larkins ’86

* Deceased

Michele Marlene Mulrooney ’85

20-plus Years Donor 10-19 Years Donor

5-9 Years Donor

$3,000,000+ George A.V. Dunning*

$1,000,000$2,999,999 Anonymous Dana and Gregory Lee ’92 John Molina ’89 Diane Sonosky Montgomery

Albert Mour ’58 George R. Phillips, Jr. ’91 The Roche Family Foundation Rob Saltzman Michael Schroeder ’82 Terry Solis Lawrence ’75 and Jane Ulman

$50,000-$99,999 Anonymous The Hon. Michael R. Amerian ’99

The Hon. Walter J. Karabian ’63 Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation Fred ’89 and Susie Toczek

$25,000-$49,999

Bret ’93 and Tiffany DiMarco

Alexander Capron

Adam ’93 and Erin Dolinko and the Dolinko Family

Janet and Douglas Childers ’89 Kyung Ku J. Cho and Debra M. Cho

The Hon. Chuck Forbes ’56 and Margie Forbes

W.M. Keck Foundation

Nancy and James Gaines

Scott ’82 and Lisa Dettmer

For a complete Donor Annual Report, please visit http://gould.law/donor-report.

48 USCLaw magazine

David J. Prager ’74 Mitch Scher ’82 Dana Sherman* Bruce Soll ’82 Catherine and Leonard Unger

Lawrence Barnett ’82

$500,000-$999,999

Barbara ’92 and Tad Danz

Sylvia and Stephen Melikian ’79

Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg

Susan and David Howard ’70

Anonymous

Barry McCabe ’77

$10,000-$24,999

Norman ’72 and Kathryn Barker

$100,000-$499,999

John Loo

Karen B. Wong ’86 and Scott W. Lee

Bobbi and Walter Zifkin ’61

C. Thomas “Tom” Hopkins ’93 and Sandy M. Kaneoka

Ruth J. Lavine ’43*

Daniel Anaya ’97* Charlene and Phil Bosl ’75 Kristina Lockwood ’97 and Mark Brubaker ’97 Eleanor and Michael Burby Nicolas Chia ’18 Raissa and Bill Choi ’85 Deanna ’90 and Gene Detchemendy Katherine ’93 and Robert Dugdale ’93 Joan and Larry Flax ’67 Tamerlin ’96 and Tim Godley Noel Hyun Minor ’12 and Hyun Family Charitable Fund The Iino Family Jeff Kichaven Sheryl Leach

“I am honored to have the opportunity to pursue my dream of becoming a successful attorney and am eager to do so as a USC Gould alumna. Thank you for helping make this journey easier! The unfortunate reality of higher education is that the cost of tuition is often a deterring factor, but your support made this dream a reality for me. Being a USC Gould student has surpassed my expectations in every way. The school cultivates such a collaborative and welcoming environment, and I’m extremely grateful for your generosity, which has given me the opportunity to be a part of such a great community. I am also grateful because this scholarship has allowed me to pursue my passions at USC Gould.”

— RAINA INNOCENT, CLASS OF 2025 Kelly Martin ’85 and Thomas Patterson

Carl Beverly ’97

James Howard Kennedy ’72

Teryl and Michael Matkins ’70

Cynthia Brittain

Seth Levy ’01

Reynolds T. Cafferata ’92

The Hon. Nora M. Manella ’75

Robert Alan Cardwell ’70

Martha and Roger Mertz ’69

Janelle and James Carlin

Steven ’85 and Nancy Mindel ’86

Michael Chasalow

Madelaine and John Moran

Karen L. Bedrosian Coyne ’95

Deborah and Robert Myman ’70

James B. Curtis ’82

Nga Tran and Derrick Nguyen ’91

Jamie ’13 and Jake DeBoer

Ana O’Brien

Diana and John Dotson ’85

Robert Odson ’92

Andrew C. Elken ’09

Janis Penton ’79 and Wayne Kartin

James Frost and William Yi

Arsine ’86 and Gary Phillips ’85

Margie Lee and Don Garner ’70

Daniel and Lisa M. Prince

Allyson Gartside ’87 and Frederick Gartside ’87

Marc Rabinovitz ’05

Nola Geffner-Mihlsten and George Mihlsten ’80 Deborah and Kenneth Novack ’70 Amanda Freeman Peiffer ’05 Carrie S. Quintanar ’99 Reginald Roberts Jr. ’00 Elyn R. Saks Justin Hays Sanders ’00 Glori Schultz-Norwitt ’95 and Richard Norwitt Christine Carr ’94 and John Slusher ’94 David Eric Weber ’86 Joan and A. Wilson ’50

