USF Lawyer Fall 2016

U N I V E R S I T Y O F S A N F R A N C I S C O S C H O O L O F L AW • FA L L 2 0 1 6

Justice for All Students Bridge Law School and Practice

by Representing Clinic Clients 50th Anniversary of USF Law Review | $1 Million Gift from Hamill Family

A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN Late in the evenings, the view from my third floor

expertise. And our Entrepreneurial Ventures

office of the St. Ignatius Church spires across Fulton

Legal Services Project, headed by Professor Robert

Street is especially inspiring. At the School of Law,

Talbot, places our students side-by-side with

we train students to carry out towering ideals in the

budding but savvy tech inventors and service

practice of law and are not an ivory tower away

providers, critical actors in our new economy

from the cares and needs of our society.

in San Francisco and beyond.

Some of the greatest preparation for the legal

We would not be able to train the next generation

profession is happening in our clinical programs.

of lawyers and leaders without outstanding

This issue of the magazine features the continued

achievements by everyone in Kendrick Hall and Zief

excellence of Professor Sharon Meadows, who

Library. Some of these are heralded, others are

envisioned and launched the new Racial Justice

unsung. Just this fall, Professor Connie de la Vega

Clinic last year. Under her leadership, our students

was honored by the California State Bar with the

are in court gaining the litigation, client counseling,

Warren M. Christopher International Lawyer of the

and representation skills that will prepare them

Year Award. Her impact on students and human

to follow in the footsteps of so many other USF

rights is felt worldwide. And Professor Richard Leo

graduates as prosecutors and defense counsel.

was listed among the top six law professors nationally

Students in our Immigration and Deportation

cited by state supreme courts and 24th in citations

Defense Clinic, led by Professors Bill Ong Hing ’74

by the U.S. Supreme Court, state supreme courts,

and Jacqueline Brown Scott ’05, are representing

and federal circuit courts. Unlike the Las Vegas slogan,

children in immigration and state court proceedings.

the important work of our professors may “happen” at

Our students are gaining essential experience

USF but definitely does not “stay” at USF! And, among

to launch their own careers, as well as amazing

our alumni, James Fox ’69 is the new president of

personal rewards of having people, whose futures

the California State Bar, and we have alums on the

in America are at stake, depend upon them for legal

November ballot here and across the country.

Our greatest steps forward will be made through the strides of our faculty and staff opening windows on legal problems, shaping our students’ analytical strategies, preparing our students for the bar exam,

PAUL J. FITZGERALD, S.J. University President DONALD E. HELLER Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs JOHN TRASVIÑA Dean JOSHUA DAVIS Associate Dean for Academic Affairs TRISTIN GREEN Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship ELIZABETH BENHARDT Assistant Dean for Academic Services GRACE HUM Assistant Dean for Student Affairs JOHANNA HARTWIG Assistant Dean for Career Planning and Legal Community Engagement MICHELLE SKLAR Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations ANGIE DAVIS Senior Director of Communications and Marketing TALYA GOULD SANDERS Associate Director of Communications and Marketing DESIGNED BY USF Office of Marketing Communications

providing feedback on student writing, and mentoring them for jobs and career opportunities. We rely now more than ever on you, our alumni, for your ideas, networks, and support to provide unique legal training opportunities that are true to the academic rigors of Jesuit education and provide a solid foundation for

USF LAWYER IS PUBLISHED BY: University of San Francisco School of Law 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117-1080

the future in which our students will practice.

T (415) 422-4409 F (415) 422-4397 usflawyer@usfca.edu

John Trasviña Dean

USF Lawyer is printed on paper and at a printing facility certified by BM Trada Certification North America, Inc. to FSC® standards. From forest management to paper production to printing, FSC certification represents the highest social and environmental standards.

CONTENTS 14

FALL • 2016 JUSTICE FOR ALL

DEPARTMENTS

Students Bridge Law School and Practice by Representing Clinic Clients

2

IN BRIEF The Hamills Pledge $1 Million to USF School of Law Meet the Class of 2019/2020 State Bar Recognizes Faculty and Alumni Student and Professor Team Up on Fulbright in Europe Tristin Green Appointed Associate Dean

10

FACULTY FOCUS On the Record With Richard Leo

27

ALUMNI NEWS Reunion Gala 2016

22 WRITE AN ARTICLE, MAKE AN IMPACT Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the USF Law Review

26

32

NEW ETHICS SCHOLARSHIP

CLOSING ARGUMENT

Renowned legal ethicist Paul W. Vapnek ’64 honored with scholarship

Vietnamese refugee Lauren Vuong ’99 shares her journey of survival, perseverance, and gratitude

Jessica Therkelsen ’10 Recognized by ABA Young Lawyers

ON THE COVER: Crystal Araujo 3L with her Entrepreneurial Ventures Legal Services Project client Galen Maloney

USFCA.EDU/LAW

1

IN BRIEF THE HAMILLS PLEDGE $1 MILLION TO USF SCHOOL OF LAW

Steve ‘78 and Jan Hamill laugh together when they recall how, more than 40 years ago, they nixed the purchase of their first home in favor of Steve enrolling in the USF School of Law. For them, it was an easy decision “to maximize our educational opportunities,” says Jan. A few years later, after Steve graduated, they started giving back to the university, maybe $5 or $10 a year.

Today, the Hamills support students in the classroom, by giving to scholarships, and also by endowing the Hamill Family Chair, which is currently held by Professor of Law and Social Psychology Richard Leo. They have also supported law clinics, giving students real-world experience.

Most recently, they pledged $1 million to the School of Law, choosing again to make an important investment in the school — the institution that Steve credits with changing his life.

“If the road to betterment is an education, I can’t think of a better education than law, and I can’t think of a better place than USF,”

2

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

he says. “And, I can’t think of a better mission than the Jesuit mission.”

Through their acts of leadership and generosity, the Hamills are making a permanent mark on the lives of many at the university, law school, and other places in our communities, says Dean John Trasviña.

“Steve and Jan Hamill are an extraordinary couple,” says Trasviña. “With this new pledge, they demonstrate their dedicated commitment to the future of the USF School of Law. They strengthen our capacity to offer students from all walks of life a vibrant and relevant legal education that is the hallmark of the law school. They continue to be models and an inspiration for other alumni to partner with us in training the next generation of California’s lawyers and leaders. We are most grateful.”

The Value of Education Education is a core commitment of the Hamills. They met at the University of

California, Irvine, where Jan was studying philosophy and Steve majored in liberal arts.

She grew up in the Coachella Valley, on a citrus ranch, and moved to the Bay Area in seventh grade. Steve was raised in the San Fernando Valley. He talks about his mother’s strength, raising him and his three brothers after she and his father divorced.

Steve and Jan married young, at 18 and 19, and moved to the Bay Area after he graduated. She transferred to UC Berkeley, graduating with a degree in philosophy, while at the same time raising their young son. She was one of only seven women students in the philosophy department.

Their parents did not graduate from college.

“It was so important to our parents for us to graduate from college,” he says. “Although they did not have the opportunity, our parents recognized the importance and value of an education.”

After graduating, Steve knew he wanted to “do something positive and give back,” so he decided to pursue a path in government.

He attended night school at California State University, East Bay, to get a master’s degree in public administration.

His government career started, literally from the ground up, with the city of Lafayette road crew while attending night school. He applied for two 20-hour internships to gain administrative experience — one with the city of Concord and one with Alameda County government. He was offered a full-time position with Alameda County.

Over 14 years with the county, he rose to become the assistant county administrator responsible for county budget, finance, and legislative programs.

But, after earning the master’s degree, Steve and Jan were at a crossroads. They describe one evening at a diner. In her hand was a letter from USF, saying Steve had gotten into the School of Law.

At the same time, they had put together a plan to buy their first house. “Jan said we should choose law school,” he says.

“We chose law school as a more pragmatic choice than a house for our long-term growth and future.”

He graduated from USF in 1978, worked for Alameda County another eight years and, in 1986, opened a practice in Pleasanton, focusing on business and real estate. Jan was there to manage the office, and they balanced work and family together.

“I’d be in trial all day,” he says. “I’d go home and take care of the kids, while she went back to work and worked on the trial motions for the next day.”

Fulfilling the USF Mission He went on to create two businesses, California Communities and U.S. Communities, which provide tax-exempt finance for public benefit projects and public cooperative purchasing programs to government agencies nationwide.

Jan is co-owner of a dance studio.

They have two children, Chad Hamill, a professor and vice president of Native American initiatives at Northern Arizona University, and Lindsay Hamill Penkower ’05, who worked in juvenile dependency and family law before becoming a teacher, and five grandchildren.

Today, as chairman of the USF Board of Trustees, Steve is driven, along with his

fellow trustees, to make USF a better institution every day.

USF’s future is bright, he says, and the goal is to fulfill the mission of serving the underserved while also graduating the next leaders in business, technology, and law.

“That’s who we are. The mission and the innovative education go hand in hand.”

He and Jan, now married 47 years, continue to support education.

“Every time you take a step in education, you want education to be a door, not a just a window. Our goal is to maximize educational opportunities for others so that they can open the door to their potential to succeed both in life and in service to the underserved.” n

Meet our 1Ls

A snapshot of the 166 members of the USF School of Law Class of 2019/2020

137 29 FULL-TIME

PART-TIME

16

GRADUATE DEGREES

46%

54%

62

MALE

FEMALE

54 Hispanic

78

U NDERGRADUATE UNIVERSITIES REPRESENTED

%

ETHNIC DIVERSITY

37 Asian

16 Black

UC BERKELEY

TOP UNDERGRADUATE FEEDER SCHOOL USF and UC Davis tied for second

Why did you choose USF School of Law? Gregg Wurster “Being in the middle of my career, I realize that lawyers are a crucial part of business decision making and good governance. Whether building businesses, serving on boards, or working as an executive, I’m confident that a legal background will prove an asset for the remainder of my career.”

BS, Rutgers University; MBA, Duke University When not at USF, you can find him: Usually with his wife and two daughters, often outdoors by the ocean or mountains

USFCA.EDU/LAW

3

IN BRIEF

State Bar Recognizes Three USF Law Faculty and Alumni

The State Bar of California celebrated Professor Connie de la Vega and two USF School of Law alumni at its annual statewide convention in September.

De la Vega is the first woman to receive the Warren M. Christopher International Lawyer of the Year Award, which is presented annually by the International Law Section.

“We selected Professor de la Vega, known to many as the ‘rock star’ in the international public law arena, because her work leaves an inspiring and lasting impact on international justice,” said Harumi Hata, partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP and chair of the International Law Section. “Professor de la Vega’s important and dedicated work contributes to the improvement and protection of human rights for individuals, including youth and women, in the U.S. and around the word.”

