usf lawyer fall 2011

FALL • 2011

Jean Afterman ’91, Asst. GM of the NY Yankees • Justice Ming Chin ’67 on Liberty and ResponsibilityInsIde

Scholarly

From immigration reform to electronic information privacy policy to death penalty law, USF faculty scholarship is making an impact and driving reform.

09342_Lawyer_CS4_r1.indd 1 10/4/11 7:57 PM

Stephen A. Privett, S.J.University President

Jennifer E. TurpinUniversity Provost

Jeffrey S. BrandDean

Ronald MiconAssociate Dean for Academic Affairs

Joshua DavisAssociate Dean for Faculty Scholarship

Elizabeth BenhardtAssistant Dean for Academic Services

Erin DollyAssistant Dean for Student Affairs

Angie DavisDirector of Communications

Carolyn BoydAssistant Director of Communications

DesignAnn Elliot Artzwww.studioartz.com

USF Lawyer is published by:

University of San Francisco School of Law2130 Fulton StreetSan Francisco, CA 94117-1080

T 415 422 4409 F 415 422 [email protected]

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ContentsFALL • 2011

Dear Friends:

For me, there is so much that merits close attention in this issue of the USF Lawyer: • The first public announcement of our upcoming centennial scheduled for the academic

year 2012–2013. (“Come Home! Connect! Celebrate!” implores the announcement.)

• A profile of New York Yankees Assistant General Manager Jean Afterman ’91, who is one of the most powerful women in baseball and emblematic of the resourcefulness of our alums.

• The important graduation remarks of Associate Justice Ming Chin ’67 who eloquently reminds us of the relationship between individual responsibility and freedom by contrasting the Declaration of Independence with the Constitution. (“Now that we have the framework, the structure, and the institutions of government, what is our duty as citizens in this experiment called democracy?” he asks.)

In some ways, however, the cover story “Scholarly Justice” is the most critical. It embodies our mission and reminds us of the value of engaged scholarship to the law school and the world—a proposition at odds with common perceptions of legal scholarship that often question its usefulness and relevance. The university’s mission proudly proclaims “Change the World from Here.” The law school chimes in with its corollary, “Educating for Justice.” The import of each is the same: we are charged with the awesome task of educating our students to be skilled, ethical professionals and to help them develop fulfilling professional lives with a sense of responsibility for the plight of others. We are blessed with a brilliant faculty that meets this challenge with teaching as good as it gets and with scholarship in incredibly varied subjects that is making a difference in the world. The quality and importance of our teaching is well known; the quality and importance of faculty scholarship is less so. This issue of the USF Lawyer seeks to correct that imbalance by introducing you to the work of some of our distinguished scholars seeking legal change in diverse areas ranging from the death penalty to complex litigation to coerced confessions to immigration law, to name a few. The passion and purpose with which faculty attack their scholarship is exemplified by the words of the law school’s newly appointed Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship Joshua Davis: “Legal scholar-ship is critical not only as a means to seek the truth but also as a way to contribute to reform and create a more humane and just society.” In an equally eloquent statement Professor Steven Shatz reminds us of the relevance of legal scholarship to change: “The goal of legal scholarship should be to engage courts, legislators, and practicing lawyers in a conversation about what we can do to create a more just society.” I think you will be impressed by the breadth and utility of our faculty’s scholarly production— a critical mainstay of our efforts to educate for justice. There is much more to report (a successful start to the new school year, our challenges in the face of a still-stalled law job market, and our efforts to marshal resources in difficult economic times, among these items). We will continue to be in close touch with our wonderful community that gives us the support and inspiration to achieve our ambitious aspirations.

Jeffrey S. BrandDean and Professor of Law

Message from the Dean


stephen A. Privett, s.J.University President

Jennifer e. TurpinUniversity Provost

Jeffrey s. BrandDean

Ronald MiconAssociate Dean for Academic Affairs

Joshua davisAssociate Dean for Faculty Scholarship

elizabeth BenhardtAssistant Dean for Academic Services

erin dollyAssistant Dean for Student Affairs

Angie davisDirector of Communications

Carolyn BoydAssistant Director of Communications

designAnn Elliot Artzwww.studioartz.com

USF Lawyer is published by:

University of San Francisco School of Law2130 Fulton StreetSan Francisco, CA 94117-1080

T 415 422 4409 F 415 422 [email protected]

ContentsFALL • 2011

Scholarly JusticeFrom immigration reform to electronic information privacy policy to death penalty law, USF faculty scholarship is making an impact and driving reform.

Heavy HitterAs assistant general manager of the New York Yankees, Jean Afterman ’91 is one of the most powerful women in Major League Baseball.

In Brief• University unveils new logo, tagline• New student exchange program• Revised curriculum enhances student choice• Press clippings Faculty Focus • Associate Professor Richard Leo wins Guggenheim Fellowship• Senior Professor Tom McCarthy honored • Faculty scholarship updates

Giving Back• New director of development and alumni relations joins law school• Justice Donald King ’58 on planned giving

Alumni News• 2011 Alumni Graduates Dinner• Larry Cirelli ’84 wins Meehan Award• Steve Varholik ’02 pursues public service through securities regulation• Classnotes

Departments2

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Closing Argument California Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin BA ’64, JD ’67, on liberty and individual responsibility.

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University Unveils New Logo, Tagline

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252 Receive Degrees During Class of 2011 Commencement Hundreds of family and friends filled St. Ignatius Church May 21 for the graduation of the USF School of Law Class of 2011. The class includes 221 graduates who received Juris Doctor degrees, eight who received joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Admin-istration degrees, and 23 who received Master of Laws degrees. The commencement speaker and honorary degree recipient was Justice Ming Chin BA ’64, JD ’67, of the California Supreme Court. Chin used a portion of his speech to address national security issues, telling the graduates that they are now the guardians of the rule of law and the cause of justice. “As we celebrate and honor the Class of 2011 let us face the challenges of the war against terrorism with the same courage, conviction, and resolve that the greatest genera-tion faced the challenge of Nazi Germany. I wish the Class of 2011 good luck and God speed in this great adventure you are about to begin.” During the ceremony, Carl N. Hammarskjold received the Academic Excellence Award and Jophiel Philips received the Pursuit of Justice Award. Philips also served as the student speaker during the graduation. “Today, we are a step closer to having the audacity to change the world for the better,” Philips said. “Some days we are reminded of our ability to leave this world in better shape than we inherited it. Today is one of those days.” [USF]

The University of San Francisco has unveiled a new logo and tagline designed to capture the exchange of knowledge and learning in action that is the university’s hallmark.

The new tagline “Change the World from Here” is an extension of the former touchstone message “Educating Minds and Hearts to Change the World” with a call to action that is contemporary, urgent, and personal. Here being San Francisco. Here being USF’s campus and students’ classes. Here being the minds and hearts of students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The tagline invites the university community to share USF’s mission of social justice in action. The new logo rejuvenates the current mark and touchstone message introduced nearly 20 years ago by accentuating the univer-sity’s roots in San Francisco dating back to 1855, by underscoring USF’s mission to empower students and faculty to give back to the greater good, and by reflecting USF’s Jesuit Catholic values. Comprised of a cross formed from arrows pointing both outward and inward, the new logo reflects the ongoing dialogue and exchange between the university and an increasingly interconnected world.

“This university, much like the city of San Francisco itself, is a place where people of every background, ethnicity, and political persuasion come to explore ideas, foster creativity, pursue entrepre-neurship, and engage in service,” said USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. “As the city’s oldest university, we are not at the edge or in a suburb, but, rather, in the heart of this inspiring city. That

is what we want in reality, not just geographically. We want the Univer-sity of San Francisco to be the heart and soul of the city: to serve as a voice of reason tempered by compassion and driven by values.” Developed over the course of 18 months with input from current and prospective students, alumni, faculty,

and staff, the new logo and tagline capture the university’s engage-ment with San Francisco’s innovative spirit and society at large. “As a result of this interaction, both the culture and the university are enriched—learning from one another to affect positive change in our world,” said David Macmillan, USF vice president for communications and marketing and chair of the university’s branding work group, which oversaw the logo and tagline’s development. For more information, go to www.usfca.edu/logo. [USF]

From left: Graduates Abby O’Flaherty, Christy Siojo, Molly Wilson, and Donovan Hunter.


New Students JoinLaw School The USF School of Law welcomed a new class of 246 Juris Doctor students, including 57 part-time students, and 17 Master of Law students this fall. Students participated in a number of orientation activities, including a Law In Motion event attended by U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi at the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. The JD class, which was selected from more than 4,200 applicants, is comprised of 42 percent students of color and 52 percent women. Admitted students boasted a median GPA of 3.49 and me-dian LSAT score of 160. LLM students join the law school from 13 countries, including Burkina Faso, China, Germany, and Nigeria. “Once again, we have enrolled a ‘signature’ USF first-year class—smart, incredibly diverse, and a group committed to their education and the com-mon good, a commitment they expressed so elo-quently in their applications,” Dean Jeffrey Brand said. “These students appreciate the opportunity they have and understand their responsibility as they go forward as future lawyers. We look forward to working with them as we train them to be the ethical, skilled USF lawyers that make us so proud.” In addition to their courses, new students at-tended a mixer with the USF law community and an informational fair during orientation week; LLM students also attended a welcome lunch. The week ended with the annual Law In Motion Service Saturday, which is held on the last day of orienta-tion every year. The event is designed to introduce students to other 1Ls, engage them in community service, and train them to become ethical lawyers concerned for the common good. This year more than 80 students volunteered at five locations throughout San Francisco, including the Edgewood Center for Children and Families, St. Vincent de Paul Society Homeless Shelter, Golden Gate Park Conservancy, Glide Memorial Founda-tion, and National AIDS Memorial Grove. [USF]

Students Travel the Globe for Summer ProgramsMore than 70 USF law students spanned the globe this summer to participate in externships, study abroad programs, and an immersion course. “This summer was a once in a life time opportunity,” Kirill Devyatov 2L said. “It allowed me not only to learn a great deal of interesting legal subject matter, but also to bond closer with classmates and see legal education from an entirely different perspective.” Externships, which took place in Argentina, Cambodia, China, India, and Vietnam, brought students to non-governmental organizations, international business law firms, and government agencies. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, several students focused on humanitarian law while assisting organizations involved in the Khmer Rouge International Tribunal. Students in Beijing and Shanghai worked for international business law firms, most of which specialize in IP law. “The China externships provide USF law students with the invaluable opportunity to observe and support the efforts of lawyers to enforce their government’s intellectual property laws,” said Professor and Director of International Programming Dolores Dono-van, who supervised the China externship program. “Only by working for international law firms can U.S. law students appreciate and learn to use to maximum effect the skills of the foreign lawyers who will be their colleagues in their future careers as intellectual property law specialists and practitioners of transnational law.” In the law school’s Dublin and Prague study abroad programs, approximately 25 USF students and 10 students from other universities studied European Union law as well as international children’s rights, intellectual property, comparative law, and employ-ment discrimination. Additionally, six students began studies in San Francisco that concluded in Port-au-Prince for the Haiti and the Rule of Law course, which examines Haitian constitutional and statutory law and includes a case study of human trafficking. “Watching Ireland’s Parliament in action, witnessing a live murder trial in Dublin, and visiting the High Court of the Czech Republic was an amazing experience that really brought international law to life,” said Lear-la Narvaez 2L, who participated in the Dublin and Prague study abroad programs. Dean Jeffrey Brand and Professor John Adler also traveled to Vietnam this summer where they provided alternative dispute resolution training to provincial labor officials. [USF]

Cambodia

Vietnam

China


Professor Connie de la Vega was bestowed the Sarlo Prize and Professor Bruce Price received the Center for Instruction and Technology (CIT) Award at the University of San Francisco’s 35th Annual Service and Merit Awards. “This afternoon we deliberately pause from our routine to celebrate individuals and teams who have contributed sig-nificantly to our university,” USF President Stephen A. Privett, S.J. said. “I thank those of you whom we honor today and all of you collectively and individually for the contribu-tion that you make to the beauty and the richness that is USF.” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jennifer Turpin presented the Sarlo Prize to Professor de la Vega. The prize recognizes excellence in teaching and is awarded to a faculty member who exem-plifies the ethical principles that guide the university’s vision, mission, and values. De la Vega leads the Frank C. Newman International Human Rights Law Clinic, which brings students to the United Na-tions Commission on the Status of Women in New York City and the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, where

they advocate for human rights reforms. Students working with de la Vega have also conducted research, checked article cita-tions, and assisted in the writing of briefs to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and amicus curiae briefs that have been cited in major court decisions. “I would like to thank my colleagues at both the law school and other schools for their support of my work,” de la Vega said. “In particular, I would like to thank the stu-dents whose enthusiasm for social justice continues to inspire the work of the Frank C. Newman International Human Rights Law Clinic both in international human rights bodies as well in the application of interna-tional standards in the U.S.” Professor Price was recognized for his innovative use of technology in the class-room. “The effective and creative use of technol-ogy in instruction is ever more important in today’s classroom and even beyond the classroom,” said Vice President of Informa-tion Technology Steve Gallagher in his introduction of the CIT Awards. Gallagher noted that Price, who received the full-time faculty award, inspires and motivates

students through his passion for technology and law. Price is on the forefront of technology use, which he utilizes to accommodate vari-ous learning styles and meet the learning needs of diverse students. Price, who spe-cializes in bankruptcy, commercial law, and contracts, is diligent about providing course materials online and uses clickers to make course material fun and engaging. Clickers, or student response systems, are handheld devices that students use to respond to questions posed by instructors. [USF]

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New Curriculum Enhances Student ChoiceIn fall 2011 the USF School of Law

revised its traditional curriculum with

an eye toward offering students

greater choice during the first year

of law school.

