Santa Clara Law Magazine Spring 2015

T H E M AG A Z I N E O F S A N TA C L A R A U N I V E R S I T Y S C H O O L O F L AW | S P R I N G 2015 | VO L 21 N O 2

magazine

SUCCESSIN THE CITYSanta Clara Law alumni mix entrepreneurship, politics, tech, and old world values to build successful practices in San Francisco. Page 14.

8 $10M Gift to Support New Law School Building10 Law Students Partner with Biological Innovators24 Celebration of Achievement 33 Marijuana: Not the Most Interesting Thing About My Drug Policy Class

SKIP HORNESenior Assistant Dean, External Relations

ELIZABETH KELLEY GILLOGLY B.A. ’93Editor

LARRY SOKOLOFF J.D. ’92Assistant Editor

MICHELLE WATERSWeb Marketing Manager

JOHN DEEVERCopy Editor

AMY KREMER GOMERSALL B.A. ’88Art in MotionArt Director, Designer

LAW ALUMNI RELATIONS & DEVELOPMENTKaren Bernosky B.S. ’81Madeline FinemanEllen LynchJennifer MachadoMarjorie Short

Santa Clara University School of Law, one of the nation’s most diverse law schools, is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. Santa Clara Law offers students an academically rigorous program including certificates in high tech law, international law, public interest and social justice law, and privacy law, as well as numerous graduate and joint degree options. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara Law is nationally distinguished for its faculty engagement, preparation for practice, and top-ranked programs in intellectual property. For more information, see law.scu.edu.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact the Law Alumni Office by phone at 408-551-1748; fax 408-554-5201; email [email protected] or visit law.scu.edu/alumni. Or write Law Alumni Office, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053.

The diverse opinions expressed in Santa Clara Law magazine do not necessarily represent the views of the editor or the official policy of Santa Clara University. Copyright 2015 by Santa Clara University. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

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Santa Clara Law is printed on paper and at a printing facility certified by Scientific Certification Systems to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards. From forest management to paper production to printing, FSC certification represents the highest social and environmental standards. The paper contains 10 percent post-consumer recovered fiber.

magazine

FROM THE DEAN

Dear Friends:

In this issue, we celebrate some remarkable achievements of our alumni, faculty, students, and friends. �anks to visionaries like Alida and Howard Charney, we will have a brand new law school facility just over two years

from now! Together with the University’s support, the transformative $10 million gift from the Charneys, and the contributions of so many generous donors, we are closing in on our goal of $58 million. �e end is well within our sights and we are moving fast: we plan to open the new building, right at the main entrance to campus, in Fall 2017. If you’ve helped to make this long-term dream a reality—thank you very much. If you haven’t yet pledged your support, I hope you’ll consider taking the “Charney Challenge” (see page 9).

Our new building is more than a technologically advanced, collaboration-oriented facility. It is a visible demonstration of the University’s tremendous support for the important role lawyers play in advising Silicon Valley clients, in shaping the justice system, and in serving the broader community. We are working together with the University to build a premier Jesuit law school, and one of the top law schools in Northern California, to train academically excellent, ethical leaders who will impact the globe at the complex intersection of law, technology, business, justice, and ethics.

We also celebrate in this issue the signi�cant contributions our alumni make each and every day in the city of San Francisco, whether they serve as judges, law �rm partners, GCs, or public interest attorneys (see pages 14-23). And just last month, more than 350 alumni, students, and friends gathered at the Fairmont San Jose for our annual Celebration of Achievement awards dinner. �anks to the leadership of Oracle’s Greg Vaisberg J.D. ’05 and the entire Law Alumni Association Board of Directors, this inspiring celebration has become our showcase alumni event of the year (see pages 24-25).

Our students continue to be vibrant and engaged, helping the community as they learn the law, through the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, the Northern California Innocence Project, the Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic, the International Human Rights Clinic, and the Low Income Tax Clinic. Just during the last few months, both students and alumni have participated in numerous events including the Center for Global Law and Policy’s annual symposium, the High Tech Law Institute’s Fifth Annual Internet Law Works-in-Progress, Santa Clara University’s �rst-ever Startup Weekend (a collaborative e�ort by law, business, and engineering students), and the Center for Social Justice and Public Service’s diversity lecture by USC Law Professor Daria Roithmayr and the 17th Annual Trina Grillo Retreat.

I am truly grateful to be part of the amazing community of Santa Clara Law. I couldn’t imagine a more exciting place to be or a better time to be here as we work with our gifted students and shape the future of legal education. �ank you for your friendship, prayers, and support.

God bless,

Lisa KloppenbergDean & Professor of LawSanta Clara Law

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READ THIS MAGAZINE ON THE WEB

Visit us online for links to additional content, including the very latest news about our faculty, students, and alumni. Our magazine website also makes it easy to share articles from this issue (or previous issues) with friends and colleagues. law.scu.edu/sclaw

NANCY MARTIN

Above: Faculty and alums enjoyed the beautiful weather during the 2014 Reunion Weekend. One of the happy gatherings included (from left) Susan Erwin M.A. ’01, senior assistant dean, student services; Xin Xin Guo J.D. ’99; Professor Kathleen "Cookie" Ridol�; Associate Professor Margalynne Armstrong; Professor Ellen Krietzberg; and Irina Raicu J.D. ’09, Internet Ethics program director, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at SCU. More photos on Page 26.

On the cover: Akshay Verma J.D. ’06 works for Axiom Law in San Francisco, and his office is just a short stroll from Rincon Park, a beautiful greenbelt along the Embarcadero, with spectacular views of the Bay Bridge. Photo by Keith Sutter.

2 LAW BRIEFS

6 FACULTY NEWS

27 CLASS ACTION

33 CLOSING ARGUMENTS

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

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SPRING 2015 | VOL 21 NO 2

Building the Future of Santa Clara Law: A $10 million Gift Toward a New BuildingBY DEBORAH LOHSEIn December, Howard Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77, a veteran Silicon Valley tech-company founder and technology pioneer, and his wife, Alida Schoolmaster Charney, donated $10 million in matching and direct funds to Santa Clara Law to fund a new technologically advanced, collaboration-oriented law school building.

Biological Innovators Partner with Law Students: Framing the Future of Genetically Engineered MachinesBY LINDA KAHL J.D. ’10 In 2014, two Santa Clara students were the �rst law students ever to participate in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, with more than 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students from 245 universities across 32 countries.

Success in the CityBY SUSAN VOGELMore than 600 Santa Clara Law grads practice in San Francisco. Meet �ve whose in�uence on the City by the Bay and beyond ranges from real estate development and intellectual property to estate planning and business, and even fashion law.

Celebration of Achievement�is spring, the Alumni Association hosted a special event to honor lawyers and community members who have made a di�erence for Santa Clara Law.

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CONTENTS

2 santa clara law | spring 2015

LAW BRIEFS

Symposium Explores Global Business Issues

I n February, The Santa Clara Journal of International Law and the Center for Global Law and Policy at Santa

Clara Law held their annual symposium, “Critical Global Business Issues: When Theory Meets Practice.” Experts from across the United States came to Santa Clara Law to participate in panel discussions on labor and employment, export controls, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, corporate social responsibility, antitrust, privacy, and cyber security. “Having some of the top experts on the various subjects speak was amazing,” said Professor Anna Han, director of the Center for Global Law and Policy. “During each panel, the questions from the audience were lively and showed a keen interest in the subject. They were engaged,” she added. The conference keynote speaker was

MICHAEL MORALES

Richard Boucher, the former deputy secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which promotes international standards in major developing markets. Boucher has also served as the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia and as spokesman for six secretaries of state. From 1993-96 he served as ambassador to Cyprus, and from 1996-99 he headed the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong as the consul general. He also led U.S. efforts as the U.S. senior official for Asia-Pacific economic cooperation from 1999-2000. He joined the Foreign Service in 1977 and achieved the personal rank of career ambassador, the highest rank obtainable by a career officer.

“We all have a role in spreading better governance, better corporate social responsibility and better practices. Governments and companies have to deliver, especially for the growing middle class for whom opportunities, fairness, and justice are fundamental desires.”

—RICHARD BOUCHER, from his symposium keynote

Ambassador Richard Boucher delivered the keynote address at the Center for Global Law and Policy's annual symposium.

WINNER: IP LAWYER Margaret Chu Ikeya J.D. ’97 is senior director and managing counsel at Hewlett-Packard. She previously served as licensing counsel at Intel, and partner at O’Melveny & Meyers in Menlo Park. She earned a B.S. in biology from UCLA, and a J.D. from Santa Clara Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal (now called the Santa Clara High Tech Law Journal).

NOMINEE: COMMUNITY CHAMPION Meredith McKenzie J.D. ’98 is VP and deputy general counsel at Juniper Networks. An experienced patent and IP attorney, she also serves as a mentor in Santa Clara Law’s Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic. Her previous roles include senior director of IP at Symantec Corporation and director of litigation, licensing, and IP at Cypress Semiconductor. She has a BSEE from MIT and a J.D. from Santa Clara Law, magna cum laude, with an emphasis in intellectual property.