De la Vega writes extensively on international human rights law and frequently participates in United Nations human rights meetings. Her writing has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, when it struck down the juvenile death penalty. She established and leads the Frank C. Newman International Human Rights Law Clinic at USF

4

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

and is a founding member of Human Rights Advocates.

Thomas Brandi ’72 was inducted into the Litigation Section’s Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame, an honor earned by trial lawyers whose careers exemplify the highest of values and

“ T his year’s recognition by the California State Bar of three very distinguished members of the USF School of Law community perfectly captures our continued role training lawyers and leaders in a global environment.”

— Dean John Trasviña professional attainment. Brandi started his own firm, The Brandi Law Firm, representing plaintiffs in serious injury and mass tort cases, and is an adjunct professor at USF School of Law. Over his 35-year career, he has obtained numerous jury verdicts ranging

from $1 million to $1 billion, and has served the profession, including as past president of the Consumer Attorneys of California and the San Francisco Trial Lawyers.

During the meeting, James P. Fox ’69 took the helm as president of the State Bar of California for 2016–17. He will play a critical role in overseeing the agency’s public protection efforts. He was first appointed to the board of trustees of the state bar in 2014, and immediately prior was a special assistant to the chief trial counsel, where he helped the office transition to a vertical prosecution model, which eliminated delays in moving cases from investigation to prosecution. He was the San Mateo County district attorney for 29 years before retiring in 2010, and has a long history of advocating for an unbiased judicial system.

“This year’s recognition by the California State Bar of three very distinguished members of the USF School of Law community perfectly captures our continued role training lawyers and leaders in a global environment,” said Dean John Trasviña. “All three are tremendous lawyers and public leaders.” n

ONE TO WATCH: DANAE ROBINSON 3L After earning a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Danae Robinson 3L turned to tackle her other passion, the law — in particular, intellectual property, which she’s found to be the perfect way to meld her interests. While at USF, she’s worked as an IP legal intern at Sideman & Bancroft LLP, a legal clerk for Hewlett Packard, and a summer associate with Pirkey Barber PLLC. She’s also served as vice president of the Black Law Students Association, is a senior staff member of the USF Law Review, and is part of the Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw Association. She is participating in the Internet and Intellectual Property Justice Clinic this fall.

How does your engineering background color your perspective of the law?

It has significantly impacted my work ethic and the way I approach law school in general.

Georgia Tech’s engineering programs are extremely rigorous. The skills that I obtained from my engineering classes have helped me to realize that law school is very similar in that you will be pushed to the limit, but you won’t break. My background gives me the motivation to keep going and keep working.

What’s your favorite thing about USF? Great professors. It’s nice to have professors who go beyond teaching theories and actually try to show us how these principles apply in the legal field. They are helpful in ensuring that we understand the material and when you get to know them, they support you in extracurricular activities, research opportunities, and professional endeavors.

What is one of your most memorable experiences at USF? Speaking on an admissions panel for potential students. It was amazing to see everything come full circle. I remember being in the same position trying to see if USF was the right school for me. It was nice to be able to give students my candid opinion and then to see some of them enrolled a few months later.

What advice would you give new law students?

Don’t allow law school to consume you. It is important to take time for yourself and set aside time to recharge. Personally, I never do work on Saturdays and Sundays unless it’s absolutely necessary. I attribute a lot of my sanity during the semester to that type of schedule. Law school will never stop being rigorous, so it’s important to work effectively to keep a bit of balance.

How do you plan to use your law degree?

I intend to practice intellectual property law, specifically trademark law. I’m also hoping to volunteer and assist domestic violence victims, after being inspired by seeing firsthand how the legal system can fail victims. I was torn between intellectual property and family law, so this is my attempt at having the best of both worlds.

What are your plans for after graduation?

I will be moving to Austin and sitting for the Texas bar exam. Then I’ve accepted an associate position at Pirkey Barber PLLC, a boutique trademark firm there. n

USFCA.EDU/LAW

5

IN BRIEF

STUDENT AND PROFESSOR TEAM UP ON FULBRIGHT REFUGEE STUDY Alex Wiegel 3L didn’t have your typical law student summer job this year. He worked to identify legal solutions to one of the world’s most significant humanitarian crises — the more than 65 million people, according to the United Nations, living in limbo after fleeing violence in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries.

Wiegel spent a month at the Center for Peace Studies in Zagreb, Croatia, working as the research assistant for Professor Jack Garvey, who was a Fulbright senior specialist for the U.S. State Department. They evaluated the legal issues at play in the European refugee crisis, trained human rights attorneys helping refugees, and proposed a new approach for the European Union. Their work built on Garvey’s past research and scholarship addressing refugees and international law, including substantial work with the United Nations in Palestinian refugee camps in the late 1980s.

“It was a terrific and eye-opening experience,” Wiegel said. “I was able to see into a part of law and international politics that I don’t think most people have the opportunity to learn about.”

The task at hand for Garvey and Wiegel was to evaluate European Union management of the refugee crisis under international and European law, and to write a memorandum recommending changes to ensure compliance with regional and international standards. They are now expanding it into an in-depth article. They interviewed key partners and non-government organizations, such as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the Red Cross, and members of the E.U. parliament. They also met with refugees’ human rights attorneys, and the refugees themselves, informing their research and helping the attorneys better represent their clients.

“We hope our work will inform a plan for better management of the European refugee crisis,” Wiegel said. “The goal is not just to get a verdict from a court, but to get the political momentum swinging the other way, attract media attention, and inspire people to come up with something better.”

Garvey said Wiegel was the perfect choice for the project.

“Alex is articulate, thoughtful, and understands the dynamics of the crisis,” said Garvey.

“I hope that our work and research will have an impact on the United Nations as it develops a global compact to help the refugees.”

Wiegel is considering a career in international law, and has taken advantage of many of the international programs the law school offers, including spending last summer doing an externship in Vietnam.

“I personally recommend all law students try to find and seek out opportunities to travel and incorporate international learning in their law school curriculum.” n

Class of 2016 Celebrates Graduation Hundreds of family and friends filled St. Ignatius Church May 21 to celebrate the graduation of the Class of 2016. 135 students received JD degrees, alongside 16 JD/MBA, 13 LLM in Taxation, 8 LLM in International Transactions and Comparative Law, and 6 LLM in Intellectual Property and Technology Law degree recipients.

U.S. District Court Judge Edward M. Chen received an honorary degree for his pursuit of justice as a dedicated advocate and balanced adjudicator. Among his career achievements before becoming a judge, Chen was part of the legal team overturning Fred Korematsu’s conviction in the World War II internment case. n

6

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

#USFLAW

/usflaw

@usflaw

usflaw

Jim Block

Stay connected with USF School of Law on social media.

Tag your posts to share your #USFLaw moments!

AUGUST 2016 Dean John Trasviña met with Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette ‘79 and Chet McGensy ‘08. Schuette recently sued engineering companies in the Flint, Michigan, water crisis. #USFLaw

MAY 2016 New legal incubator helps #USFLaw alums launch solo practices serving modest means clients: bit.ly/usflaw-bali-launch

MAY 2016 MAY 2016

JUNE 2016 USF’s Intensive Advocacy Program: Two weeks. 80+ hours. Two trials from head to toe. Dozens of expert litigators and judges from across the country providing personalized feedback to students. Students and alumni making meaningful professional connections. USF School of Law’s Intensive Advocacy Program is all of this and more.

See for yourself: bit.ly/usflaw-iap2016

Assistant Professor Tom Nazario recently updated “Kids & the Law: An A-to-Z Guide for Parents” 20 years after first writing it. The State Bar of California offers the free consumer guide to the public in English and Spanish. For more information about how to order copies, visit bit.ly/usflaw-kids-law-guide.

Keya Koul, our new associate director of alumni relations, was recently appointed to the American Bar Association’s Council for Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Educational Pipeline. “Keya brings a strong and experienced voice on diversity and academic success to the ABA. And she is a fine representative for USF, the nation’s second most diverse law school,” said Dean John Trasviña. #USFLaw

JUNE 2016 ongrats to #USFLaw’s Joseph Lewis 3L on winning the California Real Property C Law Section Journal Law Student Writing Competition!

IN BRIEF

USF School of Law Receives $215,000 Grant to Strengthen Taxation Program The Edwin L. Wiegand Trust granted the USF School of Law $215,000 this year to enhance three components of the school’s taxation program.

The grant provides funds for the compensation of the E. L. Wiegand Distinguished Professor, a position currently held by renowned taxation scholar Daniel Lathrope, as well as the E. L. Wiegand Annual Visiting Fellows Program and the E. L. Wiegand Research Fund.

“These gifts provide us with the opportunity to build on the success of the tax program,” said Lathrope. “The visiting fellows program will allow us to bring a prominent tax figure to the law school who will enrich the tax curriculum and the entire academic program. I plan to use the research fund to enhance my scholarship and, hopefully, raise the visibility of USF’s tax program.”

The Edwin L. Wiegand Trust has supported the law school since 1983, funding major projects such as the moot courtroom, Kendrick Hall renovations, and the building of Zief Law Library, as well as student scholarships.

“For more than three decades, the Wiegand Trust has supported enterprising new development at the School of Law,” said Dean John Trasviña. “This gift strengthens our tax LLM program as we aspire to become the premier West Coast tax law program.” n E. L. Wiegand Distinguished Professor in Tax Daniel Lathrope

Professor Tristin Green Appointed Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship Professor Tristin Green has been named the associate dean for faculty scholarship, succeeding Professor Michelle Travis, who served in that role for three years.

The associate dean for faculty scholarship works to enhance the production and impact of scholarship by USF law faculty. Green will oversee a faculty speaker series, supervise research grants, and organize other activities to support faculty’s efforts for more effective writing.

“Producing quality scholarship with impact is an essential expectation of law faculty,” said Dean John Trasviña. “Whether that impact be in the courtrooms, in the academy, among advocates, or with public policy opinion leaders and lawmakers, I am confident that Tristin Green will continue Michelle Travis’ excellent work.”

Green specializes in laws affecting inequality, especially employment discrimination law.

8

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

Green is the author of the forthcoming book Discrimination Laundering: The Rise of Organizational Innocence and the Crisis of Equal Opportunity Law, and numerous law review articles and essays.

She earned an undergraduate degree from UC Los Angeles, a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University, and a law degree from UC Berkeley. Before joining USF in 2009, she was a professor at Seton Hall Law School and a visiting professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. “I am thrilled to be taking on this role. There is so much engaged and significant scholarly work already going on here at USF School of Law,” said Green. “My goal is to build stronger collaborative connections between faculty and also with outside audiences to make our scholarship even better and more impactful.” n

PRESS CLIPPINGS “ According to the Department [of Justice], the way this law is written, the only way it can be enforced is by discriminating.

