In the fall of 2021, Sean Anderson ’22 walked into the first day of UCLA School of Law’s California Environmental Legislation and Policy Clinic and took on an assignment that would ultimately become his job — though he didn’t know it at the time.
“Leadership” was the word of the day when more than 150 members of the UCLA School of Law community gathered on campus on March 3 for the seventh annual U. Serve L.A. celebration. Every year, the auction and awards ceremony shines a spotlight on the trailblazing excellence of the many students, scholars, alumni and leaders in and around the law school’s renowned David J.
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J.D. David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law & Policy
When retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor died in December 2023, the nation bid farewell to a historic jurist and figure in American government.
This article was originally published on the UCLA Newsroom website on January 31, 2024. We share it here with UCLA Newsroom's permission.
The UCLA Foundation names Cheryl Lott new chair-elect
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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.
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
This year, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered major decisions on affirmative action, voting rights, free speech and Indigenous sovereignty, among other issues.
UCLA School of Law experts stepped in to break down the impact of the term in a variety of places: “Whither the Court: The Allan C. Lebow Annual Supreme Court Review” program, a webinar titled “From the Frontlines: The Supreme Court Rulings on Affirmative Action, LGBTQ Rights, and Student Debt,” public writings and even social media videos.