First-year courses have been recon-

figured to allow students to choose an

elective in the spring semester. Some

formerly yearlong courses have been

changed to one semester to accommo-

date the addition of an elective.

“This gives students the opportunity

to explore their areas of interest and

takes away the rigidity they may feel

with the traditional first-year law school

curriculum,” Associate Dean for

Academic Affairs Ron Micon said.

First-year electives vary each year

but are drawn from a wide range of

curricular opportunities. For spring

2012, electives for first-year students

include Criminal Procedure, Employ-

ment Discrimination, Intellectual

Property Survey, Federal Income

Tax, and Bankruptcy. [USF]

De la Vega and Price Honored at USF Awards Ceremony


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Selected Readings

Transnational Business Problems by Detlev F. Vagts, William S. Dodge, Harold Hongju Koh (Foundation Press, 2008)

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

“ Future lawyers, especially those who wish to have an international component in their practice, can benefit from studying the legal issues that arise when business dealings span different nations. With increasing globalization, the transnational regulation of business is assuming ever-increasing importance.” Reza Dibadj

syllabusCourse International Business Transactions

Professor Reza Dibadj

Description Professor Reza Dibadj, who focuses his re-search on the regulation of business through corporate, securities, and transnational law, has taught International Business Transactions since joining the USF faculty in 2004. Dibadj goes beyond an examination of international law of treaty and custom to consider the variety of laws that regulate cross-border business transactions. He begins the course with a discussion of the international business environment, which includes an introduction to international trade law, world economic conditions, and international tax issues. The course also explores a series of representative transactions, including export sales, agency and distributorship, licensing, joint ventures, and other strategic agreements.

The U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) has launched a pilot project with the University of San Francisco School of Law in which Employment Law Clinic students represent federal employees in hearings on employment related disputes. The MSPB is an independent quasi- judicial agency established to protect federal merit systems and ensure protection for federal employees against abuses by agency management. The MSPB-USF part-nership—the first of its kind in the nation— is an effort to provide pro bono representa-tion to employees. The initiative may be extended to other law schools based on the success of the USF program. “Federal employees who lose their jobs or suffer a reduction in pay or their pensions and file an appeal with MSPB can benefit from low cost or no cost representation

that may help them avoid serious economic consequences,” said Judge Amy Dunning, chief administrative judge of the MSPB Western Regional Office. Dunning proposed the pilot program last semester to Professor Robert Talbot based on the clinic’s work in employment law, which includes a longstanding partnership with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportu-nity Commission. “The MSPB cases give students the unique opportunity to handle an entire civil case, from intake through trial, in one semester,” Talbot said. “Students participate in status and pretrial conferences and fight discovery issues under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. They examine and cross-examine witnesses under the Federal Rules of Evidence. Throughout all of this, the speed of the proceeding forces them

to work quickly and efficiently. This is the only civil context where students could possibly do a whole case in a semester.” The clinic has handled approximately 10 cases so far and has provided legal advice to dozens more federal employees through telephone consultations. Students say it is one of the most practical and useful experiences they’ve had in law school. “In this kind of market, employers are looking for hands on clinical experience and that’s what we’re getting,” Cherisse Cleofe 3L said. “Professor Talbot is so supportive and he trusts the work we do. We found out about our case the first week of school and he let us run with it. We’re getting experience we normally wouldn’t have, from communicating with clients to serving a 251-page initial disclosure. I am learning how to build a case from the ground up.” [USF]

Federal Employees Find Pro Bono Representation Through USF Employment Law Clinic


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“�We’re�trying�to�help�lawyers�become�the�kind�of�ethically�engaged�community�that�the�public,�and�the�American�Bar�Association,�have�asked�us��to�become.”

Professor Rhonda Magee in the May 2011 Shambala Sun

“�Many�feel�this��is�silly,�a�waste��of�money,�it’s��not�that�serious.�On�the�other�hand,�some�feel�lying�in�a�court-room�really��undermines��our�system.”

Professor Robert Talbot in a WCBS Newsradio broadcast on the Barry Bonds trial

“�It�is�why�the�good�work�of�the�defense��sections�at�the�tribunal�is�so�critical.�We��need�to�candidly�confront�the�reasons��that�we�reject�a�particular�prior�proceeding�or�political�deal�if�an�accused�is�going��to�be�tried.”

Dean Jeffrey Brand in a VOANews article on the importance of protecting the rights

of defendants in Khmer Rouge proceedings

“�The�Jones�case��requires�the��Supreme�Court�to�decide�whether�modern�technolo-gy�has�turned�law�enforcement�into�Big�Brother,�able�to�monitor�and�record�every�move�we�make�outside�our�homes.”

Professor Susan Freiwald in the New York Times article “Court Case Asks if ‘Big Brother’ is Spelled GPS”

“As�a�matter�of�practice�defendants�will�deny�all�sorts�of�things.�In�litigation,�people�rarely�admit�much.” Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship Joshua Davis in the San Jose Mercury News article “PG&E Seeks to Clarify Legal Position in San Bruno Pipeline Case”

“�The�fact�is,�under�our�Constitu-tion,�immigration�is�a�federal�responsibility.�Neither�a�state�like�Arizona,�nor�the�federal�government�itself,�can�force�local�governments�to�act�as�im-migration�agents.�Such�measures�compound�the�injustices�of��our�deeply�broken�immigration�system—and�public�safety��and�local�resources�are��among�the�first�causalities.”

Professor Bill Ong Hing in a San

Francisco Sentinel article on the Department of Homeland Security’s “Secure Communities” program

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“�For�people�to�say�‘I’d�never��give�a�false�confession’�is�naïve.��They�don’t�understand�the��situational�pressures.�It’s�high��pressure,�yelling�in�your�face,�threats�and�promises,�and�it��can�go�on�for�hours.”

Associate Professor Richard Leo in the Memphis Commercial Appeal article “No False Confessions? Science Has Found Dozens, Often Wrung from Coerced Young Suspects”


While most of her classmates hovered over books and laptops preparing for final exams, Jackie Falk 2L spent a Thursday afternoon this spring on the floor of a private room in the Zief Law Library playing with Sophia Loren, a gentle pit bull/Weimaraner mix. Sophia did tricks—roll over, give a high five, take a bow—and Falk rewarded her with doggie treats and affectionate scratches under the ears. “She is relieving my stress and giving me a reason to smile,” Falk said. “She’s relaxed, she’s fun, she’s cute. She’s just soothing. Law school is a lot to do and a lot of time management so if you can take a little time with a dog it reminds you to keep perspective on things.” The session was part of a new animal therapy pro-gram the library sponsored during finals to provide a fun and proven way to relieve stress. The program partnered

with the San Francisco SPCA Animal Assisted Therapy Program, which is marking its 30th anniversary this year. Ten-minute sessions were offered on four days during finals. In addition to Sophia Loren, other dogs available to students included MotC, a golden doodle, Blaise, a golden retriever, Monk, a St. Bernard, and Daphne, a black Labrador. “Knowing how stressful final exams are, I wanted to make things more humane for law students,” said Ron Wheeler, director of the law library. “I wanted to let the students know the library is a fun, interesting place to come and interact. I’ve seen a lot more smiles and a lot more laughter here in the library than ever before during exams, that’s for sure. It’s clear to me that the students minds get far away from exams or grade pressure and when I see the smiles I feel like we’re doing something positive for the students.” [USF]

The University of San Francisco’s Center for Law and Global Justice recently received a Ford Foundation grant for the project “Marshalling Global Human Rights to Reform Criminal Punishment and Sentencing in the United States.” The grant is funding a two-year fellow-ship to conduct research on and advocacy relating to extreme criminal sentences, such as life without parole.

“I have always known that I wanted to pursue a career in international human rights but it was USF’s exception-al programs that helped me narrow my focus and make my goals a reality,” said Amanda Solter ’09, human rights fellow for the project.

Solter is investigating sentencing laws and proce-dures in Latin American, Caribbean, and African countries. By conducting a global survey of criminal sentencing, the project endeavors to demon-strate that the United States is in violation of international law and an outlier in the global community due to its harsh sentencing practices. The project will publish a report that will be used to advocate for sentencing reform in the United States. [USF]

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Therapy Dogs Ease Exam Stress

Katy Yount ’11 took time out from studying to visit with Sophia Loren, an SPCA therapy dog.

“ Many feel this is silly, a waste of money, it’s not that serious. On the other hand, some feel lying in a court-room really undermines our system.”

Professor Robert Talbot in a WCBS Newsradio broadcast on the Barry Bonds trial

“ USF, a Jesuit institution, has

stressed the importance of social

justice issues with relation to a

law degree. At a time when many

Americans have low opinions of

lawyers, it is also important to

recognize that many lawyers, such

as those trained at USF, are not in

the profession just to make money

or to support criminals but to use

their training and legal skills to

advance social justice and democ-

racy in this country.”

Mario T. Garcia, parent of a USF School of Law graduate, in the National Catholic Reporter

“As a matter of practice defendants will deny all sorts of things. In litigation, people rarely admit much.” Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship Joshua Davis in the San Jose Mercury News article “PG&E Seeks to Clarify Legal Position in San Bruno Pipeline Case”

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USF Fellowship Focuses on Criminal Sentencing Reform

Amanda Solter ’09


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New Student Exchange Program Enriches Educational Experience

The USF School of Law welcomed University of Luxembourg student Chris-tian Junck and City University of Hong Kong student Yuli Yan this fall. Junck and Yan are the first international students attending USF through the law

school’s new student exchange program. The program, which brings international students to USF and offers USF students the opportunity to study in China, Luxembourg, and Spain for one semester, began in 2010. Three USF students studied abroad at the University of Luxembourg or City University of Hong Kong through the program last year. Graham Douds 2L is study-ing in Hong Kong and Kate Emminger 3L and Jessica Watson 3L are studying at the University of Deusto in Spain this semester. “The purpose of the semester abroad program is to train lawyers to practice interna-tional law with a deep understanding of the dynamics and underlying legal culture of the foreign legal systems in which they will represent clients,” said Professor Dolores Donovan, who oversees the program. USF students who attend the University of Deusto, which was founded in Bilbao, Spain, in 1886, study international trade, the judicial system in the European Union, European competition law, and arbitration methods for solving conflicts in the E.U. In Luxembourg, students have the opportunity to study law in an international finance epicenter that houses several European institutions, including the European Court of Justice and the European Investment Bank. The University of Luxembourg, which was established in 2003, is the first and only university of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Students at the City University of Hong Kong gain a uniquely objective perspec-tive on China’s legal system as they are in a city connected to yet separate from the mainland due to its British legal heritage, Donovan said. The school was founded in 1987 and offers courses in Chinese and comparative law, international economic law, common law, and arbitration and dispute resolution. “For students interested in international law, commercial or investment arbitra-tion, Hong Kong or China Law, City U offers an invaluable experience,” said Michael Dundas ’11, who attended the City University of Hong Kong in 2010. “The profes-sors are experts in their respective fields and are focused on setting and achieving teaching goals.” [USF]

“Thepurposeofthesemesterabroadprogramistotrainlawyerstopracticeinternationallawwithadeepunderstandingofthedynamicsandunderlyinglegalcultureoftheforeignlegalsystemsinwhichtheywillrepresentclients.”