The vast majority [of such cases] always typically settle. But this is one where you can’t really compromise.”

“ Even when founders try to anticipate the tasks and challenges ahead, startup ventures almost never follow a smooth predetermined path.… Suddenly, people who may have known each other for years cannot speak to each other without blaming and name-calling.”

Dean John Trasviña in Time and Fortune on North Carolina’s transgender bathroom law, HB2.

Professor Robert Talbot in The Recorder on the benefits of mediation for startups.

“ The city is caught between a rock and hard place.

This is a collision between fair housing law and our ongoing chronic affordable housing crisis.”

Professor Tim Iglesias on KQED about a San Francisco measure, rejected by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that would give low-income and minority residents priority in new affordable housing developments in their neighborhoods.

“ It is not the death knell for the executive actions. It means it now goes back to trial for a full hearing.

Now the question is the substance of the lawsuit: Can the president issue executive actions?”

Professor Bill Ong Hing in the Dallas Morning News about what’s next after the U.S. Supreme Court’s tie vote on President Barack Obama’s immigration initiatives.

“ Through the years, the idea of excluding agricultural workers from labor protections has become less and less palatable, especially because we know how difficult the work is and how difficult those conditions are.”

“ One possibility is that you’re seeing a kind of maturing of the company in a way. That [Uber] is going from sort of a cowboy mentality, if you will, to more of the attitude of an established company.”

Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Joshua Davis in The Mercury News about Uber’s shift to settling some of the more than 70 lawsuits it faces rather than fighting all litigation.

Professor Maria Ontiveros in a Los Angeles Times article about a California bill requiring overtime pay for farmworkers.

USFCA.EDU/LAW

9

FACULTY FOCUS ON THE RECORD

HAMILL FAMILY CHAIR PROFESSOR OF LAW AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY RICHARD LEO

Professor Richard Leo is nationally recognized as an expert on police interrogations, false confessions, and wrongful convictions. As the Hamill Family Chair Professor of Law and Social Psychology, he combines his passion for justice with his love of research and teaching, engaging students in classes on criminal law and criminal procedure and in a seminar on wrongful convictions.

He has written more than 100 articles in leading scientific and legal journals, and is the sixth most cited law professor nationally by state supreme courts and 24th by the U.S. Supreme Court, state supreme courts, and federal circuit courts. He is also the author of several books, including the multiple award-winning Police Interrogation and American Justice (Harvard University Press, 2008) and Confessions of Guilt: From Torture to Miranda and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 2012).

What drew you to research and write about police interrogation, false confessions, and wrongful convictions of the innocent?

My interest began in 1985 when Bradley Page, a fellow undergraduate at UC Berkeley, “confessed” to murdering his girlfriend after 16 hours of coercive and deceptive interrogation by Oakland Police.

Although Page was almost certainly innocent, he was eventually convicted of manslaughter. More generally, I have long been interested in how and why a criminal justice system that has so many formal constitutional rights in theory can so often get the most important judgment it renders — whether a criminal defendant is innocent or guilty — wrong, as DNA has repeatedly shown. Wrongful convictions are complicated legal problems that cry out for policy reforms based on first-rate research.

FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP You’ve been a professor for more than 20 years — not only teaching law at USF but also teaching psychology, criminology, and sociology at other universities. How does your unique, multidisciplinary background influence your work?

I am trained as an empirical social scientist as well as a lawyer.

Above all I am interested in how the world works, and so I have a more practical bent than many others. Also, I apply my social science training and expertise to legal problems, whether it is lecturing to professional groups such as judges or police, serving as a litigation consultant in criminal and civil cases, testifying before legislative bodies or as an expert witness, or teaching USF law students.

You have helped free wrongfully convicted prisoners in high-profile and lesser-known cases. Which case are you most proud of?

Probably the Norfolk Four case, in which four men were wrongly convicted of a rape-murder despite the fact that DNA established their innocence and confirmed the guilt of the true perpetrator.

I co-wrote the book The Wrong Guys in 2008 about it, which contributed to their release from prison. As a result, it was the subject of a story in The New Yorker magazine in 2009 and a PBS Frontline documentary in 2010. More recently, I worked on the Beatrice Six civil case in Nebraska. After my testimony this summer, the jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $28 million for their many years of wrongful incarceration.

Were you involved in the Brendan Dassey case featured in the recent Netflix series Making a Murderer?

Yes. In 2009, I worked on his post-conviction case for the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Law School.

I analyzed the case materials, wrote a report, and testified in a post-conviction hearing in state court, where the judge rejected my conclusions about all the problems with his interrogation and confession. The federal judge who just reversed Dassey’s conviction on habeas corpus extensively cited my research in his recently published opinion. n

PROFESSOR AND ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS JOSHUA DAVIS wrote the article “Legal Dualism, Legal Ethics, and Fidelity to Law,” which will be published in the American Bar Association’s forthcoming Journal of the Professional Lawyer. He was a panelist on “Winning Big or Crapping Out: Class-Action Ethics from a Real-Life Perspective” at the 20th Annual ABA National Institute on Class Actions in Las Vegas. He was quoted in “Uber battling more than 70 lawsuits in federal courts” in The Mercury News.

PROFESSOR CONNIE DE LA VEGA received the 2016 Warren M. Christopher International Lawyer of the Year Award from the State Bar of California International Law Section, in recognition of her extraordinary work in the field of international law. She organized and moderated the panel “Closing Guantanamo, or Moving It North?” at the 31st session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva. She also wrote two op-ed pieces discussing Fisher v. University of Texas, “Much Ado About Nothing” published by Casetext and “Fisher Helps Promote U.S. Treaty Obligations” published by Human Rights at Home Blog.

PROFESSOR EMERITUS H. JAY FOLBERG wrote the article “The Shrinking Joint Session: Survey Results” published in the American Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Magazine.

He co-authored three forthcoming textbooks: Lawyer Negotiation: Theory, Practice and Law; Mediation: The Roles of Advocate and Neutral; and Resolving Disputes: Theory, Practice and Law (Aspen Publishers). He also led a three-day advanced mediation training for the Slovenian Association of Mediators in Ljubljana, cosponsored by the Supreme Court of Slovenia and the U.S. Embassy in Slovenia.

USFCA.EDU/LAW

11

FACULTY FOCUS PROFESSOR DAVID FRANKLYN co-authored the article “The Problem of Mop Heads in the Era of Apps: Toward More Rigorous Standards of Value Apportionment in Contemporary Patent Law” published in the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society.

PROFESSOR SUSAN FREIWALD presented “Surveillance Technologies and Fourth Amendment Privacy” and “CalECPA’s (SB 178) Requirements and Impact on Law Enforcement” at the California State Bar Public Law Section’s 21st Century Public Surveillance and Privacy Conference in San Francisco. She was quoted in “Data hoarding site represents the dark side of data breach monitoring” in CIO and PCWorld.

PROFESSOR AND ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR FACULTY SCHOLARSHIP TRISTIN GREEN wrote the forthcoming book Discrimination Laundering: The Rise of Organizational Innocence and the Crisis of Equal Opportunity Law (Cambridge University Press). She also joined the advisory board for the University of San Francisco’s Center for Research, Artistic, and Scholarly Excellence.

PROFESSOR BILL ONG HING wrote “From Ferguson to Palestine: Disrupting Race-Based Policing” in the Howard Law Journal. He gave the keynote speech at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center’s 2016 Phillip Burton Immigration and Civil Rights Awards and presented on current U.S. immigration laws, policies, and more for the Worldwide Affairs Council of Sonoma County. He was honored at the 2016 Rebellious Lawyering Conference, where he also gave the keynote address at the conference’s annual dinner for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

PROFESSOR PETER JAN HONIGSBERG authored “The Consequences Today of the United States’ Brutal Post-9/11 Interrogation Techniques,” published in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy. He participated in Professor Connie de la Vega’s panel “Closing Guantanamo or Moving it North?” at the 31st session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva. He presented “Rights and Wrongs: Guantanamo Bay” at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, and presented “The Witness to Guantanamo Project: Giving Voice to the People of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba” at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary.

12

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

PROFESSOR TIM IGLESIAS was appointed to the California Fair Employment and Housing Council by Gov. Jerry Brown. He wrote the article “Inclusionary Zoning Affirmed: California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose,” published by the Journal of Affordable Housing and Community Development Law. His article “Response to ‘Urban Policy and Families: How Concerns About Order Contribute to Familial Disorder’” will be published in the Fordham Urban Law Journal. His previously published article, “Maximizing Inclusionary Zoning Contributions to Both Affordable Housing and Residential Integration,” will appear in the 2016 edition of Zoning and Planning Law Handbook. He was quoted on NPR’s All Things Considered and KQED News.

PROFESSOR ALICE KASWAN’S article “Climate Adaptation and Theories of Justice” will be published in the forthcoming book Philosophy, Law and Environmental Crisis (Franz Steiner Verlag). She presented “Supreme-ly Significant: Environmental Cases in the Supreme Court” at the Bar Association of San Francisco Environmental Law Section’s event, Environmental Cases in the Supreme Court and the Circuits.

She also participated in a panel discussion of recent Supreme Court cases addressing environmental law at the California Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section’s annual conference.

HAMILL FAMILY CHAIR PROFESSOR OF LAW AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY RICHARD A. LEO co-authored the chapter, “Her Story, His Story: Sexual Miscommunication, Motivated Remembering, and Intoxication as Pathways to Honest False Testimony” in the forthcoming book, Vilified: Wrongful Allegations of Child and Sexual Abuse (Oxford University Press). He also wrote the essay “Has the Innocence Movement Become an Exoneration Movement? The Risks and Rewards of Redefining Innocence,” for the forthcoming book Wrongful Convictions and the DNA Revolution: Twenty-Five Years of Freeing the Innocent (Cambridge University Press). He was ranked the sixth most cited law professor nationally by state supreme courts and 24th by the U.S. Supreme Court, state supreme courts, and federal circuit courts, according to a survey of Association of American Law Schools professors.

