We are pleased to welcome to our tenured or tenure-track faculty six leading scholars in 2020-21 whose innovative research explores issues involving technology, business law, higher education, taxation and other areas on the cutting edge of legal scholarship. Plus, meet more program administrators and fellows who are joining the UCLA Law team.

MARIO BIAGIOLI

Distinguished Professor of Law and Communication

Mario Biagioli, an authority in the intersection of law, science and technology, joins UCLA as a distinguished professor of law and communications. He comes to UCLA School of Law and UCLA’s Department of Communication from UC Davis, where he served as a distinguished professor in the law school, history department and Science and Technology Studies program. He also served as the founding director of UC Davis’ Center for Science and Innovation Studies and as an associate faculty member of the Cultural Studies program and the Critical Theory Program.

A leader in exploring how the law interacts with developments in science and technology, Biagioli previously earned a Guggenheim Fellowship for his innovative work, as well as research fellowships at Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. He has also received grants from the National Science Foundation and other eminent organizations to pursue his interests, which include patentable subject matter, the history of the ide

Biagioli has written or edited eight books in the area, including, most recently, Gaming the Metrics: Misconduct and Manipulation in Academic Research with Alexandra Lippman (MIT Press, 2020) and From Russia with Code: Programming Migrations in Post-Soviet Times with Vincent Antonin Lépinay (Duke University Press, 2019). Currently, he is finishing a book on the new forms of scientific fraud and misconduct that arise through the introduction of metrics of academic evaluation.

Biagioli previously served as a professor of the history of science at Harvard. He has also taught at Stanford University, the University of Chicago, the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, UCLA’s Department of History and the European University at St. Petersburg. Biagioli holds an M.F.A. from the Visual Studies Workshop and the Rochester Institute of Technology, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in History of Science from UC Berkeley.

KIMBERLY CLAUSING

Professor of Law

Renowned professor of economics, trade and taxation Kimberly Clausing joins UCLA Law’s nationally recognized tax law faculty in 2021. The Thormund A. Miller and Walter Mintz Professor of Economics at Reed College since 2007, Clausing is a prominent voice in international trade, international finance and public finance who focuses her research on the taxation of multinational firms.

Clausing’s book Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital was published by Harvard University Press in 2019. She is the author of several dozen articles and other publications on issues ranging from trade to corporate taxation.

A sought-after authority in the field and nonresident senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, Clausing has worked on economic policy research with the International Monetary Fund, the Hamilton Project, the Brookings Institution and the Tax Policy Center, and she has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Committee on Finance.

A two-time recipient of the Fulbright research award, for which she studied in Belgium and Cyprus, she has also held positions at Wellesley College, the Council of Economic Advisors, Harvard University and the Congressional Budget Office. Clausing holds a B.A. from Carleton College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Harvard University.

MEIRAV FURTH‐MATZKIN

Assistant Professor of Law

Meirav Furth-Matzkin, whose cutting-edge scholarship focuses on the intersection of contract law, consumer protection and regulation, and behavioral law and economics, joins UCLA Law from the University of Chicago Law School, where she served as the John M. Olin Law and Economics Fellow and as a lecturer in law.

Furth-Matzkin’s work examines the impact that the law bears on interactions between sellers and consumers and how contracts shape their relationships. Through research involving the study of unenforceable terms in standard form contracts, consumers’ reactions to sellers’ fraudulent representations, and more, Furth-Matzkin aims to advance consumer protection and assist policymakers in developing behaviorally and empirically informed regulation.

Her most recent article, “Consumer Psychology and the Problem of Fine-Print Fraud,” co-authored with Roseanna Sommers, was published in the Stanford Law Review in March 2020. Her work has also appeared in the Journal of Legal Analysis, Alabama Law Review, Minnesota Law Review and other leading academic journals.

Furth-Matzkin previously held several fellowships at Harvard Law School, where she earned an LL.M. and an S.J.D. with a dissertation titled “Deception by Contract,” and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she earned B.A. and L.L.B. degrees cum laude. In 2013-14, she clerked for Justice Uzi Vogelman of the Supreme Court of Israel.

