The check in tables will be located near the entrance of Law Room 1327 on the first floor of the UCLA School of Law building.

Check in begins at 5:30 PM, with the event starting promptly at 6:00 PM. Refreshments and drinks will be provided during check-in.

Law School Parking Lot (On Charles E. Young Dr. East) | Map

• $30/day | 3-minute walk to the Law School building.
• Visitor permits can be purchased via ParkMobile or at the Self-Service Pay Station.
• Address: 371 Charles E. Young Dr E, Los Angeles, CA 90095

Parking Structure 3 (North) | Map

• $16/day | 8-minute walk to the Law School building. 
• Please park in designated guest parking areas. Visitor permits can be purchased at the Self-Service Pay Station within these areas.
• Address: 215 Charles E. Young Drive North, Los Angeles, CA 90095

All registered attendees will receive the livestream link via email.

If you have any questions or need assistance, please reach out to Kristen Wong at wongk@law.ucla.edu.

For California MCLE credit, please complete our online Attendance Form during the event. QR codes linking to the Attendance Form will be displayed throughout the venue and on the back of your event badge. You can fill it out anytime, and certificates will be emailed to you within a few weeks.

If you do not fill out the Attendance Form during the event, a follow-up email containing the link will be sent to all attendees.

Questions? Email: mcle@law.ucla.edu

The annual Melville B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture is a tribute to a distinguished and extraordinarily popular professor who graced the UCLA School of Law faculty from 1962 until his death in 1985. Professor Nimmer was a brilliant scholar and authority on copyright, entertainment law and freedom of speech. His four volume treatise on copyright law, first published in 1963, is still regarded as the “gold standard” text in its field and is routinely cited in judicial decisions. His son, David Nimmer, has carried on the responsibility to keep the treatise current and vital. As a civil liberties lawyer, Melville Nimmer won significant victories in freedom of speech cases before both the U.S. and California Supreme Courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court case Cohen v. California in 1971, which vindicated the right of political speech to include even words deemed highly offensive to those who hear them. He sometimes spoke of his civil rights cases, which he handled without pay for the American Civil Liberties Union, as the most satisfying part of his career. Professor Nimmer was an exceptional teacher and a gentle spirit. Those fortunate enough to know him were forever touched by his intellect, humor and humanity. As a celebration of his life and as a continuation of his work, the Melville B. Nimmer Memorial Lecture, endowed through the generous contributions of his family, friends, colleagues and former students, brings to the UCLA Law community outstanding legal practitioners, scholars and theorists for an evening of intellectual insight and fellowship.

David Nimmer, Of Counsel, Irell & Manella LLP; Adjunct Faculty, UCLA School of Law

Neil Netanel, Pete Kameron Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

Jonathan Varat, Professor of Law Emeritus; Dean Emeritus, UCLA School of Law

Seana Shiffrin, Professor of Philosophy; Pete Kameron Professor of Law and Social Justice, UCLA School of Law

Xiyin Tang, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

Eugene Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

2025
Jane Ginsburg, Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law at Columbia University
Humanist Copyright

2023 Spring
Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and First Amendment at Yale University
Free Speech Versus the First Amendment

2023 Fall
Pamela Samuelson, Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professor of Law and Co-Director of Berkeley Center for Law & Technology at University of California, Berkeley
Fair Use Defenses in Disruptive Technology Cases

2022
Seana Valentine Shiffrin, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Pete Kameron Professor of Law and Social Justice at University of California, Los Angeles
Unfit to Print: Government Speech and the First Amendment

2019
Peter S. Menell, Koret Professor of Law and Co-Director at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology

2018
Rebecca Tushnet, Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Havard University

2016
Niva Elkin-Koren, Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law; Faculty Associate at Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University
Fair Use by Design

2015
Eugene Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at University of California, Los Angeles
The Freedom of Speech and Bad Purposes

2014
Mark Lemley, William H. Neukom Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and the Director of the Stanford Program in Law, Science and Technology
Faith-Based Intellectual Property

2013
Steven H. Shiffrin, Charles Frank Reavis, Sr., Professor of Law Emeritus at Cornell University
The Dark Side of the First Amendment

2012 Spring
James Boyle

2012 Fall
Neil Weinstock Netanel, Pete Kameron Professor of Law at University of California, Los Angeles
First Amendment Constraints on Copyright After Golan v. Holder

2010 Spring
Frederick Schauer, David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at The University of Virginia
Facts and the First Amendment

2010 Fall
Paul Goldstein, Stella W. and Ira S. Lillick Professor of Law at Stanford University
What Is a Copyrighted Work? Why Does It Matter?

2009
Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at University of Chicago
The World of the Framers - A Christian Nation?

2008
The Honorable Aharon Barak

2007
William W. Fisher III, WilmerHale Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Faculty Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
When Should We Permit Differential Pricing of Information?

2006
Jonathan D. Varat, Professor of Law Emeritus and Dean Emeritus at University of California, Los Angeles
Deception and the First Amendment: A Central, Complex, and Somewhat Curious Relationship

2005
Sanford V. Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair and Professor of Government at The University of Texas at Austin
The Pedagogy of the First Amendment: Why Teaching About Freedom of Speech Raises Unique (and Perhaps Insurmountable) Problems for Conscientious Teachers and Their Students

2004
David Nimmer, Of Counsel at Irell & Manella LLP; Adjunct Faculty at University of California, Los Angeles
Codifying Copyright Comprehensibly

2003
Mark Rose, Professor Emeritus at University of California, Santa Barbara
Copyright and Its Metaphors

2002
Lawrence Lessig, Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Stanford University

2001
Robert C. Post, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale University

2000
Robert C. Post, Sterling Professor of Law at Yale University

1999
Vincent Blasi, Corliss Lamont Professor Emeritus of Civil Liberties at Columbia University

1998
Orrin G. Hatch

1997
Pierre N. Leval

1996
William W. Van Alstyne

1995
Kathleen M. Sullivan

1994
Rodney A. Smolla

1992 Spring
Ronald Dworkin

1992 Fall
Martha Minow

1991
Kenneth L. Karst

1990
Kent Greenawalt

1989
Harriet Pilpel

1988
Floyd Abrams

1987
Anthony Lewis