The best thing about running a top law school. Changes and challenges to higher education. The impact of movements to disrupt diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The ongoing importance of speaking truth to power. And … fabulous athletic footwear! When, on January 29, UCLA School of Law Dean Michael Waterstone hosted the first in his series of fireside chats with the most esteemed leaders in the law and beyond, no topic was off limits.
On January 17, Kimberly Clausing, the Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, testified in front of the Senate Budget Committee on international tax reform and leveling the playing field for American workers and small businesses.
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J.D. Business Law & Policy
UCLA School of Law professors Jon Michaels and Joanna Schwartz have been elected to the membership of the American Law Institute, among the most prestigious positions for legal academics and professionals.
Taifha Natalee Alexander LL.M. ’21, who directs the CRT Forward project within UCLA School of Law’s Critical Race Studies program, has been honored as an Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Alexander is among 15 scholars, out of several hundred nominees, who earned the prestigious recognition for 2024. The honor celebrates the accomplishments and impact of rising stars in academia who are under age 40.
What a difference a year makes. For UCLA Law’s Master of Laws (LL.M.) students, this couldn’t be truer.
Every LL.M. cohort is diverse and highly qualified.
The current LL.M. class features 228 students from 43 different countries. Among the 2023-24 class are prosecutors, members of the judiciary, clerks for supreme courts across the world, Fulbright scholars, associates at leading international law firms, in-house counsels for Fortune 500 corporations and more. Our LL.M. students are both accomplished and exceptionally talented, having earned prior law degrees at elite institutions ranging from Cambridge and the Sorbonne to the National University of Singapore and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).
Our students make the most of their LL.M. experience by doing it all.
An aspiring music lawyer, Sannidhi Sharma ’23 specialized in media, entertainment, technology, and sports law and policy while at UCLA. She not only externed at GoDigital Media Group while an LL.M. student, but also acted as chief managing editor of the UCLA Journal of Gender and Law, served as the LL.M. student speaker for the 2023 commencement and planned for the California bar exam. Her UCLA experience was pivotal in advancing her music career.
“UCLA is the place to be,” she says. Her advice for incoming students: “Try to soak in the sun and the beautiful environment and get as much as you can from the faculty because they’re amazing resources.”
LL.M. graduates give back to current students.
Whether at career programs, LL.M. fairs, orientation or law school events, our LL.M. alumni are always willing to offer their insights to current and future Bruins. For example, this fall, alums Carlos Araya Paz ’23, Arkadi De Proft ’22, Tamara Habayeb ’22, Adrian Jungblut ’23, Anson Lyu ’22 and Emma Wilson ’22 shared their experiences during a Ziffren Institute entertainment careers panel. Additionally, Vanessa Braun ’23 and Mijam Dülz ’23 spoke with prospective students about California life at the annual e-fellows LL.M. Day in Frankfurt, Germany.
LL.M. alumni keep close ties with UCLA.
Juan Pablo Escudero ’22 specialized in environmental law at UCLA. He’s worked at top Chilean law firms and as legal counsel on regulatory and environmental law matters, including for the Presidency of Chile. Following his LL.M., he joined UCLA Law’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment as a staff attorney. “My year at UCLA was by far one of the best years of my life. UCLA Law is one of the best places in the world to study law and is at the forefront of the fight against climate change.”
The LL.M. alumni network is active, robust and global.
Comprised of more than 2,500 graduates from over 90 different countries, the LL.M. alumni community reaches nearly every corner of the world. Alumni host UCLA networking events, participate in recruitment events, and serve as ambassadors who help admitted students envision their lives at UCLA Law.
Visit the LL.M. website here to get more information about the program and to apply before the February 1, 2024 deadline.
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LL.M. Program
When Monique Lillard graduated from UCLA Law in 1983, about one-third of all newly minted lawyers were women. Today, women represent more than half of law school graduates. Monique has long been dedicated to supporting women law students – beginning, in a unique twist, with her own mother.
A “reasonable person”
While TV’s Perry Mason glamorized the legal profession for an entire generation, Monique was inspired by a woman lawyer on a short-lived series in the early 1970s called “Storefront Lawyers.”
“It drives me crazy when blockades are put up for women.”
Kendra Fox-Davis ’06 brings a unique “inside-outside” perspective to her work. She has dedicated her career to protecting civil rights, from grassroots activism as a student to being a civil rights attorney for the U.S. Department of Education, and later working within the University of California to ensure compliance with anti-discrimination laws and policies. Now, as the chief program officer of the Rosenberg Foundation, Fox-Davis steers philanthropic investments to social causes and organizations, from civil rights to criminal justice reform.
“CRS was everything to me as a law student — an intellectual home, an inspiration, a North Star in terms of staying focused on the purpose of why I came to law school.”
Key takeaways
From a bench in the Shapiro Courtyard, the drama on Capitol Hill can feel worlds away. But for any student curious about practicing law in Washington D.C., there’s actually a very convenient conduit. The UCDC Law Program places students from UCLA, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Hastings, and Berkeley in a full-semester externship with leading organizations in their area of study.
The Resnick Center for Food Law and Policy launched at UCLA Law in 2013. The center has grown in the decade since, thanks to several major gifts from the Resnick Family Foundation and Lynda and Stewart Resnick ’62.
“Through our research, writing, teaching and convening, we have worked toward bettering the food system.”