JONATHAN GLATER

Professor of Law

Jonathan Glater, whose innovative scholarship focuses on the intersection of the law and higher education, joins UCLA Law from UC Irvine School of Law, where he served on the faculty for nearly a decade, earning the school’s distinguished teaching award for first-year teaching in 2015-16, among other honors.

In examining how the law both enables and acts as a barrier to access to higher education, Glater researches an array of issues, including the impact of federal aid policy on access to college, the effects of education debt on student decision-making, and relationships between higher education finance and the functioning of financial markets. His latest article, “The Civil Rights Case for Student Debt Reform,” co-written with Dalié Jiménez, is due to be published in the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. His work has also been published in the California Law Review, UC Irvine Law Review and several other leading journals.

A prolific and widely sought-after speaker and writer, Glater previously worked as a New York Times reporter for nine years, covering the business of law and higher education finance. Prior to joining the Times, he worked at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York; Marval, O’Farrell & Mairal in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and The Washington Post. Glater earned a B.A. from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in international relations from Yale University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

FERNÁN RESTREPO

Assistant Professor of Law

Fernán Restrepo, who focuses his research on corporate law in the context of financial and non-financial companies, joins UCLA Law from Stanford University, where he was most recently a research fellow with the Rock Center for Corporate Governance.

His empirically based scholarship uses a variety of statistical techniques to examine how corporate law operates in practice, how it affects economic outcomes and how it interacts with public regulation and enforcement. In his recent research, for instance, he has examined the effect of regulation, enforcement and corporate governance in the hedge fund industry; the emergence of commercial agreements with a deal-protection effect in mergers and acquisitions; and the impact of procedural protections and judicial review in conflicted mergers. His scholarship has been published in the Journal of Law and Economics, the Stanford Law Review and the Harvard Business Law Review.

At Stanford, he was also a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics and a Gregory Terrill Cox Fellow in Law and Economics, and he received the John Hart Ely Prize in Law and Economics. He holds a Ph.D. in development economics from Cambridge University, a J.S.D. from Stanford Law School, an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, an M.Sc. in statistics from Stanford University, an LL.B. from Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, and a B.A. in Economics from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.

ANDREW VERSTEIN

Professor of Law

Andrew Verstein, an authority in contract law, corporate law, and securities regulation and litigation, joins UCLA Law from Wake Forest School of Law, where he served on the faculty since 2013, most recently as associate dean for research and academic programs.

Verstein’s innovative business law scholarship presently touches on emerging issues involving fintech, market benchmarks and passive investment, market abuses including insider trading, the legal function of motive, and the legal theory of the firm. He is a prolific commentator and writer in the field, and his scholarship has appeared in leading publications, including The Yale Law Journal, The University of Chicago Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Virginia Law Review and Northwestern University Law Review. With UCLA Law Distinguished Professor of Law Lynn LoPucki, he is the co-author of the forthcoming casebook Business Associations: A Systems Approach.

Verstein has served as a member of the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools’ business associations section. Previously, he was a visiting associate professor and Charles J. Merriam Scholar at University of Chicago Law School and the John R. Raben/Sullivan & Cromwell Executive Director of the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law. He earned an A.B., summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

STEPHANIE DAVIDSON

Director, Externship and Field Placement Programs

Stephanie Davidson joins UCLA Law from Harvard Law School’s Legal Services Center, where she co‐taught the Domestic Violence and Family Law Clinic. As an attorney and clinical supervisor, Davidson taught students trauma‐informed lawyering for hundreds of survivors of intimate partner violence, fighting for custody, divorces, restraining orders and financial support. Prior to clinical teaching, she represented survivors through the Urban Justice Center in New York City. Davidson earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she earned the Gary Bellow Award and the Dean’s Award for Community Service. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University.

