Intellectual Property: Professors on the peers who inspired them
UCLA Law Magazine | Summer 2025 | Volume 47
“Gary Schwartz, a mentor, was brilliant and quirky, a voracious reader with a keen legal mind. He profoundly shaped tort doctrine through his scholarship and through his work as a reporter on the first part of the mammoth Restatement (Third) of Torts for the American Law Institute.”
Richard Hasen on Gary Schwartz
“Jerry López’ scholarship made me think harder about how to lawyer effectively than I’d ever imagined possible. And in our long conversations about writing, he shaped the direction of my work. I wouldn’t be the scholar I am today without his influence.”
Ann Carlson on Gerald López
“Steve Yeazell is a generous mentor; a gifted teacher; a superb writer; an egoless co-author; a tireless contributor to UCLA, the law school, and his community; an invaluable dispenser of wisdom and perspective; a supremely talented soup and sourdough maker; and, for almost 20 years, a treasured friend.”
Joanna Schwartz on Stephen Yeazell
“David Binder was the most logical thinker I’ve ever known. He was truly a pioneer of clinical education, and he changed my life when he hired me and the late Paul Boland to help him build UCLA Law’s clinical program. Those early ’70s years were magical: We had a sense of creating a form of education that had never existed in law schools.”
Paul Bergman on David Binder
“I’ve learned so much from my longtime colleague and even longer-time friend, Jerry Kang. Rarely have I known anyone who combines such a fierce and penetrating search for truth with a deeply humanistic sense of how people think, feel, and act. The friends and colleagues who help others the most are those whose influence is to change the questions that you ask and the ways you find answers. Whenever I write— indeed, whenever I think— I ask myself, ‘What would Jerry say about this?’”
Hiroshi Motomura on Jerry Kang
“Jon Michaels’ research on the separation of powers and the administrative state has inspired so much of my own thinking and scholarship. Jon has been able to see how the system of checks and balances among the three branches can be re-created within the government. And he’s shown how private power can undermine that delicate balance. It’s an insight not only into government but into all areas of social life.”
Blake Emerson on Jon Michaels
“Rick Abel, Devon Carbado, and Kathy Stone all in their different ways inspired me to do work with social impact, stand up for values that matter, and do my part to inspire the next generation to confront the problems of our troubled world.”
Scott Cummings on Richard Abel, Devon Carbado, and Katherine Stone
“When Myra Saunders, our former head law librarian, retired, I worried about how our superlative library would fare without her extraordinary leadership. She explained that her aim was to make herself superfluous. If she had done her job well, she would have enabled her successors to run the library just as well without her. She was right! I miss Myra as a person and as a formidable intellectual presence, but the library is better than ever. Her example inspired me to try to impart a methodology to my students to propel their independent analyses once our time together ends.”
Seana Shiffrin on Myra Saunders
“Ken Karst was a legendary teacher and influential constitutional law scholar who taught me to, as he said, ‘think small’: to remember that the law is not about grand theories and big ideas but about improving the lives of ordinary people.”
Adam Winkler on Kenneth Karst
“When I arrived at UCLA, Carole Goldberg was already a giant in the field of federal Indian law. Her legal scholarship laid the groundwork for Indian gaming, which has been transformative for many Indian tribes. I have had the privilege of watching and learning from her for many years. She’s indefatigable, loyal, and a tireless advocate. To now hold the endowed chair that was established in her name is one of the greatest honors of my career.”
Angela Riley on Carole Goldberg
“Mel Nimmer was a rare combination: an intellectual, but with- out any pretensions. Mel was extremely well read, interested in everything that was interesting, informal in manner, serious in purpose, and with an impish sense of humor— a man who, with a twinkle in his eye, glorified in making creative puns. … He was, of course, also a first-class legal scholar who made the field of copyright his own, dominating it nationally as few individuals have been able to assert themselves over an entire field of law.”
Norman Abrams on Melville Nimmer
“Shortly after I arrived at UCLA, I had Bill Klein read a draft of an article I had written. Bill told me it was unpublishable. He was right. But I fixed it, and it became one of my most cited articles. A colleague who will tell you the truth is invaluable.”
Stephen Bainbridge on William Klein
“When we faculty attributed too much of our students’ success to ourselves and our teaching, William Warren would always say, ‘We’re in the business of making silk purses out of silk purses.’ He had a strong sense of our very privileged position, teaching extremely bright people.”