PROFESSOR RHONDA MAGEE’S Alabama Law Review article “The Third Reconstruction: An Alternative to Race Consciousness and Colorblindness” was cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. She wrote “If You Plant Corn, You Get Corn: On Mindfulness and Racial Justice in Florida and Beyond” in the Florida Bar Journal, and “Martin Luther King Jr. offers insight into ‘justice for all’” and “Mindfulness plays role in educating lawyers to confront racism” in the ABA Journal. She served on the panels “Mindfulness, Diversity, and Inclusion as a Foundation for Working Together” and “Mindfulness in America: Health Revolution or Passing Fad?” at the Mindful Life Conference in Washington, D.C. PROFESSOR MAYA MANIAN wrote a book review on J. Shoshanna Ehrlich’s Regulating Desire: From the Vir tuous Maiden to the Purity Princess for Law and History Review. She served as a panelist at The Women’s Building’s “Forum for Choice: The Supreme Court and The Future of Reproductive Freedom” in San Francisco, as well as on the panel “Law on the Borderline of Belonging and Exclusion” at the International Conference on Law and Society in New Orleans. She was quoted in “Abor tion law quashed” in New Scientist and wrote “Protecting abortion rights after Whole Womens Health” on JURIST’s Forum.

PROFESSOR SHARON MEADOWS was quoted in “Pressure persists to sanction Stanford rape judge” in SF Bay News.

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR THOMAS A. NAZARIO received a Hearts on Fire Visionary Award in August.

HERBST FOUNDATION PROFESSOR OF LAW JULIE A. NICE wrote the chapter “A Sweeping Refusal of Equal Protection: Dandridge v. Williams” in The Poverty Law Canon: Exporing the Major Cases (University of Michigan Press). She served on the panels “The Many Faces of the Law: The Regulation of Sexuality in its Different Manifestations” and “Obergefell in Broader Relief: The Regulation of the Poor, LGBTQ People, Single Mothers, and Reproductive Rights” at USF’s Social Equity Leadership Conference.

PROFESSOR MARIA ONTIVEROS wrote “Introduction: The Thirteenth Amendment Through the Lens of Class and Labor” in the Seattle University Law Review, and “The Fundamental Nature of Title VII” in the Ohio State Law Journal. She was quoted in “California lawmakers expect another showdown on overtime pay for farmworkers” in the Los Angeles Times.

PROFESSOR ROBERT TALBOT was quoted on NBC and in several other media outlets about an unauthorized disclosure of a wedding video at the center of a federal lawsuit. He wrote “Six reasons meditation can work wonders in a startup founders dispute” in The Recorder.

DEAN JOHN TRASVIÑA presented “Paving the Way for the Next Generation of Latino Lawyers and Leaders” at the Marin Latino Leaders’ Luncheon, and gave the opening remarks at the Alternative Dispute Resolution — Northern California Conference.

He was quoted in “After Mexico visit, Trump delivers tough talk on immigration” in the San Francisco Chronicle.

PROFESSOR MICHELLE TRAVIS wrote the forthcoming article “Gendering Disability to Enable Disability Rights Law” for the California Law Review. She was a co-organizer of the Third Annual Writing Collaborative for Workplace Law in Stinson, California. She was also a signatory for the Comments from Law Professors on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking by the U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division on “Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees.”

PROFESSOR MANUEL VARGAS wrote “Responsibility and the Limits of Conversation” in Criminal Law and Philosophy. His article “Implicit Bias, Responsibility, and Moral Ecology” will be included in the forthcoming edition of Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility (Oxford University Press).

USFCA.EDU/LAW

13

Justice for All Students Bridge Law School and Practice by Representing Clinic Clients

14

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

From securing intellectual property to pursuing racial justice, students in USF’s law clinics bring help and hope to clients in the Bay Area and beyond.

by Monica Villavicencio

USFCA.EDU/LAW

15

T

he week of Alexander Thayer’s 18th birthday, the FBI raided his house. They arrested his father. They put Thayer in handcuffs and tried

to question him.

“And then when they were taking my dad out, they had the nerve to Reinventing Renewable Energy say happy birthday,” Thayer 3L remembers.

The anger he felt that day and the months of fear afterward, as he Galen Maloney’s father, Cahill, painted signs for a living, but at his watched his dad get a federal public defender and go on to serve time, core he was an inventor. stayed with him.

He was always tinkering, coming up with ideas to improve the lives But it’s the raid itself that he pinpoints as the moment he decided to of those around him — mattresses that prevented bedsores, optimized forgo his plans to go to film school. bike helmets, and breathing devices for big wave surfers.

“I just knew from that day that I wanted to be a lawyer,” Thayer Over the years, he amassed a portfolio of small-scale inventions says. “I fight for my clients, but I’m really fighting for their families, that never really gained traction. families that have never done anything. We’re dealing with people who But one day Maloney’s father called him with news. He believed he are scared. I was in that position. You’re the had discovered a potentially game-changing last line of defense.” source of renewable energy.

When Thayer talks about his clients, it’s “He was so excited. He said, ‘This is the clear he has a fire inside. It’s one he’s chanbig one,’” remembers Maloney, an Entreneled into his work with the USF School of preneurial Ventures Legal Services Project Law’s Racial Justice Clinic, where he and (EVLS) client who was teaching English his colleagues are battling racial disparities in Barcelona at the time. “It was the call in the bail system, disparities that have home. I knew I needed to help.” devastating impacts not only on the defenThe idea drawing Maloney back across the dants themselves, but also their families.

Atlantic was a process for generating energy That passion permeates all of the School by harnessing the power of the moon, a of Law’s clinics (see page 21), places where process his father called nautical torque. passion and challenge meet to create Maloney’s father had been watching hands-on opportunities to tackle some of large cargo ships in the San Francisco our most intractable problems.

Bay bob up and down with the ebb and Students in the Entrepreneurial Ventures flow of the tide and had a realization: The — Entrepreneurial Ventures Legal Legal Services Project are helping entrepremovement of a massive amount of weight, Services Project client Galen Maloney neurs protect their game-changing ideas, like that of a ship, creates a tremendous

“I am the definition of bootstrapping.

There’s just so much I needed. The USF students were a godsend. They’re thirsty for innovation, and it’s encouraging.”

including one that could transform the renewable energy arena. Students in the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic are helping migrants fleeing gang and drug violence gain asylum.

The students’ experiences are invaluable building blocks for a fruitful career in law. But it’s not just that. They are also a chance to see firsthand that these problems exist not out there, in another city and another time, but right here, right now, and that their ability to make an impact does, too.

16

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

amount of force. What if that force could be used to generate electricity?

The idea was simple, but Maloney and his father believed it could remake the renewable energy landscape.

The problem with go-to renewables like solar and wind, Maloney says, is that they are intermittent, and because bulk energy storage is limited, these sources must be backed up with fossil fuels like coal, as well as nuclear power. The tides, on the other hand, are governed by the moon, which is constant and predictable.

Crystal Araujo 3L helped client Galen Maloney get his renewable energy company on solid legal ground.

Maloney’s father believed nautical torque could be the first viable alternative to fossil fuel and nuclear-based power production. And so he set to work building a proof of concept, and Maloney began building a business around that idea.

Their nascent startup, Nautical Torque, is just the kind of client EVLS seeks to help — one with a social mission.

“I’m very much into environmental issues,” says Crystal Araujo 3L, a student in the EVLS program who worked with Nautical Torque.

“This is a technology that really needs to be utilized — even how it came about, that we can get energy from waves in the water. It was so innovative and interesting.”

Professor Robert Talbot started EVLS in part because the sheer number of entrepreneurs in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, which he calls the entrepreneurial capital of the world, meant that it was not only a rich opportunity for his students to learn but also that demand was high.

“There’s a whole language surrounding startups. I thought it would be good for our students to learn it,” Talbot says.

Many of the entrepreneurs, he adds, have great ideas but know little about the unwieldy legal processes and issues they’ll face as they build companies, develop technologies, and bring them to market

— everything from patents and trademarks to intellectual property and employment law, which, if not carried out correctly, could sink a promising startup.

“When you’re just starting out, you can make decisions that aren’t good for you and your company, and your whole enterprise can fall apart,” says Talbot. “What you do when you’re just starting out is going to determine how things will go down the road.”

To set off on the right foot, new startups need myriad legal services, so Talbot combined four clinics into EVLS, offering the expertise of a multi-faceted law firm. Clients of EVLS are served by the law school’s Investor Justice; Internet and Intellectual Property Justice; Employment Law; and Mediation Clinics.

Maloney came to EVLS after his father died of stomach cancer. His father hadn’t lived to see his biggest invention come to fruition, but Maloney believed in the idea and was determined to push through with his moonshot idea and their fledgling company.

But he needed support wading through what his father had left.

Maloney sought EVLS’ help filing his articles of incorporation. USF students also helped him transfer the patents from his father’s name to his.

“His father passed away in the middle of creating this business.

EVLS took what his dad created and gave him an understanding of

USFCA.EDU/LAW

17

how to manage his business, the intellectual property issues, and a sense of the risks,” says Araujo, who was recently elected national vice president of the ABA law student division.

Among the risks she identified was that his company name hadn’t been trademarked. Rebranding a company after you’ve started doing business is costly, time-consuming, and difficult, Araujo says, and so she began the complicated process of trademarking Nautical Torque.

“I enjoyed figuring all of it out,” she says. “I know this company needs to be protected because it could change how we get energy. I hope it does. I hope it’s successful.”

For Maloney, who balances Nautical Torque with a job as a counselor for homeless youth, the legal support was invaluable. It’s freed him to focus on research and development and raising money.

“I am the definition of bootstrapping,” he says. “There’s just so much I needed. The USF students were a godsend. They’re thirsty for innovation, and it’s encouraging.”

18

Ned Juri-Martinez 3L worked closely with Lucia and her daughter, who were granted asylum after fleeing Honduras.

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

Asylum for Migrants In 2014, tens of thousands of migrants, primarily women and unaccompanied children, crossed the border into the United States. They were fleeing escalating gang and drug violence in places like Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras, countries with some of the highest murder rates in the world.

A 90 percent spike in the detention of unaccompanied minors prompted the Obama administration to declare a humanitarian crisis.

Detention centers were flooded, and many migrants were given ankle monitors and released into communities around the country to pursue their asylum cases in court. Many were sent to the Bay Area.

“My friends at Bay Area Legal Aid were inundated,” says Professor Bill Ong Hing ’74, himself a former immigration attorney.

The need for legal representation for asylum-seekers was high, and Bay Area Legal Aid asked Hing if he and his students could take on

some asylum cases pro bono. After receiving a grant from the state, Hing started the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic in 2015.

Now funded by the City and County of San Francisco and the California Department of Social Services, the clinic receives client referrals from Catholic Charities and the Centro Legal de la Raza in Oakland. It has two primary caseloads: unaccompanied children and family units — mostly women with young children, some just a few months old.

Lucia*, a 21-year-old from Honduras, falls into the second group.