JASON FISKE

Executive Director, Master of Legal Studies Program

Jason Fiske comes to UCLA Law from Albany Law School where he was the Assistant Dean of Program Development and Distance Learning. Prior to that, he was the Assistant Dean of Program Development at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. He has over a decade of experience launching and fostering quality non‐J.D. programs in both in-person and online settings. Prior to these positions, he practiced law in San Diego. He holds a B.A. from UC San Diego, a J.D. and an LL.M. from Thomas Jefferson School of Law and an M.Ed. from Purdue University.

JEANNE L. NISHIMOTO

Associate Director, Veterans Justice Clinic

Jeanne L. Nishimoto’s primary areas of practice relate to homelessness, housing justice and access to government benefits. She was previously a Supervising Attorney at Inner City Law Center, where she provided holistic legal services to individuals who were experiencing homelessness or were at imminent risk of homelessness in Los Angeles. Before that, she worked at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles as a staff attorney and the Pro Bono Training Manager, advocating on behalf of low-income clients and communities through individual direct representation, affirmative litigation and policy work. She earned her B.A. from Amherst College and her J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan School of Law, where she was a student attorney in the Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic and Pediatric Advocacy Initiative, and Executive Editor of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform.

CATHERINE SWEETSER

Deputy Director, Promise Institute for Human Rights;Director, International Human Rights Clinic

Catherine Sweetser comes to UCLA from Schonbrun, Seplow, Harris, Hoffman & Zeldes where she was a partner whose work focused on human rights and civil rights. She has previously litigated cases under the Alien Tort Statute and the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and other matters concerning corporate accountability, police misconduct, conditions of detention, and international and constitutional law violations. Sweetser received her J.D. and LL.M. in international law from NYU School of Law, and she clerked for the Hon. Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

SAMUELE CHILOVI

Law & Philosophy Postdoctoral Fellow

Samuele Chilovi’s research focuses on philosophy of law, metaphysics and philosophy of language. As a research assistant at Glasgow University and a postdoctoral fellow at Pompeu Fabra University, his work has centred on grounding theory, legal interpretation and the nature of law. His articles have been published in Legal Theory, Philosophical Studies and Synthese. He is currently working on a book for the Elements Series published by Cambridge University Press. Chilovi earned a master’s degree in law at the University of Bologna and a Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Barcelona.

ANDREW CURRIE

Law & Philosophy Postdoctoral Fellow

Andrew Currie’s research focuses on philosophy of law and philosophical logic. He completed his D.Phil. in philosophy at Oxford University. While at Oxford, he was also a senior fellow at Melbourne Law School. Before that, he clerked at the High Court of Australia (Australia’s final appellate and constitutional court) and worked as a litigator. He earned his LL.B. from Melbourne Law School and B.A. from Melbourne University.

BETH KENT

Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law & Policy

Beth Kent comes to UCLA Law from the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust, where she was the Policy and Legal Fellow. Kent received her B.S. with Honors in Society and Environment and High Distinction in the College of Natural Resources from UC Berkeley. She earned her J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 2018 with a specialization in Public Interest Law & Policy from the Epstein Program. Kent was a summer law clerk at Earthjustice and the California Office of the Attorney General in the Land Law Section and a legal extern at NRDC.

MARK VERSTRAETE

UCLA Institute for Technology, Law and Policy Fellow

Mark Verstraete’s research assesses how emerging technology and the information society reshape private law concepts. Prior to joining UCLA Law, he was a Research Fellow at NYU and University of Arizona College of Law. He studied philosophy in college and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in the flagship law reviews at Loyola University Chicago, the University of Illinois and the University of North Carolina.

JORDAN WALLACE‐WOLF

Bernard A. and Lenore S. Greenberg Legal Scholar Fellow

Jordan Wallace‐Wolf joins UCLA Law from the Philosophy Department at UCLA. His research focuses on privacy, responsibility and tort law. As a Greenberg Fellow, he will focus on the nature of anonymity, especially as pertains to participation in the political process. Wallace‐Wolf received a J.D. from UCLA Law in 2017, a Ph.D. from UCLA, an M.A. from Tufts University and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University.