Thinkers & Doers Roundup: October 2018

THE FACULTY BUZZ:

Professor Rory Little (@rorylittle) produced two articles on the SCOTUS Blog this month. The first entitled, “Argument preview: Do ‘slight force’ robberies count for enhancing Armed Career Criminal Act sentences?” (http://bit.ly/2RmJs4l) and the second, entitled “Argument preview: What vehicle burglaries, if any, count for enhancing Armed Career Criminal Act sentences?” (http://bit.ly/2PwbmNY)

Professor Little provided expert commentary on Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to ABC 7 News. https://abc7ne.ws/2P2Z7t7

Professor Little’s SCOTUS blog entry was referenced in an article on Gamble v. US, a case that challenges the “separate sovereign” exception to the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause, published in Quartz. http://bit.ly/2Q58tkg

“Defense attorneys don’t like [the not guilty by reason of insanity defense]. It’s a desperation defense. Sometimes it works but not very often,” Professor Little said in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on the Vallejo kidnapper trial. http://bit.ly/2qitg8D

“The point of law, and certainly this lawsuit, is to send a message that as a company, you owe something greater to your community and your employees when you close,” Professor Veena Dubal said in an article on KQED News on a class-action lawsuit against a Bay Area gaming company. http://bit.ly/2RouHxV

Professor Robin Feldman was quoted in an article in Kaiser Health News on prescription drug prices and patent law. http://bit.ly/2EQlm0s. She was also quoted in an article in Bloomberg on pharmaceutical drug pricing. https://bloom.bg/2yFuPC7

Professor Feldman was one of this year’s key speakers at the Connect18 Conference, which challenges public sector and non-profit leaders to embrace new technology. http://bit.ly/2PBcUX9. The conference was streamed live on Facebook.

“Drug Wars,” Professor Feldman’s 2017 book, was included as one of the “Staff Picks” for the Vancouver Public Library. http://bit.ly/2ADRK2o

Professor Samuel Miller contributed an article to Law 360 entitled “Why It’s Time To Rethink Illinois Brick.” http://bit.ly/2RoVJoP

Professor Matthew Coles was quoted in an article in LGBTQ Nation on the Geroge Mascone Collection, a collection of documents from San Francisco Mayor George Mascone housed at the University of the Pacific Library. http://bit.ly/2zfiMel

Professor Frank H. Wu contributed an article to Diverse Issue in Higher Education remembering the legacy of Chang-Lin Tien, the seventh chancellor of UC Berkeley. http://bit.ly/2Sqn8s1

Professor Wu was a speaker at both the 2018 Harvard Asian American Alumni Alliance Summit (http://bit.ly/2PzOwVN) and at UC Berkeley event “Race, Affirmative Action, and Asian Americans in Higher Ed.”

In an appearance on Bloomberg Markets: The Close, Professor Wu discussed what’s at stake in the Asian-American bias lawsuit against Harvard University. https://bloom.bg/2yMquNT

Professor Emeritus George Bisharat’s music career was the focus of an article in the San Francisco Chronicle’s Datebook. http://bit.ly/2ETUjBs

Environmental Law professors Dave Owen and David Takacs comment on “How Kavanaugh’s addition to the Supreme Court could affect California.” http://bit.ly/2Og3BXO

“The discovery is going to reveal that the government actually knows that climate change is real and actually has known it for a very long time, and actually isn’t taking the actions that we would need to take to make our contribution to ensuring that the increase in temperature on the planet stays below 2 degrees centigrade,” said Professor Takacs in an article from the Christian Science Monitor on the cases from 21 young Americans suing the US government for failing to address climate change. http://bit.ly/2Q9DG65

Professor Joan C. Williams (@joancwilliams) discussed findings from a Center for WorkLife Law and the Society of Women Engineers study exploring bias reported by Indian engineers largely working for Western companies in India. http://bit.ly/2qhL7wq

Professor Williams provided expert analysis to an investigation from the San Francisco Chronicle on a screening question from the Oakland Police Department that asked whether police applicants had been sexually assaulted. http://bit.ly/2EVAY2I

An article co-authored by Professor Williams was quoted in a New York Times article entitled “Miscarrying at Work: The Physical Toll of Pregnancy Discrimination. https://nyti.ms/2OftXct

“We’ve never seen something like this before. Women have always been seen as risky, because they might do something like have a baby. But men are now being seen as more risky hires,” Professor Williams said in another New York Times on the #MeToo movement. https://nyti.ms/2Sytk12

Professor Williams also appeared in the Financial Times.

“One of the biggest challenges for consumers being able to understand the prices they’re going to be asked to pay is providers and insurance companies repeatedly state these prices are confidential,” said Professor Jaime King in an article for the San Francisco Chronicle on the 50 California hospitals asked to hand over pricing information by attorneys for Sutter Health, which is facing an antitrust lawsuit. http://bit.ly/2DcoAK9

Professor David Levine had more than two dozen media appearances between KTVU, KRON, KPIX, NBC Bay Area discussing Kavanaugh, Monsanto, transgender regulations, regulations on availability of birth control under the Affordable Care Act, immigration, and birthright citizenship. Selected media appearances below.

