UCLA School of Law has awarded 14 postgraduate fellowships, including seven University of California President's Public Service Law Fellowships, to 2019 graduates committed to practicing public interest law. Totaling $665,000, the one-year fellowships include stipends of $45,000 for each graduate as well as funding to help defray bar exam expenses. The fellowships enable graduates to work on behalf of underserved individuals, communities and causes, as well as in government positions.
Enhancing the resources available to help graduates clerk for judges in California and around the country, UCLA School of Law has hired Kerry O’Neill to serve as its first director of judicial clerkships.
Opening the doors to impactful careers in public interest law and government service, the University of California President's Public Service Fellowship program has provided vital support to graduates from the University of California's four law schools since 2016. More than 60 UCLA Law graduates have received the one-year fellowships, which place students in social justice and government organizations in California and around the world, offering $45,000 stipends and support for bar exam expenses.
Supporting what is rapidly becoming one of the top law school trial programs in the country, UCLA Law alumnus A. Barry Cappello ’65 has pledged to donate an additional $500,000 to UCLA School of Law’s Cappello Program in Trial Advocacy. The gift raises Cappello’s total donations to UCLA Law to $2.75 million.
UCLA School of Law has appointed Fanna Gamal and Aaron Littman as Binder Clinical Teaching Fellows, starting in the 2019-20 academic year. Named for UCLA Law professor emeritus and clinical legal education pioneer David Binder, the two-year fellowships offer opportunities for clinical teaching and research designed to prepare fellows to seek permanent law school faculty positions.
Littman joins UCLA Law from the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta. A prisoners' rights litigator and advocate, Littman clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Judge Myron Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. At UCLA Law, he will work with the Prison Law and Policy Program led by professor Sharon Dolovich, and collaborate with other faculty working in criminal law and civil rights. Littman earned a J.D. from Yale Law School, a master of philosophy from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor’s degree from Yale.
Several previous Binder Fellows have gone on to tenured faculty positions, including UCLA Law professors E. Tendayi Achiume and Joanna Schwartz, Irene Joe of UC Davis School of Law and Jyoti Nanda of Golden Gate University School of Law.
Copyright (c) 2019 Thomson Reuters
Daniel Wiessner
This article is reprinted from Reuters Legal News on Westlaw with permission of Thomson Reuters.
(Reuters) - Thousands of aspiring lawyers are sitting for California's two-day bar exam this week, and the state's legal community will be watching closely to see if a sharp decline in passage rates in recent years continues.
UCLA School of Law hosted its annual convocation ceremony on August 23, where distinguished alumni and members of the faculty welcomed the law school’s newest class of students. The incoming roster includes a diverse and highly accomplished array of 524 people, including 310 members of the J.D. Class of 2022; 212 students who are pursuing a master of laws degree; and two candidates for a legal doctorate.
View the Fall 2019 Incoming Class Profile.
Alumni and friends of UCLA School of Law raised $32.7 million for the school in 2018-19, the largest single-year sum in the school’s 70-year history. This fundraising total topped UCLA Law’s previous annual record by nearly $2 million.
The generous donations support a wide variety of activities throughout the law school, including student scholarships, endowed faculty chairs and development of new curricular and educational opportunities.
Bayrex Martí, currently Assistant Dean for Student Life at the University of Michigan Law School, will join UCLA School of Law in January as the school's Assistant Dean of Student Affairs. In his new role, Martí will lead the UCLA Law department that works closely with the dean and faculty on all aspects of student success and wellness, provides counseling on academic and personal matters to individual students, supports and guides the school's 61 student organizations and 15 journals and coordinates a wide range of student activities.
Dynamic movie studio leader Stacey Snider ’85 returned to UCLA School of Law on Sept. 12 to deliver a Distinguished Alumni Lecture, sharing with more than 50 students the wisdom and war stories from her three-decade career at the pinnacle of the entertainment business. Snider offered a glimpse into what motivated her to become an executive at the head of the 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks and Universal movie studios and how current students might similarly pursue their passions after law school.