Lisa and Adam Glick ’94

Lori and Tim Wilson/Ernest Packaging Solutions

Stacy and James N. Godes ’87 Andrew Guzman and Jeannie Sears

$5,000-$9,999

Diane and Clay Halvorsen ’85

Anonymous Nazfar Afshar Laurie and Darren Aitken ’89 Paul Alston ’71 William Barrett ’85 Kirsten and David Bartholomew ’86

Mira Hashmall ’01 Brandon Grant Howald ’99 Nina Huerta ’03 Nancy Stark and Stanley Iezman ’73 Joshua Robert Isenberg ’01 Maurice Jones ’25* Andrew M. Katzenstein

Madeline and Bruce Ramer Nancy R. Sanborn Peetie and Richard Sigler ’70 Andrea and Glenn Sonnenberg ’80 Carolee Swallie Sharon ’85 and Todd Swanson ’85 Anthony ’00 and Susan Taylor Lauren Dana Thibodeaux ’05 Linda Trope Bryan Vitner David Walsh ’85

Fall | Winter 2023 49

USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW | 2022-2023 DONOR ANNUAL REPORT

Jamie and Kevin Wechter ’94 Amy H. Wells Pamela ’86 and Douglas Westhoff Susan Zuckerman Williams ’86 David Karl Willingham ’98 Michael David Young ’85

Carolyn Nakaki ’86 and Michael Lewis Keith Andrew Newburry ’93 Jacqueline Petitto and Casper Partovi ’99 Teri ’85 and Gary Paul

Ashley ’07 and An-Yen Hu ’07 Margaret and Jeff Kean Heather Keltner Lisa and Daniel Klerman Kathy and Adolfo Lara ’73 Grace and Samuel Lee

$2,500-$4,999

Ingrid Holm and Michael Pemstein ’12

Jennifer ’04 and Adam Abramowitz

Darold D. Pieper ’70 Melissa K. Pifko ’98

Michael Mandelbaum

Lawrence Mark Axelrod ’75

Rhea Caras ’85 and Patrick Rendon ’85

Neil ’67 and Victoria Martin

Jackie and Robert Rosenberg ’69

Erin ’02 and Matthew Matzkin ’00 Maryann M. McGeady ’82

Betty and George Baffa ’62 Judy and Steve Burkow Kristina and Mark Chatow ’93 The Hon. Jacqueline Chooljian ’86 Geri Hartfield and Tim Connors ’97 Antonio Damico Traci and Mark Feldman ’90 The Hon. Ferdinand F. Fernandez ’62 Shauna France Hope Garcia ’07 Jason Gee ’98 and Simmon Gee The Hon. Judith AshmannGerst and Robert Gerst ’59 John T. Golden Karen Grant-Selma ’94 Jenna ’04 and Daniel Guggenheim ’04 Ryan S. Hedges ’01 Christianne ’85 and Charles Kerns Shari N. Leinwand ’76 Khai P. LeQuang ’99 Tracy Pumilia and Abel Lezcano ’92 Elizabeth and Rodney Miller ’93 Judy Johnson ’77 and Donald Morrow ’75

Nicholas Rosenthal ’09 Kathryn Sanders-Platnick ’85 and Joseph Platnick Brigitte and Gerald Serlin ’85 Edward Charles Stieg ’77 Chauncey M. Swalwell Kristin ’02 and Jeffrey Tahler Lynn Williams ’82 and Michael Croft Susan Wright ’87 and Craig Steele ’92

$1,500-$2,499 Anonymous Ronald L. Cheng Hoon-Jeong Hwang and Jinyong Chung ’11 Norma Frances Cirincione Eva and Richard Davis ’94 Marri B. Derby ’82 Frederick J. Dorey ’76 Gillian and Scott Edel ’86 Andrea and Fred Fenster ’71 Francisco Flores ’00 Amy R. Forbes ’84 Nanette and Burton Forester ’68 Ada ’68 and Patrick Gardiner

For a complete Donor Annual Report, please visit http://gould.law/donor-report.

