UCLA Law thus ended the year once again at the top of all three national trial competition rankings:

• Gavel Rankings, run by Hofstra School of Law, awarded UCLA Law 141 points for the 2023-24 season. (The next highest school had 58 points.) It was the fifth consecutive year in which UCLA Law finished No. 1.
• Trial Competition Performance Rankings, run by Fordham University School of Law, assigned UCLA Law 49 points for the season. (The next highest school had 28 points.) It was the fifth consecutive year in which UCLA Law finished No. 1.
• The Tournament of Champions, sponsored by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, ranks every law school’s results over the most recent three-year period. UCLA finished the year with an all-time record of 48 points. (The next highest school had 15 points.) It was the fourth year in a row in which UCLA Law ranked No. 1.

“UCLA Law’s dominance in the trial competition community is crystal clear,” says Jared Rosenblatt, a special professor of law at Hofstra University’s Maurice A. Deane School of Law, who runs the Gavel Rankings. “UCLA Law is so far ahead of everyone else that if they didn't compete for the next five years, they would still be ranked first in the nation.”

Alabama judge Jim Roberts directs the trial teams at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law and serves on the Tournament of Champions board of directors. “For the fourth year in a row, UCLA Law has earned the most TOC points in the country – and this year they broke their own record for highest points in TOC history,” he says. “This accomplishment is a testament to the incredible coaching of Professor Bernstein and his leadership of the UCLA Law program.”

Over the course of the season, the Cappello team was assisted by 19 coaches – including 16 alumni. “It’s not a coincidence that our best year was also the year when the most alums coached and mentored our students,” says Bernstein. “We were also fortunate to have help from two wonderful coaches who were new to our program, Nat Warner and Amanda Sadra. I hope they will continue to teach our students for years.”

During the 2023-24 school year, trial team members included Andrew Burnquist ’24, Edouard Goguillon ’24, Eirene Oji ’24, Erica Kelley ’24, Alara Abbasi ’24, Ireland Larsen ’24, Kelly Koehnen ’24, Kim Bittinger ’24, Marisol Alvarez ’24, Max Gordon ’24, Natalie Manoogian ’24, Nolan Cubero ’24, Peter Jones ’24, Sophia Cherif ’24, Sydney Gaskins ’24, Kensington Cotter  ’24, DeAnna Christensen ’25, Eddy Chikukwa ’25, Jade Magaña ’25, Jordain Thompson ’25, Joseph Dale ’25, Micalyn Struble ’25, Nathan Mostow ’25, Nick Boroski ’25, Peter Martin ’25, Rachel Oda ’25, and Sara Delacey ’25.

Coaches included Aidan Welsh ’19, Christian Cotter ’23, Deeksha Kohli ’20, Kyle DeCamp ’19, Avery Hitchock ’21, Nathaniel Warner, Amanda Sadra, Natalie Garson ’22, Jack Eyers ’21, Sarah Stebbins ’23, Enrico Trevisani ’22, Stephen Johnson ’22, Celebre Fouka-Nganga ’23, Tiffany Sarchet ’21, Corey Wilson ’19, Pauline Alarcon ’22, Andrew Gordon ’22, Kenny Capesius ’22 and Justin Bernstein.

Mariano-Florentino (Tino) Cuéllar, the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former justice of the Supreme Court of California, delivered a keynote address in which he stressed the power of democracy, its fragility and the importance of preserving it.

“Together,” he said, “we can ask a version of the question that John F. Kennedy asked in 1960: not what American democracy can do for us, but what, together, we can do for its cause.”

He elaborated on how the graduates, as lawyers and advocates, have the power to be a positive force in challenging times.

“What is at stake today? What is at stake is the very power to engage in national renewal, to get past where we have been,” he said. “Strengthening our democracy only happens when we understand how fragile it is. That’s where you come in, not just through the clients you are going to serve but through the ideas you are going to protect: guilt requires proof, rules merit respect or revision subject to fair process, effective argument calls for empathy more than emphasis, and progress almost always requires compromise. … Democracy-protecting lawyers, you are going to show the way.”