Professor Dolores Donovan

University of Deusto University of Luxembourg City University of Hong Kong


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[ in brief ] one to watch

Elizabeth LéoneElizabeth Léone studied broadcast communications at San Francisco State University and worked as a radio producer for AIDS educational programming in Kenya and South Sudan prior to law school. Her decision to pursue a legal education was influenced by her time abroad, where she met African women who were working to create the same academic opportunities for girls as boys. Léone says that this experience made her realize how lucky she was and motivated her to attend law school to help others. A strong interest in international human rights has led Léone to participate in Haiti and Cambodia externships, the Frank C. Newman International Human Rights Law Clinic, and the Haitian Temporary Protected Status Clinic.

how do you plan to use your law degree?I would like to develop and run a legal clinic devoted entirely to human trafficking and labor exploitation litigation in Brazil, Haiti, or Southeast Asia. The idea would be to tackle human trafficking directly through civil litigation, assist prosecutors, and train the next generation of human rights lawyers through comprehensive internships.

what has been your favorite law school class?Public International Law taught by Professor Jack Garvey. We studied political history from a legal perspective—the class gave me a new appreciation for the role that lawyers play on the global stage.

what was your most interesting paper?My interest in human trafficking led me to study what the next economic powerhouse countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) are doing to curb trafficking in the legal realm.

what is one of your most memorable law school experiences?In the summer of 2010, three of my fellow law students and I interviewed earthquake survivors in internally

displaced camps in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was exhausting and challenging work going into people’s shelters and asking them very personal questions while not being able to help them directly with food or aid. Ultimately, we used the information we gathered for a report on camp conditions. This experience is the one that I turn to when law school becomes particularly frustrating and challenging. It’s a good reminder of why I came to law school in the first place—to work for social justice “on the ground.”

Did you dream of being a lawyer as a kid?

Not at all! I was always interested in creative pursuits yet also in social justice. Getting older and raising two kids made me change my focus to empowering others.

what is your favorite way to de-stress?Enjoying good food, wine, and conversation with my best friends.

what advice would you give new USf law students?Follow your passion. Study what interests you the most yet be open to new areas of law. Don’t just take safe courses—branch out and find your niche.

fourth-Year Student | Part-time Juris Doctor Program

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associate Professor Richard A. Leo has been awarded a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship in the general nonfiction category for his forthcoming book TheInnocenceRevolution, co-authored with Richard Wells. “It is with pride that I announce that our own Richard Leo has won

a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship, among 180 artists, writers, and researchers who were selected from more than 3,000 applications,” Dean Jeffrey Brand said. The book will explore the growth in the last two decades of convicted U.S. prison-ers being found innocent, the increasing media and public attention to the problem of wrongful convictions, and the history of the innocence movement. Leo shares the grant with Wells, who also co-authored TheWrongGuys:Murder,FalseConfessions,andtheNorfolkFour. In addition to Leo, two other University of San Francisco professors received fellowships—Associate Professor D.A. Powell and Associate Professor David Vann from the College of Arts and Sciences. USF is the only institution in the country with three Guggenheim fellows this year. The $50,000 grant will support one year of research for the new book, including interviews across the nation and archival research at Northwestern University’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, Cornell University, and Yale University. Since 1989, 258 U.S. prisoners have been exonerated through DNA testing and several hundred more have been exonerated through other means, Leo and Wells wrote in their fellowship proposal. “Few Americans would be surprised to hear today—as they would have been two decades earlier—that many people languish in U.S. prisons,” they said. The book will explain the numerous obstacles to reversing wrongful convictions, including restrictions on who can obtain post-conviction DNA testing, substantial barriers in the judicial system, and resistance from prosecutors who tend to oppose reopening their cases. It will also discuss the steps that have been taken to reduce wrongful convictions and the considerable reforms that are still required for justice. “Despite the burgeoning awareness within the legal system of its propensity for error, reversing miscarriages of justice remains an extraordinarily difficult, time- consuming, and expensive task,” Leo and Wells said. “Time and time again, the system has proven indisposed to substantial change.” [USF]

Leo Awarded

Guggenheim Fellowship for Wrongful Convictions Research

“Despite the burgeon-ing awareness within the legal system of its propensity for error, reversing miscarriages of justice remains an extraordinarily diffi-cult, time-consuming, and expensive task.”


Senior Professor J. Thomas McCarthy was honored with a Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to trademark law at a gala reception during the annual meet-ing of the International Trademark Associa-tion (INTA) in May. The reception, held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, was sponsored by the USF School of Law McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology along with INTA, Drinker Biddle, and Mark Monitor. McCarthy Institute Director David Franklyn presented the award, which included a bronzed replica of the seminal trademark law treatise, McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition. “It is the preeminent trademark treatise in the United States if not the world,” Franklyn said. “It’s been cited more than 3,000 times in court opinions. He gave something useful to lawyers and judges and that’s about the highest thing you can say about a professor

who studies the law and tries to make a contribution. I’m very proud to have him as my colleague and my mentor.” Dean Jeffrey Brand praised McCarthy for not only transforming trademark law but also being an outstanding teacher who inspired countless students at the law school.

“Besides being a great scholar, Tom was a phe-nomenal teacher, inspiring so many of us in this room tonight,” Brand said during the award ceremony. “I think what Tom really has done for us, is to set a standard where we know that if we want true

excellence all we have to do is look at Tom’s scholarship, his care, and the way he treats his colleagues to know the kind of lawyers that we want to be. Tom, you continue to inspire us with the standards that you have set. Congratulations yet again, Tom, nobody is more deserving.”

Faculty Scholarship & Service

At the 13th Annual Trina Grillo Public Interest and Social Justice Retreat, Professor John Adler moderated the panel “Indigenous Rights.”

Dean Jeffrey Brand moderated the Orrick, Herrington, Sutcliffe LLP event “Law & Reorder: Legal Industry Trends and the Future of the Profession,” which included an interview by Brand of Deborah Epstein Henry, author of Law & Reorder.

Adjunct Professor Robert Brownstone co-authored the chapter “Privacy Litigation” in Data Security and Privacy Law (Thomson Reuters, 2011).

Technical Services Librarian Shannon Burchard coordinated and moderated the panel “Sailing the High Seas: Maritime Research Practice and Thoughts” at the annual meeting of the American Association of Law Libraries.

Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship Joshua Davis published “Applying Litigation Economics to Patent Settlements: Why Reverse Payments Should Be Per Se Illegal” and, with Eric L. Cramer, “Of Vulnerable Monopolists: Questionable Innovation in the Standard for Class Certification in Antitrust Cases” in the

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McCarthy Honored For Trademark Law Contributions

“Besides being a great scholar, Tom was a phenomenal teacher, inspiring

so many.”

DeanJeffreyBrand

SeniorProfessorJ.ThomasMcCarthy(center)receivedanawardfromProfessorDavidFranklyn(right)andDeanJeffreyBrandattheannualmeetingoftheInternationalTrademarkAssociationinMay.

09342_Lawyer_CS4_r4.indd 13 10/10/11 7:29 AM

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[ faculty focus ]

Rutgers Law Journal. His article “Antitrust, Class Certification, and the Politics of Procedure” (George Mason Law Review, 2010), co-authored with Eric L. Cramer, was cited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Caroline Behren v. Comcast Corporation. Davis co-authored an amicus brief filed before the U.S. Supreme Court in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Betty Dukes, et al. He also served on a panel at the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law 59th Annual Antitrust Spring Meeting and the Northern District of California 2011 Judicial Conference.

Professor Connie de la Vega co-authored the report “Holding Businesses Accountable for Human Rights Violations: Recent Develop-ments and Next Steps,” published by Dialogue on Globalization/Friedrich, Ebert, Siftung. She participated in panels at “Human Rights in the United States” in Geneva, Switzerland, and at the Trina Grillo retreat held at the University of San Francisco. She presented on the U.N. Human Rights Council and its procedures at Columbia Law School, the USF School of Law conference “The United Nations Human Rights Council: The Five Year Review and the Future of Human Rights,” and Santa Clara Law. She also spoke on corporate responsibility at the Centre for Human Rights Education Eighth International Human Rights Forum in Lucerne, Switzerland. De la Vega received the Sarlo Prize at the University of San Francisco’s 35th Annual Service and Merit Awards. The prize recognizes excellence in teaching and is awarded to a faculty member who exemplifies the ethical principles that guide the university’s vision, mission, and values.

Research Professor of Constitutional Policy John Denvir moderated the panel “Facts and Fantasies About Lawyers on Television” at the Stanford Law School conference “Channeling Justice: Television and the Legal Profession.”

Professor Reza Dibadj is the author of “Papers on a Fiduciary Duty for Broker-Dealers: Brokers, Fiduciaries, and a Beginning” published in

Review of Banking and Financial Law. He also authored “Citizens United as Corporate Law Narrative,” published in the Chapman University School of Law’s Nexus Journal.

Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Erin Dolly was the lead organizer of the 13th Annual Trina Grillo Public Interest and Social Justice Retreat that took place at the USF School of Law.

Professor Dolores Donovan presented “Com-parative Constitutional Law: Cambodia, France, and the U.S.” to the law faculty at Build Bright University in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Director of the Child Advocacy Clinic Patricia Fitzsimmons moderated the panel “The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United States” at the 13th Annual Trina Grillo Public Interest and Social Justice Retreat.

Professor Emeritus Jay Folberg was pre-sented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American College of Civil Trial Mediators. He helped organize the conference “Teaching Law School ADR Classes: Mediation, Negotia-tion, Arbitration, and the ADR Overview Course,” held at Pepperdine University School of Law and co-sponsored by the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and the JAMS Foundation. He participated in panels on mediation and conflict resolution at the American Bar Association’s 13th Annual Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference, the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs Alternative Dispute Reso-lution Conference, and other events. Folberg helped lead a national mediation workshop for recently retired federal and state court judges in San Francisco. He also took part in Peking University’s “Rethinking Negotiation Conference” in Beijing, China, and served as a judge in the China University English Language Negotiation Competition.

Associate Professor Deborah Hussey Free-land presented “Interdisciplinary Paths in Aca-demia” to the Stanford Law School BioLaw and Health Policy Society and the Women of Stanford Law. She also presented “Ethics in Translation Between Law and Science” at the Law and Soci-ety Association Early Career Workshop and “Law and Science: A Meeting of the Minds” at the an-nual meeting of the Law and Society Association.

Professor Susan Freiwald authored “Cell Phone Location Data and the Fourth Amend-ment: A Question of Law, Not Fact” in the Mary-land Law Review. She was a panelist at the UC Berkeley School of Law conference “Technology: Transforming the Regulatory Endeavor,” Fordham University’s Fifth Annual Law and Information Society symposium “Mobile Devices, Location Technologies, and Shifting Values,” and the 2011 Alaska Bar Convention. She presented “Social Media: Legal Implications and ‘Real World’ Legal Implementations” at the Northern California Association of Law Libraries Spring Institute and “Constitutional Protection of Cell Site Location Data” at Stanford Law School. Freiwald also moderated a panel on University of Colorado Associate Professor Paul Ohm’s paper “Big Data and Privacy” at the Privacy Law Scholars’ Conference in Berkeley, met with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy’s staff to discuss the senator’s proposed electronic communications privacy bill, and participated in a roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center and the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Professor Tristin Green was one of the primary organizers of the Working Group on the Future


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of Systemic Disparate Treatment Law, which met for the first time at the USF School of Law in March. Law journal articles authored by Green were cited in numerous briefs filed by the U.S. Women’s Chamber of Commerce, American Civil Liberties Union, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, among others, before the U.S. Supreme Court in Walmart v. Dukes. She present-ed her paper “The Future of Systemic Disparate Treatment Law: After Wal-Mart v. Dukes” at the Association of American Law Schools’ “2011 Workshop on Women Rethinking Equality” in Washington, D.C.

Adjunct Professor David Greene moderated the panel “Corporate Personhood: The First Amendment Rights of Corporations in the Wake of Citizens United” at a USF Law Review sympo-sium in February.

Professor Bill Ong Hing received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Centro Legal de La Raza’s 42nd Annual Gala “Keeping Immi-grant Families Together.” He authored “Asian Americans and Immigration Reform” in the Asian American Law Journal and “Reason Over Hysteria: Keynote Essay” in the Loyola Journal of Public Interest Law. Hing participated in the San Francisco Foundation event “Building Inclusive Communities: Racial Equity and Immigration,” UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Board Diversity Conference, Asian Pacific American Bi-ennial Convention, and Trina Grillo retreat at the USF School of Law. He also presented at Angel Island on the link between immigration history and current immigration policy, and delivered the keynote address “The Prospects of Comprehen-sive Immigration Reform” during the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Annual Installation Dinner.

Adjunct Professor Shirley Hochhausen participated in the panel “Forging the Path, Funding the Vision—How to Support Your Plan” at the Trina Grillo retreat.

