Thinkers & Doers: Feb. 26, 2016

“If the government can compel Apple to provide custom software, why can’t they compel Facebook to customize analytics that predicts the criminality of their user base?” asks Professor Ahmed Ghappour in an arstechnica.com article on the use of the All Writs Act to unlock encrypted iPhones. He was also a popular media source in the wake of Apple’s refusal comply with a court order to unlock the iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers: Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, NPR, The Hill, InfoWorld.com, KOSU radio, domain-b.com, CNN and the Daily Journal (firewall).

Professors Rory Little and Jill Bronfman also chimed in on the dispute between Apple and the government. Bronfman spoke to Kron 4 News and Reuters, and Little was quoted in a law.com story. And alumnus Nate Cardozo ’08, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, appeared on PBS NewsHour to discuss the controversy.

In the wake of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, several UC Law SF community members discussed the impact his passing will have on the Court. Professor David Levine appeared on KPIX to discuss the legacy of Justice Scalia and the impact of his death on cases currently before the Court. Professor Rory Little discussed the politically charged battle for his successor on KCBS “In Depth” (see February 23 recording), KQED Forum and KQED Newsroom. Acting Chancellor & Dean David Faigman was quoted in a National Journal article contemplating the odds of a new justice hailing from a non-Ivy League law school. And in an article discussing the importance of nominating a justice who respects science, National Geographic referred to an opinion piece Faigman wrote last year for Bloomberg BNA about the justices’ lack of scientific understanding.

Could one of UC Law SF’ very own alumna be the next nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court? More than a few pundits have included Kamala Harris ’89 in their shortlists of potential replacements for Justice Scalia. Check out these articles from the NY Times, scotusblog.com, LA Times, ktvu.com, bustle.com, Philadelphia Tribune, Times of San Diego and abovethelaw.com.

“If a marijuana business fails, they can’t turn to bankruptcy for a fresh start,” said Professor Jared Ellias in an ABA Journal article about recent court decisions holding that legally owned and operated marijuana dispensaries are ineligible to reorganize under federal bankruptcy law because they violate federal law even though they may be legal under state law.

“The good news is that young men now care about these policies, and that’s a really big shift….That’s why we see the movement at the corporate level,” “said Professor Joan Williams in a Wired article about the prospects for a wave of new paid parental leave policies in the U.S. Calling Professor Williams “a feminist legal scholar,” the ABA Journal summarized Professor Williams’ recent talk at the inaugural “GOOD Guys” program, in which she discussed four types of bias patterns women tend to encounter in the workplace. She was also recently quoted in a couple of Bloomberg stories: in an article about the substance abuse issues many lawyers face, asserting that offering better flexible work policies might help and in an article about the continued lack of women in leadership positions at law firms. A recent NY Times op-ed co-authored by Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant about the ongoing expectation that women do the “office housework” cites Williams’ 2014 Washington Post article on the same subject. In the aftermath of the most recent Kanye West-Taylor Swift kerfuffle, Williams talks to mashable.com and advocates using “gender judo” to prevent a man from claiming credit for a woman’s success. Last but not least, Williams addresses the gender double standard at work in the presidential race in an essay for the Harvard Business Review, writing “…what’s happening to Hillary is emblematic of why it has proven so extraordinarily difficult for women to get top jobs, whether in the public sector or the private.”

Professor Evan Lee contributed a post to SCOTUSblog.com previewing arguments in Nichols v. U.S., which asks whether a sex offender is obligated to provide notice when he moves out of the country.

Professor Robin Feldman has given a variety of interviews on different topics, including university patent licensing offices for NPR; Caribou and CRISPR patent litigation for Wired, the Daily Californian and fivethirtyeight.com; and frequent patent litigation filers for Law360.com (firewall).

Professor Alice Armitage, director of the Startup Legal Garage, discusses the versatility of a law degree, the ever-elusive work-life balance and the intersection of law and technology in an interview with Ms. JD.

Liz Morris, deputy director of the Center for WorkLife Law, recently penned an article for the Harvard Business Review about the intersection of flexible work schedules and anticipated changes to U.S. overtime rules.

Professor Brian Gray has co-authored a report issued by the Public Policy Institute of California. “Improving the Federal Response to Drought: Five Areas for Reform” calls on the federal government to take incremental steps to alleviate drought conditions in the western part of the U.S. The report has received coverage in the Central Valley Business Times.

“Prosecution of someone like this certainly sends a message that you’re not going to get away with it scot-free,” said Professor Rory Little in a KQED.org article about the sentencing of the owner of a California slaughterhouse for processing tainted meat that resulted in a nationwide recall. He’s also been busy analyzing current U.S. Supreme Court cases – including an argument preview and post-argument analysis of Taylor v. United States, a criminal case involving defendants who were accused of robbing drug dealers and charged with violating the Hobbs Act, which imposes penalties for robbery or extortion that impacts interstate commerce, and an argument preview of Voisine v. United States, a case that turns on the nexus between state “reckless” domestic assault convictions and federal misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence.

Professor Michael Salerno has authored a three-part series for the Daily Journal (paywall) about the recent California Supreme Court Jarvis v. Padilla decision, which reversed its previous decision that had allowed an advisory measure to be removed from the ballot in 2014. In issuing its reversal, the court referenced an amicus brief Salerno submitted that argued for the validity of such advisory measures. For more details on the case and the amicus brief, read here. “The public’s insatiable quest for more punishment resulted in sentences becoming unreasonable,” remarked Salerno in an LA Times article explaining how Governor Brown’s plan to give more inmates early release might result in fewer plea bargains.

