UCLA School of Law faculty members Laura E. Gómez, Blake Emerson, and Aaron Littman have earned prestigious section awards that are presented during the annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools.

The honorees join UCLA Law Distinguished Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, who was recognized with the Triennial Award for Lifetime Service to Legal Education and to the Law.

Thanks to the work of students and faculty of the UCLA School of Law’s Criminal Defense Clinic, two Southern California men serving life sentences in federal prison for non-violent drug convictions were granted compassionate release this year, allowing them to return home to their families.

In courthouses at opposite ends of Los Angeles County this fall, eight students in UCLA School of Law’s innovative Bail Practicum (now Pretrial Justice Clinic) stood up and advocated for four incarcerated clients who had been awaiting trial while in custody for seven weeks to 14 months. In all four cases, they earned favorable outcomes.

UCLA School of Law Professor Sharon Dolovich co-wrote an article on rates of COVID-19 infection and death in U.S. prisons that has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the country’s leading medical journal.