Professor Peter Jan Honigsberg’s Witness to Guantanamo project was awarded a grant from the Roddick Foundation. Honigsberg re-cently filmed interviews with former Guantanamo detainees in England and Latvia; with military officials in New York and Washington, D.C.; and with the mother of Jose Padilla, an American citizen who was tortured and held in isolation in a South Carolina naval brig for nearly four years. He moderated the panel “American War Crimes” at the Trina Grillo retreat and presented on the Witness to Guantanamo project to Harvard Law School students and the Sonoma County Bar Association. Honigsberg also authored “Conflict of Interest that Led to the Gulf Oil Disaster” in the Environmental Law Reporter News & Analysis.

Professor Tim Iglesias co-edited The Legal Guide to Affordable Housing Development Law (American Bar Association, Second Edition 2011) with Rochelle Lento, and authored the chapter “State and Local Regulation of Particular Types of Affordable Housing.” Iglesias provided opening remarks at the Third Annual Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Symposium. His talk was titled “Reflections on Fair Housing Law.” He also served on the panel “Rural, Metropolitan, and Urban Community Collaborations” at the American Bar Association’s Annual Confer-ence on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law.

Professor Alice Kaswan authored the Eth-ics and Global Climate Change book chapter “Reconciling Justice and Efficiency: Integrating Environmental Justice into Domestic Cap-and-Trade Programs for Controlling Greenhouse Gases” (Cambridge University Press, 2011). She presented “Land Use and Climate Adaptation:

The Federal Role” at the Association of Law, Property, and Society Second Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.; “The Clean Air Act, Climate Change, and Pollution,” at a UC Los Angeles conference; and “Climate Adaptation and Land Use: Reconsidering the Federal Role” at the an-nual meeting of the Law and Society Association, a roundtable on climate change and environmen-tal law at Northwestern School of Law, and a USF symposium on sustainability and justice. She co-presented “Toward a Well Adapted Future: A Legal Framework and Action Agenda for Climate Change Adaptation in the Puget Sound” for an online conference sponsored by the Center for Progressive Reform. Kaswan also provided com-ments on the Center for Progressive Reform’s “Climate Change Manual for the Puget Sound Region” and on alternatives to a cap-and-trade program to the California Air Resources Board.

E.L. Wiegand Distinguished Professor in Tax Daniel Lathrope was designated a life member of the American Law Institute at the 88th Annual Meeting in May. He published the 2011 supplement to his book Alternative Minimum Tax (Warren, Gorham and Lamont/RIA, 1994; supple-ments 1995–2011).

Associate Professor Richard Leo’s article “The Problem of False Confessions in the Post-DNA World” (North Carolina Law Review, 2004) was cited in the recent United States Supreme Court decision J.D.B. v. North Carolina. Leo authored “Jurors Believe Interrogation Tactics Are Not Likely to Elicit False Confessions: Will Expert Witness Testimony Inform Them Otherwise?” in Psychology, Crime & Law and co-authored “Three Prongs of the Confession Problem: Issues and Proposed Solutions” in The Future of Evi-dence: How Science and Technology will Change the Practice of Law (American Bar Association Books, 2011). He delivered the keynote address “Confessions of the Innocent: Causes, Conse-quences, Solutions” at the 36th Annual Confer-ence of the Forensic Mental Health Association of California, and presented at the University of


Minnesota Law School conference “Police Inter-rogation of Juveniles,” Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association seminar “‘Innocence Work’ in the Real World for Real Lawyers,” Third Hoffinger Criminal Justice Forum at the New York University School of Law, National Innocence Network Conference, and Western Psychological Association Conference. He also spoke on po-lice interrogation methods to the New York State Justice Task Force on Wrongful Convictions and to the Federal Public Defender’s Capital Habeas Unit in Los Angeles.

Professor Rhonda Magee published “Educat-ing Lawyers to Meditate? From Exercises to

Epistemology to Ethics: The Contemplative Practice and Law Movement as Legal Educa-tion Reform” in the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review and “Contemplative Practice in Law Movement in America: An Overview” in Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices are Changing the Way We Live (Fetzer Institute, 2011). She authored the mindful.org article “Pay-ing Mind to the Challenge of Diversity: A Mindful Lawyer’s Argument for Mediation.” Magee was recently elected vice-chair of the national board of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. She presented on mindfulness in legal and higher education at the Amherst College confer-ence “Throughout the Curriculum: Contempla-tion in Higher Education,” 24th Annual National Conference for Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education, and Association for Contem-plative Mind in Higher Education’s Regional Conference. In addition, she presented at the 32nd International Congress on Law and Mental Health in Berlin, Germany.

Professor Maya Manian authored “Irrational Women: Informed Consent and Abortion Regret” in Feminist Legal History: Essays on Women and Law (NYU Press, 2011). She presented “Parents, Minors, and Minor Parents: A Family Law Per-spective on Adolescents’ Reproductive Rights” at the Emerging Family Law Scholars and Teach-ers Conference and at the Fourth Annual Mid-west Family Law Consortium “Family Law in the 21st Century.” Manian was also a commentator during a panel on sexuality, domestic violence, and mothering at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association.

Marshall P. Madison Professor of Law Jesse Markham Jr. authored “Lessons for Competi-tion Law from the Economic Crisis: The Prospect for Antitrust Responses to the ‘Too-Big-To-Fail’ Phenomenon,” published in the Fordham Journal of Corporate and Financial Law. He presented his paper “Toward the Restoration of Categorical Analysis in U.S. Antitrust Law: The Demise of Old Categories and the Need for New Ones” at the University of Luxembourg’s School of Finance and School of Law. He also presented on com-petition policy at the American Antitrust Institute and National Press Club conference “International Economics for Antitrusters: Learning From Two Decades of Deep Globalization,” and commented on University of Arizona Professor of Law Barak Orbach’s paper “Too Big To Exist” at the Loyola University Chicago School of Law’s 11th Annual Antitrust Colloquium.

Senior Professor J. Thomas McCarthy received the Distinguished Service Award from the McCarthy Institute for Intellectual Property and Technology Law. He gave a presentation on recent developments in trademark and right of publicity law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law 2011 Intellectual Property Institute. With Professor David Franklyn, McCarthy participated in a panel on effective teaching methods at the annual meeting of the International Trademark Association (INTA). At the meeting, he moderated an event celebrating the 100th anniversary of The Trademark Reporter, the INTA journal. McCarthy also published the most recent version of McCarthy on Trademarks and Unfair Competition in August.

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Faculty Speaker Series Engages Noted Legal Scholars

A t the USF School of Law’s ongoing Faculty Scholarship Work-shop Series, distinguished scholars from across the country and world present current research. The weekly workshops also

feature scholarly presentations by USF’s own faculty. The series provides opportunities for presentation and discussion of current research and works-in-progress. “The series allows USF faculty members to discuss and debate ideas with colleagues from around the nation and the world,” said Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship Joshua Davis. “In the process, we become more informed scholars and teachers, propagate our ideas, and create opportunities for future collaboration and engagement. We also strengthen our sense of community and show others what a special place USF is.” Recent speakers and presentations have included Professor William Simon of Columbia Law School, “Minimalism and Experimentalism in the Administrative State”; Professor Jodi Short of Georgetown University Law Center, “The Political Turn in Administrative Law: Power, Rational-ity, and Reason”; Professors Russell Robinson and Devon Carbado of UC Los Angeles School of Law, “What’s Wrong with Gay Rights?”; and Roy W. and Eugenia C. MacDonald Endowed Chair in Civil Procedure Charles Silver of University of Texas School of Law, “A Critique of Recent Philosophical Writings on Legal Ethics from the Perspective of Agency Law.” For more information on the speaker series, go to www.usfca.edu/law/faculty/workshops. [USF]


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Lathrope Publishes New Edition of Definitive Tax BookE.L. Wiegand Distinguished Professor in Tax Daniel Lathrope has published the 16th edition of Fundamentals of Federal Income Taxation (Foundation Press, 2011). Co-authored with James J. Freeland, Stephen A. Lind, and Richard B. Stephens, it is the definitive casebook in federal income tax.

Lathrope is a preeminent tax law scholar who joined the USF faculty in 2009 from UC Hastings College of the Law. He has taught in the graduate tax programs at New York University and the University of Florida.

Lathrope’s additional books include The Alternative Minimum Tax: Compliance and Planning with Analysis (Warren, Gorham & Lamont, 2011); Fundamentals of Corporate Taxation (Foundation Press, Seventh Edition 2008); Fundamentals of Partnership Taxation (Foundation Press, Eighth Edition 2008) Funda-mentals of Business Enterprise Taxation (Foundation Press, Fourth Edition 2008); and Global Issues in Income Taxation (West, 2008).

Director of the LLM Mentor Program Susan Mendelsohn co-authored the chapter “For-eign Direct Investments in Vietnam: Investment Procedures and the Impact of the U.S.-Vietnam Trade Agreement” in Laws of International Trade.

Herbst Foundation Professor of Law Julie Nice published “How Equality Constitutes Liberty: The Alignment of CLS v. Martinez” in the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly. She served as chair of and participated in the panel “Successes and Failures of Mobilization by Non-State Legal Actors” at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association in June. Nice also presented “Beyond Equality” at the West Coast Law and Society Retreat at Southwestern Law School and on constitutional law to visiting students from Thailand.

At the 35th Annual Service and Merit Awards, Professor Bruce Price was bestowed the Uni-versity of San Francisco’s Center for Instruction and Technology Award.

Adjunct Professor Ryan Riddle moderated a panel on legislative developments at the Uni-versity of San Francisco Law Review symposium “Democracy, Inc? Citizens United, Corporate Expenditures, and the Future of Campaign Finance Law.”

Adjunct Professor Susan Sakmar published “Global Shale Gas Initiative: Will the United States be the Role Model for the Development of Shale Gas Around the World?” in the Houston Journal of International Law. She presented at a session of the World Energy Congress in Montreal and spoke on the key regulatory and environmental challenges facing shale gas de-velopment at the Energy Bar Association’s 65th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. She also taught a two-day course titled “Fundamentals of Shale Gas: Legal, Policy, and Environmental Challenges” for Electric Utility Consultants, Inc.

Philip and Muriel Barnett Professor of Trial Advocacy Steven Shatz published the third edition of his book Criminal Law: Cases and Problems (Lexis, First Edition 1999, Second Edi-tion 2004, Third Edition 2011).

Professor Robert Talbot was interviewed by NBC, CBS, and KTVU on the recent BART protests and the Bryan Stow case. Stow, a Giants fan, was critically beaten at Dodgers Stadium in March.

Director of the Dorraine Zief Law Library Ronald Wheeler authored “Does WestlawNext Really Change Everything: The Implications of WestlawNext on Legal Research,” published in the Law Library Journal, and “Leadership as a Product of Hard Work and Passion,” published by the American Association of Law Libraries in the AALL Spectrum. He presented at the 104th American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting and Conference in Philadelphia, the Harvard Law School conference “The Future of Law Libraries: The Future is Now?” and at a Houston Area Law Libraries Meeting. Wheeler also moderated and presented on WestlawNext, its usage in legal practice, and its pros and cons at the Northern California Association of Law Libraries Spring Institute. He was the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Chicago Associa-tion of Law Libraries and presented on develop-ments within the American Association of Law Libraries and the law librarian profession to the Michigan Association of Law Libraries.


From immigration reform to electronic informa-tion privacy policy to death penalty law, schol-arship produced by USF School of Law faculty is making an impact and exploring solutions to some of the most critical issues faced by society today. In this feature we highlight the work of seven professors who have created change through influential amicus briefs, law review articles offering policy alternatives, testimony to legislative bodies, and other scholarly work.

Scholarly

By Carolyn Boyd


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In 1990, in a city filled with rising crime and fears, five young men aged 14 to 16 were wrongfully convicted of brutally raping a woman jogging in New York City’s Central Park. Known as the Central Park Five, the teenagers were coerced by police to confess to the horrific crime and indict their companions. They pleaded not guilty and maintained their innocence throughout the trial claiming that their original statements, which were contradictory and conflicted with other evidence, were false and fabricated by arresting officers. But the damage had already been done—all were sentenced to prison. Fast forward to the early 2000s when Matias Reyes, who was convicted of raping several other women in New York City in the early 1990s, confesses to the 1989 assault of the Central Park jogger. DNA testing from the crime scene would reveal Reyes to be a match. The Central Park Five would be exoner-ated though only after serving between six and 14 years in adult maximum-security prisons. The men are now seeking compensation for the damage done to their lives. And USF School of Law Associate Professor Richard Leo, an expert in wrongful convictions and false confessions, has been retained as a litigation consultant for the legal team representing two of the Central Park Five in civil suits. “What drew me to these and other cases of wrongful convic-tion is the deep injustice that occurs when a factually innocent person is mistakenly prosecuted and wrongly convicted,” Leo said. “This is the worst kind of error possible in our system of criminal jurisprudence and thus the one that it is most de-signed to prevent in theory—because of all the rights that we give criminal defendants and the burdens we place on the state to prove their guilt—yet in practice it happens all the time.” Leo has been researching and writing on coercive interroga-tion, false confessions, and wrongful convictions for almost two decades and has played a role as a litigation consultant or expert witness in hundreds of criminal and civil cases. His scholarship, which includes more than 70 articles in leading scientific and legal journals as well as several books, has also been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in J.D.B. v. North Carolina (2011), Maryland v. Shatzer (2010), Corley v. United States (2009), Missouri v. Seibert (2004), and by numerous appellate courts. He has received multiple book awards includ-ing a Guggenheim Fellowship (see page 10).