NOMINEE: RISING STAR Bart Volkmer J.D. ’02 is legal counsel at Dropbox, where he oversees the development and release of Dropbox’s transparency reports, which denote how many government requests Dropbox has received and how the company has responded. An advisory board member of the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, he previously served as an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. He earned a B.A. from Creighton University and a J.D. from Santa Clara Law.

NOMINEE: DIVERSITY CHAMPIONPatricia Montalvo Timm J.D. ’96 is senior vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at SugarCRM. Her previous experience includes founder and principal at GC Assist, a provider of in-house legal services to legal corporate departments, as well as various corporate counsel positions with Borland. An advisory board member of the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, she earned a B.A. in political science from U.C. Santa Barbara and a J.D. from Santa Clara Law, where she was the articles editor for the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Law Journal, as well as a member of the IP Association and the La Raza Association.

spring 2015 | santa clara law 3

Alumni Included in 2015 List of Best Bay Area Corporate Counsel

Open Source Symposium

In January, the Santa Clara High Tech Law Journal held its annual sym-posium, which this year explored

“Open Source in the Legal Field,” with topics including trademark policy, open source compliance, medical field appli-cations, patent rights, and entertain-ment industry applications. Attended by more than 100 people, including many attorneys and professionals in the field, the event featured keynote speak-ers Andrew Hall, Free and Open Source (FOSS) legal specialist, Fenwick & West, who spoke on “Making Money and Giving it Away”; and Jono Bacon, senior director of community at XPRIZE Foundation, who discussed “Building Exponential Communities.” Other speakers included Ibrahim Haddad, head of the open source group at Samsung; Heather Meeker, partner in the merg-ers and acquisitions group, O’Melveny & Meyers; Lawrence Rosen, founding partner, Rosenlaw & Einschlag; John Shaeffer B.S. ’85, J.D. ’88, partner in the IP department at Lathrop & Gage; David Uhlman, CEO at ClearHealth, Inc.; and Luis Villa, deputy general counsel, and Yana Welinder, legal coun-sel at Wikimedia Foundation.

“We are proud to have ... encour-aged intelligent discussion on the legal questions that arise about the uses and limitations of software licenses that allow one to modify, use, and distribute open source and free software code bases,” says Maru Rabinovitch, lead symposium editor and a third-year student at Santa Clara Law.

The editors are reviewing topics for the 2016 symposium, and your input is welcome. Please send suggestions to [email protected].

Each year, the Silicon Valley Business Journal recognizes the leading in-house counsel at some of the Bay Area’s most successful companies. This year, one Santa Clara Law alum won in her category, and three others were were nominated for other categories.

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LAW BRIEFS

SANTA CLARA LAW BY THE NUMBERS

3RANK OF

SANTA CLARA LAW

IN THE 2014-15

PAYSCALE SURVEY

OF BEST GRADUATE

SCHOOLS BY SALARY

POTENTIAL. SANTA

CLARA RANKS IN THE

TOP 3 WITH HARVARD

AND EMORY IN TERMS

OF MID-CAREER

SALARY.

58Number of

startup client projects

that Santa Clara Law’s

Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic has represented

since the clinic was founded in

May 2013.

46Santa Clara Law's ranking on

the National Law Journal's 2015 list of Go-To Schools for Associates to Partner, which listed schools who saw the

most alumni promoted to law �rm partnerships during 2014.

$1.25+million

Estimated value of total hours logged by Santa Clara Law

students at the Katharine & George Alexander Community

Law Center while providing free legal services to the

community in the areas of workers’ rights, consumer

rights and immigration (fiscal year 2013-14).

13,000Approximate number of hours of free legal service for low-income communities and families provided by 33

Santa Clara Law students who received summer grants through Santa Clara Law’s Center for Social Justice and

Public Service in 2014.

Number of students who undertook international internships last summer through the Center for Global Law and Policy at Santa Clara Law.81


$660,000Amount received by Santa

Clara Law in two recentcy pres awards—$314,000 to the Katharine & George

Alexander Community Law Center from the settlement of a class action suit against a lender; and $346,000 to

the High Tech Law Institute and the Markkula Center for

Applied Ethics at SCU, from a settlement reached in a class

action suit against Netflix.

Santa Clara Law’s ranking on the Princeton Review’s list of “Best Environment for Minority Students” in the new 2015 edition of “The Best 169 Law Schools.”

Rank of Santa ClaraHigh Tech Law Journal

among intellectual property law reviews by Washington

and Lee UniversitySchool of Law.

220Number of Santa Clara Law

alumni who are judges. Since the 1960s, no fewer than one-

third of Santa Clara County’s Superior Court judges have been Santa Clara Law alumni. Santa Clara Law alumni are judges in

15 other states as well.

$1.3+MILLION

TOTAL VALUE OF

BENEFITS OBTAINED

BY SANTA CLARA

LAW STUDENTS FOR

KATHARINE & GEORGE

ALEXANDER COMMUNITY

LAW CENTER CLIENTS

IN THE AREAS OF

WORKERS’ RIGHTS,

CONSUMER RIGHTS, AND

IMMIGRATION (FISCAL

YEAR 2013-14).

$170,000+The amount of IRS tax liability that

Santa Clara Law’s Low Income Tax Clinic relieved its clients OF in 2014.

9Santa Clara Law has been consistently ranked among the most diverse law schools in the United States by U.S. News & World Report magazine. In 2013, National Jurist magazine gave Santa Clara Law the “Diversity Grade” of A-, and in 2011, the Princeton Review also ranked Santa Clara Law in the top 10 on its list of schools that offer the best environment for minority law students.

5

Number of Santa ClaraLaw alumni working in the

legal departmentfor Apple—more than any

other law school.

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FACULTY NEWS


Law Center Immigration Attorney Receives Prestigious FBI Award

O n October 22, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the Bay Area awarded the

prestigious FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award to immigration attorney and Associate Clinical Professor Lynette Parker for her extensive and tireless work on behalf of survivors of human trafficking. Professor Parker was recognized at a press conference on the Santa Clara University campus in January, and will travel in May to Washington, D.C., where she will be recognized by FBI Director James B. Comey.

Every year, each of the FBI’s 56 field offices selects one individual or organization for this special award, formally created in 1990 to honor the winners’ efforts in combating crime, terrorism, drugs, and violence in America. While the award recipients may come from different backgrounds, diverse professional fields, and many parts of the country, they all share the same motivation—a desire and commitment to assist those in need and make their communities safer.

During her 14-year tenure at the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, Parker has provided legal advice and representation to hundreds of low-income residents of Santa Clara and neighboring counties, while mentoring countless students in the practice of immigration law. She is recognized nationally as an expert in cases of political asylum, protection from domestic violence under VAWA (the Violence Against Women Act), and human trafficking. In particular, her work with survivors of human trafficking has led to her collaboration with many local organizations to provide comprehensive and coordinated relief to her clients, including counseling, housing, and legal support, among other services.

$32 billion worldwide per year. And the FBI has identified the Bay Area, given its affluence, its openness, and its dynamic economy, as a magnet for such exploitation. “While more and more people seem to be aware of this issue, it’s important to keep talking about it because it’s still a big problem locally and nationally,” said Professor Parker. In 2014 alone, among her numerous other clients, she assisted 15 individuals in obtaining T-Visas, reserved for survivors of human trafficking. Based on the number of hours logged by Professor Parker, her legal assistant, and her students working on these 15 cases, the estimated market cost of the services would be about $250,000. Her clients, however, received these services free of charge.

Professor Cynthia Mertens (left), director of the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center, and Dean Lisa Kloppenberg (right) celebrate the award given to Associate Clinical Professor Lynette Parker (center).

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“It is an honor and a privilege to recognize Lynette Parker for her contributions to the community to end human trafficking,” said FBI’s San Francisco Field Office Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson, who came to SCU to present the award. “Her advocacy to address victim needs such as housing, employment, and immigration issues embody the true meaning of this award.”

Through her work with many partnering organizations, she was instrumental in helping to establish the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking (SBCEHT) in 2005. In 2009 and 2011, under Parker’s leadership, the Alexander Community Law Center and its SBCEHT partnering organizations obtained $300,000, two-year grants from the U.S. Department of Justice to better serve survivors of human trafficking. More recently, SBCEHT selected Professor Parker to serve as one of its two representatives on the newly formed Santa Clara County Human Trafficking Commission, chaired by Supervisor Cindy Chavez, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, and Sheriff Laurie Smith.

Conservative estimates place the illicit profit of human trafficking at


Jeanette Leach, former assistant dean for law diversity services, retired in December 2014 after more than a quarter century of service to Santa Clara. In February, she received a special Diversity Gala Lifetime Achievement Award at the 11th Annual Celebration of Diversity in the Legal Profession, held at the Triton Museum in Santa Clara. Other honorees at the event included The San Francisco Giants, who received the Diversity Gala Organization of the Year award, and Chief Justice of California Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, who received the Santa Clara Law Social Justice and Human Rights Award.

“This prestigious honor recognizes Jeanette for her many contributions to fostering diversity through programming and personal connections with hundreds of students and alumni,” said Lisa Kloppenberg, dean of Santa Clara Law. “In her more than 25 years of service to our University, Dean Leach has contributed greatly to our efforts to increase representation of underrepresented populations in the legal profession, acting as a human pipeline for under-represented minorities, helping students access legal education, succeed in law school, and become leaders in the legal profession throughout Silicon Valley, across California, and beyond. Truly, the legal community in the Bay Area is more diverse because of her efforts.”