Her older brother had become involved with Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), an international criminal gang notorious for kidnapping, extortion, torture, and murder. He began selling drugs for them, and when he owed them drug money, they tried to force him to rape and kill for them. He refused and went into hiding.

When the gang couldn’t find him, they came after Lucia, a single mother.

One day, three gang members brandishing knives knocked on her door and demanded that she hand over her baby daughter. She ran out the back door of the house.

Three days later, she fled Honduras with her daughter.

The two were taken into government custody trying to enter the U.S. and were sent to the Bay Area. They were facing deportation when they met Ned Juri-Martinez 3L, a student attorney in Hing’s clinic. He was their last line of defense.

“There’s no community more marginalized than these immigrants,” Juri-Martinez says. “I knew this is where I needed to be.”

Under the guidance of the clinic’s supervising attorney Jacqueline Brown Scott ’05, Juri-Martinez was tasked with fighting Lucia’s deportation through the asylum office. Over the course of several months, he met with her, getting the details of her narrative so he could fill out her asylum application.

“I was told she could be a little bit of a firecracker and she definitely was, but you got a sense that there was a vulnerable side that she wanted to share, that there was more that she wasn’t entirely revealing,” Juri-Martinez says.

It took time to build trust, but she slowly opened up, sharing things that were painful to talk about but key to winning her case — not only about the gang violence, but also domestic abuse she’d suffered in Honduras.

Lucia would not only have to testify in court, but also withstand a

tough cross-examination by a government attorney. She’d face hard questions about sensitive, painful experiences, and any inconsistencies or breakdowns could mean deportation.

“I was nervous. You’re dealing with people with a lot of trauma, and you never know what may trigger your client, just being in that high-pressure setting, having to rehash those experiences. I was worried Lucia would shut down when it meant the most,” JuriMartinez says.

To prepare, the clinic trained Juri-Martinez on direct examination, and he read Board of Immigration Appeals decisions on how they assess credibility. He, along with Hing and others, also practiced with Lucia, simulating the courtroom situation and demystifying the process.

On the day of her hearing, Lucia was ready.

“I was really scared and nervous,” Lucia remembers. “It was really hard. I’d never been to court, but I knew I had the support of the lawyers, so I felt good.”

The hearing went smoothly, and the judge granted Lucia and her 3-year-old daughter asylum. She had her ankle bracelet removed that day.

“It was just total relief, tears, excitement,” says Juri-Martinez. “You’re still in court so you don’t want to get up and shout. She just looked at us and was welling up. It was definitely very emotional.”

Lucia’s case is one of 20 the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic has closed so far, with 85 more cases currently in progress. The only clinic of its kind in California, its challenges have been manifold — working across cultures and languages and with clients who’ve faced deep trauma — but its success is unequivocal.

It’s won green cards for all of its clients. Catholic Charities also consults the clinic for guidance on difficult cases.

“This work is life-changing not just for the clients, but also for the students. Many come from immigrant families themselves,” says Hing.

“It gives them an opportunity to work with many deserving clients.”

The Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic’s challenges have been manifold — working across cultures and languages and with clients who’ve faced deep trauma — but its success is unequivocal. It’s won green cards for all of its clients.

Critical Call for Racial Justice Ask Professor Sharon Meadows about the spark that started the Racial Justice Clinic, and she’ll cite a shocking statistic: In San Francisco, black adults are 11 times more likely than white adults to be booked into a county jail.

That means that black adults who are arrested are 11 times more likely to be held in custody, rather than released pending trial — a figure

* Her name was changed for her protection

USFCA.EDU/LAW

19

Racial Justice Clinic students Alexander Thayer 3L, Cristal Harris 3L, and Shelley Saina 3L wrote and argued bail motions in partnership with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

cited in a sweeping 2015 report by the W. Haywood Burns Institute, a national nonprofit working to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system.

“If you go to the jail and see the holding tank, most are AfricanAmerican,” Meadows says. “When the Burns Institute report came out, we had evidence to support what we’d assumed was true.”

What they’d assumed and was later proven was that there were significant racial disparities not only in arrest rates, but also in the bail system itself, specifically who is granted bail, who can afford to pay, and who gets released on their own recognizance.

The bottom line is that if you are black, you’ll probably be held in custody pending adjudication.

Meadows points to the Bail Reform Act of 1984, which she says transformed the bail system from one whose goal was to enure a defendant’s appearance in court to one with a public safety mandate.

“Public safety is much more subjective and subject to racial bias,” she says.

Meadows oversees the Racial Justice Clinic, a collaboration between the USF School of Law and the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

The clinic seeks to address racial disparities in the bail system.

A former public defender, Meadows explores historical perspectives on bail with her students and teaches them how to read police

reports and how to write and argue bail motions. The students then go into the jails and interview clients. They ask about their histories and the circumstances that brought them there. They ask about their families, their jobs, their churches, their schools. They try to get all of the details they can to build a strong argument for their bail motions.

Sometimes, they also appear before judges to argue on behalf of their clients.

“One of the students said, ’This woman standing beside me, I am the key to her getting out.’ They get very attached to their clients, and they get very fervent about it,” Meadows says.

That’s because they know their clients — largely poor, minority, transient, and/or mentally ill — are perched precariously and desperately need someone in their corner.

“These are people who don’t live picture perfect lives, people who were never given a chance, who’ve had the odds stacked against them from the beginning, who the system has failed, who are faced with the world handing them bad things over and over,” says Cristal Harris 3L, who enrolled in the clinic last semester.

And for these defendants — often without a familial or financial safety net — being held in custody, whether for a week or for months, can be devastating.

“If that’s the main provider of the family, that’s a loss of income.

They might lose their housing. Their kids could go into foster care.

For these defendants — often without a familial or financial safety net — being held in custody, whether for a week or for months, can be devastating.

20

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

These things break people up. If they were working, that job is gone. They’re fired,” says clinic student Thayer. “It doesn’t matter if the case gets dismissed.

They’ve been gone for so long that they basically have to start all over.”

Defendants held in custody pre-adjudication are also at a disadvantage in court, Meadows adds.

“It’s much harder to negotiate an acquittal if your client is in custody. Your client can’t help you with things.

Your client is not available to talk about their case.”

Over the course of three semesters, students have filed more than 150 motions. Their goal is to get their clients released on their own recognizance, and if necessary, into a drug treatment or employment assistance program that can help them get on their feet.

That’s because even if clients are granted bail, more often than not, they cannot afford to pay. The city’s bail schedule ranks among the most expensive in the state.

“I was in shock that first day,” says Thayer. “You have to pay 10 percent, so if bail is set for $80,000, you’d have to pay $8,000. Who can afford that?”

The San Francisco Sheriff's Department estimates that 75 to 85 percent of the city’s jail population is pretrial, and about one-third are there because they can’t afford bail.

Getting someone released on their own recognizance can be a longshot, but the students still take that shot.

“Most of the time clients aren’t released,” says Harris.

“The prosecutors pull everything out. They’ll try to hit you with stuff from 1988, whatever they can.”

But the students are proud of their successes.

During an arraignment, Shelly Saina 3L argued for a client charged with felony marijuana possession with the intent to sell. Her client, a man in his 20s, had been approached by an undercover cop who tried to buy marijuana.

“The hardest part was trying to convince the judge that he would come back. The attorney was shocked that bail was granted,” Saina says.

But while getting a client released is rare, Harris says the impact of their work in the clinic will ripple out into their legal careers.

“Professor Meadows has brought up a generation of lawyers who want to fight for civil rights,” she says. 

Bridging Law School and Law Practice USF’s nine law clinics give students the opportunity to represent real clients in real cases pro bono, gaining handson experience in a variety of distinct practice areas.

Criminal and Juvenile Justice Law Clinic Represents indigent defendants in all phases of criminal proceedings, from arraignment through trial and appeal in the San Francisco Superior Courts.

Employment Law Clinic Represents clients in mediations and wage and hour disputes before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Merit Systems Protection Board, and the California Labor Commissioner.

Entrepreneurial Ventures Legal Services Project Provides a host of legal services to startup companies in Silicon Valley and across the Bay Area, through a collaborative effort between the Investor Justice; Employment Law; Internet and Intellectual Property; and Mediation Clinics.

Frank C. Newman International Human Rights Law Clinic Focuses on critical human rights issues. Students research and prepare presentations for the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva and the Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic Fights for asylum and legal immigration status for unaccompanied alien children and women with children from Central and South America.

Internet and Intellectual Property Justice Clinic Provides a variety of intellectual property legal services, including trademark and copyright matters, in partnership with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Investor Justice Clinic Represents investors in actions involving allegations of wrongdoing by securities firms and/or their employees before the National Association of Securities Dealers and the NYSE Arca.

Mediation Clinic Serves as mediators in cases involving most areas of the law, except criminal and family law matters, brought to the San Francisco Small Claims Court.

Racial Justice Law Clinic Represents clients in bail hearings in court and tracks racial disparities in bail settings, through a collaboration with the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

USFCA.EDU/LAW

21

WRITE AN ARTICLE

M

ake an Impact

On its 50th anniversary, the USF Law Review remains a point of school pride, a training ground for students, and an instrument of positive change.

By Samantha Bronson

22

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

L

ike all law students, Jim Canty ’66 spent countless hours in the law library doing legal research for classes. He’d scour different law reviews for the information he needed and over time he noticed something about those reviews he was using. They were all from other law schools.

Why didn’t the USF School of Law have a law review of its own?

“I became aware that all of the major law schools had law reviews, and I thought USF belonged in that category and should have a review,” Canty said.

Driven by a sense of pride in the School of Law, Canty set out to make sure USF had its own law review. He teamed up with classmate Bob Gloistein ’66 and Professor Peter Donnici to promote the idea of creating the USF Law Review, guiding it through the process of getting it started, including obtaining university approval.

This fall, that seemingly simple idea of the USF Law Review celebrates 50 years of publication. Now published three times a year and featuring an annual symposium, USF Law Review has created a multifaceted legacy of influencing the law, helping raise the stature and profile of the School of Law, and also providing invaluable experience to students. The publication has tackled complex, pressing issues of the times, covering everything from the death penalty to affirmative action to antitrust law.

“USF Law Review has been one of the law school’s most important student organizations,” said Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Joshua Davis, who is serving as faculty adviser to this year’s Law Review Symposium. “Its members have organized scores of scholarly events that have enriched the academic life of the school and have contributed to discussion and action in society at large. It has trained hundreds of law students to be careful and incisive writers and editors.

And it has published countless articles that have informed crucial debates in the law and have called upon us to live up to our ideals.”

First Things First Creating that sort of legacy wasn’t top of mind for Canty and others as they first worked to get the journal off the ground. Instead, they were focused on basic details for this fledgling startup. The first task?