Leo’s commitment to assisting those who have been unjustly treated within our judicial system is just one example of how the research of USF School of Law faculty influences the real world. Their scholarship has spurred change in child sentenc-ing, digital privacy, antitrust litigation, and more. “What makes me most proud about the scholarly pursuits of our faculty is the dramatic impact they seek to make and are making in the world,” USF School of Law Dean Jeffrey Brand says. “Faculty are pursuing projects focused on the most critical topics of our times: the right to choose, immigration, nuclear nonproliferation, bankruptcy, proper police conduct, the envi-ronment, the death penalty, disability rights law—the list goes on and on. “Whether it be an amicus brief, an article in a law review imagining a policy that can change lives, presenting research in court to bolster fundamental rights, or teaching students eager to make a difference as lawyers, our faculty demonstrate dramatically that scholarship and activism for social change go hand in hand.”

Contributing to Legal Change

Professor Joshua Davis, who also serves as associate dean for faculty scholarship, examines free speech and

jurisprudence as well as antitrust law, complex litigation, and ethics in his research. He says that legal scholarship is critical not only as a means to seek the truth but also as a way to contribute to reform and create a more humane and just society. Toward this end, he has co-authored numerous amicus briefs addressing class certifica-tion, collateral order doctrine, and other subjects. As director of the Center for Law and Ethics, Davis has organized sympo-sia and panels exploring topics as diverse as antitrust enforce-ment in the pharmaceutical industry and civility in the legal profession. His work is more than academic—he served from 2001 to 2004 as the reporter for the committee that drafted California Supreme Court Rules 964 to 967 on multi-jurisdictional prac-tice, testified before the U.S. Congress regarding the pleading standard in federal court, participated in the advisory board and several working groups of the American Antitrust Institute, all while writing extensively in his areas of expertise. In the last two years alone his articles have been published in the Brigham Young University Law Review, George Mason Law Review, Rutgers Law Journal, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, and St. John’s Law Review. And his scholarship is driv-


ing reform—it has been cited by various courts, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in its recent deci-sion to affirm class certification in the antitrust case Caroline Behrend, et al. v. Comcast Corporation, et al. “Scholars write for many reasons, but a crucial one is to im-prove the law. A common complaint is that law review articles are impractical,” Davis says. “While it is true legal academics sometimes undertake highly theoretical research—and USF law professors do a fine job of that—we also spend a lot of our time on knotty problems from the real world, clarifying confusing areas of doctrine and questioning legal developments that make poor policy sense. I find it deeply gratifying that USF faculty members have had such a significant influence on every day legal practice.”

Driving Child Sentencing Reform

Due in part to Professor Connie de la Vega’s scholar-ship, U.S. child sentencing laws have been dramati-cally reformed in recent years.

An expert in international human rights law, de la Vega utilizes her understanding of social justice standards through-out the world to advocate for change in the United States. For example, with former USF School of Law Director of Human Rights Programs Michelle Leighton she co-authored an influential report and subsequent law review article examin-ing global child sentencing practices. This research was cited in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision Graham and Sullivan v. Florida (2010), which concluded that a juvenile life without parole sentence for anyone who has committed a non-homicide crime runs counter to international standards of juvenile justice and is unconstitutional.

In the Court’s decision, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy referenced de la Vega and Leighton’s report, which classified the United States and Israel as the only countries that impose life without parole sentences in practice, and their updated article that found Israel allows for parole review of juvenile offenders serving life terms. “The United States is the only nation that imposes life without parole sentences on juve-nile non-homicide offenders,” Kennedy said. “The judgment of the world’s nations that a particular sentencing practice is inconsistent with basic principles of decency demonstrates that the Court’s rationale has respected reasoning to support it.” De la Vega’s work also helped eliminate the juvenile death penalty in the United States. Her scholarship, which involved nine students as research assistants, found that among a hand-ful of countries that continued to use the sentence the United States was the worst violator. The project educated U.S. lawyers and judges about inter-national standards that prohibit the juvenile death penalty, ad-vocated for a prohibition on the practice to be included in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights resolution in 2002, and filed a petition before the Inter-American Commis-sion on Human Rights in relation to a juvenile death penalty case. The work culminated in an amicus brief co-authored by de la Vega and filed before the U.S. Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons; the Court cited this brief in its 2005 decision declaring juvenile death penalty unconstitutional. In addition to influencing social justice reforms in the United States and abroad, de la Vega has nourished future lawyers to make an impact in the field of international human rights. As director of the Frank C. Newman International Human Rights Law Clinic, she mentors students to prepare and present reports before United Nations bodies and regularly co-authors publications with students and recent graduates, such as a recent Dialogue on Globalization report on holding businesses accountable for human rights violations.

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“�While�it�is�true�legal�academics�sometimes�undertake�highly�theoretical�research—and�USF�law�professors��do�a�fine�job�of�that—we�also�spend�a�lot�of�our�time��on�knotty�problems�from�the�real�world,�clarifying��confusing�areas�of�doctrine�and�questioning�legal��developments�that�make�poor�policy�sense.”

� �� Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship Joshua Davis


Protecting PrivacyA former software developer, Professor Susan Freiwald specializes in cyberlaw and information privacy. In her scholarship, which includes articles published by

the Stanford Technology Law Review, Southern California Law Review, and Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Freiwald has argued that Fourth Amendment protection against unreason-able searches and seizures should be applied to modern com-munication methods like email and cell phones. “It is crucially important that courts refuse to permit the government to conduct unrestrained electronic surveillance of our private lives,” she says. “My work encourages courts to recognize the privacy threats inherent in modern surveillance methods and to rein them in as they have done with traditional surveillance methods such as wiretapping.” In her efforts to protect communication privacy, Freiwald has presented on the subject to courts throughout the country, contributed to legislative reform, and authored and co-authored amicus briefs in cases pertaining to electronic surveillance privacy. Her scholarship has been widely cited. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit referenced Freiwald’s work in United States v. Warshak (2010) when it held that the government must obtain a warrant before it compels an internet service provider to release email communications. “Given the fundamental similarities between email and tradi-tional forms of communication, it would defy common sense to afford emails lesser Fourth Amendment protection,” the Court said, noting Freiwald’s 2008 article published in the University of Chicago Legal Forum. Freiwald also argued orally before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit last year and authored an amicus brief asserting that the government should only be permitted to obtain cell site location information with a warrant. When the Court ruled in late 2010 that magistrate judges may demand a warrant when they deem appropriate but one is not required in all situations that law enforcement seek location data, Freiwald wasted no time to respond. In her most recent article, “Cell Phone Location Data and the Fourth Amendment: A Question of Law, Not Fact” (Maryland Law Review, 2011), she writes on the lack of guidance provided by federal appellate courts on what is required of law enforce-ment agents before they obtain electronic communication information and expresses concern that Congress will fail to adequately protect communications privacy until forced to do so by the courts. “Until the federal appellate courts clarify how the Fourth Amendment regulates new communication technologies, Con-gress will not feel constitutional constraints,” she says. “Quite the contrary, Congress will hear regularly from executive branch officials that new technologies lack Fourth Amendment protection entirely.”

Defending ImmigrantsWithout realizing that he was breaking school regula-tions, a 14 year-old student brought a toy gun to his San Francisco high school in December 2008. An

undocumented immigrant from Mexico, he was reported to police due to the school’s zero tolerance policy on weapons and the police then reported him to immigration officials. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took him into custody and without notice to his family transferred him to a detention facility. His time in custody would mark the begin-ning of a two-year struggle in which family, friends, and school officials fought to keep the student in the country. “Like many children born in Mexico, his parents brought him across the border surreptitiously several years back. Mexico’s economy shed jobs as a result of NAFTA and the country’s inability to compete in agriculture and manufacturing with world trade compact nations like China,” said Professor Bill Ong Hing, who represented the young man in ICE proceedings with Legal Services for Children. “His parents and many others crossed the border in search of work to feed their families.” While Professor Hing and the rest of the student’s legal team worked to successfully terminate his deportation proceedings, Hing continued to focus his scholarship on the broader issues that underlie cases like this one. He is the author of numerous academic and practice-oriented publications on immigration policy and race relations, including Defining America Through Immigration Policy (Temple University Press, 2004) and Deport-ing Our Souls: Values, Morality, and Immigration Policy (Cam-bridge University Press, 2006). In his most recent book, Hing states that despite its objectives the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has failed at creating new jobs in Mexico and curbing undocumented migration into the United States. Ethical Borders: NAFTA, Globalization, and Mexican Migration (Temple University Press, 2010) argues that NAFTA must be modified to ameliorate much of the poverty that drives undoc-umented immigration and proposes a policy for U.S. invest-ment to improve conditions in Mexico. Hing was co-counsel in the U.S. Supreme Court asylum case INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca (1987) and has represented several clients and worked with legal assistance programs on difficult court cases throughout his career. He is the founder of the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and serves on the National Advisory Council of the Asian American Justice Center. His scholarship suggests a new vision of border enforcement, a broader view of the visa system, and a possible guest worker program. He is a staunch defender of the Dream Act, which would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented high school graduates who have resided in the United States for five years and attend at least two years of college or serve in the U.S. military. “The attack on immigrants—documented and undocu-mented alike—is something that I find difficult to accept,”

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Hing says. “Their dreams may appear simple and clichéd, but they are true nonetheless: to make an honest living for an honest day’s work, to put food on the table, to be part of a safe community, to instill strong family values, and to send their children to school out of hope for a better tomorrow.”

Humanizing Legal PracticeProfessor Rhonda Magee is a leader in the human-izing legal education movement, which aims to equip students with tools to manage the stress and isolation

that often accompanies the legal profession and can lead to hostility, depression, and burn out. Her experience in law practice and the classroom, as both student and teacher, drove her to focus her scholarly research on how to create a balanced and meaningful existence for stu-dents and practitioners. Although traditional legal curriculum grounds students in the core knowledge and skills needed to practice law, Magee found that her own classroom experience omitted much of what was important to her as a black woman from an economically depressed community in the American South. In her 13 years of teaching at USF, she has observed that other students also experience a gap between what they are studying and their personal stories. “Our law students come from a wide range of backgrounds with deep interest in learning about law and how to practice law effectively in the worlds they know,” Magee said. “They are incredibly sharp and diverse—and they generally have little idea just how law practice might fit with their lived experience, with the cultures and communities from which they hail, and with their highest visions of themselves.” Her scholarly research includes numerous publications on race law and policy and the creation of a humanistic approach to legal education and practice, including “Educating Lawyers

to Meditate? From Exercises to Epistemology to Ethics: The Contemplative Practice and Law Movement as Legal Educa-tion Reform” (University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review, 2011). In addition to regularly presenting on legal education reform and serving as vice chair of the National Board of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, she has facilitated conversations on best educational practices and helped develop a guided meditation program at USF. “The traditional law school curriculum does little to assist students in dealing with the predictable stresses that commonly accompany entry into the legal field: stresses ranging from as-cension into professional life for students from ‘outsider’ back-grounds, to the cultural separation anxiety that may come with it, to the legendary demands of the curriculum, the adversary system, and the rigors of practice,” Magee says. “I resolved to get involved with those in the legal academy committed to pur-suing sustainable and responsible approaches to legal education and law practice—for the good of my students, my profession, and the communities that thereby stand to be better served.”