Jonathan Varat on William Warren
“I learned corporate law from Steve Bainbridge’s textbook. His clear, assertive, and tutored explanations define the field. I’ve spent my whole career asking whether the Professor Bainbridge in my head would believe what I’m writing— and whether any surprises would delight him. During my early years as a scholar, I didn’t teach at the same school as Steve, but he mentored me from afar, commenting generously on my papers. I was reasonably far along in my career by the time I joined Steve at UCLA, but I think of him as having been one of my most important friends and mentors since my first day as a student of business associations.”
Andrew Verstein on Stephen Bainbridge
“Cruz Reynoso and I co-chaired the challenging committee that was charged with fashioning a law school admissions policy. Because he never vilified those with opposing views, he kept temperatures down and enabled discussion of contentious matters. However, his ever-kindly manner coexisted with an unwavering insistence on achieving racial justice. His personal experience as well as his history of advocating for marginalized communities gave him a moral authority that I, and so many others, admired and respected.”
Carole Goldberg on Cruz Reynoso
“Eric Zolt is an invaluable person at UCLA School of Law, excelling across multiple dimensions: as an esteemed scholar of international tax law, as a tireless and creative teacher, and as a visionary institutional citizen and leader, central to building a strong law school community throughout the years.”
Kimberly Clausing on Eric Zolt
“Cheryl Harris inspires me not only with her field-defining scholarship but with her fierce commitment to making UCLA and the legal profession more equal, more just, and more welcoming to students from all walks of life.”
Ariela Gross on Cheryl Harris
“There aren’t many folks who are brilliant scholars, strategic thinkers, engaging teachers, and also just fun—able to laugh, go for a hike, and then settle into work to change the world through powerful ideas. Ann Carlson is one of them. UCLA is lucky to have her shaping our environmental law program.”
Cara Horowitz on Ann Carlson
“Hiroshi Motomura is a law scholar and teacher who truly values mentoring. I am so fortunate to have his guidance and support in my scholarship and teaching. His generosity as a mentor also extends throughout the field of immigration law that he has played a central role in building.”
Ingrid Eagly on Hiroshi Motomura
“Ken Klee became an icon not only at UCLA law school but throughout the worldwide insolvency community: as drafter of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, as scholar and teacher at UCLA, and as leading lawyer and founder of the bankruptcy specialty firm that bore his name, Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern. Virtually every major development in bankruptcy law and practice from 1978 until his retirement in 2014 bore his imprint.”
Daniel Bussel on Kenneth Klee
“Seana Shiffrin has been a role model for me since I joined the faculty. She manages to be brilliant and incisive on every topic imaginable, and to infuse everything she does with integrity and a deep sense of humanity. I have been on the faculty with Seana for more than 25 years and still feel lucky to have her as a colleague.”
Sharon Dolovich on Seana Shiffrin
“Kimberlé Crenshaw is a trailblazer whose scholarship and activism fundamentally changed how we understand law, race, and power. Her work has shaped generations of students, scholars, and advocates, offering both the language and the tools to fight injustice. In a moment when critical race theory is under fire, her voice is not just relevant— it’s essential.”
Jasleen Kohli on Kimberlé Crenshaw
“Norm Abrams was one of the earliest of the ‘second-generation’ faculty members, hired in 1959. Over the ensuing decades, Norm led virtually every important part of this campus, as vice chancellor for academic personnel, as interim dean of the law school, as interim chancellor, and as a distinguished scholar of evidence and federal criminal law. Throughout my career, I benefited enormously from Norm’s good judgment, wise counsel, and steady friendship.”
Stephen Yeazell on Norman Abrams
“Decades before the rest of the world became more accepting, Jesse Dukeminier’s dedication of his leading property law casebook to his partner, David, reached tens of thousands of LGBTQ law students, lawyers, and judges throughout the country, communicating that you could be out, excellent, and revered. At a time of the criminalization and institutionalization of LGBTQ people, this was a powerful message.”
Brad Sears on Jesse Dukeminier
“Laura exemplifies intellectual courage in both scholarship and action. Her pioneering work in Manifest Destinies reframed our understanding of Mexican American racial formation, challenging historical amnesia with rigorous research. As founding co-director of UCLA’s Critical Race Studies program, she institutionalized space for marginalized voices in legal education. Throughout her career, she has always put in the work, taken a stand, and spoken the truth. Respect.”
Jerry Kang on Laura Gómez
Read more in the 75th Anniversary edition of the UCLA Law magazine.
Celebrating 75 Years of UCLA Law
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