Attended by more than 300 people, including local attorneys, judges, alumni, faculty, and students, the Diversity Gala event offers networking oppor-tunities to students and helps raise money for the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Scholarship Fund.

FACULTY IN PRINT

Professor Beth Van Schaack, with co-author Ronald C. Slye, pub-lished the third edition of her casebook International Criminal Law and Its Enforcement. This casebook provides a comprehensive introduction to the law, theory, institutions, and practice of interna-tional criminal law through the use of rich problems and compelling jurisprudence from around the world.

Professor Kathleen “Cookie” Ridolfi co-authored a major study, “Material Indifference: How Courts Are Impeding Fair Disclosure in Criminal Cases,” released in November 2014 by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The study was produced jointly with the VERITAS Initiative at Santa Clara Law. Co-authors include VERITAS Initiative Director and Professor Ridolfi, NACDL White Collar Crime Policy Counsel Tiffany M. Joslyn, and VERITAS Initiative Pro Bono Research Attorney Todd H. Fries J.D. ’09. “This groundbreaking study documents one of the major problems facing the nation’s criminal justice system today: the failure to ensure full, fair, and timely disclosure of information favorable to an accused person in a criminal action. It is a significant step toward achieving the vital reforms necessary to guarantee a fair trial for every accused person,” NACDL President Ted Simon said.

For updated news from Santa Clara Law, visit law.scu.edu/news/.

Dean Who Diversified the Bay AreaLegal Community Retires with Honors

Chief Justice of California Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye (left) and Jeanette Leach (right) were among the honorees at this year’s Diversity Gala. Leach served Santa Clara Law for more than 25 years before her retirement in 2014. Cantil-Sakauye will serve as this year’s Law Commencement speaker on May 16.

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In December, a veteran Silicon Valley tech-company founder and technology pioneer donated $10 million in matching and direct funds to Santa Clara University School of Law to fund a new technologically advanced, collaboration-oriented law school building.

T he donation is the gift of Cisco Senior Vice President Howard Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77, a

Santa Clara University trustee, and his wife of 34 years, Alida Schoolmaster Charney. The funds will help form the foundation for a new law school building, which will replace three current facilities and be housed near the business school to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration.

Half of the gift comes in the form of a donation, and half is a matching gift to support additional fundraising.

Charney said he was motivated to donate to the law school to preserve and advance its vital role at the University, and because he has witnessed firsthand how imperative it is for business, engineering, and other leaders to grasp the overarching role of the law in their endeavors. He said it is important to him to give back to people and organizations like Santa Clara University that helped shape him and contributed to his success.

“Santa Clara University is in the process of redefining itself,” said Charney.

“I hope this gift will create momentum and help to shape what the University will look like for the next several decades.”

“We are extremely gratified for the Charneys’ generous gift and the trust and optimism for the future of Santa Clara Law that it expresses,” said Lisa Kloppenberg, dean of the law school. “He is a quintessential Santa Clara alumnus: an engineer, entrepreneur, and lawyer who leads and is at the forefront of fostering world-changing innovation in the most exciting and entrepreneurial region of the world.”

Charney has been a longtime adviser to the University’s Center for Science, Technology, and Society, funding a professorship there, serving on the advisory board, and recently joining the executive committee.

“On behalf of Santa Clara University, I am very thankful to the Charneys for this generous gift and the sustained support we have received from them over the years,” said Michael Engh, S.J., president of Santa Clara University. “They have contributed to a vision and future for the Law School that will produce ever more leaders in multiple disciplines and professions.”

Charney, a licensed patent attorney, has served as a board member for several technology companies. A 2014 recipient of the Santa Clara Law Alumni Special Achievement Award, he holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute

BUILDING THE FUTURE OF SANTA CLARA LAW

of Technology, and master’s of business administration and juris doctor degrees from Santa Clara University. Mr. Charney’s son, Tristan, is a 2006 MBA alumnus from Santa Clara.

Charney co-founded the $3 billion company 3Com as well as Grand Junction Networks, which was acquired by Cisco in 1995. He currently is senior vice president in the Office of the President and CEO at Cisco, contributing to Cisco’s strategy and direction and also advising businesses, governments, and educators around the world in implementing critical Internet technologies to improve organizational effectiveness.

Over his career Charney has overseen the development and expansion of key technologies that have helped build the global Internet as it exists today. He helped grow Cisco’s two-tier distribution business to more than $2.4 billion and helped turn fast ethernet and low-cost switching into fundamental, global Internet technologies. At 3Com, he helped create products that would later become ethernet and local area networking, enabling Internet access to the desktop.

Charney said law school taught him that a system of laws underpins all great business creations.

“It is important to the Charney family that Santa Clara University continues to provide future generations with the best education possible,” said Alida Charney.


A $10 million gift will help build the school a new home

BY DEBORAH LOHSE

JON M PHOTOGRAPHY


JOIN THE CHARNEY CHALLENGE!Join Howard and Alida Charney in supporting a new building for the law school! Your donations and pledges will be matched by the Charney Challenge in anticipation of breaking ground on the building project next summer. Make a gift online now at law.scu.edu/charneychallenge.

“Santa Clara University is in the process of redefining itself.... I hope this gift will create momentum and help to shape what the University will look like for the next several decades.”

—Cisco Senior Vice President Howard Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77, pictured with his wife,

Alida Schoolmaster Charney.


Designing bacteria that can purify water and generate electricity. Engineering microbes that work as computer chips. Programming cells for diagnosing and treating medical conditions such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

T hese are just some of the incredible projects showcased in the 2014 International

Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston with over 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students from 245 universities across 32 countries. Among the world’s most brilliant aspiring bioengineers were Santa Clara Law students Joseph Ayar and Campbell Yore—the first law students ever to participate in the iGEM competition.

Now in its 11th year, the iGEM competition challenges student teams to solve real-world problems with biological systems that they design, build, and test using interchangeable sequences of DNA. These DNA

BY LINDA J. KAHL, PH.D., J.D. ’10, LEGAL PROGRAM DIRECTOR, BIOBRICKS FOUNDATION

Framing the Future of Genetically Engineered Machines

BIOLOGICAL INNOVATORS PARTNER WITH LAW STUDENTS

sequences, available from the iGEM Registry of Standardized Biological Parts, can be assembled like genetic Lego pieces to create newly engineered organisms. Student teams receive a collection of DNA sequences from the iGEM Registry at the beginning of the competition and then work all summer to create biological systems to address challenges in 15 different tracks, including energy, environment, food and nutrition, health and medicine, information processing, software, and more.

The iGEM competition, which began in 2003 as a month-long class at the Massachusetts Institute of


Technology, parallels the emergence of an exciting multidisciplinary field called synthetic biology. Its precise definition remains somewhat elusive, but underlying it is the application of engineering principles to the fundamental components of biology. Synthetic biology uses many of the same basic molecular tools as conventional genetic engineering, but it introduces an engineering framework for thinking about natural biological systems. Doing so promotes efficiency, collaboration, and creativity in the creation of new biological systems. It also enables synthetic biologists to work safely and responsibly by anticipating potential hazards and developing innovative approaches for mitigating the risks of biological technologies.

As the premier student competition in synthetic biology, the iGEM competition is training the next generation of scientists and engineers to work in an open, transparent, and collaborative manner on biotech that addresses society’s most pressing needs. Student teams master not only technical skills but also consider the broader implications involved in engineering living organisms. All iGEM teams must consider the safety and security aspects of their projects, which include a “Policy and Practices” component describing the social, ethical, legal, and policy implications of their work. That’s where law school can prove most useful.

Ayar and Yore, now in their third year at Santa Clara Law, teamed up with the LA Biohackers, a community

laboratory in downtown Los Angeles. As the first law students ever to participate in the iGEM competition, they had significant challenges to overcome—from finding a team that was open to law students, to establishing collaborative and productive long-distance relationships, to balancing their iGEM project work with the demands of law school classes and exams, to securing funding to attend the iGEM Giant Jamboree in Boston. As a mentor for this competition, I enjoyed working with the students—they were imaginative, resourceful, flexible, and oh-so-resilient as we worked through the challenges of bringing law students into the iGEM competition for the very first time.

The process was not easy, but their persistence and dedication paid off.

IGEM FOUNDATION AND JUSTIN KNIGHT

More than 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students from 245 universities across 32 countries participated in the iGEM 2014 Competition, held in Boston. The competition celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2014.


“Coming from a general biology education, I was initially hesitant to get involved in such a highly technical and advanced competition,” said Ayar. “After some encouragement from our advisor Dr. Kahl, I decided to pursue the opportunity. I have come away with no regrets and some great memories.

“As Santa Clara does not have its own iGEM team, the competition required us to seek out and join with another team performing wet lab work,” Ayar said. “iGEM required each team to submit a human practice and policy component with their wet lab component. Campbell and I saw an opportunity to reach out to the LA Biohackers and offer our assistance in this area. Our collaboration started in the summer months and persisted until we met in Boston in October to present our work.”