Getting all necessary university permissions to start the publication.

Then came critical pieces such as securing articles for the law review.

After all, this was a publication no one had yet heard of. (Donnici agreed to write an article for the first issue and also persuaded a friend to write an article, as well as the school’s contracts professor, Ray Coyne.)

There was also the task of finding a good printer close by to actually print the publication. And, perhaps even more importantly, the students had to compile a list of subscribers, people who would pay to receive the publication. All that was on top of day-to-day tasks like editing articles and writing comments and notes.

Putting together all those pieces took so long that Canty and his classmates had already graduated by the time the first issue was published in fall 1966. Instead, Bob Sullivan ’67 and his team of editors oversaw the first publication; the first volume of the Law Review actually lists two editors-in-chief (Canty and Sullivan), two managing editors, and so on because so many people contributed to getting that first issue off the ground.

“I had no idea how great an effort it would be to get this thing launched,” Sullivan said. “We couldn’t go back and look at archived issues or talk with prior editors or faculty advisers because it had never been done before at USF. We just jumped right in and didn’t think about it. Our naiveté served us well because it never occurred to us to fail.”

The hard work paid off when the first issue was sent out. Sullivan said he recalls the initial issues being very well-received, by both alumni

USFCA.EDU/LAW

23

and others. Part of the reason, he said, is that the first issues intentionally focused primarily on California law. Having a somewhat narrow focus helped it stand out from other more established law reviews that covered a broader range of legal topics, Sullivan said. As the publication matured, its scope gradually expanded to the point that it now covers important legal topics within the state, the nation, and sometimes internationally.

“Having the Law Review at the school was part of the maturing process of the law school as the school grew in importance, size, and influence,” said Senior Professor J. Thomas McCarthy, who contributed an article in 1967.

A Forum for Change Of course, the Law Review’s legacy extends beyond how well-received it is; it also includes influencing the law itself.

Professor Connie de la Vega, who writes extensively on international human rights law, focused a 2007 USF Law Review article on the use of life without parole sentencing for juvenile offenders and had the article cited in a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The article, “Sentencing Our Children to Die in Prison: Global Law and Practice,” was first inspired by de la Vega’s work on an amicus brief for a different case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In that case, Roper v. Simmons, the court ultimately held that it is unconstitutional to impose capital punishment for crimes committed while under the age of 18. In researching the death penalty of other countries for the brief, de la Vega began learning

24

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

how other countries handle juvenile life without parole sentences. She found that the United States is one of just a few countries worldwide that allow for such sentences and realized the research could make for a topical scholarly article.

Through extensive research, de la Vega ultimately determined that although some countries still had life without parole sentencing on the books for juvenile offenders, they were not using it. The United States, with one possible exception, is the only country in the world that has anyone serving life without parole sentences for crimes committed when they were under 18.

In the Law Review article, de la Vega outlines how much of an outlier the United States is in this area. The context provided by the article ultimately was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Graham v.

Florida, where the court ruled that juvenile life without parole sentences for non-homicide crimes is unconstitutional.

“The USF Law Review provides an avenue for professors and students who do research on issues to write up their research and make it available to others to read,” de la Vega said. “You could just write up your articles and post them online, but it wouldn’t have the same influence as having them published in a law review journal.”

Professor Emeritus and Former Dean Delos Putz drew on his experience representing a client to write his 1986 article, “Commercial Bad Faith: Attorney Fees — Not Tort Liability — Is the Remedy for Stonewalling.” Putz’s client, a neurosurgeon in Southern California, had been treated badly by a bank when the bank cashed an obviously forged $4,000 check and then refused to credit the account when contacted about it. Putz’s client sued the bank and was eventually awarded not only the $4,000 but also $100,000 in punitive damages.

The punitive damages award — upheld by the court of appeal and later refused for review by the California Supreme Court — was groundbreaking at the time. That’s because it essentially opened up the possibility of suits against institutional defendants such as banks for breaches of contract that could include punitive damages rather than simply economic losses as had previously been the standard. Prior to this case, the California Supreme Court had indicated it might be open to extending

that type of liability; Putz’s case was the first to test that willingness.

“For my client, I had taken advantage of what the California Supreme Court had suggested regarding punitive damages. I owed that to my client,” Putz said. “But having gotten that victory for the client, I also had reservations. As an academic, I had reservations about the wisdom of the decision and I thought it was a good occasion to write about it.”

In the USF Law Review article, Putz and his co-author, Nona Klippen ’88, argued that when institutional defendants purposely drag out a case, courts shouldn’t allow punitive damages to compensate for that. Instead, they argued, courts should award attorney fees to a prevailing plaintiff.

In their research for the article, they found that 25 other states allowed courts to have discretion in awarding attorney fees if the court believed the defendant had acted unreasonably.

The article had an impact on the legal system even before it was published. As the article was undergoing final preparations for printing, Putz knew there was a case before the California Supreme Court that would address tort damages, including punitive damages, for a wrongful termination suit, so he sent a copy of the article to an attorney working as a permanent clerk to the California Supreme Court. In the portion of the opinion that dealt with that issue, the opinion cited the article a number of times in ruling that tort damages were not available for wrongful termination.

That case, supported by the USF Law Review article that was originally inspired by Putz’s case, effectively overruled the decision regarding punitive damages that Putz’s case had opened up.

In working with Putz, Klippen didn’t foresee the impact the article would have on her early career. In fact, she had turned down an opportunity to join USF Law Review, thinking that she didn’t need that experience since she wasn’t planning to work for a big firm but instead had her sights set on becoming a public defender. Putz thought differently about the USF Law Review experience, so he asked Klippen to work with him on the article.

Klippen focused primarily on the case history for the beginning of the article, working closely with Putz on writing, rewriting, and rewriting more. He listed her as a co-author on the article.

“Early on in my career, that was a big deal on my resume,” said Klippen, now a judge of the Superior Court in Santa Clara after working in the public defender’s office for nearly 27 years. “It automatically gives you status as someone who is scholarly. It’s always nice to walk into an

interview with that positive bias toward you already. Throughout my career I have been frequently amazed at really good lawyers who couldn’t write well. Now when I interview and hire people and look at their writing ability, law review experience sets them apart in my mind. I now have that same positive bias toward law review.”

Lasting Legacy That bias is warranted given the training and experience USF Law Review provides students. The application process itself is rigorous and includes submitting a 10- to 14-page paper, but the actual work of being a member is even more hands-on. Students learn to research and write their own publishable-quality comment or note, gaining critical research and writing skills. They also learn substantive and technical editing skills by thoroughly editing submitted articles.

But what students gain goes even further, said Matthew Lewis 3L, current editor-in-chief.

Students also learn to collaborate with their peers, work as a team, and communicate effectively. All editors supervise a junior staffer, an experience that provides those editors with supervisorial experience as well.

“USF Law Review is really a place where people have fine-tuned their craft,” Lewis said. “Above and beyond the law school itself, USF Law Review provides the tools, skills, and knowledge to make significant contributions. It really is a chance to change the world from here.”

Fifty years after the first publication of USF Law Review, Lewis said, students working on the publication know they’re carrying on a proud tradition that has the potential to have an impact on the law. Like the journal’s original members, they’re not necessarily wondering what legacy they’ll leave five decades from now. Instead, they’re focused on building on the good work of their predecessors, tackling topical legal issues, and contributing to the intellectual life of the law.

“The importance and power of this vehicle is that the work we do on this publication remains in the halls of history,” Lewis said. “It’s sitting on bookshelves in law libraries across the country. Judges do pick up our work and reference it, or at least pick it up and consider it.

That importance leaves a lasting impression on me and the work that we do every day.” 

SAVE THE DATE Law Review Symposium 2017 • The Business and Ethics of Cannabis Law Jan. 27, 2017 • University of San Francisco MCLE credit available • Register at: usfca.edu/lawreviewsymposium

USFCA.EDU/LAW

25

GIVING New Ethics Scholarship Honors Paul W. Vapnek ’64 Continuing law students who demonstrate a commitment to service have a new source of financial aid thanks to the Paul W. Vapnek ’64 Ethics Scholarship.

The Vapnek family created the scholarship to honor the legacy of Paul Vapnek, who passed away last year after devoting more than 40 years to legal ethics and being revered by the legal community across the state.

After earning a mechanical engineering degree and completing military service during the Korean war, Vapnek enrolled in USF School of Law’s evening program while working full-time as a sales engineer and raising a family. After graduating, he clerked for U.S. District Judge William Sweigert ’23 and then joined the Townsend law firm, now Kilpatrick Townsend, where he practiced intellectual property law and advised on attorney professional responsibility for half a century.

He authored several books on ethics and intellectual property, taught at Bay Area law schools including USF, and mentored countless students and lawyers. Living his commitment to public service, he served on numerous committees and boards including the Legal Aid Society — Employment Law Center. He received the State Bar’s

2013 Harry B. Sondheim Professional Responsibility Award, honoring his contributions to the legal profession in California, including editing the California Compendium of Professional Responsibility, helping establish the State Bar's ethics hotline, and co-writing the Rutter Group’s treatise on professional responsibility.

“Paul didn’t expect to practice law, he thought it would be a good adjunct to a business career,” said Pearl Vapnek, his wife of 60 years.

“He got hooked on the law, and ended up practicing law and utilizing his engineering degree, but that wasn’t his intention. He really loved the law, especially the philosophical aspects of legal ethics and professional responsibility.”

The scholarship is the result of a generous gift from Vapnek’s family: Pearl, a retired book editor; his son, Jonathan, a urologist and medical school professor in New York; and his daughter, Jessica, an international development lawyer in San Francisco.

“Paul Vapnek was a true San Francisco giant among all of California’s lawyers,” said Dean John Trasviña. “He was recognized for his dedication to ethics. This scholarship gift exemplifies his dedication to the next generation of lawyers devoted to high ideals and service.” n To make a tax-deductible donation to the Paul W. Vapnek ’64 Ethics Scholarship fund, please visit usfca.edu/law/makeagift.

Legacy of Gene Crew ’63 Lives on in New Scholarship Supreme Court. He was also a beloved adjunct professor of antitrust Friends of renowned antitrust attorney Eugene Crew ’63, who died law at USF for a decade. He received numerous honors, including in 2013, recently created a new scholarship in his honor. Kilpatrick Townsend, where Crew was a founding partner, funded the scholarship the Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the State Bar of California in 2009 and the USF School of Law Alumnus of the Year Award to support returning USF law students dedicated to antitrust law. in 2008.