“I’ve never heard of a litigant daring to tell the court if you don’t go with my schedule, I’m going to tell the authorities,” said Professor Levine in an article for the Courthouse News Service entitled “Feds to 9th Circuit: Speed Up Review of DACA Case, or Else.” http://bit.ly/2SzJN55

“The judge’s ruling may inspire more people to come forth with claims of injury and it might preclude Monsanto from making certain arguments in the trials to come. This high stakes battle is just getting started,” writes Professor Levine in a column for the Daily Journal.

Professor Levine provided additional commentary on the Monsanto ruling in a piece from Courthouse New Service. http://bit.ly/2JtrR8e

Professor Levine presented a lecture, “We All Like Beer!: Justice Kavanaugh Joins the Court,” on Oct. 19 at Canterbury Woods, Buffalo, N.Y.

Professor Lois Weithorn was elected to the American Law Institute. http://bit.ly/2AFlhc5

Professor Joel Paul (@JoelRichardPaul) sat down with C-SPAN for a Q&A on his book “Without Precedent: Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times,” his biography of the fourth and longest-serving chief justice of the United States. https://cs.pn/2P0sw6V

Professor Reuel E. Schiller presented at the University of Pennsylvania Law School Symposium on The History, Theory, and Practice of Administrative Constitutionalism and was a panelist for the “Administrative Constitutionalism and the Modern Administrative State.”

Kathryn Tucker, an attorney with the End of Life Liberty Project at Hastings, was quoted in a piece from Capitol Public Radio on a lawsuit filed by residents of a veterans’ home in Napa County. http://bit.ly/2zp2SOT

Professor Dorit Rubinstein Reiss co-authored an article for the American Academy of Pediatrics entitled “Vaccine Medical Exemptions Are a Delegated Public Health Authority.” http://bit.ly/2AFvYvf 

IT’S NOVEMBER:

 — Got a tip? Feedback? News to share? Let us know. By email: ER@UCHastings.edu

LET’S SOCIALIZE: 

 IG POST OF THE MONTH:

ALUMNI-LAND:

Laney Wall ‘18 reflected on the devastating North Bay fires a year later in an article in the Press Democrat. http://bit.ly/2De4nDJ

Associate General Counsel Yolanda Sanders ’93 and her team at Gap Inc.’s in-house Legal Department was honored with a national recognition from the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA). http://bit.ly/2zerqKi

Alumna Janice Stillman ’17 was featured in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle detailing the effort she and her six siblings embarked on to get their father out of prison. http://bit.ly/2SCyfOG

Jeffrey C. Kauffman ‘94, a longtime Solano County deputy district attorney, was elected to superior court judgeship. http://bit.ly/2qof5iB

LAWRENCE ISER, managing partner at Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert, was named one of Billboard’s 2018 Top Music Lawyers. http://bit.ly/2SzO6NN

Richard Thalheimer ‘74, the man who created The Sharper Image, was profiled in an article from The Hustle. http://bit.ly/2CWEQOD

Carin Fujisaki, a former chair of the Hastings Board of Directors, was appointed associate justice, Division Three of the First District Court of Appeal. http://bit.ly/2CTzFyE

Suzanne Tom, as the head of a transformative legal team at software, cloud, and services company Calix, was the focus of a piece from Modern Counsel. http://bit.ly/2AETyrY

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:

Arsicault, named the country’s best new bakery in 2016 by Bon Appétit, is moving into the ground floor retail space at the Book Concern Building, 83 McAllister at Leavenworth. http://bit.ly/2Q4CbWC

Bi-Rite Café opened Oct. 24 at Civic Center Plaza. http://bit.ly/2OewXFX

TWEET OF THE MONTH:

ON CAMPUS:

NBC Bay Area was on the scene for The Great Debate 2018, Sun v. Fog. Moot Court, who argued in favor of Fog, won the debate.

Camera crews interview Moot Court participants

Local NBC affiliate filmed part of the Great Debate 2018, Sun v. Fog, for a news segment.

The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) was honored for its support of vulnerable immigrant communities and refugees at East Bay Sanctuary Covenant’s annual dinner in Berkeley on Oct. 20.

UC Law SF faculty together with other legal and medical experts from the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Law and Aging, the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and the University of California San Francisco Medical School created a new tool to help bridge the chasm between lawyers and doctors in end-of-life health decisions. http://bit.ly/2DeLoJ3

CONDOLENCES:

The UC Law SF community extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of Corrine Lee ’70.

Corrine Lee ’70 practiced law for 40 years as a member of both the Hawaii and California bars. She passed away on August 13th after a long battle with cancer. She is survived by her husband John F. Dwyer ‘65 and her two children Katherine and Michael. She practiced law for 40 years as a member of both the Hawaii and California bars.