The LA Biohackers, members of a growing community of Do-It-Yourself citizen scientists of all educational levels, work in and maintain fully equipped biological laboratories in community spaces. They seek to make science accessible to people of all ages and educational backgrounds (www.biohackers.la). When the iGEM

competition officially opened its doors to community laboratories in 2014, the LA Biohackers decided to form an iGEM team of their own. Headed by Cory Tobin, a graduate student in biology at the California Institute of Technology, the LA Biohacker iGEM team also included Doug Foster (a high school biology teacher), David McDuffee (a software consultant), Daniel Wright (an environmental lawyer), Tony Manzo (a community member), Sophia Hewlitt (a community member), Keoni Gandall (a student at Edison High School), and Wolfy Hutton (a student at Milkin Community Middle School and the youngest team member to take part in the 2014 iGEM competition).

After brainstorming and conferring with all iGEM team members, the LA Biohackers finally settled on a project: “A Strategy to Create a Chassis to Boot an Artificial Genome.” The idea was to remove the genome from one type of bacterium (the nonpathogenic Bacillus subtilis) and replace it with the genome from another (Streptococcus thermophilus, a pathogenic bacterium). If successful, their project would give them a better understanding of the importance of a genome to the life of a bacterium. The work could represent a significant advance in engineering biology if it

led them to design and create entirely new bacterial species. From a technical perspective, the LA Biohackers project was ambitious; from a policy and practices perspective, however, it raised many legal and regulatory issues.

The LA Biohackers were eager to have Ayar and Yore help them work through those issues. “While the LA Biohackers’ project focused on ‘booting’ a pathogenic genome within a nonpathogenic host,” said Ayar, “our human practice and policy component focused on the regulatory framework in which a DIY community laboratory such as theirs operates, as well as the regulatory issues with which their project dealt.”

Moreover, Joseph and Campbell wanted to create a legal model that would be useful to all iGEM teams, particularly those that hailed from community laboratories. They decided to create a guide for citizen scientists who wanted to start their own DIY community lab. Yore explains: “My process of drafting the human practices section began with background research on the DIY community lab movement taking place in synthetic biology. This inquiry allowed me to identify some essential characteristics common in successful labs like Genspace and Biocurious. After establishing these basic

Wolfy Hutton and Sophia Hewlitt at the LA Biohackers’ community laboratory in downtown Los Angeles.

We are exploring the idea of a multidisciplinary iGEM team made up of Santa Clara students from across the campus, including students from biology, engineering, law, business, and more. It's a wonderful venue for students to explore the interplay between advances in technology and society.

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requirements, I explored the regulatory compliance issue in more detail. My research led me to discover the local and state regulatory landscape for the DIY community labs in California. Additionally, I accessed the synthetic biology community’s ability to police itself through ethical standards and best practices.”

Ayar and Yore teamed up to create the guide. “We broke up the various levels of regulatory framework into city, state, federal, and international,” Ayar said, “and wrote a guide to establishing and operating a community laboratory. These regulatory issues were particularly interesting because of the nature of the community laboratory and their traditionally ‘underground’ perception.” Their final work product—titled “Citizen Science: A Guide to Starting a Do it Yourself (DIY) Synthetic Biology Laboratory”—can be found at http://2014.igem.org/Team:LA_Biohackers/Practice_and_Policy.

In Boston, Ayar, Yore, and the rest of the team presented its work at the Jamboree. Although the sweat equity was all their own, support from others came in many forms: Rif and Bridget Hutton and Black Olive Productions offered travel assistance, SnapGene and MatLab donated software, New

England BioLabs provided a BioBricks kit, the Synthetic Biology Engineering Resource Center paid registration fees, and Santa Clara Law alumnus Stanley Chang and Associates of the Intellectual Property Investment Law Group supplied travel funds.

“I feel very fortunate to have participated in this project,” said Yore. “Cory Tobin and the rest of the LA Biohackers were very gracious in letting a pair of remote outsiders take such an active role in their work. It was fascinating to see how such a diverse group of people can effectively work together and produce meaningful scientific research. Furthermore, attending the iGEM competition introduced me to a plethora of new ideas in biological research.”

“We were very fortunate to work with such an accepting and innovative group as the LA Biohackers,” said Ayar. “Having the opportunity to travel to Boston and network with so many diverse and inspiring groups was an invaluable experience and one which I hope to repeat next year.”

I’m glad we joined forces with a community lab, and I would definitely be open to forming a joint team again. We are also exploring the idea of a multidisciplinary iGEM team made up of Santa Clara students from across the campus, including students from biology, engineering, law, business, and more. It’s a wonderful venue for students to explore the interplay between advances in technology and society. So there is a good chance Ayar, Yore, and other Santa Clara students will be headed to Boston this fall for iGEM 2015.

If you are interested in participating in the 2015 iGEM competition, mentoring iGEM students, or helping to support an iGEM team, please contact Linda Kahl at [email protected].

Campbell Yore (left) and Joseph Ayar (right) were the �rst law students ever to participate in the iGEM competition. Dr. Linda Kahl (middle) is a Santa Clara Law alumna who served as a mentor to Campbell and Joseph and is an iGEM policy and practices judge.

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BY SUSAN VOGEL | PHOTOS BY KEITH SUTTER

Santa Clara Law Alumni Mix Entrepreneurship, Politics, Tech, and Old World Values to Build Successful Practices in San Francisco

L awyers have always played important roles in San Francisco’s rich history. Some quietly. Some not so—becoming legends, intentionally or

unintentionally, by defending notorious clients (Melvin Belli and Jack Ruby), creating improbable defense theories (the so-called Twinkie defense in San Francisco Supervisor Dan White’s trial for killing Mayor George Moscone and fellow Supervisor Harvey Milk), and even by becoming the defendants themselves, such as lawyers Robert Noel and Marjorie Knoller (for the dog-mauling death of their neighbor, Diane Whipple).

Overall, says Henry Bunsow J.D. ’74, a patent litigator who has practiced in San Francisco for nearly four decades as well as in courts across the nation, “the bar in San Francisco is at the top of the practice.”

Santa Clara Law grads are well represented throughout practice areas in San Francisco as well as in business and politics. Here we profile five San Francisco attorneys whose influence on the City by the Bay and beyond ranges from real estate development and intellectual property to estate planning and business, and even fashion law.

SUCCESSIN THE CITY

HENRY BUNSOW J.D. ’74

Henry Bunsow J.D. ’74 grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada, during the heyday of Elvis, the Rat Pack and the mob. As a kid, “You could figure out ways to sneak into casinos at night to play a little blackjack,” he says.

He attended University of Nevada at Reno, majoring in electrical engineering. On the recommendation of attorneys teaching a business law class, he took the LSAT. With a good score and student loans available, he applied and chose Santa Clara Law based on the recommendation of a friend.

Though high tech curriculum did not exist, a moot court competition in patent law piqued his interest.

Upon graduation, Bunsow joined a patent law firm in Santa Clara. When the firm merged with a San Francisco firm, he moved to the City and tried his hand at patent litigation.

He has been riveted ever since. “Technology is really magical,” he says. “How can hundreds of thousands of cell phones around the world be [calling, texting, and emailing] all at the same time?” Bunsow loves working with some of the best engineers in the world, learning the technology and then explaining it to the jury in a way that they understand and relate to.

LAW FIRM TRIALSFor the first decades of his practice, Bunsow did patent litigation out of San Francisco firms: Townsend & Townsend (“the largest patent specialty firm on the West Coast”), Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, and Keker & Van Nest.

Bunsow’s increasingly nationwide practice, however, made firms with offices throughout the U.S. attractive. In 2003, he joined Howrey LLP, a Washington, D.C.-based megafirm with one of the largest IP practices in the world.

75+Number of alumni who are partners in their San Francisco �rms


The firm, however, was unable to survive its meteoric growth in the ’00s and the recession of 2009. Bunsow, the firm’s vice chair, left in January 2011. Howrey dissolved in March 2011 and filed for bankruptcy. “It was very hard when Howrey failed,” says Bunsow. “It was a wonderful firm.”

Howrey’s demise, however, was just a warm-up for the collapse of Bunsow’s next firm, Dewey & LeBoeuf. In 2011, the 1,100-attorney firm imploded, resulting in the largest law firm bankruptcy in history, allegedly brought on by partner fraud. “People will be going to jail,” says Bunsow.

For Bunsow, the biggest challenges of his career have been in the boardroom, not the courtroom. “If we let MBAs run the business of law firms there would be fewer failures,” he says.

In May of 2012, Bunsow and 11 other IP attorneys exiting Dewey set up shop in San Francisco. Bunsow De Mory Smith & Allison LLP now has 20 attorneys and a second office in Redwood City.

Bunsow works mainly from the San Francisco office, commuting by ferry from Napa, where he lives with his wife, Katie.

IT’S THE TRAININGAfter nearly 40 years of practice and 50 jury trials, Bunsow can easily spot the good lawyers. “The better lawyers are typically the nicer ones,” he says. “The poorer ones are the ones that are hard to get along with. They didn’t get the training they should have. They think it’s all a dogfight and they can’t discern the important from the mundane.”