“Gene Crew was a relentless and extre“We are thrilled that Kilpatrick Townsend mely effective advocate for the underdog,” “ Gene Crew was a relentless has established this new scholarship in said James Gilliland, a partner at Kilpatrick and extremely effective honor of Gene Crew,” said Michelle Sklar, Townsend. “You could not possibly have a advocate for the underdog.” assistant dean for development and alumni more dedicated attorney at your side. Those relations. “Scholarships like this honor of us who had the privilege of working with, — James Gilliland an accomplished graduate while allowing and learning from, Gene could not think of us to attract and retain talented students and help them mitigate a more appropriate way of honoring his legacy than establishing their debt after graduation.” n a scholarship at USF for students who may come to share Gene’s dedication to the law and economic justice.”

Throughout his 50-year career, Crew fought to stem the tide of To learn more about supporting scholarships for USF law students, monopolies and maintain competition in the marketplace. He tried please contact the USF School of Law Office of Development antitrust cases and established major antitrust legal precedent in and Alumni Relations at (415) 422-5457 or lawalumni@usfca.edu. every legal forum from the California Superior Court to the U.S.

26

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

ALUMNI NEWS CLASS NOTES

’62

Norman Saucedo ’62 received the La Raza Lawyers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Reconnecting at the Reunion Gala More than 200 alumni and friends celebrated at the USF School of Law annual reunion on Sept. 30 in an elegant tent on campus, where they reconnected over dinner and drinks with law school friends and faculty.

’63

Donald C. Carroll ’63

authored “The National Pension Crisis: A Test in Law, Economics, and Morality” in University of San Francisco Law Review. Carroll is an adjunct professor at USF School of Law and president of Law Offices of Carroll and Scully, Inc.

’69

James P. Fox ’69 has been elected president of the State Bar of California for 2016-17.

Edward Imwinkelried ’69 authored

“Determining Preliminary Facts Under Federal Rule 104” in the recent update of American Jurisprudence Trials.

’70

Hon. David Garcia ’70

co-authored The Rutter Group California Practice Guide: Landlord-Tenant, published

by Thomson Reuters.

’74

Robert Slattery ’74 has

joined Judicate West’s Northern California team.

See all the photos at bit.ly/usflaw-reunion2016-photos.

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Mary Jane Theis ’74 gave the

commencement address at Valparaiso University Law School.

’76

Eugene Brown ’76 was

named a 2016 Northern California Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine. Brown is a partner at the San Francisco office of Sedgwick LLP working in environmental litigation.

Naomi Kelly ’01 (right), with USF President Paul J. Fitzgerald, S.J. (left), received USF’s Professional Achievement Award at the university’s Alumni Gala the following evening.

Sister Barbara Dawson ’76 was elected as superior general of the International Society of the Sacred Heart. She will oversee

the communities and ministries of her congregation in 41 countries and six continents from the sisters’ international headquarters in Rome.

William “Bill” Monning ’76 was featured in the Santa Cruz Sentinel discussing his political and legislative accomplishments as a California State Senate Minority Leader.

’78

Stephen T. Lanctot ’78

received the 2016 St. Thomas More Award from the St. Thomas More Society of San Francisco.

’79

Lorraine Bannai ’79 spoke at the Commonwealth Club about her book, Enduring Conviction: Fred Korematsu and His Quest for Justice, in August in San Francisco.

Bannai was part of the team that successfully challenged Korematsu’s conviction, and is currently professor of lawyering skills and director of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at Seattle University School of Law.

Richard Dal Bello ’79, vice president

of business development and government affairs at Virgin Galactic, presented the talk “No One Has Traveled Here: The Story of Virgin Galactic” at the University of Baltimore’s Merrick School of Business. He detailed the history of Virgin Galactic and its potential to democratize access to space.

John Micek III ’79 has been appointed to the board of directors of Jaguar Animal Health, Inc. He is also chair of its audit committee.

Hon. Gary Nadler ’79 presented

“Request for Admissions” to students at the Sonoma County Bar Association in October.

Deborah Ratner Salzberg ’79 has been elected chair of the board of the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer

USFCA.EDU/LAW

27

ALUMNI NEWS

Jessica Therkelsen ’10 Recognized by ABA Young Lawyers

Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation in Washington, D.C. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette ’79, was featured in multiple national news sources, including The New York Times, NPR, and The Washington Post, after he announced the first criminal charges made in response to the Flint lead contamination water crisis. He was also featured in the Detroit Free Press for attending the 2016 Republican Convention and hosting a party in downtown Cleveland.

’80

Rodney O. Fong ’80 was elected to the board of trustees of the Law School Admissions Council.

Susan Mendelsohn ’80 co-authored

the chapter “Foreign Direct Investments in Vietnam: Investment,” published in the fifth edition of Laws of International Trade.

Jessica Therkelsen ’10 was named one of the top 40 young lawyers on the rise by the ABA Young Lawyers division for her high achievement, innovation, vision, leadership, and legal and community service.

Therkelsen is an international lawyer who advocates for the dignity and rights of immigrants, minorities, women, and children. She is the director of advocacy and communications at Asylum Access, an international refugee rights nonprofit, as well as an adjunct professor at USF School of Law. At Asylum Access, she works closely with local human rights leaders in the U.S., Ecuador, Mexico, Tanzania, Thailand, and Malaysia to advocate for systems, laws, and policies that help refugees build a new life. Her work has focused on access to jobs and labor protections for refugees around the world.

“USF School of Law pushed me to develop the skills needed to lead a growing international human rights organization that challenges systemic barriers to refugee rights,” she said. “On a daily basis I pull from my knowledge of international law, advocacy, legal writing, contracts negotiation, and so much more.

I'm so thankful for the support I received in pursuing a career in human rights and social justice.” n

28

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

’81

USF School of Law Board of Counselors member Frank Pitre ’81

was named president of the San Francisco chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Kathryn Richter ’81 joined Sedgwick LLP as a partner in its San Francisco office, practicing business litigation.

’82

Steven Roland ’82 was named a 2016 Northern California Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine.

He is a partner at the San Francisco office of Sedgwick LLP working in business litigation.

’83

Mark Bostick ’83 was named a 2016 Northern California Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine.

He is a bankruptcy and creditor/debt rights attorney at Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP.

Hon. Beverly Wood ’83 co-authored

the article “The Interdisciplinary Conference: A Grassroots Alternative for Resolving High-Conflict Parenting Disputes in Lean Times” in Family Court Review.

’84

Colusa County Chief Deputy District Attorney Matt Beauchamp ’84

was named the 2015 Wildlife Prosecutor of the Year by the California Fish and Game Commission.

Elizabeth Berke-Dreyfuss ’84 was

named a 2016 Northern California Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine. She is a bankruptcy and creditor/debt rights attorney at Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP. Michael Cooper ’84 was named a 2016 Northern California Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine.

He is a bankruptcy and creditor/debt rights attorney at Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP. Tracy Green ’84 was named a 2016 Northern California Super Lawyer

by Super Lawyers Magazine. Green is a bankruptcy and creditor/debt rights attorney at Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP.

’85

Susan Borg ’85 was the first woman to receive the Eugene Marias Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association (CAAA).

She was honored for her dedication to justice, her professional accomplishments, her work on behalf of her clients and CAAA, and for her “integrity, wisdom and leadership which best exemplifies CAAA’s ideal of true professional humanitarianism,” according to CAAA.

Manny Fortes ’85 was a panelist at the Marin County Bar Association’s forum on racial injustices. Fortes is a staff attorney at the San Francisco Office of Citizen Complaints.

Michael Scown ’85 has been appointed to the board of directors of Global Sources.

Peter Toren ’85 co-authored Defend Trade Secretes Act of 2016 Handbook (Wolters Kluwer).

’86

Karen Ballack ’86 was named a top woman lawyer by the Daily Journal. She was also named a 2016 Woman Leader in Tech Law by The Recorder. She is a partner at Weil,

Gotshal & Manges’ Silicon Valley office and is a member of the firm’s management committee.

Carol Langford ’86 was featured in a

Daily Journal article for her support of the proposed change to California’s Rules of Professional Conduct.

’87

Sadhana Narayan ’87

Gini Graham Scott ’90 wrote “Was justice served in judge’s trial for his child’s death in a hot car?” on ExpertClick.

’91

Mary Mahoney ’91 was promoted to senior vice president and general counsel at Tufts Health Plan in Watertown, Massachusetts.

was installed as president of the San Mateo County Bar Association.

Joni Reicher ’91 was appointed vice

Gregory Wood ’87 has been elected

’92

to the board of directors of Phillips Edison Grocery Center REIT 1, Inc. He serves as an independent director and as a member of the board’s conflicts committee.

’89

Sheryl Bratton ’89 has

been elected to be Sonoma County’s administrator.

Rosemary La Puma ’89 authored

“De-categorizing Child Abuse — Equally Devastating Acts Require Solicitous Statutes of Limitations,” in the University of California, Davis School of Law Journal of Juvenile Law and Policy.

Anne Marie Schubert ’89,

Sacramento County district attorney, was featured in the Sacramento Business Journal article “Anne Marie Schubert: A progressive approach to crime,” discussing her legal career and success in the development of criminal treatment programs.

’90

Robert Brownstone ’90

co-authored the chapter “Privacy Litigation” published in Data Security and Privacy Law (Thomson Reuters, 2016).

Minette Kwok ’90 was named a

top Northern California attorney in immigration and nationality law, and one of the top 50 Northern California women attorneys by Super Lawyers Magazine.

James Molinelli Jr. ’90, Northern California managing attorney for Progressive Insurance, was inducted into the American Board of Trial Advocates.

president of people at Mesosphere.

Aisling Gilliland ’92

wrote “How my dinner’s story has helped to shape my own” in Food Safety News.

Gayle Lopez ’92 received the Outstanding Institutional Representative Award at the Michigan American Council of Education Women’s Network Annual State Conference luncheon for her work in promoting women’s leadership.

’94

Robert Allard ’94 was featured in The Mercury News for his work in protecting young athletes against sexual predators within the sports system.

’95

EARN YOUR

LLM IN TAXATION AT USF’S DOWNTOWN CAMPUS CHANGE THE WORLD FROM HERE

Hon. Lupe Garcia ’95

was appointed a judge in Alameda County Superior Court. Garcia previously worked as the associate general counsel and senior director for global integrity at Gap, Inc.

Sylvia Luke ’95 , seven-term Hawaii

representative, was featured in the article “Da Sistahs: Looking Out For Your Money” in Midweek.

’96

San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Rochelle East ’96 was

• Financial aid packages available • Expert full-time faculty members • Full-time and part-time options •U p to 12 JD transfer credits accepted upon approval

featured in the San Francisco Daily Journal article “No Fear,” for her extensive law career and vast experiences and travels around the globe.