50 USCLaw magazine

Jeffrey Alan Levy ’86 Myling Ta and Yem Mai ’07

Lisa McLean ’01 Craig William Miller ’76 Rachel Beck and Jeremy Naftel ’96 Gail and Robert Nishinaka ’78 Chloe T. Reid Richard Frederick Reiner ’79 Jeffrey Segal ’81 Allyson B. Simon ’95 Willy P. Tai Kristine A. Thagard ’80 The Hon. William H. Winston ’54*

$1,000-$1,499 Ana Alvarez Bachand and Jonathan Bachand ’06 Elisa and Marcus Bagley ’99 Diane and Sam Balisy ’86 Jonathan M. Barnett Timothy John Becker ’02 Virginia and George Berger ’73 Michelle ’92 and Eric Blum ’92 Janna May Boelke ’03 Susan Montgomery ’85 and Michael Bordy ’86 Whitney Cale and Peter Brejcha ’09 Suzanne and Peter Brown ’75

Brian E. Cabrera ’90

Lee David Lubin ’93

Russ Alan Cashdan ’90

Kathleen Bryson Holman and John Holman ’11

Alice Yuan and Chi-Hsiang Chang ’06

Joan W. Howarth ’80 Candis ’76 and Lawrence Ipswitch

Michael J. Maloney ’70

Williana Chang ’95

Meredith S. Jobe ’81

Janet ’83 and Christopher Chediak ’83

Christie ’02 and Richard Johns ’82

Madeleine and Alan Crivaro

Millicent Sanchez and Sidney Kanazawa ’78

Marilyn and Barry Currier ’71 Christopher Delson ’97 John William Dietrich ’99 Kenneth M. Doran ’81 Jerry A. Finkelstein ’82 Barbara Ann Fitzgerald ’90 Michael Fletcher ’76 Robin and Gary Gertler ’86 Karen and Michael Green ’66 Richard Steven Gruner ’78 Nicholas T. Hariton ’83 Susan Harris ’81 and Hayward Kaiser Nancy and Fred Hasani ’98 Karen Heilman ’82 and Cary Thompson ’82

Timothy E. Johns ’83

Carol McCleary and Gregory Keating Sharon and The Hon. Michael Kelley William Aaron Kessler ’11 Susan Sayuri Kigawa ’89 Yuwadee Kaewkes and Gregory Kirkelie ’70 Rachel and John Land ’78 Arieh B. Lanin ’00 Elaine Kramer and Joseph Latham Kawon Lee ’11 Robert Burton Lence ’82 Joan Lesser ’73 and Ronald Johnston ’73 MaryBeth ’02 and Graham LippSmith

Denise and Stephen Magro ’87 Robin and Mark Maness Sean Taylor Matsler ’03 Edward J. McCaffery Linda Giunta and David Michaelson ’88 Edward Miller Lisa and Todd Moore ’97 Cecilia and The Hon. Wendell Mortimer ’65 Jeffrey Ronald Patterson ’86 Noemi Lujan Perez ’19 Rebecca Brown and Robert Rasmussen Katherine and Jon Robertson ’87 Angela ’92 and Adam Rosen Birgit Sale ’83 Neal S. Salisian ’05 Danielle and J. Salomon ’87 Doris and Robert Schaffer ’58 Patrick Shannon Schoenburg ’92 Donald M. Scotten

“As a USC alumna myself and third generation Trojan, I feel particularly honored to be attending the USC Gould School of Law and to be supported by the legacy of a fellow Trojan. I have had an interest in studying law since high school, but the financial realities of a graduate level education can be burdensome. I knew that I wanted to attend the USC Gould School of Law because of the school’s academic excellence, small class size, and strong Trojan network. A determining factor in deciding on a law school was the cost of tuition and thanks to your generosity, the possibility of attending USC Gould became a reality for me. I have been so impressed by what this school has to offer. I am thrilled to continue my education on a campus that I love, and I feel supported by both my peers and the law school administration while also challenged and encouraged to strive for excellence. The support of the Trojan Family and of the Evelyn T. and David M. Harney Scholarship has helped make my law school goals a reality and I cannot thank you enough.”