Excellent training, says Bunsow, is exactly what he got at Santa Clara Law. The practicing attorneys hired as adjuncts showed students “what day to day practice looks like.” Santa Clara also taught students “how to be an individual and how to be entrepreneurial.” Santa Clara students, he says, were less interested in clerkships with judges than in “getting out on the streets, mixing it up and being good lawyers. We felt we needed about five years of training and then the sky is the limit.”

For Bunsow, the practice of law “has been a real profession. It has been so personally satisfying to me. I have been blessed to have good clients, good business, and good colleagues.”

“I was a kid who grew up in the desert of Las Vegas. Now, when I am standing on the corner of Sansome and California, I remember that. And it was Santa Clara Law that really helped put me here.”

After nearly 40 years of practice and 50 jury trials, Henry Bunsow J.D. ’74, founder and partner at Bunsow De Mory Smith & Allison, can easily spot the good lawyers. “The better lawyers are typically the nicer ones,” he says.


Rachel Fischbein J.D. ’12, founder of Law on the Runway, considered practicing in LA but in San Francisco, Fischbein says, she found “a lot more women in startups, many focused on fashion and beauty, and willing to work with a young and new lawyer.”


RACHEL FISCHBEIN J.D. ’12

As Rachel Fischbein J.D. ’12 sat in her licensing class at Santa Clara Law listening to talk of computer software, she would remind herself “it’s the same law whether it’s a computer or a shoe.”

Fischbein attended law school to become a lawyer in the fashion industry. In high school in Pennsylvania, she co-founded a club in which students “sat at sewing machines reinventing donated clothes, then taking them to a women’s shelter.” She studied fashion marketing at Woodbury College in Los Angeles, then chose Santa Clara Law for its strong high tech and corporate programs—and also because it seemed very friendly.

“I had heard law school would be very competitive, but at Santa Clara Law teachers and administrators had open-door policies and encouraged collaboration,” she says. “Twenty-five of us were on a shared Dropbox for class notes, which is unheard of at other schools.”

Fischbein easily found mentors. “The adjuncts were very helpful,” she says. “They brought real life perspectives. Two entertainment lawyers would fly up from Los Angeles to teach a Saturday morning course.”

STARTING UPUpon graduation, Fischbein prepared to launch her practice. She had considered returning to LA but found in San Francisco “a lot more women in startups, many focused on fashion and beauty, and willing to work with a young and new lawyer.”

The first obstacle she faced was San Francisco rent. To afford it, she moved into a tech startup “base camp” where she lived with a dozen other people and “got to know the startup scene.” At the same time she began developing her blog on fashion law—working on it between helping customers at the Nob Hill clothing boutique where she worked.

Fischbein, who had written a blog for Santa Clara Law, knew its value not only in marketing but as a learning tool. “I put four to five hours of research into a 500- to 1,000-word post,” she says (blog.lawontherunway.com).

Fischbein represents clients involved in all aspects of fashion on matters ranging from basic contracts and corporate law, certificates for a garment’s place of origin, and rules on importing “exotics.” She has a special fondness for licensing—“connecting one person’s ideas with someone else’s ideas. For example, adding graffiti mural artwork to ready-to-wear clothing, and having to track down the street artist.”

SF STYLEFischbein’s timing for her firm could not have been better. In fashion, San Francisco has always stood in the shadow of Los Angeles. But lately, it has found its own fashion identity. Rather than the glitz and celebrity-fueled design of Los Angeles, San Francisco’s two fashion trends, says Fischbein, are “high tech fashion and eco-fashion.”

“When you see a garment for sale for less than $5, shipped from China,” says Fischbein, “you have to ask how the workers in the factory are treated as well as the farmers who produce the cotton.”

The eco-fashion movement is also concerned with where clothes end up, which is usually the landfill. San Francisco entrepreneurs are coming up with high tech solutions to this low tech problem. “Online thrift stores. Clothing recycling bins around the city,” says Fischbein. Even a subscription service for clothes you send back each month.

Fischbein practices law in a way that reflects her cooperative approach and high tech bent. Her office is a “co-working space” called Citizen Space, and she books conference rooms on her phone through a startup company, Breather.

Fischbein says that when she was living in the Alamo Square “base camp” with 12 roommates and working in a clothing boutique rather than a boutique firm, law school classmates were concerned for her. Now, after two years in practice, “some are tired of their firm jobs and asking me, ‘How do you do it?’ I tell them that it takes a little bit of letting go of the lifestyle you are used to.”

94111 AND 94105More than half of all alumni working in San Fransciso are concentrated in these two zip codes.

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“If you had asked me ten years ago what I would be doing now, I would never have guessed that I would be in this business role.... The J.D. is still the most versatile and marketable graduate degree on the planet.” —ASHKAY VERMA J.D. ’06


AKSHAY VERMA J.D. ’06

The first question you have to ask Akshay Verma J.D. ’06 is “is your firm as cool as its website?” His answer: “The website does not do justice to how cool it is.”

Axiom, says Verma, is at the forefront of “the biggest change in the legal profession in the last 100 years. In any other industry things change every three to five years. In tech, they change every day. The legal profession has not seen a major change in 100 years.”

FOLLOWING TRADITIONVerma’s family emigrated to the U.S. from India when he was eight years old. A junior high science trip to Yosemite opened his eyes to the wonders of nature and convinced him he wanted to be involved in protecting the environment.

But his parents wanted him to study engineering. “In India, if you were not studying to become an engineer or a doctor your chances for success were very low,” he says. “[My parents’] generation did not think of following your passion.”

Verma dutifully studied chemistry at UC-Berkeley but pursued his passion through a minor in environmental science and policy.

Upon graduation, he joined Latham & Watkins as a paralegal. Mentor Charlie Crompton encouraged him to study IP law, and Elizabeth Powers (later Santa Clara Law assistant dean) encouraged him to consider Santa Clara Law.

What sold him was its position as number two in the country in high tech law. Also, the small class sizes. “Even from my early meetings with the administration, there was a sense of community,” he says.

A class in environmental protection from Ken Manaster pulled Verma off the IP track and back into environmental law.

Manaster was of counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. When an associate position opened up in its environmental group, Verma, who was just graduating from Santa Clara Law, was hired. He worked at Pillsbury for two years before moving to Farella Braun and Martel.

SWITCHING GEARSIn 2012, after six years of law firm practice, Verma was ready for something new. He and his law school classmate Tina Doshi J.D. ’05 (now at LinkedIn) had married and had a baby on the way. “I wanted a change from the billable hours, and I wanted to build something,” he says.

Verma connected with Axiom and “fell in love with it. We started talking about my practicing law with them, but I asked them about a position not practicing law.”

Axiom, which the ABA described as a “legal rebel,” has 13 locations worldwide and serves more than half of the world’s Fortune 100 companies. It is not a law firm but a C corporation that employs lawyers, business and finance experts, and others to counsel, support, or even carry out the functions of a company’s office of general counsel.

Verma works “in a role in which I wear 90 different hats: consulting, sales, solution design, psychotherapy.” Although not practicing law, he “uses everything I learned in law school and in practice on a daily basis.”

GIVING BACKVerma’s initial sense that Santa Clara Law was right for him was accurate. “I love Santa Clara. It’s such an incredible community. For the first time in my academic career I was in a place that was small enough that I could wrap my arms around it.”

Verma serves on the Alumni Board of the law school, where he shares his enthusiasm for the entrepreneurial opportunities a legal education offers.

“If you had asked me ten years ago what I would be doing now, I would never have guessed that I would be in this business role,” he says. “The J.D. is still the most versatile and marketable graduate degree on the planet.”

Verma and Doshi moved to San Carlos last year before the birth of their second son, but they love the City. Favorite restaurants are Bisou, on Market, Dosa, on Fillmore, and the Slanted Door at the Ferry Building. But for authentic Indian, nothing in the Bay Area beats Verma’s mom’s traditional cooking.

Five decades of Santa Clara Law alumni work in San Francisco. Of them:

9% are from 1970-79

19% are from 1980-89

31% are from 1990-99

33% are from 2000-09

7% are from 2010-14

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After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, immigrants from Lucca, Italy, settled in the Portola neighborhood of San Francisco’s Excelsior District.

“La chiamata” says Emmett Giurlani B.A. ’71, J.D. ’74, the call to the west, was what first brought his grandfather to the U.S. in 1885, and then his father, who arrived in San Francisco in 1937.

After a few years in Noe Valley, the family put down roots on Felton Street in Portola. They were welcomed into a very close-knit neighborhood of fellow Lucchesi. “Evenings, people would gather, cook, have coffee klatches. Everyone spoke Italian. Our house was like Grand Central Station,” Giurlani recalls. And the neighborhood was safe. “We didn’t have to lock our doors. We could walk the streets at night.”

Giurlani’s father was a laborer. “He was on his knees making terrazzo floors,” he says. Still, the family was able to send their children to private Catholic schools. Giurlani attended elementary school at St. Phillips, in Noe Valley, and high school at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory.

His parents had high expectations of him. “As the son of immigrants, it was always assumed I would become a professional of some sort.”

He enrolled at Santa Clara University to study history. “I loved Santa Clara,” he says. “The Jesuits showed me stability. They instilled in me a work ethic. The biggest thing my parents did was to give me the Jesuit education. I owe them everything,” he says.