Providing a VoiceIn the fall of 2001, shortly after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Professor Peter Jan Honigsberg began teaching a class about the war

on terror, international security, and human rights. The subject matter piqued his interest and as the government reaction to 9/11 became increasingly alarming to Honigsberg, he steered his legal research in a new direction. He has written two law review articles exploring the post-9/11 government response and authored Our Nation Unhinged: The Human Consequences of the War on Terror (University of California Press, 2009), which led him on a research trip to Guantanamo Bay detention center in 2007. In his book

“�The�goal�of�legal�scholarship�should�be�to�engage��courts,�legislators,�and�practicing�lawyers�in�a�con-�versation�about�what�we�can�do�to�create�a�more��just�society.�In�my�death�penalty�studies,�I�have�raised��issues�that�are�being�taken�seriously�by�the�courts��and�other�researchers�and�that�may,�in�the�end,�lead��to�changes�in�the�law.”� �

��Philip and Muriel Barnett Professor of Trial Advocacy Steven Shatz

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Honigsberg argues that Guantanamo detainees should have received due process, while recounting stories of those who endured torturous interrogations and inhumane conditions at Guantanamo and other locations. “Professor Peter Jan Honigsberg has written a magnificent book telling the story of what has occurred since Sept. 11, 2011, and how the Bush administration has betrayed the most basic principles of constitutional law and international human rights protections,” UC Irvine School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky wrote in the forward of the book. “He tells the story of Guantanamo in moving, human terms.” Honigsberg recognized the need for those imprisoned in Guantanamo to have their voices heard by the world. In 2009, the same year Our Nation Unhinged was published, the Witness to Guantanamo project (www.witnesstoguantanamo.com) was born. The project, which has received funding from the Left Tilt Fund, Sigrid Rausing Trust, and other organizations, was created by Honigsberg to document human rights violations at Guantanamo. It has filmed interviews with 34 former detainees and 32 other witnesses, such as prison guards, chaplains, habeas attorneys, and military officials. The interviewees include a Uyghur man who continued to be detained for two years after he was determined not to be an enemy combatant; a JAG attorney who represented a detainee who was moved cell to cell 112 times in 14 days; a British man who was locked in solitary confinement for nearly two years and eventually released to British police without charge; and a FBI criminal profiler who said the interrogation methods used at Guantanamo reinforced the idea that “we are the devil.” “No one else was doing it and it needed to be done imme-diately—while people were still alive and their memories were near in time,” Honigsberg says of the project. “Present and future generations will watch these videos and listen to the voices of former detainees and others as they tell their stories of how the rule of law was violated and human rights abused in Guantanamo.”

Fighting the Death PenaltyPhilip and Muriel Barnett Professor of Trial Advocacy Steven Shatz’ scholarship has been instrumental to death penalty reform efforts in California and beyond.

His empirical research found that California’s death penalty statute is overly broad in determining who is eligible for the death penalty and not in line with the constitutional require-ments established by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court has held that death penalty statutes must narrow death eligibility to a point where juries impose the death penalty to a “substantial portion” of those who are eligible, and they may only authorize the death penalty for the “worst of the worst.” According to Shatz’ study of first-degree murder convictions in California, more than 90 percent of adults convicted of first-degree murder are eligible for the death penalty under California law. From 2002 to 2006, only 4.1 percent of those eligible for the death penalty were sentenced to death. “If over 90 percent of first-degree murderers are death eligible, the statute necessarily makes ‘average’ murderers death-eligible…. If less than one in 20 death-eligible murder-ers is sentenced to death, then death sentences are not being imposed on a ‘substantial portion’ of those who are death eligible,” he testified in January 2008 to the California Com-mission on the Fair Administration of Justice, which later released a report calling the application of the death penalty dysfunctional. Professor Shatz has taught at USF since 1974 and is the recipient of the university’s Sarlo Prize for teaching excellence and promoting the common good. He is the author of the recently updated California Criminal Law: Cases and Problems (Lexis, Third Edition 2011) and co-author of Cases and Materials on the Death Penalty (West, Third Edition 2009), and has published numerous articles on the death penalty. Shatz is the founder and director of the Keta Taylor Colby Death Penalty Project, a summer internship program in which USF law students assist in the representation of death row inmates. The program, a life-changing experience for many students, strives for the reform and ultimate abolition of the death penalty. “The goal of legal scholarship should be to engage courts, legislators, and practicing lawyers in a conversation about what we can do to create a more just society,” Shatz says. “In my death penalty studies, I have raised issues that are being taken seriously by the courts and other researchers and that may, in the end, lead to changes in the law.” [USF]

“�My�work�encourages�the�courts�to�recognize�the�privacy�threats�inherent�in�modern�surveillance�methods.”��

� � � � � � � Professor Susan Freiwald

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Heavy Hitter

As assistant general manager of the New York Yankees, Jean Afterman ’91 is one of the most powerful women in Major League Baseball.

By Kristina shevory


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When you think of a Major League

Baseball executive, the last person you

might picture is a witty actress who’s

quick to smile. More typical would be

a retired professional baseball player,

a middle-aged man who had grown up

playing the game and knew all the other executives.

The New York Yankees would prove you wrong. For the last de-

cade, the baseball team has fielded a former actress-turned-law-

yer as their assistant general manager. With her red-brown hair,

easy laugh, and cutting wit, Jean Afterman ’91 still seems more

the actress she once was than the baseball executive she now is.

She is as surprised as anyone else. “I kind of fell into this surreptitiously,” said After-man, 55. “I didn’t have a plan to come here.” But the owner and general manager of the New York Yankees baseball team didn’t want the usual professional baseball player as their assistant general manager. They wanted a steely negotiator who was not afraid to speak her mind, knew the international baseball markets, and would keep a sharp eye on contracts. A decade later, that bet has paid off. Afterman has helped sign a string of successful baseball players, like Hideki Matsui, and elevated the stature of the Yankees as a place where international ball players want to come. This December marks 10 years with the team, and according to her boss, she can stay another 10 if she wants. “Her job is to cover my ass,” said Brian Cashman, Yankees general manager. “And she does it very well.” At first blush, it’s difficult to understand why a professional baseball team would hire a lawyer as an assistant general manager. Most people who have served in the role have been scouts or players. But as baseball has become a big business marked by multimillion-dollar contracts and signing bonuses, managers must now navigate a thicket of laws to negotiate contracts, acquire rights to players, and dismiss others. Without any legal background, it can be difficult to do the job well. “Being a manager or agent is about general legal principles,” USF School of Law Dean Jeffrey Brand said. “It’s applying legal principles to different parts of the law. You can marshal the facts to arguments and you know what to look for.” It’s also surprising that one of the most well-known and successful teams in major league baseball hired a woman to fill one of their top positions. Even though women have made inroads in the game, there are few female executives in the league and women are not allowed to play. A woman, to make it as a leader in professional baseball, has to know more than all the men in the room and have the conviction to say it, said Kim Ng, Afterman’s predecessor as the Yankees assistant general manager.

Heavy Hitter

As assistant general manager of the New York Yankees, Jean Afterman ’91 is one of the most powerful women in Major League Baseball.

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“When you get into a room with the guys, you always have to be on your toes,” said Ng, senior vice president for baseball operations with Major League Baseball in New York. “You’re always going to be so thoroughly prepared. You have to be will-ing to dish it out and you can’t let anyone walk all over you.” Beneath Afterman’s easy demeanor is a tough negotiator who isn’t afraid to speak her mind to anyone, least of all to the indomitable George Steinbrenner, the former owner of the Yankees famous for his fiery temper and tongue.

During negotiations with Steinbrenner over pay packages for the Japanese baseball players she represented, she became known for not caving to his demands. In the late 1990s, during a meeting to discuss one player’s pay package, Steinbrenner offered a figure Afterman thought was too low. “I once raised my voice and said, ‘This guy had to go through the jaws of hell and that’s not going to be his reward,” Afterman remembered. Cashman, who was also at the meeting, remembers her telling Steinbrenner to “shove it.” “I had never seen anyone do that before. George Steinbrenner is an intimidating man used to getting his way. Jean wasn’t going to take it.” Steinbrenner, perhaps impressed, perhaps awed, agreed to her wishes. Four years later, Cashman asked Afterman, then a player agent, to become the team’s assistant general manager. She would become the third woman in Major League Baseball to hold the title of assistant general manager. The San Francisco native honed her skills in an unconven-tional way. After winning acting awards while at UC Berkeley, Afterman graduated in 1979 and went to work for Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles, hoping it would help her acting career. Her work wasn’t going anywhere and she realized it had become a dead end. But she didn’t know what to do to change her life. A work colleague said she was too smart for the job and should get a law degree so she could do more interesting work at the studio.

She took his advice, applied to several schools and selected the University of San Francisco School of Law because it was small with professors who were practicing lawyers and was in her hometown. One of its best points was that it had a diverse student body so she wouldn’t be the only student in their 30s. While she understood moving back to San Francisco meant she’d have to move in with her parents, she knew it was the right decision. “I wanted to do something better and felt I’d be armed with a law degree,” Afterman said. “There was too much to do in life to be stuck in a dead-end job and I knew I had to make it happen for myself.” During her time at USF, she assumed she’d take her law de-gree back to Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles and get a better job at the studio. Her classes and association with Brand, who was a USF School of Law professor at the time, helped change her mind. She started thinking that instead of acting work, she would become a criminal prosecutor even though she was a “red hot liberal.” After graduating in 1991, she found work at a law firm and a job as legal counsel at an organic produce company. While at the firm, she was asked to take on a client’s case involving a dispute over the licensing of Japanese baseball cards even though she hadn’t played baseball and wasn’t familiar with the Japanese league. That client was Don Nomura who would go on to become one of her closest friends. “I advised her to hook onto Don and baseball,” Brand said. “I did tell her these opportunities were not ones that she should pass up.”

Nomura and Afterman quickly became a team. Trips to Japan to gather evidence for his case grew into lessons on Japanese baseball. Nomura, who was related to several famous Japanese players through his stepmother, introduced her to the great players at multiple games. At the time, Nomura also owned a Minor League Baseball team in Salinas, Calif., and could explain the differences between American and Japanese baseball easily to an outsider. As the two got to know each other, Afterman began do-ing other work for him apart from his baseball card business. Nomura had started representing Japanese players who needed her legal expertise to craft their contracts and transition to the United States.

“She has a mind like a steel trap and resolve

to match. I think she could go toe-to-toe with anyone in the legal profession.”

Author robert Whiting


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Their big test together came a year later in 1994 when Hideo Nomo, then one of Japan’s best pitchers, got into a contract dispute with his team and wanted out. But his contract, like those of all Japanese players, did not allow him to leave until he had played for 10 years. Nomura, with Afterman’s help, found a loophole that allowed players to voluntarily retire from their Japanese team and later sign with an American team. That spring, Nomo signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. “She has a mind like a steel trap and resolve to match. I think she could go toe-to-toe with anyone in the legal profession,” wrote Robert Whiting, a Japanese baseball expert and author of multiple books about the game, in an email from Tokyo. The following year, she started working full-time for Nomura in Los Angeles, and helped with his legal strategy and negotiating tactics.

“It was good to have someone to rely on and who I could get a straight answer from,” Nomura said. “Oftentimes, she would play devil’s advocate. We would practice what the other club would say. She would help us prepare for anything, negative or positive.” In 1997, Nomura was hired by the best pitcher in Japan, Hideki Irabu, to represent him in his fight to play for the Yankees. His Japanese team reluctantly agreed to let him play for the San Diego Padres and he refused because he only wanted to play for the Yankees. His Japanese team threatened to not let him play at all, legal battles ensued, and finally the Major League Baseball Executive Council ruled against Irabu. Their decision attracted quick derision and legal pressure and the council later reversed its decision and ruled that Japanese players could not be sold or traded to an American team with-out their permission. The San Diego Padres let Irabu leave and he signed a four-year deal with the Yankees for $12.8 million. “Without her, the Irabu deal probably wouldn’t have hap-pened,” said Nomura, owner of KDN Management, a sports agency in Los Angeles. “He really trusted her, her thoughts, and her insights. That really made things easier for me because

Japanese players, especially Irabu, would question things.” A third player from the Japanese league, Alfonso Soriano, a Dominican who began his career in Japan, further tested Nippon Professional Baseball and eventually forced it and Major League Baseball to set up a new, fairer system. That change is often considered the biggest accomplishment of Nomura and Afterman because it kick started the exodus of Japanese players to the United States. Without that change, players like Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui likely would not have come to the United States to play. “If it weren’t for her opening the portal to the Japanese league, we would not have the global game that we have today,” said Wayne McDonnell, clinical associate professor of sports management at New York University. “What she did had an immense impact not just on the Yankees, but on all of Major League Baseball.” Over the next few years, Afterman and Nomura continued to work together until the Yankees came calling. When Cash-man, the team’s general manager, was returning to New York from spring training in Florida, he thought he saw a woman who looked exactly like Afterman sitting in first class. It struck him that the real Afterman was the person he wanted as his new assistant general manager. Although it was 7 a.m., he called her and offered her the job. “Would you ever leave the dark side for the darker side,” Cashman remembers asking her. He told her to think about it while he flew back to New York. Two-and-a-half-hours later, he called her when he arrived. She said yes. The two have made a good team and many say that After-man is the real power behind the Yankees. A guessing game of sorts has sprung up about where or what she will do when Cashman’s contract expires after this season. Perhaps he will go to another team and she will become general manager. Or perhaps, as is most likely the case, the two will remain in their current positions. She seems very happy in her current role, though she admits there is one that still eludes her. “When my baseball career is over, I’ll eventually return to acting,” Afterman says. “I still have to win my Oscar.” [USF]

“If it weren’t for her opening the portal to the Japanese league, we would not have

the global game that we have today.”

nYu SportS MAnAgeMent profeSSor WAYne McDonnell


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What attracted you to USF?As a development director already, and for-merly an alumni relations director, I felt this position could be an excellent fit for me. As soon as I started learning more about USF and the law school I knew with certainty that I had found the perfect place. The focus on social justice resonates deeply with me, and the atmosphere of mutual respect filters down from the dean and permeates all aspects of the school, including alumni. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have found a like-minded group of people who are all passionate about their work.