— MADELINE GOOSSEN, CLASS OF 2024

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USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW | 2022-2023 DONOR ANNUAL REPORT

“ Your generosity has played an instrumental part in allowing me to pursue my dream of becoming a lawyer at the USC Gould School of Law. Without your donation, I could not be in the position I am today. People like you are what make USC so great. This scholarship made attending law school at USC Gould possible. When the scholarship was offered to me, it was a no-brainer to attend such a prestigious law school as USC Gould. I was filled with joy to receive the notification that I had been awarded a scholarship, and from that day I have been sold on Gould.”

— NICHOLAS PEREZ, CLASS OF 2025

Anne and Dan Simon

Scott Bice ’68 and Barbara Bice

The Hon. James Allen Stotler

Charlene and Phil Bosl ’75

The Hon. Ronald W. Stovitz ’67

Richard Chernick ’70 and Karla Chernick

Michael Joseph Szczurek ’09 Ann and Lawrence Trygstad ’67 Carol and Byron Wade ’74 Susan and David Wang ’00 Linda Staton and Robert Will ’60 Noah Lawrence Wofsy ’86 Fred Ah-Ling Wong ’85 Ian Christopher Wood Karen Merickel and Travers Wood ’69 Li Xiao ’17 and Jian Chen

USC GOULD HERITAGE SOCIETY If you have included USC Gould in your estate plans, please let us know so we can properly thank you and recognize you as a member of the USC Gould Heritage Society. Please contact Margaret Kean, Assistant Dean of Development at mkean@law.usc.edu or call the Development and Alumni Relations Office at 213.821.3560.

Rose Cheung and Steve Wong James B. Curtis ’82 Annee DellaDonna ’88 and Eric Alcouloumre Victoria Jeannette Dodd ’78* Andrew K. Dolan Andrew C. Elken ’09 Susan and David Howard ’70 John Loo Michael J. Maloney ’70 Noel Hyun Minor ’12 and Hyun Family Charitable Fund Diane Sonosky Montgomery Randall S. Nishiyama ’88 David Prager ’74 Sallie L. Pritchard Rob Saltzman John ’79 and Alaine Weiss Bobbi and Walter Zifkin ’61 * Deceased

Anonymous (3) Alex Alonzo ’74 John* and Trudy Armer

TRIBUTE GIFTS Gifts were made in honor of and/or in memory of the following alumni and friends.

Amy Alderfer ’99* Elizabeth Atlee ’93 Scott Bice ’68 and Barbara Bice Candace Cooper ’73 Shelby Cummings ’18 and Phillip Ditullio Andrew Guzman Robert (Bob) Eddie Hopkins Jr. Andrew James Susan Kim Edward D. Kleinbard* George Lefcoe Clara Lizarzaburu Rosalyn Mitchell* The Hon. Robert L. Roberson ’58 Barbara Ross Adam Scott Leroy (Skip) Taft ’59* Joseph Thomas ’57* Tiffani Willis ’02* James R. Ukropina ’65 David Walsh ’85 Charles H. Whitebread* Jacqueline Zembek * Deceased

For a complete Donor Annual Report, please visit http://gould.law/donor-report.

52 USCLaw magazine

CORPORATION, FOUNDATION, LAW FIRM AND ORGANIZATION DONORS

Karno Foundation

Morrison & Foerster LLP

W. M. Keck Foundation

Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP

Richard and Ruth Lavine Family Foundation

Nera Economic Consulting

This list acknowledges gifts, new pledges and pledge payments made from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.

Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker Family Foundation

$1,000,000+

Richard and Charlaine Voorhies Foundation

Dana and Gregory Lee Foundation Long Beach Community Foundation

$500,000 Anonymous

$100,000-$499,999 Anonymous Evalyn M. Bauer Foundation Rosalie and Harold Rae Brown Charitable Foundation California Community Foundation Gold Family Foundation The Kautz Family Foundation Meta Platforms, Inc.