Giurlani wanted to go into medicine, but “family members thought I was too sensitive and would have a hard time treating the sick. So, I decided upon law school.”

After graduating from Santa Clara Law, Giurlani practiced at Paolini, Paolini & Dobbins, a leading Italian law firm in San Francisco at the time. But law firm practice was not for him.

In 1981, he opened up his own estate planning practice, building it “brick by brick.” He immediately connected with the Italian community in San Francisco, especially those from Lucca. His clients now are primarily Italian and gay, and living throughout the City and on the Peninsula.

THE PERSONAL TOUCHGiurlani says he loves his job. He works from a “beautiful home office” near Dolores Park and gives clients a level of personal attention that most lawyers do not. He picks up the phone if clients call on a Saturday, or during the night. And he makes house calls. After attending to business, he gets up and ceremoniously places his briefcase next to the door. “Then we have wine and food and talk about Lucca,” he says. “They all feel they have to feed me.”

His favorite Lucchesi restaurants are still the North Beach Restaurant and Bertolucci’s in South San Francisco, where he says, “when you walk in, it’s like my mother comes back to life!”

“I loved Santa Clara. The Jesuits showed me stability. They instilled in me a work ethic,” says Emmett Giurlani B.A. ’71, J.D. ’74, a solo practice estate attorney who strives to give his clients a high level of personal attention, including making house calls.

EMMETT GIURLANI B.A. '71, J.D. ’74


Giurlani’s personal connection to his clients has paid off in many ways. “I have 41 years in the practice because I found a way to remain human—to keep my humanity. I have never had a client sue me, and I have never had a problem. Not even a phone call to the State Bar. I am proud of my AV rating.”

On January 1, 2012, Giurlani became the first openly gay president of San Francisco’s Lucchesi Nel Mondo Club, a nonprofit that promotes Lucchesi culture and has several hundred members in San Francisco. “That was my moment of great celebrity,” he says, with his tongue somewhat in his cheek.

In October of 2012, he was hospitalized for 17 weeks for an HIV-related illness, and was in a coma, and near death at

Ralph K. Davies Medical Center. “One of the intensive care nurses later told me ‘never in my career have I seen so many people in the hallways weeping.’”

In 2014, Giurlani visited Lucca four times and flew to England for “a whirlwind trip to London for Christmas holiday.”

He knows that at age 65, he could now slow down. But his passion for serving his community is as strong as ever. “I just finished my term as President of the [Lucchesi] Club,” he says. “And now I want to do more. Time will be my best guide, regarding what to do next.”


KRISTINA D. LAWSON J.D. ’02

Kristina D. Lawson J.D. ’02 always knew she would go to law school, and, once exposed to the high tech world, she knew she wanted to work in high tech.

But she didn’t. It was an accident, literally, that set her on a different path—one that would make her a star before she turned 40.

Lawson grew up in Santa Barbara. Her high school experience in the YMCA’s California Youth and Government program helped cement her decision to pursue a law career.

As an undergraduate at University of Arizona, Lawson studied economics and political science and interned at the Pima County Public Defender’s Office. A California native, Lawson wanted to return home to California after graduation and chose Santa Clara Law for its top high tech program.

In September of her second year at Santa Clara, Lawson’s mother suffered a terrible car accident. Lawson considered leaving school to return home, but her father insisted she stay in school. Lawson says that this event “allowed me to really focus on what was important.”

But given her choice to focus on family, she had missed on-campus interviews for high tech 2L summer jobs and ended up with an environmental law clerkship/internship

“My education at Santa Clara Law gave me a solid foundation for a successful career both in law and in public office.... Santa Clara Law is committed to helping create leaders who make a difference.”

—KRISTINA D. LAWSON J.D. ’02, PARTNER, REAL ESTATE AND

LAND USE PRACTICE, MANATT, PHELPS & PHILLIPS, LLP

Top Firm employers in San Francisco

Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP

Gordon & Rees, LLP

Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Severson & Werson

Seyfarth Shaw LLP


made us think hard about what it meant in real life and how we would use the skills we are acquiring to doing something good and tangible.

“My education at Santa Clara Law gave me a solid foundation for a successful career both in law and in public office. From the top notch professors, to the ability to connect with distinguished alumni who have dedicated themselves to public service, Santa Clara Law is committed to helping create leaders who make a difference.”

THE SANTA CLARA LAW DIFFERENCE

W hen I was a litigator in San Francisco, I asked myself “why is it that all the lawyers I want to have lunch with are Santa Clara grads?” In

Henry Bunsow’s words, they were the “nicer ones.” They stood out as professional and competent. And they did not push ethical boundaries (including for minuscule perceived advantages) as I saw some other litigators do. What was it about Santa Clara Law?

The lawyers profiled in this piece provide several answers: The smaller size of the law school, offering a greater sense of community. Faculty members who are top professors in their fields who also act as mentors. Local working professionals who serve as adjuncts with up-to-the-minute experience, and who teach students how law is practiced. The exceptional support students receive from the faculty and administration. And finally, the strong commitment shown by the Law School and the University as whole to service and “making the world a better place.”

With these advantages, Bunsow, Lawson, Verma, Giurlani, and Fischbein (along with the hundreds of other Santa Clara Law alumni working in the San Francisco area and those who will follow them) will be making a difference in San Francisco and beyond for years to come.

Susan Vogel is an attorney and a frequent contributor to Santa Clara Law.

at the Santa Clara City Attorney’s office. This unexpected job “launched my career as a land use and environmental lawyer,” she says. “Once I got a taste of the practice area, I was hooked.”

Upon graduation, Lawson joined the public law section of Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson. Subsequently, she joined the land use section of the Walnut Creek office of Miller Starr Regalia, one of the state’s premier real estate law firms, where she practiced land use and environmental law for almost a decade.

In 2011, Lawson joined the Land, Environment, and Natural Resources Division of the San Francisco office of the national law and consulting firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, where she is now a partner.

One of the San Francisco projects she has worked on at Manatt will revitalize Candlestick Point, now dominated by the earthquake-damaged Candlestick Park stadium. The multibillion-dollar 500,000-square-foot development includes homes, theaters, 130 shops, a hotel, parks, and restaurants.

Lawson describes her work as “help[ing] build places for Californians to live, work, and play.” Most satisfying to her is “seeing the results of my work taking shape across California. Nothing makes me more proud than seeing a great project completed after making it through California’s complicated entitlement process.”

BRANCHING OUT TO LEADERSHIPLawson successfully ran for Walnut Creek City Council in 2010, and in December 2013, the City Council appointed her as mayor for 2014. She became the youngest mayor ever of Walnut Creek.

As mayor, she successfully fought energy giant PG&E to prevent it from cutting down 735 of the town’s trees, ostensibly to maintain access to its pipeline.

While serving in public office, Lawson continued to practice law at Manatt full time. In January 2014, the Daily Journal named her one of the top 20 attorneys in California under age 40, and in the summer of 2014, she was named one of the top 50 Development, Land Use, and Municipal Infrastructure Lawyers in California.

DO SOMETHING GOOD AND TANGIBLELawson’s three years at Santa Clara Law fostered her strong belief in making the world a better place. It also provided her the skills she has needed in her complex practice.

“The education at Santa Clara was incredibly practical in that they took the theory and the idea of the law and really

600+ Number of Santa Clara Law alumni working in San Francisco.

WHAT'S YOUR STORY? We'd like to hear from you! Please send your updates to [email protected] so we can showcase our Santa Clara Law Community!


PAUL ‘CHIP’ L. LION III J.D. ’82

SANTA CLARA LAW ALUMNI SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Chip Lion is a partner in the corporate finance group of Morrison & Foerster LLP, a member of The American Lawyer’s prestigious top 20 A-list law firms since 2004. He is the immediate past chair of the firm’s Palo Alto corporate finance group, served for ten years on the firm’s compensation committee, and is the firm-wide co-chair of the firm’s private equity fund group. He is nationally recognized for his work with limited liability companies (LLCs) and has authored numerous works on LLC and partnership law. From 1991-92, he was chair of the partnerships committee of the business law section of the State Bar of California, where he formed the drafting committee for—and was one of the primary contributors to—California’s original limited liability company legislation. He has served as an advisor to the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, the Revised Uniform Limited Company Act, and the Revised Uniform Partnership Act Drafting Committees of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. In 1982, he earned his J.D. magna cum laude from Santa Clara Law, and he served as an adjunct lecturer there from 1984-90. In 1983, he earned his LL.M. in taxation from NYU. He currently serves as chair of the business law section of the American Bar Association, representing its 55,000 members on cutting-edge business issues, and he served as editor-in-chief of Volume 68 of The Business Lawyer, the highly regarded journal of the section. He is the past chair of the venture capital and private equity committee of the section. His is grateful for the support of his wife of 31 years, Mary Cunneen Lion BSC ’81, MBA ’91, and their three children, CJ, Moira, and Ryan.

