For more than two decades, UCLA School of Law professor Joanna Schwartz has been a leading authority on civil rights, with a focus on police misconduct. In 2020, with the murder of George Floyd and the national reckoning that followed, her work was thrust into the national spotlight.

A candidate’s messaging, charisma and likability may all factor into a voter’s decision on election day. But the rubber hits the road when those candidates get sworn into office and begin to write, pass and block legislation that affects citizens’ everyday lives. Beyond the legislation that elected officials may pass, other issues loom large in the midterms, including election integrity and the evolving role of social media.

Here, UCLA School of Law’s faculty experts share what they’re paying attention to.

UCLA School of Law students Akruti Chandrayya ’22 and Jenna Finkle ’22 have earned Gideon’s Promise fellowships. Both are students in the law school’s David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy, and they are just two of six law students across the country to whom the Gideon’s Promise fellowship program awarded the prestigious fellowships this year.

Sixteen members of the UCLA School of Law faculty have been recognized as leaders of legal scholarship based on the impact of their research and writing. The total is a new high for UCLA Law.

Long before he gave back to UCLA School of Law in a historic act of generosity that led to the naming of the David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy in his honor, Epstein stood out among the law school’s stellar alumni base for his excellence in service, practice, philanthropy, and engagement.