O’Melveny & Meyers LLP

Sidley Austin LLP

$10,000-$24,999 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP Allen Matkins Arnold & Porter, LLP The Barnett Charitable Foundation Stephen & Mary Birch Foundation, Inc. Bryn Mawr Trust Buchalter The Columbus Foundation Cooley LLP DLA Piper

Microsoft Corporation

Ernst & Young

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Global Impact Funding Trust

Green Hasson & Janks LLP Greenberg Glusker, LLP

The Roche Family Foundation

Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Schwab Charitable

Hanson Bridgett, LLP

Wells Fargo Class Action Settlement

Jones Day

$25,000-$99,999

Judicate West

Anonymous Analysis Group, Inc. The Deloitte Foundation Fidelity Charitable Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP George Ignatius Foundation: Hon. Michael R. Amerian, George R. Phillips, Sr., and Hon. Walter J. Karabian, Trustees

William M. Keck, Jr. Foundation Kirkland and Ellis LLP Latham & Watkins LLP Lexis Nexis Loeb & Loeb LLP Mabel Wilson Richards Trust Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP

Paul Hastings LLP Reed Smith LLP The Reissa Foundation Sanders Roberts LLP Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP Signature Resolution Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP Stuart Foundation Venable, LLP Volunteers of America Los Angeles Willkie Farr & Gallagher, LLP A. Charles & Betty S. Wilson Foundation

$5,000-$9,999 Alvarez & Marsal Holdings, LLC American Realty Advisors Analytics West Inc. Ankura Consulting Group, LLC Armanino LLP Benevity Capital Group The Charities Aid Foundation of America Charles River Associates, Inc. Cirque Analytics Commercial Loan Corporation Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Disney Worldwide Services Ernst & Young Fenwick & West LLP First Republic Bank

Fall | Winter 2023 53

USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW | 2022-2023 DONOR ANNUAL REPORT

Foley & Lardner, LLP Frost/Chaddock Developers LLC FTI Consulting Inc. Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman Inc. Godes & Preis, LLP Hahn & Hahn LLP Hemming Morse, LLP HKA Global Hochman Salkin Rettig Toscher & Perez, PC

Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego John Moran Auctioneers, Inc. JPMorgan Chase & Co. Katten Muchin Rosenman Foundation, Inc. Keystone Law Group, P.C. Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP KPMG US LLP Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie LLP Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Holland & Knight LLP

Manufacturers Bank

Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP

Marcum LLP

Hueston Hennigan LLP Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP

Maschoff Brennan Mayer Brown LLP

Imaging Presentation Partners

Morris & Lillie Leibowitz Charitable Trust

Infact Experts LLC

Ocean Tomo

Intensity, LLC

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP

Irell & Manella LLP

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

JAMS Jeff Kichaven Commerical Mediation

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

“Your generosity has helped make this experience and my success possible.

Because of your choice to invest in my future, I have been able to pursue not only my academic aspirations but my personal goals as well. I hope that my presence at USC has created more room for students who look like me to have the opportunity to make an impact. If anything, my goal is to leave USC better than I found it, and through your scholarship I believe I have been able to do so.”

— NOELA MALECELA, CLASS OF 2024

For a complete Donor Annual Report, please visit http://gould.law/donor-report.

54 USCLaw magazine

PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP R. W. Selby & Co., Inc. Renaissance Charitable Foundation Rodriguez, Horii, Choi & Cafferata, LLP Russ August & Kabat Rutan & Tucker, LLP Safarian Choi & Bolstad LLP The Sanborn Team Seyfarth Shaw LLP Shumener Odson Oh LLP Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP Steinbrecher & Span LLP The John Paul Stevens Fellowship Foundation Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program Warner Bros.

Wells Fargo Western Digital Corporation White & Case LLP WilmerHale, LLP Winston & Strawn LLP Withers Bergman, LLP Wolf, Rifkin, Shapiro, Schulman & Rabkin LLP YourCause, LLC

$1,000-$4,999 Anonymous ADR Services, Inc. Aksel Nielsen Foundation ArentFox Schiff LLP Athlaw LLP Baker & Hostetler, LLC Bond Services of California CBRE Group, Inc. Federal Arbitration, Inc.