THE HONORABLE SOCRATES P. MANOUKIAN

SANTA CLARA LAW AMICUS AWARD

Socrates Peter Manoukian has been a judge of the Superior Court of Santa Clara County for the past 22 years. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, he became a U.S. citizen in 1963, grew up in the southern Bay Area, and earned a B.A. in history from UCLA. He earned a J.D. from Southwestern University and practiced law in Los Angeles before returning to the Bay Area to continue his career at Wines & Manoukian in San Jose. In 1993, he was appointed to the Superior Court by the Honorable Pete Wilson, governor of California, and has run unopposed for re-election four times. He has presided over both civil and criminal trials from juvenile delinquency to the appellate division of Superior Court. He has been an adjunct professor at Santa Clara Law and an instructor at the California Center for Judicial Education and Research, teaching courses in Criminal Felony Pretrial Procedure. His professional commitments range from judge for mock trial/moot court/advocacy programs at Santa Clara, Stanford, and Lincoln Law Schools, to governing board member of the California Judges Association. Volunteering remains a priority for the judge, who continues to stay involved with Theta Delta Chi at UCLA, where he served as alumni president. Closer to home, he can be seen as videographer for the St. Francis High School Varsity Football team in Los Altos. He is married to the Honorable Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian, associate justice, California Court of Appeals, Sixth Appellate District, and they have three children, Matthew, Martin, and Michael, a member of the law school Class of 2015.

On March 14, Santa Clara Law alumni, friends, faculty, and staff gathered to honor alumni at the 20th annual Celebration of Achievement Alumni Awards Evening, held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. The Celebration of Achievement honors lawyers and community members who have made a difference for Santa Clara Law. “It is always inspiring to gather with our community and recognize some of the many leaders in our midst,” said Skip Horne, Senior Assistant Dean, External Relations. “We are so grateful to these honorees for their service to and support of Santa Clara Law.”

Celebration of Achievement

Visit us online for more information on previous winners or how to nominate someone for next year’s awards: law.scu.edu/alumni/celebration-of-achievement/.


PROFESSOR CYNTHIA A. MERTENS

EDWIN J. OWENS LAWYER OF THE YEAR AWARD

A passion for the law and uncompromising interest in the well-being of the underserved has motivated Santa Clara Law Professor Cynthia Mertens throughout her career. A Bay Area native, she graduated from Stanford University before earning her J.D. from U.C. Hastings Law School in the 1970s. There she overcame the prevailing gender gap to excel, and after graduation accepted a position with California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) in Santa Maria, where she made her first court appearance the day after she was admitted to the Bar. While at CRLA, she was asked to join the Santa Clara Law faculty, and she has been a mainstay for four decades. She has served as associate dean for academic affairs; twice been the executive director of the Katharine & George Alexander Law Center; and has taken more than 100 law students on immersion trips to El Salvador to study human rights and social justice issues. She and her husband, Jim Rowan, regularly provide a home for students and visiting faculty. Santa Clara Law is proud of her legacy of properly preparing our next generation of lawyers, and sparking the confluence of legal, moral, and practical applications of the law. She and Jim have three children and have served as “second parents” to countless law students.

KEVIN J. ALBANESE B.S. ’96, J.D. ’08

YOUNG ALUMNI RISING STAR AWARD

Kevin Albanese is president and CEO of Joseph J. Albanese, Inc., a large commercial concrete and general engineering contractor. He earned his J.D., magna cum laude, through Santa Clara Law’s part-time program, and did so as a husband, and father to two children under the age of 3, all while serving as Joseph J. Albanese’s COO. Following law school, he took on various industry associations and community efforts. He is a past president of both United Contractors and CFMA Silicon Valley. He currently serves as a trustee for the Operating Engineers Local 3 Trust Funds and an advisor to Lincoln Glen Little League. Appointed by Governor Jerry Brown in 2013, he serves as a board member of the Contractors State License Board. Recognized for his leadership and contributions to industry and the community, he was named to the list of top “40 Under 40” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal and the top “20 Under 40” by the Engineering News Record. He maintains a small law office where he practices employment, construction, and personal injury law. He is grateful for the support of his wife, Julie, two sons, Connor and Aiden, and the team at Joseph J. Albanese, Inc.

PHOTOS BY NANCY MARTIN

1. From left, 2014 Honoree Howard Charney MBA ’73, J.D. ’77, joined 2015 Honoree Paul ‘Chip’ Lion J.D. ’82, and Dean Lisa Kloppenberg at this year's celebration. 2. The Honorable Socrates P. Manoukian, recipient of the 2015 Santa Clara Law Owens Award, enjoyed the video tribute. 3. Professor Cynthia A. Mertens, recipient of the 2015 Edwin J. Owens Lawyer of the Year Award, was joined by her husband, Jim Rowan (left), and SCU President Michael Engh, S.J. 4. Roy Stanley J.D. ’06 (left) and Carl Frasier (right), law library specialist, congratulate Kevin J. Albanese B.S. ’96, J.D. ’06, for receiving the 2015 Young Alumni Rising Star Award.

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PHOTOS BY NANCY MARTIN

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Alumni Reunion 2014

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1. Lina Mendonca B.S. ’01, J.D. ’04; Associate Dean Brad Joondeph; Ajit Narang J.D. ’04; Nima Sohi J.D. ’04; and Derrek Tomine J.D. ’04 gathered at Santa Clara Law in September to celebrate their 10th reunion.

3. Doug Barry B.A. ’66, J.D. ’74 and Marie Barry B.A. ’68 catch up with Susan Tanenbaum Daniel J.D. ’74 and The Honorable Nancy Hoffman J.D. ’74.

2. Classmates Mary McCurdy B.S. ’81, J.D. ’84, Chris Bruni J.D. ’84, and Brad Corsiglia J.D. ’84 share a laugh during their reunion celebration.

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3. Joining the law class of 1964 for dinner were SCU President Michael Engh, S.J., Dean Lisa Kloppenberg, Leon Anderson J.D. ’64, Barry Shulman J.D. ’64, Tom Castelazo B.A. ’62, J.D. ’64, Don Eaton B.S. ’59, J.D. ’64, Theodore Fleischer J.D. ’64, Gary Giannini B.A. ’61, J.D. ’64, and front row, Ted Biagini B.S. ’62, J.D. ’64.

SAVE THE DATE: 2015 REUNION OCTOBER 9-11

We are excited to join Santa Clara University’s Grand Reunion Weekend festivities. Law Alumni will join in the Friday night and Saturday festivities throughout the campus. More details to come this summer.

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5. Enjoying the beautiful weather during the outdoor reception were John Bates J.D. ’74, Joan Stoelker B.A. ’71, and The Honorable James Stoelker B.A. ’71, J.D. ’74.

4. Lissa MacDonald J.D. ’04 visits campus with her husband, Toby MacDonald.


1979 Leslie Burton is professor and director of the graduate law programs at Golden Gate University School of Law, where she has worked for 20 years. She is married to Jeff Wurms, a lawyer who is now working on his high school teaching credential. They live in Oakland. She has taught in Prague, Germany, and Istanbul.

1982 Paul ‘Chip’ L. Lion III is chair of the American Bar Association’s Business Law Section. The section has over 50,000 members and 50 substantive law committees. He is a partner at Morrison & Foerster.

1983 Robert G.P. Cruz B.S. ’71 received a proclamation from the governor of Guam and a resolution from the Guam legislature recognizing his election as president of the Guam Chapter, American Association of Retired Persons during its 20th anniversary celebration. He teaches law courses for the University of Guam and the University of Phoenix MBA program and has facilitated an ethics in government workshop for elected leaders, directors, and board members of the Guam government. Cruz, a retired Lt. Colonel, sang with the Cantate Guam choir at the Guam Veterans Day 2014 ceremony.

1985 Tim Jeffries was reappointed to the Arizona Commerce Authority by House Speaker Andy Tobin in 2014. He also serves on the crime and child safety subcommittee of the transition committee for newly elected Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. He served as senior deputy of the Colorado Flood Recovery Task Force in 2013 for Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. Rodney Moore is a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith in Atlanta on the employment and labor team. He is also a member of the firm’s public agency and public finance team. Previously, he was with Moore Sparks, a firm he co-founded.

1987 James Chapman is at the Silicon Valley office of Morgan Lewis, formerly Bingham McCutchen. He joined the firm as a partner, as did Michael DiSanto ’98. Chapman, formerly of Foley & Lardner, has extensive experience in representing venture capital, investment banking, technology, life sciences and cleantech clients. DiSanto previously worked at Dinsmore & Shohl, where he represented publicly traded and emerging-growth companies in digital media, clean technology, life sciences, Internet, and financial services.

1948 Joseph Michael B.S. ’43 writes that “I opened my own law office, expanded it over the years, and retired. I then developed housing for low-income families and retirement facilities for seniors. I retired again in 2014 and developed the Michael Family Foundation to assist the needy.”

1963 Leon Panetta B.A. ’60 has been named a director by Oracle. He served the nation as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2009 to 2011 and as secretary of defense from 2011 to 2013. 1974 Julie Brooks is executive vice president, general counsel, and secretary of Veracyte. She has more than 25 years’ experience as a general counsel and executive

team member, primarily for multinational medical device, biotechnology, and health care IT companies. John Cruden was confirmed by the United States Senate to be the assistant attorney general of the Environment and Natural Resources Division for the United States Department of Justice.

1975 Marjorie Cohn published her fifth book, Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues. David B. Samuelson B.A. ’72, writes “Medicare cards this year! And a new granddaughter, Violet!”

1976 Risë Jones Pichon B.S. ’73 became the first minority presiding judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court in January.