Professor Hadar Aviram continues to contribute to www.theconversation.com. She penned an article about Governor Brown’s proposed voter initiative to reform sentencing in California. “If it passes, this initiative would be the first step in undoing determinate sentencing across the country,” she writes. She also provided analysis for the February 25 GOP debate.

In other Jill Bronfman news, her article, “Weathering the Nest: Privacy Implications of Home Monitoring for the Aging American Population,” was recently published by the Duke Law & Tech Review. In addition, Bronfman will be speaking at RightsCon in San Francisco at the end of March on the topic of “Preserving Free Speech: A Practical Privacy Approach.” She co-authored a paper, “Saving Face: the Screen of Chinese Privacy Law Unfolds,” that has been accepted for the Berkeley Privacy Law Scholars Conference, which takes place in June. She also recently spoke at a University of South Carolina symposium about issues surrounding cybersecurity and the law.

Professor Richard Zitrin appeared on NBC Bay Area News to discuss how the California State Bar’s handling of a huge backlog of disciplinary cases against attorneys led to less severe punishments that put the public at significant risk.

“The premise is the tip is never the employer’s. The employer doesn’t have the power to take that from the waiter and give it to a dishwasher because it’s not the employer’s money,” said Professor Reuel Schiller in an AP article about a recent Ninth Circuit ruling holding that business can’t not take tips from service employees and share them with support staff. He also talked to the LA Times about the ruling.

Congratulations to Professor Dave Owen who co-authored “Trading Dams,” a paper that recently won the first-ever Morrison Prize awarded by the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He has also written a couple of posts for the Yale Journal of Regulation about the importance of recognizing the “geographic decentralization of the federal government.” The entries can be found here and here. He was also quoted in a potreroview.net story about the delays to the Warrior arena construction in light of various lawsuits filed by the Mission Bay Alliance against the project.

“As these companies lose their favorite-son, sharing-economy edge, there could be more consumer attention to the workers’ plight,” said Professor Veena Dubal in a recent article about protesting Uber drivers’ plans to disrupt Super Bowl transportation.

Professor John Leshy authored an op-ed for the Salt Lake Tribune comparing the state of Utah’s argument that the federal government’s ownership of large areas of land violates the Constitution to the Supreme Court’s disastrous interpretation of the property clause in the Dred Scott case. “Utah now seems poised to resurrect the principle [Dred Scott] stands for €” that Congress’s power over the public lands is very limited,” writes Leshy. He was also quoted in an eenews.net article about the ability of the government to cancel an oil and gas lease absent any wrongdoing by the driller.

Professor Jaime King was quoted in a NY Times article about the sudden price increases for generic drugs.

Professor Frank H. Wu made the rounds on the east coast earlier this month. He appeared at the University of Pennsylvania’s Fels Institute of Government to discuss race, leadership and education and at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City to discuss the contemporary Chinese American experience. He was also quoted in stories appearing in the San Jose Mercury News and on yibada.com about Chinese American professionals who are speaking out against U.S. spying accusations, and appeared on CCTV.com to discuss the manslaughter conviction of NYC police officer Peter Liang in the shooting death of an unarmed black man.

The Center for WorkLife Law’s “Disruptive Innovation” report was cited in a National Law Review article about law firm marketing and business development.

The Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors’ VA initiative was profiled in an article on the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs’ website.
2L Justin Donner, former sports editor of the Cougar Chronicle, the independent student-run newspaper of UC San Marcos, was recently profiled by his alma mater’s publication.

In this month’s alumni news… Acting U.S. Attorney Brian Stretch has tapped Alex Tse ’90 to serve as his deputy in the Northern District of California (The Recorder). Gretchen Dahlinger Means ’99 was appointed USC’s executive director of the Office of Equity and Diversity and the school’s Title IX Coordinator and is the subject of a profile here. Marilyn Klinger ’78, president of UC Law SF’ Alumni Board of Governors, has been elected to serve as the firm-wide chair of Sedgwick LLP’s Commercial Division. John D. Mendlein ’93, CEO of aTyr Pharma, has been appointed to Editas Medicine’s Board of Directors. Gerald Peters ’82 has joined the California Integrated Data Exchange (CAL Index) as the organization’s general counsel. Ken Siegel ’85 has joined Nuance Communications, Inc. as the company’s Chief Legal Officer. Congratulations to Dean Preston ’96, who has received Bowdoin College’s 2016 Common Good Award for his work championing tenants’ rights. Julia Riechert ’07 has been promoted to partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Based in Orrick’s Silicon Valley office, she’s a member of the firm’s employment group. Best of luck to Margaret Fujioka ’82, Piedmont’s mayor, and David Lim ’99, San Mateo’s deputy mayor, who are both running for an Alameda County judgeship. Former Nevada Governor Robert List ’61 was noted in a realclearpolitics.com article for campaigning on behalf of Marco Rubio. Jerome Pandell ’08, an executive board member with the California Young Democrats, is quoted in a San Jose Mercury News article about the state’s Democratic Party Convention in San Jose. Joe Cotchett ’64 was quoted in an sfgate.com article for his pro bono representation of a 97-year old woman facing eviction.

The UC Law SF community extends its heartfelt condolences to the family of Martin Sussman ’50, who died on February 1. An accomplished trusts & estates lawyer and dedicated supporter of UC Law SF, his generosity to the school was the subject of a 2014 UC Law SF magazine profile.