What’s the best part of your work in development?I thoroughly enjoy meeting people and hear-ing their stories. The beauty of a career in development is that I have the opportunity to raise funds for an institution I believe in,

get to know interesting people, and work with them on their philanthropic goals. It’s truly a privilege.

What development and alumni relations opportunities do you see for the law school?When alumni hear directly from the dean or faculty about specific programs, areas of study, or projects, I see how inspired and proud they are. Whether they received their degrees five or 50 years ago, alumni are consistently impressed with the forward momentum of the school. The passion of the faculty, the academic rigor of the classes, and the real life experiences here and abroad available for students all inspire in them a sense of pride about their alma mater. That pride often translates into a feeling of wanting to give back—wanting to contribute to the place that helped them

launch their own careers. And, it’s very exciting to think about the opportunities around the law school’s centennial, which is happening in 2012–2013.

What are the challenges in building resources for the law school? The most obvious challenge is the current economy, and it has touched everyone. However, even in challenging times most of us have much to be thankful for and want to connect with something meaningful. I’m sure there are alumni out there with whom we have not yet connected, but who would appreciate reestablishing a relationship with their law school. My challenge and my opportunity is to get to know as many of our 8,900 alumni as I can, and we’re off to a great start.

Robin Keating Appointed Director of Development and Alumni RelationsRobin Keating has joined the USF School of Law as director of development and alumni relations. She comes to the law school with significant experience leading development operations for nonprofit and higher education institutions, including Dominican University of California, the Bay Area Discovery Museum, and UC San Francisco. In her new position, she is responsible for all aspects of the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, including fundraising campaigns and the law school’s broad array of alumni initiatives and events.

Justice King Joins USF’s Diamond CircleBy including the USF School of Law in his estate plan, Justice Donald King ’58 joins other members of the law school’s Diamond Circle in helping ensure that the law school will continue to educate ethical legal professionals for generations to come. “My USF education provided me with the basics both to practice law and to be an effective trial judge and appellate justice. It gave me a good start in learning the law, which boosted my career as a member of the bar and the bench,” said King, a former associate justice of the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco. “I have included the USF School of Law in my estate plan because I believe in giving others the chances that it has given me,” he says. “Given the high cost of tuition these days, I want to make it easier financially for students who share my interests to graduate without a huge debt. My gift will assist the law school by providing students with financial assistance and, hopefully, enable students who might not otherwise be financially able to attend to do so.” Aplannedgiftenablesyoutohaveaprofoundimpactonfuturegenerationsandmayhelpyoumakealargergiftthanyouthoughtpossible.Tolearnmore,contactDirectorofDevelopmentandAlumniRelationsRobinKeatingat(415)422-2551.


[ alumni news ]

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Alum Grad Dinner Celebrates Class of 2011

For the second year in a row, Herbst Foundation Professor of Law Julie Nice received the Distinguished Professor Award, which is voted on by graduating students. “We believe in your intelligence, integrity, determination, and compassion and that’s why we as faculty love being here with you,” she said to the 2011 graduates. “The second thing I hope you’ll remember as you go forward is that we are all USF law—alumni, students, staff, faculty—and together we make our collective reputation. The way this law school prides itself on its genuine sense of camaraderie will help us going forward. As we lift out a hand to one another and help each other on the way we’ll all rise.” The Hon. Ira A. Brown Jr. Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award was presented to Robert Arns ’75 and Thomas Brandi ’72, who Dean Jeffrey Brand introduced as “two of the great trial lawyers in the United States.” The two have been team teaching Trial Practice at USF for eight years. “We’ve had about 180 students now over eight years. This has been really inspirational to us, so thank you,” Brandi said. Loran Simon received the Student Bar Association Award, which is voted on by the graduating class to recognize character,

service, and leadership. In addition, members of the Class Gift Committee presented the dean with a check for $68,000 to endow a student scholarship. “This is typical of what this class has been about for the last three years,” Brand said, calling the gift stunning. “Despite the economic woes, despite the anxiety, this class’s signature state-ment has consistently been to give back. I’ve seen you do it in the Tenderloin. I’ve seen you do it in Southern States work-ing on the death penalty. I’ve seen you in Hanoi, Cambodia, Port-au-Prince. Leave it to this class to raise $68,000 for future generations, thinking about someone else when they’ve got so much on their minds.” The event was supported by benefactors The Arns Law Firm/Tournesol Vineyards and Miller Sabino & Lee, Inc., Legal Placement Services; patron Hanson Bridgett LLP; and spon-sors Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP, Fotouhi Epps Hillger Gilroy, P.C., Lieff, Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, Liuzzi, Murphy & Solomon, LLP, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, LLP, Murphy Pearson Bradley & Feeney, Plastiras & Terrizzi, Sedg-wick, and Trombadore Gonden Law Group LLP. [USF]

More than 300 graduating students, alumni, faculty, and staff gathered at the InterContinen-tal Hotel May 18 to salute the Class of 2011 and present a number of faculty and student awards at the annual Alumni Graduates Dinner.


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1960 Marshall Berol ’60 was inter-viewed by The Gold Report on how party politics affect the price of gold. Berol is the chief investment officer of Malcolm H. Gissen & Associates, Inc.

1968 Michael Cooper ’68, Mark Bo-stick ’83, and Tracy Green ’84, attorneys at Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP, have been named Northern California Super Lawyers by Super Lawyer magazine. Coo-per, Bostick, and Green specialize in bankruptcy law.

1973James Wood ’73, a partner at Reed Smith LLP and member of the firm’s life sciences health

industry group, has been recog-nized as an Attorney of the Year by The Recorder.

1974 Hon. James M. Mize ’74, a Sac-ramento County Superior Court judge, was featured in a Daily Journal profile on how he utilizes his psychology and social work skills while presiding over family court.

1975Andrew Schwartz ’75, a personal injury attorney working in Walnut Creek, has received the AV Preemi-nent from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest peer-review rating available to any individual lawyer. Schwartz is president of Casper, Meadows, Schwartz & Cook.

William Staples ’75 has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer by Super Lawyer magazine. Staples is a partner and head of the litigation group at Archer Norris PLC.

1978 Hon. Peggy Fulton Hora ’78 (Ret.) published “Courting New Solutions Using Problem-Solving Justice: Key Components, Guiding Principles, Strategies, Responses, Models, Approaches, Blueprints, and Tool Kits” in the Chapman Journal of Criminal Justice. Robert J. Sheppard ’78 has joined San Rafael-based Resolu-tion Remedies as a mediator, arbitrator, and discovery referee. Sheppard has been a private mediator in San Francisco since the early 1990s. He specializes in real estate, labor/employment, insurance, personal injury, and professional liability. Donald H. Specter ’78 argued that California prison conditions amount to cruel and unusual punishment in the U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Plata. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled in his favor and upheld a 2009 prisoner release order that requires the state to release approximately 37,000 additional inmates.

1980Matthew F. Graham BA ’77, JD ’80, has returned to Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean LLP as a partner and member of the con-struction practice group. Graham represents owners, contractors, subcontractors, design profession-als, sureties, and public agencies in construction litigation throughout California and the Western states.

1981 Michael J. Crowley ’81, a partner at Janssen Malloy LLP in Eureka, has been selected an Attorney of the Year by California Lawyer magazine. The award recognizes his contribution to the class-action

case Lavender v. Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc., et al., in which he served as one of the lead trial at-torneys. Crowley and his co-coun-sel were also selected as 2011 Trial Lawyers of the Year by the Public Justice Foundation, a national pub-lic interest organization based in Washington, D.C.

1983 David Gerson ’83, a tax partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, co-authored the article “Selected Issues Involving Preferred Stock, Section 305, and Recapitaliza-tions,” published in the Practising Law Institute’s Tax Law and Estate Planning Course Handbook Series. Chris Kitasaki ’83 has joined the firm Ferguson Case Orr Paterson LLP as a partner in its business transactions group. Kitasaki spe-cializes in entity formation, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate.

1984Lawrence Cirelli BS ’78, JD ’84, the 2010–2011 USF School of Law John J. Meehan Fellow, was fea-tured in the July newsletter of the Bar Association of San Francisco.Niall G. Yamane ’84 has opened a mixed martial arts training facility in Daphne, Ala.

1985Robert N. Phillips ’85, previously with Howrey LLP, has joined Reed Smith LLP as a partner. Phillips, who specializes in trademark, trade dress, design patent, copyright, unfair competition, and publicity matters for Fortune 100 companies, serves on the firm’s intellectual property group.

1986Dominica Anderson ’86, manag-ing partner of Duane Morris LLP’s Las Vegas office, was bestowed the Virginia S. Mueller Outstanding Member Award by the National Association of Women Lawyers.

Classnotes

Join the USF School of Law Inn of Court

Alumni are invited to join the USF School of Law Inn of Court. The group is a chartered member of the American Inns of Court, the oldest, largest, and fastest growing legal mentoring organization in the country. The Inn is an educational and mentoring organization comprised of judges, practicing litigation attorneys representing a range of practice areas, and law students. It aims to improve the skills, professionalism, and ethics of the bench and bar, while providing social and networking opportunities. The USF chapter meets seven times a year at the law school and meets with the two other Inns that exist in the Bay Area for a joint meeting in March. There are a limited number of memberships available. For information on how to become a member, call the Inn administrator at (415) 422-5406 or email [email protected].

[ alumni news ]


Paul J. Killion ’86, a partner based in Duane Morris LLP’s San Francisco office, is one of 16 attorneys who have been appointed to the California State Bar’s Com-mittee on Appellate Courts. Killion specializes in civil litigation and appeals. Hon. Rosa M. Moran ’86, who has served as a workers’ compensation judge since 2005, was appointed administrative director of the Califor-nia Division of Workers’ Compensa-tion by Gov. Jerry Brown in July.

1987Keith I. Chrestionson ’87 has been named managing partner at the San Francisco office of Fox Roth-schild LLP, a 500-attorney national law firm. Chrestionson focuses on labor and employment litigation and counseling, and serves as a San Francisco and Contra Costa County fee resolution arbitrator.

1989Lt. Col. Evan M. Stone ’89 completed his LLM in Taxation at Georgetown University Law Center and is serving as the executive direc-tor of the Armed Forces Tax Council at the Pentagon.

1990 Joshua Bloom ’90, a partner at Barg Coffin Lewis & Trapp LLP, has been elected to the executive committee of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Environmental Law Section for 2011. Bloom, who specializes in environmental coun-seling, litigation, and transactional work, also serves as treasurer for the environmental law section. Sharon Woo ’90 was featured in The Recorder article “San Francisco Assistant D.A. Acts as a Fixer (in a Good Way).”

1991Hon. Bridgid M. McCann ’91 was featured in the Daily Journal article “Great Expectations: San Bernardi-no County Judge Bridgid McCann

Keeps Defendants and Lawyers on Their Toes.”

1992James W. Bilderback Jr. ’92 won the U.S. Supreme Court case Cullen v. Pinholster in a 7-2 ruling. He argued on behalf of the people of California (named party was the acting warden of San Quentin State Prison Vincent Cullen). Solange Bitol Hansen ’92 has joined Rancho Cielo Youth Campus in Salinas as director of develop-ment.Tricia A. McCarthy ’92 is featured in the summer 2011 newsletter Food Matters, published by the San Francisco Food Bank. McCarthy, a member of the food bank’s board of directors, partici-pated in the organization’s Hunger Challenge, spending $4 per day on food for a week.

1994Terrence J. Coleman ’94 has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer for 2011. Coleman, a partner at Pillsbury & Levinson, LLP, rep-resents policyholders in insurance bad faith and insurance coverage matters. He is a member of the Consumer Attorneys of California and San Francisco Trial Lawyers As-sociation’s Board of Directors.

1996Michael Zuercher ’96, general counsel at Integreon Managed Solutions, Inc., was profiled in The National Law Journal and The Recorder. Integreon Managed Solu-tions, Inc. handles legal outsourcing for law firms, corporations, and financial institutions.