Ray and Lorraine Friedman Family Charitable Foundation Gee Foundation Glaser Weil LLP Goodwin Procter LLP Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP Jewish Community Foundation Los Angeles Kaiser-Harris Family Foundation Gregory E. Kirkelie Trust Massumi + Consoli, LLP McDermott Will & Emery McGuireWoods LLP Morgan, Lewis & Bockius Musick, Peeler, & Garrett LLP Network for Good Norton Rose Fulbright, LLP Professional Fiduciary Association of California Proskauer Rose LLP

“Your generosity has allowed me to pursue my dream of becoming a lawyer and a voice for the voiceless. As a lowincome minority from the Bronx, to think I would be in the position I am in today is still surreal. USC Gould was my dream school, in part due to its familiarity (I had attended USC for undergrad), but also because of the opportunities to explore Criminal Law and Sports Law. When I received my acceptance along with the Crispus Attucks Wright Law Scholarship award, it felt as though everything came full circle, and my destiny had been fulfilled. Your generous assistance has helped a low-income first-generation boy from the Bronx break barriers and live his dream. Because of your support, I have been able to pursue my passions at USC Gould and found myself right where I belong. I hope that my involvement with the school will make a positive difference in another student’s life, just as your scholarship has in mine.”

— STEVE SAMAROO, CLASS OF 2025

Robins Kaplan LLP Robins Kaplan LLP Charitable Foundation Ropes & Gray LLP Santa Barbara Foundation Secretariat International, Inc. Sklar Kirsh LLP The Stotler Revocable Living Trust Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth, P.C.

UNDER $1,000

Morrison & Foerster Foundation

Alston & Bird LLP

Ninth Circuit District Judges Association

Blank Rome LLP Clark Hill Computershares/KCC Donaldson Callif Perez LLP Edwards Lifesciences Foundation Johnson and Johnson

Strategic Valuation Group

Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

Mexican American Bar Association

Thagard Foundation

Milbank LLP

On-Camera Audiences, Inc. OneOC Paragon Legal Roosevelt Hicks Realty Law Offices of Snell & Wilmer The United States Charitable Gift Trust

TroyGould Trust Properties USA Inc. Remove Inc.

Fall | Winter 2023 55

last look

INCOMING CLASS TAKES THE OATH OF PROFESSIONALISM One of the highlights of JD orientation — besides meeting together as one class for the first time — is taking the Oath of Professionalism, where law students pledge to conduct themselves ethically and with integrity in law school and in their practice. Judge Jon Takasugi (JD 1990), a judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, administered the oath on the last day of orientation, with Interim Dean Franita Tolson celebrating the Class of 2026 on its first official step into law school.

Below, clockwise from top left: Interim Dean Franita Tolson greets students at the first day of JD orientation; Dean Tolson congratulates students after they take the oath; Judge Jon Takasugi offers encouragement and advice before leading students in the oath; Nickey Woods, associate dean for Student Affairs, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging and dean of Students for the JD program, welcomes the Class of 2026.

1

4

6

56 USCLaw magazine

7

“Gould stands out in its commitment to public interest and public service and being aggressive about creating those opportunities. I’m pleased to see Gould’s public interest law focus is robust.”

— PROFESSOR EMERITUS ROB SALTZMAN

A COMMITMENT TO CREATING OPPORTUNITY Professor Rob Saltzman, associate dean and professor of lawyering skills for 27 years at USC Gould, remembers the limited options available for public interest law work when he was a law student. This year he established the Rob Saltzman Public Interest Grant, a summer internship stipend available through the Barbara F. Bice Public Interest Law Foundation. Saltzman designated a bequest

in his estate plans to fund this grant in perpetuity. Learn more about the grant on page 9 of this issue. For more information on how you can support law students through your estate planning, please call (213) 821-3560 or email Margaret Kean, Assistant Dean of Development at mkean@law.usc.edu.

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid University of Southern California

USC Law Magazine University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 90089-0071 Address Service Requested

calendar MENTOR LUNCHEON Town and Gown Thursday, February 22, 2024 12:00 PM (Alumni are invited to arrive at 11:45 AM) HALE MOOT COURT FINAL ROUND OF COMPETITION Norris Theatre Friday, March 1, 2024 2:00-4:00 PM

For details about these events and others, please visit: gould.usc.edu/events.

CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION TAX INSTITUTE Sheraton Grand Los Angeles January 22-24, 2024 (In-Person and Virtual) REAL ESTATE LAW AND BUSINESS FORUM Jonathan Club February 29, 2024 (In-Person and Virtual) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INSTITUTE Fairmont Miramar Hotel, Santa Monica March 18-19, 2024 (In-Person and Virtual)