Professor Carol Izumi Honored with Rutter Award

UC Law SF Clinical Professor Carol Izumi has been named the winner of this year’s Rutter Award. Founded by law-guide publisher William Rutter in 1979, the Rutter Award honors outstanding professors at California’s top law schools. The Rutter Endowment provides UC Law SF an annual award of $10,000 for the winner.

According to the terms of the gift, the outstanding professor is to be chosen by a committee consisting of the Academic Dean, a student, an alumnus, and the prior year’s winner. This year’s selection committee included Professor Mai Linh Spencer (last year’s recipient), David Casarrubias ‘18, ASUCH President Myell Mergaert, and Academic Dean Morris Ratner.  

After deliberating, the committee unanimously selected Clinical Professor of Law Carol Izumi as this year’s recipient of the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

Professor Izumi has had a profound impact on the college’s clinical programs since she joined the full-time faculty at UC Law SF College of the Law in 2010 as a Clinical Professor of Law. Professor Izumi is an internationally known dispute resolution scholar, trainer, and practitioner with the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. She directs the law school’s Mediation Clinic and ADR Externship Program and serves as the Faculty Advisor to the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA). 

“All of us at CNDR are thrilled to learn that Carol is the Rutter Teaching Award recipient this year,” said Sheila Purcell, Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Negotiation & Dispute Resolution. “She is not only a wonderful teacher but also a world-class clinical professor and an accomplished ADR scholar. She is generous with her time and knowledge, always willing to mentor more junior faculty, and frequently looking to take on additional mediations and other projects that serve the needs of the community. We congratulate her on this well-deserved honor.”

“Carol Izumi is a pioneer and an icon in the field of dispute resolution and clinical education,” said Professor Ascanio Piomelli. “She created the field of mediation clinics decades ago and has remained a leading innovator in the field.

“As her students regularly attest, Carol is a fabulous classroom professor. She excels at giving the sort of formative feedback that enables students to grow their dispute resolution skills and their ability to self-assess their performances. Inside and outside of class, Carol clearly conveys to her students that she cares deeply about them as human beings. We are so lucky to have her teaching and inspiring our students.”

3L Enne Mae Guerrero agreed. “The dedication Professor Izumi has towards her students is not only evident in the extensive feedback she gives but is also shown through her compassion. Her support, understanding, and knowledge proved instrumental in helping me to succeed in law school despite having a disability.”

Last year, Professor Izumi was honored with the Pincus Award from the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). The Pincus Award is the AALS’s highest award bestowed in the area of clinical legal education. The award acknowledges excellence in service, scholarship, program design and implementation, and other activity benefiting clinical legal education and the advancement of justice.

Professor Izumi will be honored at a formal award reception on Feb. 5, 2020.