’99

Jay Leiderman ’99 was

featured in the article “FBI’s role ‘swept under the rug’ in case of

APPLY NOW usfca.edu/law/llm/taxation

USFCA.EDU/LAW

29

ALUMNI NEWS hacker Jeremy Hammond” in Today’s Zama.

Michael Norton ’99 was featured in the Marin

Gerald Heppler ’06 was appointed

Independent Journal for his position as interim police chief of the Central Marin Police Authority.

interim director of admissions at Seattle University School of Law.

Mary Catherine Wiederhold ’99 introduced

Jason Horst ’06 was named a 2016 Northern

the keynote speaker at the Lawyers’ Club of San Francisco Inn of Court at the California Supreme Court luncheon.

California Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine.

He is an intellectual property and litigation attorney at Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP.

’00

’07

Jeffery Levi ’00 was named a 2016 Northern California Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine. He is an estate planning and probate attorney at Wendel Rosen Black & Dean LLP.

’01

Cupcake Brown ’01 launched her firm,

The Law Office of Cupcake Brown, in San Diego.

’02

Travis Barrick ’02 provided legal

Jason Clark ’07 was elected chairman

of the San Francisco Republican Party.

Marc Denison ’07 was named partner at the Bakersfield law firm Clifford & Brown.

’08

Anthony D. Phillips ’08 has been named a 2016 Northern California Rising Star by Super Lawyers Magazine.

Hannah Seigel Proff ’08 was awarded the 2016 American Graduate Champions award by PBS.

assistance to a Nevada prisoner in a civil rights case in Las Vegas in conjunction with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada Pro Bono Pilot Program.

Rosario Torres Gonzalez ’08 was sworn in

’04

Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP in the San Francisco office, as a member of the litigation services department and product liability and sports law practice groups.

Nicholas Boos ’04 was named a Top 40 Under 40 lawyer by the Daily Journal.

Anne Duffy ’04 has been promoted to partner at the San Francisco office of Ernst & Young LLP. Nancy Fraley ’04 was featured in the

article “Nancy Fraley's Professional ‘Nose’ Knows When the Mash is Actually Sour” in The Whiskey Wash for her work in the distilling industry.

John Hendricks ’04 , founding partner

of HendricksMurry P.C., announced the certification of his firm as an LGBT Business Enterprise through the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce Supplier Diversity Initiative.

as assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of California.

Jeffrey Primo Wilson ’08 has joined Schnader

’09

Anthony Carano ’09 was elected executive vice president of operations for Eldorado Resorts, Inc., where he currently serves as general counsel and secretary.

an attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Devin Kinyon ’11 has been promoted to associate clinical professor of law at Santa Clara University, where he has worked for the past five years. He oversees academic support and is part of the team that helps prepare students for the bar exam.

’13

Jenifer Frudden ’13 has been named the vice chair of the Alameda County Bar Association's family law executive committee.

’14

Shaun Greer ’14 joined the board of directors for QLaw, the LGBT Bar Association of Washington.

John Roman ’14 was featured in an article on the

Bar Association of San Francisco’s website for successfully negotiating a settlement in his first pro bono case with Homeless Advocacy Project.

Roman is an associate attorney at Keller, Sloan, Roman, and Holland.

’15

Iris Kokish ’15 authored the Daily Journal article “California Blunders in its Haste to Win the $15 Minimum Wage Race.”

’16

Jordan Lockey ’16 was featured in The Friday Flyer for securing a post-bar position at the Santa Barbara District Attorney’s Office.

Jonathan Madison ’16 writes regularly for the

San Mateo Daily Journal, covering topics from news to sports to opinion pieces. 

Josue Fuentes ’09 was selected as one of Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 2016 40 Under 40. Fuentes works for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office.

Jennifer Loeb ’09 became an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.

’10

’05

Zuzana Malek ’10 joined Berg & McLaughlin, Chtd. as an associate attorney, focusing on family law and litigation.

In Memoriam

San Francisco Magazine discussing SFPD procedure reforms.

Aaron Marienthal ’10 , previously a senior

Noel Dyer ’39, July 2016

San Francisco Police Commission President Suzy Loftus ’05 was featured in

Verleana Green ’05 was named a top 100

lawyer by the National Black Lawyers Association for the second year in a row.

On Lu ’05 became a partner at Nixon Peabody's

intellectual property counseling and transactions practice in San Francisco.

30

’06

USF SCHOOL OF LAW

associate at Reed Smith in San Francisco, joined the commercial and intellectual property firm Tyz Marton Schumann LLP.

’11

Dana Isaac ’11 was quoted in the

Associated Press article “State program gives poor a break on traffic tickets,” which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, and other media nationwide, for her work as

Frederic Keith Varni ’53 , March 2016 Carmen J. Dominguez ’55 , May 2016 John Walker ’55 , September 2016 Alvin Buchignani ’60, March 2016 Jeremy Harrison ’60, April 2016 Mike Griffin ’68 , August 2016 Warren W. Goedert ’70, September 2016 Hon. Rosa Moran ’86 , May 2016

What’s New? Share your professional and personal news with your fellow alums! Submit a class note today at lawalumni@usfca.edu or usfca.edu/alumni-update

UPCOMING EVENTS Save the dates to join us at USF School of Law events.

Get more information at usfca.edu/law/events or by emailing lawevents@usfca.edu

NOVEMBER 16 WOMEN LAWYERS COMMITTEE SCHOLARSHIP RECEPTION

DECEMBER 13 ALUMNI HOLIDAY MIXER

JANUARY 21 WATER LAW SYMPOSIUM *MCLE CREDIT AVAILABLE

JANUARY 27 LAW REVIEW SYMPOSIUM ON THE BUSINESS AND ETHICS OF CANNABIS LAW

*MCLE CREDIT AVAILABLE

Share Your Knowledge, Mentor a Student The School of Law is excited to partner with the USF Alumni Mentor Program to bring together alumni with students and recent graduates for mutually beneficial career advancement and community building.

The program matches alumni with 10 or more years of experience with 3L and 4L students for professional development, community building, and engagement.

Sign up to be a mentor at usfca.edu/alumni/mentor

USFCA.EDU/LAW

31

CLOSING ARGUMENT

ALUMNI NEWS

Rescued From the Brink of Death: A Refugee’s Gratitude

by Lauren Vuong ’99

1

I was seven years old when compassion saved my life.

This is my journey of survival, perseverance, and gratitude.

THE PAST Imagine a 3-year-old girl who worships her father because he fights for his country. One day she wakes up and finds him gone. She’s told that he will be away for a few months. Three years later, he’s still not home.

When the little girl is 6, she walks all day to the border between Vietnam and Cambodia to see her father. When she gets there, a barbed wire fence separates her and a man faintly resembling her father. When he finally approaches, he’s different, not the shining hero of her memory.

One night after her father’s release, the family quietly slips out of their house. They have in their possession a small bag of dried foods, a few gold chains sewn into their hemlines, and her father’s Army dog tag.

They bring the dog tag to establish her father’s affiliation with the U.S. Army. They board a tiny fishing boat to flee communist Vietnam.

I was that little girl.

We escaped during the monsoon season hoping that the unpredictable weather would decrease coastal patrols thus helping us to elude capture.

The estimated travel time to the Philippines was seven days in good weather.

Over the next ten days, we had only two of good weather. The next days are now a blur of memories of awful smells of human waste and vomiting until I thought I would die. I remember the black walls of water that threatened to engulf our boat. I remember hunger so painful that it took on its own shape, dark and twisting like a rope around all my organs.

When the skies cleared on the tenth day, we were lost, depleted of fuel, food, and water. Imminent death was a certainty. Then miraculously, a U.S.-flagged ship, the LNG Virgo spotted us. We were rescued on June 29, 1980.

Since that day, the skyscraping image of the 12-story-high, threefootball-field long behemoth flying the American flag forever cemented itself in my mind as being synonymous with life and freedom.

THE PRESENT I began intensely searching for the Virgo and her crew in 2007. I located Capt. George Overstreet, a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran who sailed the Virgo and also rescued refugees. Overstreet informed me that my savior’s name was Hartmann Schonn, who passed away in 2000.

Undeterred, I pressed to find his surviving kin and others on the Virgo crew.

I located Chief Engineer Don McLendon and with his help, Capt. Schonn’s U.S. Navy counterpart Master Douglas Torborg of the USNS Sealift Antarctic, who safely delivered us to Singapore on July 3, 1980. He still kept our rescue ledger after all these years, hoping to one day find us.

3232

USF USFSCHOOL SCHOOLOF OFLAW LAW

2

3

1. The boat the Vuong family used to flee Vietnam in 1980.

2. Vuong aboard the USNS Sealift Antarctic in 1980.

3. Vuong reunited with U.S. Navy Master Douglas Torborg this year.

In March of this year, my family traveled to Lakeland, Florida, to meet these captains and officers. We were grateful to be able to hold each of their hands and say the words that have been ever-present in our hearts for the last 36 years: “Thank you.”

THE FUTURE I know that my family’s reunion with our saviors is not the end of the story, but rather the beginning of a new and continuing dialogue that connects our two communities. Above all else, I hope that the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of people like Schonn, Overstreet, McLendon, and Torborg will see the truly historic impact their fathers made on the history of an immigrant community for whom existence would not have been possible.

I am humbled. I am blessed. I am grateful.

Lauren Vuong ’99 is an attorney for the California State Compensation Insurance Fund and sits on the executive committee of the Workers' Compensation Section for the State Bar of California.

PLAN TODAY TO SECURE OUR STUDENTS’ FUTURES Tom Asimou ’98 says the USF School of Law better prepared him as a lawyer and advocate for his clients than his opposing counsels. But his ties to the law school community, including lasting friendships, are what inspired

“ USF law school was the best investment I ever made. It has

Tom to include the USF School of Law in his estate plan.

paid me dividends, both economic

His generosity will create a scholarship for students from

and intellectually, that I couldn’t

single parent families, like the one he came from.

get any other way.”

To create your own legacy for the USF School of Law, contact the Office of Gift Planning today.

Elizabeth Hill | (415) 422-4163 | ehill3@usfca.edu | giftplanning.usfca.edu

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID SAN FRANCISCO, CA PERMIT NO. 11882

The Koret Law Center 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117-1080

C H A N G E S E R V I C E R EQ U E S T E D

After summers filled with hands-on experiences and new professional relationships, we welcomed our students back to the Dorraine Zief Law Library, pictured here, and Kendrick Hall. Learn more about our new 1Ls on page 3.

CALEB D’OLEIRE

G A L L E RY