Supreme Court Clinic Gets 6 Cases on High Court Docket

The UCLA Law Supreme Court Clinic has had an astounding six cases accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 terms. The clinic – with students supervised by Stuart Banner, Norman Abrams Professor of Law – primarily supports counsel who want to argue their own cases before the Court but seek support on research, strategy and brief writing. Recent clinic cases have involved trademark, immigration and constitutional law matters, including a victory in last term's Heffernan v. City of Paterson.

13 UCLA Law Faculty Among Most Cited Legal Scholars

Thirteen tenured UCLA School of Law faculty members are among the most cited legal scholars in their fields over the past five years, according to analysis of the 2015 Sisk Study. In all, 24% of UCLA Law’s tenured faculty – including Distinguished Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw and Professor Kal Raustiala (above) –are among those most cited in fields ranging from evidence and critical theory to constitutional law and international law, according to Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports. UCLA has the eighth-highest number of most-cited faculty among all U.S. law schools. View all 13 names at right or click to learn more.

2 Faculty Among ‘25 Most Cited’ by Judiciary

Two UCLA Law faculty members are among the 25 scholars most cited by the judiciary from 2010 to 2014. Eugene Volokh, the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor at UCLA Law, and Professor Adam Winkler were ranked number 4 and number 20, respectively, in the “Top 25 Law Professors by Judicial Citation,” which examines citations by federal appellate courts and the U.S. and state supreme courts. Volokh is the most-cited scholar among the federal appellate courts.

A Brilliant Class of '19, Successful Class of '15

In Fall 2016 UCLA Law welcomed an outstanding class of 291 J.D. students from among 5,353 applicants. The Class of 2019’s incoming metrics include a median score of 167 on the LSAT – the second-highest among all California law schools – and a median GPA of 3.74. Both mark an increase from the previous year. The class also possesses an extraordinary record of achievement and experience, and includes two Fulbright scholars, a fighter pilot, a U.S. Army captain, a film producer, a professional surfer, five undergraduate student body presidents, numerous entrepreneurs, and many students with experience at high-profile advocacy groups and institutions including the U.S. Supreme Court. We are also pleased to report that 10 months after graduation, 91.3 percent of Class of 2015 J.D. graduates were working in full-time, long-term Bar-required and J.D. Advantage jobs.

School Adds New Public Interest Fellowships

With the support of University of California President Janet Napolitano, UCLA Law continues to be one of the top schools for students committed to public interest law. This year the school awarded 19 full-year UC President's Public Service Law Fellowships, at a salary of $45,000 plus bar expenses. Several other fellowships are supported at the same funding level by generous alumni. Recipients, including graduates of the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, are working for organizations including the National Immigration Law Center; The Bronx Defenders; the ACLU; the California Department of Justice; UNESCO in Samoa; and Bras-Ouverts in Benin, Africa. Click here to learn more.

Top 5 Environmental Law Center Works on Climate Accord, Clean Power

UCLA Law’s environmental law program, ranked 5^th in the country in 2016 by U.S. News & World Report, represented small Pacific Island nations at the UN Climate Talks in Paris, filed influential litigation briefs, and developed leading research on renewable energy and energy policy, among other activities. Students in the Environmental Law Clinic sponsored by the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment helped negotiate on behalf of small island states in the Paris talks. Emmett Institute faculty members filed an amicus brief in the closely-watched West Virginia v. EPA, and won an award for work on Center for Biological Diversity v. Department of Fish & Wildlife, which resulted in increased consideration of climate change impacts in approval of development projects in California.

Milken Institute Hosts Inaugural $100,000 Entrepreneurship Prize

In 2016 UCLA Law’s Lowell Milken Institute on for Business Law and Policy held the first LMI-Sandler Prize for Entrepreneurship, awarding $100,000 to a cross-disciplinary student team for its development of a promising new venture. Teams of students, including at least one law student, competed to present the best new business proposal and address issues related to intellectual property, labor law, corporate structure and finance. The winning team from 2016 is launching a medical device company that seeks to reduce the costs and length of hospital stays caused by pressure wounds, which often afflict elderly patients. The 2016-17 competition is under way.

$5M Gift Launches Center on Entertainment Law

Kenneth Ziffren ‘65, long recognized as one of the world’s leading media law attorneys, made a $5 million gift to UCLA Law in 2016 to establish the Ziffren Center on Media, Entertainment, Technology and Sports Law. UCLA Law is already recognized by The Hollywood Reporter as the top school in the country for entertainment law. The Ziffren Center will expand and deepen academic programs in media law and sustain UCLA Law’s entertainment law symposium, which just completed its 40th year.

New UCLA Law Magazine

UCLA Law’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law and Public Policy celebrates 15 years of playing a major role in spurring civil rights advances. Learn about the institute and read about other school highlights in the Fall 2016 issue of UCLA Law Magazine.

RECENT FACULTY BOOKS

• University College London hosted a conference dedicated to the work of Seana Shiffrin, Pete Kameron Professor of Law and Social Justice, and her recent book Speech Matters: Lying, Morality and the Law (Princeton University Press). Shiffrin is co-director of the UCLA Law and Philosophy Program.
• Stephen Bainbridge, William D. Warren Distinguished Professor, co-authored Legal Liability: A Legal and Economic Analysis (Edward Elgar Press, 2016).
• Professor Joshua Foa Dienstag, as the lead author in dialogue with others, wrote Cinema, Democracy and Perfectionism (Manchester University Press, 2016).
• Professor Neil Weinstock Netanel authored From Maimonides to Microsoft: The Jewish Law of Copyright Since the Birth of Print (Oxford University Press, 2016).
• Michael T. Roberts, founding executive director of the Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy at UCLA Law, published Food Law in the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2016).
• Professor Richard Steinberg is the editor of Contemporary Issues Facing the International Criminal Court (Brill/Nijhoff, 2016).
• Professor Adam Winkler will publish We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights (Liveright/W.W. Norton, 2017).

MOST CITED FACULTY

• Stephen Bainbridge, William D. Warren Distinguished Professor of Law: Corporate Law and Securities Regulation
• Stuart Banner, Norman Abrams Professor of Law: Legal History
• Devon Carbado, Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Critical Theory
• Kimberlé Crenshaw, Distinguished Professor of Law: Critical Theory
• Jerry Kang, professor of law and Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Critical Theory
• Russell Korobkin, Vice Dean and Richard C. Maxwell Professor of Law: Law & Economics
• Lynn LoPucki, Security Pacific Bank Distinguished Professor of Law: Commercial Law
• Jennifer L. Mnookin, Dean and David G. Price and Dallas P. Price Professor of Law: Evidence Law
• Neil Netanel, Pete Kameron Professor of Law: Intellectual Property and Cyberlaw
• Kal Raustiala, professor of law: International Law
• James Salzman, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law: Administrative and Environmental Law
• Seana Shiffrin, Pete Kameron Professor of Law and Social Justice: Law and Philosophy
• Eugene Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Professor of Law: Constitutional & Public Law