He continued, “Still, nothing about what I am calling on you to do is too difficult for you. Because I do not think any one of you would trade places with any other generation that has it easier. Because you don’t want to live with regret for what you lost. Because here you learned that power, your power, comes not only from rhetoric or reason but from realizing that democracy lives not just in the headnote of a case but in the chamber of a heart.”

Other speakers included graduating students Abigail Smith, on behalf of the J.D. class; Shreyashi Sharma, for the LL.M. grads; Peter Arceo, for the M.L.S. class; and Sareen Khakh, the 3L class president. Lauren Ahaddian, a J.D. graduate, sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Khakh said, “Law school is not easy, even in the best of circumstances, and as a class, we have faced our fair share of challenges. We have risen to these challenges by banding together and demanding better, not just of our university and the legal system, but of the world. We have demanded a world that is just, free and equitable. And we will continue to do so throughout our legal careers.”

“We chose to be here,” Arceo said. “We did it because we had a dream to study law and to make a difference for our communities. Some of us were inspired by leaders in the legal community, and others, the passion to make a positive change for our careers or society. … Those who came before us have shown us the path to success, to be brave, and to help the world become a better place. It is what being a true Bruin is all about.”

“All of us took that leap of faith, to overcome borders, countries, financial hurdles and immigration processes to come together to pursue our passions,” Sharma said. “What is it that has made all of this [our UCLA Law experience] fulfilling for us? It is the human bonds, with all their richness and tension, that we have created in these diverse experiences and learning among each other. … Time immemorial, these bonds have had the power to transform laws, policies and systems.”

“Meeting you made me hope that law school, instead of being torture or, perhaps, alongside it, could actually be fun. The students at UCLA Law are some of the brightest, funniest and most interesting people I’ve ever met,” Smith said. “I can’t imagine what we will achieve over our entire legal careers. … The most important measure of a person is how they treat other people, and this class truly measures up. … I am excited to see what each of us contributes to the legal field and the world at large.”

Watch the full commencement ceremony and read more about the event.

Bass and Murray detailed several responses to homelessness that they have implemented while the magnitude of the issue has ballooned. “You have to address the problem comprehensively, there’s no little solution here,” Bass said, in stressing the complexity of the problem. For example, “one of the first things that we have to figure out how to do is to prevent people from becoming unhoused to begin with. … [But] there is no model to prevent homelessness.”

Another intervention that she and Murray discussed was building affordable long-term housing, including on public lands. But that, she added, brings other challenges. “I don’t want to force things in neighborhoods because that will create ferocious NIMBYism and unending lawsuits,” Bass said. She detailed how the city is working together with people living in neighborhoods so that they welcome new housing for people in need. “We need an all-hands-on-deck situation here. All of you can help educate the people in your neighborhoods that the world is not going to end if you build affordable housing.”

Murray said that collaboration – between the city and the nonprofit, and between those entities and neighbors – is key. “If you go and talk to [neighbors], you can usually get a majority of them to support what you’re doing,” he said. “But what you have to do is, you have to promise people that you will manage it well. You have to promise people that there won’t be tents out in front of the building. You have to promise people that there’ll be active services.”

Murray also underscored the importance of “livability” in the units that are built for homeless people. “You’ve got to make it such that they want to stay there,” he said.

Considering all of the factors and individuals involved, Murray said, “We have to define what a ‘win’ is” – be it simply moving people off the streets or doing that in addition to helping them get affordable housing and providing them with resources such as medical care.

Ultimately, Bass encouraged the students and others in the audience to help in the work that she and her nonprofit partners are doing together to address homelessness – a massive effort that balances immediate action to get people off the streets while building sustainable programs that adjust to avoid unintended consequences. “This problem is solvable,” Bass said. “Every single person here has skin in the game.”

The Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits will present its next public event online on June 6, as part of a series, “The Modern C-Suite,” that is produced by the law school’s executive education program. The center’s panel presentation features distinguished nonprofit professionals and shines a light on the biggest challenges that nonprofit leaders face today.