1999 Mary Catherine Wiederhold ’99, who has a San Francisco-based real estate litigation practice, received the 2010 Housing Justice Award

from the Bar Association of San Francisco in March. Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein of the San Fran-cisco Superior Court presented the award to Wiederhold for successfully litigating several pro bono cases.

2000Heather Dunn ’00 has been promoted to partner at DLA Piper in San Francisco. She is a member of the trademarks practice. Matthew R. Robinson ’00, senior vice president of business develop-ment and general counsel of Broad-bandBreakfast.com, was a panelist at the company’s Intellectual Property Breakfast Club event “The Costs of Global Intellectual Property Piracy: How Can the Phenomenon Be Empirically Quantified?”

2001Ryan T. Dunn ’01 and Constan-tine “Gus” M. Panagotacos JD/MBA ’05 have opened Dunn & Panagotacos LLP in San Francisco.

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Cirelli Receives Meehan Award

In recognition of his service to the law school and students in the years since graduating, the USF School of Law

named Lawrence M. Cirelli BS ’78, JD ’84, partner at Hanson Bridgett LLP, the 2010–2011 John J. Meehan Alumni Fellow. The fellow program was established in 1998 to recognize a distinguished alumnus who has contributed to the growth and development of future lawyers. “Larry is a role model for providing the support that our students and graduates need, particularly in these difficult times,” Dean Jeffrey Brand said. “Larry helps in-still a sense of the ‘possible,’ so critical to our students who want to be ethical, skilled professionals capable of making a difference. Those are qualities that define Larry and we honor him for his generosity of time and spirit.” [USF]

[ alumni news ]


The boutique firm specializes in per-sonal injury and business litigation. Dunn and Panagotacos previously practiced at Gordon & Rees LLP.Christian J. Martinez ’01 was fea-tured in the Novato Advance story “Novato Lawyer has Three Lawyer Sons Admitted to U.S. Supreme Court.” Martinez, a patent litigator, traveled to Washington, D.C., with his two brothers and father where he and his siblings were admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court.

2002Frances Yee ’02 has been promoted to partner at Oakland’s Fitzgerald Abbott & Beardsley LLP. She focuses her practice on merg-ers and acquisitions and business and corporate governance matters.

2003Alexa Koenig ’03 served on the panel “American War Crimes” at the 13th Annual Trina Grillo Public Inter-est and Social Justice Retreat “Hu-man Rights at Home and Abroad.”

2005 Thomas D. Hicks ’05 authored an article that explores whether volun-tary charitable contributions can be transferred for conservation pur-poses and receive federal income or estate tax deductions under the Internal Revenue Code. The article was published in the Hastings West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy.

2006Matthew A. Sullivan ’06 is working at Bay Area Criminal Lawyers, PC, a San Francisco law firm that focuses on criminal defense in both state and federal court. The firm consists of four attorneys, including Cherie Beasley ’07, who joined the firm in 2008.

2007 Thomas Marrs ’07 has been hired as an associate at Downey Brand LLP in Sacramento, where he is a member of the litigation practice group. He previously worked at Bowles & Verna LLP.

2008 Nicole Skibola ’08 authored “Bringing the ‘Girl Effect’ Back Home: Microfinance Projects for American Women,” published on The Huffington Post.

2009Amol Mehra ’09 and Alexandra C. Wong ’10 co-authored the report “Holding Businesses Accountable for Human Rights Violations: Recent Developments and Next Steps” with USF School of Law Professor Connie de la Vega. Amanda T. Solter ’09 co-authored the article “International Disdain for Life-Without-Parole Sentences and the Supreme Court’s Interpretations of the Eighth Amendment,” pub-lished in the American Bar Associa-tion’s Criminal Litigation newsletter.

2010 Ashley Connell ’10 authored “Per-spectives from an Inter-American Court Session,” published on the Asylum Access website. Connell is a USF Fellow working at Asylum Access in Ecuador.

Brian Schnarr ’10 has joined the office of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP as a principal. He specializes in complex business litigation, with a focus on financial fraud, antitrust litigation, securities, and consumer cases.Peter D. Volz ’10 has joined Car-roll, Burdick & McDonough LLP as an associate. Volz is experienced in third-party property and casualty coverage litigation, particularly com-mercial general liability, construction defect coverage disputes, additional insured matters, and director and officer coverage.

2011 Yolanda Peneda ’11 served on the panel “The Battlefield for Immigra-tion Reform” at the 13th Annual Trina Grillo Public Interest and Social Justice Retreat, held at the USF School of Law.

Please note that the Honor Roll in the spring 2011 USF Lawyer magazine mistakenly listed Barbara Caulfield ’92 as de-ceased. We apologize for the error.

in MemoriamWe announce with sadness the passing of:

Gerald J. O’Connor BA ’43, JD ’49, June 2011

Eugene L. Gartland BS ’50, JD ’52, July 2011

Russell R. Niehaus ’52, April 2011

James W. Power BS ’50, JD ’53, July 2011

Hon. Leighton Hatch ’54, April 2011

John J. O’Brien ’57, June 2011

Donald E. Travers ’59, July 2011

Marie Moffat-Capri ’74, May 2011

Richard Winnie ’75, March 2011

Norman Dorosin ’79, June 2011

Mona Patel ’01, March 2011

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Holiday Luncheon and Alum of the Year AwardPlease join Dean Jeffrey S. Brand and the USF School of Law

community in honoring the 2011 Alum of the Year.

Lindbergh Porter Jr. ’81Partner, Littler Mendelson P.C.

DATE friday, December 2, 2011TIME 11:30 a.m. Cocktails, 12 p.m. Luncheon

LOCATION four Seasons hotel San francisco, 757 Market Street

tickets are $65 per person and sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact the office of Development and Alumni Relations at (415) 422-5457 or [email protected] for information or to register. online registration

will be available oct. 15, 2011, at www.usfca.edu/law/holidayluncheon.


[ alumni news ]

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When the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law in July 2010, the landmark legislation became what many regard as the most sweeping change to financial regulations since the Great Depression. It also became much of what Steve Varholik ’02 spends his time work-ing on. As special counsel with the U.S. Secu-rities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC), Varholik works with other commission staff to assist the five presidentially ap-pointed commissioners. This includes in-terpreting and enforcing federal securities laws, overseeing the markets and market participants, issu-ing new rules, and amending existing rules under the federal securities laws. With the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act came more than 90 provisions that require SEC rulemaking. Varholik’s division is responsible for a significant portion of those rules. “I spend a substantial part of my time drafting and developing regulations for the security-based swap market and meeting with swaps market participants, domestic and foreign regulators, and others to consider their views on our rulemaking,” Varholik said. It’s a focus Varholik didn’t foresee when he began law school, despite having some securities industry experience working for a global investment manager. His first securities regulation course with Matthew O’Toole (adjunct professor and assistant regional director in the SEC’s San Francisco office) piqued his interest in securities law. After law school Varholik worked in the securities litiga-tion and security industry practice groups of the Washing-

ton, D.C., office of Garvey Schubert Barer. At the same time, he pursued an LLM in securities and financial regulation at Georgetown Law, where he now teaches as an adjunct professor. He joined the SEC in 2008. He worked in the Divison of Trading Markets until October, when he moved to the Division of Enforcement. Varholik sees one of the most challenging aspects of his position as weighing the interests of investors, the securities industry, market participants, and all Americans as new rules are developed.

“We have a lot of meetings with folks that have strong interests relating to our rulemaking and we sometimes have to make tough choices in balancing these different inter-ests,” he said. “We work very hard to get the rules right that we recommend to our commissioners for proposal or adoption.” Varholik credits USF for helping inspire him to pursue a career in public service. Throughout his work, he looks to the country’s past, pointing out that federal securities laws and the SEC came into existence after the Great Crash of 1929. At the time, he said, there was widespread fraud and abuse in our securities markets and low public confi-dence in our capital markets. “Since then, I believe that our securities laws and the SEC have played a critical role in making our capital markets the best in the world,” Varholik said. “The recent financial crisis has demonstrated a similar need to stabilize our financial system and restore the public’s confidence. I feel very fortunate to be part of that work.” [USF]

Public Service Through Securities RegulationBy samantha Bronson

A L U M N I P R O F I L E : S T E V E V A R H O L I K ’ 0 2

Update your fellow alums on your career and other news.

email your news for inclusion in classnotes to [email protected].

Please include your name, class year, phone number, and email address.


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A Chinese proverb tells us that a journey of a thou-sand miles begins with a single step. My father took that first step almost 100 years ago when he left his small village in south China. As he stepped aboard

a ship destined for the United States, he began his odyssey in search of the American dream. The year was 1913. He was just 18 years old. He came without family, funds, or language. When he arrived at that magical spot where the Pacific meets the San Francisco Bay, the view was majestic. In this land of hope and opportunity, he was able to carve out a remarkable life for his family. He was a proud pioneer who believed that hard work and determination would bring his family a better life. He worked long, hard days in the potato fields. He saved the little money he made to support his family in China. In 1917, he returned to his village to marry my mother. In their 59 years together, they raised eight children. My parents were hardworking, persistent, and, above all, patient. They waited 30 years for Congress to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act and permit Chinese immigrants to become U.S. citizens. That made it possible for my parents to enter a courtroom for the first and only time in their lives to take the oath of citizenship. It was one of the proudest days of their lives. In spite of the discrimi-nation they endured, they loved their adopted country. They loved the freedom and liberty it gave them, including the ability to educate their children. They treasured the same liberty and the same freedom that so many of us take for granted. Why? Because they knew from firsthand experience what it was like to live without it. When my father began his struggle for freedom in 1913, he could not have imagined that his youngest son would one day sit on the California Supreme Court. Because of his hard work and determination, my family and I have the privilege of living the American dream. This American dream of ours was born of the marriage of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The first was written in 1776, while we were at war with England.

The second was written in 1787, after we started to build the institutions of government that would make this new democracy work. The language of these two documents is very different. The Declaration of Independence gave us the sober rhetoric of war and the passion to pursue excellence and perfection. The Constitution gave us the dry discourse of governance––the structure, the road map for a working democracy. The Decla-ration was the promise; the Constitution was the fulfillment. The Declaration gave voice to high ideals; the Constitution put those ideals into practice. Both had as their purpose the protection of liberty. Our allegiance to these principles is the very foundation of our freedom. Now that we have the frame-work, the structure, and the institutions of government, what is our duty as citizens in this experiment called democracy? The flip side of the liberty coin is individual responsibility. In order to ensure that the liberty and freedom promised by the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the Con-stitution will endure, we each have a corresponding responsi-bility as citizens in a constitutional democracy. Justice Anthony Kennedy once said, “In the end, when our heroes are counted, they will be the ones who recognized that individual responsibility is a celebration of freedom, not its denial.” We must all embrace the principle of individual responsibility if we are to remain free and if the rule of law is to prevail. The tragic events of 9/11 a decade ago gave us many heroes ––fire fighters, police officers, emergency workers, passengers of United Flight 93, our armed forces, and, most recently, Navy SEAL Team 6. When responsibility called, they answered with guts, courage, inexhaustible strength, and devotion to duty. Let us honor all of them by our steadfast commitment to our families, to each other, and to the promise of the Declara-tion of Independence. [USF]

JusticeMingChinisaCaliforniaSupremeCourtJustice.ThispieceisexcerptedfromhiscommencementaddresstotheUSFSchoolofLawClassof2011.

Liberty and Individual Responsibility: Partners in Democracy

By JustiCe ming Chin Ba ’64, Jd ’67

[ closing argument ]


USF School of Law Centennial1912 ~ 2012

100 Years of Educating for Justice

Come home. Connect. Celebrate.

The USF School of Law will mark its centennial year

beginning fall 2012 through spring 2013. A dynamic

year of events is in the works to honor the law school’s

storied history and exciting future. Events will include

a kick-off convocation with a special guest speaker in

September, a week-long celebration in January featuring

a centennial speaker and gala dinner for the entire

alumni community, and much more.

Stay up to date on the latest by visiting www.usfca.edu/law/centennial.


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The Koret Law Center2130 Fulton StreetSan Francisco, CA 94117-1080

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDSan Francisco, CAPermit No. 11882

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

First HomeThe Grant Building, on the corner of Market and Seventh Streets in downtown San Francisco, was the first home of the USF School of Law, then known as the University of St. Ignatius College of Law. The building survived the 1906 earthquake and fire, and housed the Superior Courts of San Francisco until 1915, when the new City Hall was finished. The school’s first law classes were held on the sixth floor of this building, beginning on Sept.18, 1912. The USF School of Law will celebrate its centennial year beginning in fall 2012.


usf lawyer fall 2011

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