1978 Barbara Spector is vice mayor of the city of Los Gatos. She is a mediator and litigator at Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel in San Jose.

Alumni

CLASS ACTION

Send us your news!Keep your fellow law alumni posted on what's happening.

Email your news to [email protected] or send to Law Alumni Relations Santa Clara University 500 El Camino Real Santa Clara, CA 95053


ALUMNI PROFILES

Groundbreaking Alumnae Judges

Phyllis Hamilton J.D. ’76 Appointed New Chief Federal Judge for the Bay Area

In December 2014, District Judge Phyllis Hamilton J.D. ’76 became chief judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. She is the �rst African-American woman in the court’s history to �ll this position.

“Having enjoyed my work in court governance in many capacities over the years, I look forward to working with my colleagues and the bar and sta� of this court to continue the court’s traditions of innovation and excellent service,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton earned her B.A. from Stanford in 1974 and her J.D. from Santa Clara Law in 1976. Her judicial career has included appointments as an administrative judge for a federal agency, a magistrate judge of this court, and a district judge of this court from 2000 to the present. Since 2010, she has served in the Oakland Division.

Risë Jones Pichon B.A. ’73, J.D. ’76 Is Santa Clara County’s First Minority Presiding Superior Court Judge

On January 1, Risë Jones Pichon B.A. ’73, J.D. ’76 became Santa Clara County’s �rst minority presiding Superior Court judge. Pichon has been a Superior Court judge of the County of Santa Clara since 1998. She previously served as a judge on the Municipal Court from 1984 to 1998 and also as a court commissioner from 1983 to 1984.

In an interview with KQED, Pichon said “Having lived when I lived gives a person a great understanding of how people feel, how they feel when there’s only one of them in a group ... �e fact that they can feel powerless and some can abuse their power.... It’s given me the courage at this point of my life to make sure people are treated fairly.”

Pichon earned her J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1976 and a B.S. in Mathematics in 1973 from Santa Clara University after having transferred from Xavier University in New Orleans in 1971.

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1989 Rhonda Donato is director of legal recruiting at Solutus Legal Search. Previously supervising attorney with the Northern California Innocence Project, she is now a member of NCIP’s advisory board. Magda Gonzalez is city manager for Half Moon Bay. Karen Rezendes Tannehill is managing attorney of Lozano Smith, a California education and public agency law firm. Christopher Rudy was appointed as a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. Since 1994 he had been a partner at Stenberg Sunseri Roe Pickard & Rudy.

1990 James Laufman is general counsel and corporate secretary at Infinera.

1992 Doris Kaelin is a partner in the San Francisco office of Gordon & Rees. She is a member of the firm’s bankruptcy, restructuring, and creditors’ rights and business transactions practice groups. She also serves as a bankruptcy trustee for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California. Tom McInerney is managing shareholder of the San Francisco office of Ogletree Deakins, a labor and employment law firm. He recently completed a term as mayor of San Anselmo, and remains on the town council, where he has served since 2009.

1993 Lindene Patton is global head of hazard product development at CoreLogic, a property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider. Previously, she was chief climate change product officer for Zurich Insurance Group.


CLASSACTION

1994 John Kennedy has worked for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office the past 20 years. He has served on the board of directors of several LGBT nonprofits. He married his longtime partner, KQED journalist Scott Shafer, in September 2014.

1995 Michelle Ferreira was recognized in the 2015 Best Lawyers in America. She is a tax litigator for Greenberg Traurig. Eric Geffon was appointed to a judgeship on the Santa Clara County Superior Court by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. Previously in private practice, he had also worked as a Santa Clara County deputy public defender. Bill Harmon MBA ’95 is a partner at the Seattle office of Shook, Hardy & Bacon. He previously was an assistant general counsel in Microsoft’s patent litigation group.

1996 Kristi Nevarez B.A. ’91, is a partner at Fragomen Worldwide, a corporate

immigration services provider in Santa Clara. In 2010, she briefly stepped aside from her practice to serve as a congressional assistant and immigration policy advisor to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren J.D. ’75, H ’99.

1997 Stephen Clinton B.S. ’87, MBA ’94 is corporate and securities team leader at Womble Carlyle in Cupertino. Previously, he was at Bingham McCutchen. Rachel Holt and Cristina Mazzei J.D. ’98 are new court commissioners in San Mateo County. Both were criminal defense attorneys prior to their appointments. Holt is also chair of the Redwood City Planning Commission.

1998 Patricia Ball is of counsel at Thompson & Knight in Los Angeles. She works in the employment and labor practice group. Romando Nash is the associate vice president for student affairs at San Jose

State University. Previously he was associate dean of student affairs and executive director of residential education at the University of Southern California.

2000 Erik Edwards has rejoined the Cooley law firm as a partner in Palo Alto. He left the firm in 2011 to serve as general counsel and later as managing director of the family office of Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

2003 Erik Khoobyarian is serving a four-year term on the Civil Service Commission of the city of San Jose. He is an attorney at Hopkins & Carley.

2004 Sean Filippini is a partner at Downey Brand. He is a litigator based in Sacramento, focusing on construction and business. His community service includes extensive involvement with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Sacramento. Steve Kahn is

of counsel at Hoge Fenton. He focuses on commercial real estate, business litigation, title insurance, tax-deferred exchanges, and boundary disputes. He was previously a partner at Bardellini, Straw, Cavin & Bupp. Nina Suetake is regulatory counsel at California American Water. Previously she was a staff attorney at The Utility Reform Network, also known as TURN. Dan Winter is assistant police chief for the city of Santa Clara.

2005 Konstantine Demaris and Christopher Moore J.D. ’06 were named Rising Stars for 2014 by Northern California Super Lawyers. Their firm is based in Walnut Creek. Lindsay Horvath is a broker associate at Intero Real Estate Services in Vacaville. She previously worked as a deputy district attorney in Riverside, Solano, and Napa counties. Katie Susemihl BSC ’97 and Ryan Bennie

F irst held in 1996, the Justice Edward A. Panelli Scholarship Golf Classic has raised more than $350,000 for law

school scholarships, thanks to our participants, donors, and volunteers. Please join us this year on June 22, 2015 at Silver Creek Valley Country Club.

This year, participants can bid on a special opportunity: being an honorary observer at the 2015 Frys.com PGA Tour, which this year will feature the number one player in the world, Rory McIlroy. Frys.com has donated this honorary observer opportunity to Santa Clara Law’s Justice Panelli Golf Tournament, and it will be auctioned off to raise funds for student scholarships.

Last October, Santa Clara Law alumni and classmates Daniel Mount B.S. ’74, J.D./MBA ’77 and Andy Kryder B.S. ’74, J.D./MBA ’77 enjoyed being the honorary observers for the 2014 Frys.com PGA Tour at Silverado Country Club. Mount and

SAVE THE DATE: Justice Edward A. Panelli Scholarship Golf Classic, June 22, 2015

Kryder have been long-term supporters of Santa Clara Law and have served on several boards, including The University’s Board of Fellows and the Law School’s Board of Visitors. Mount is a current member of The University’s Board of Regents. For more information or to register, see law.scu.edu/event/2015-panelli-golf-classic/.


MAY

2015 UPCOMING EVENTS

ALUMNI

Want to know more about these events? Be sure we have your preferred email address by sending a message to [email protected]. We will make sure you are on the invitation list!

For more details, visit law.scu.edu/alumni/alumni-events.

JUNE

3 Sacramento Alumni Connections

4 Fresno Alumni Connections

10 Portland Alumni Connections

11 Seattle Alumni Connections

22 San Jose Justice Edward A. Panelli Scholarship

Golf Classic

JULY

1 San Francisco Alumni Connections

SEPTEMBER

17-18 Santa Clara Jerry A. Kasner Estate Planning

Symposium

OCTOBER

9-11 Santa Clara NEW! SCU Grand Reunion Weekend with Law Celebrations

welcomed their first child, Thomas Ryan, on June 28, 2014. The family lives in Santa Rosa.

2006 Brian J. Cuneo is a partner in the Silicon Valley office of Latham & Watkins. He practices corporate law and works with public and private companies, investment banks, and venture capital investors. Hilary Ruth Sledge married Lateef Sarnor on Nov. 1, 2014, in Sonoma. Hilary is a vice president and counsel in New York for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, while her husband created and owns Kollide TV, a website that offers lifestyle and entertainment videos and short films. David Terrazas MBA ’01 was re-elected to the Santa Cruz City Council. He also chairs the council’s public safety committee and the Santa Cruz Public Libraries governing board. He is a manager with the Valley Transit Authority. David Tsai is a partner at Perkins Coie. He does commercial litigation in the San Francisco and Taipei offices, focusing on trade secret and patent litigation.

2007 Aaron Capron is a partner at the Palo Alto office of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, an intellectual property law firm. He handles post-grant proceedings, patent litigation, and patent portfolio management. Mary Chandler B.S. ’04 married Nick Carlich on April 26, 2014, in Canby, Oregon. Inna Petrovsky was one of her bridesmaids.

16Santa Clara Law SchoolCommencement

2008 Jennifer Alesio was part of a trial team that won a $70 million verdict in an asbestos exposure case in Alameda County. She is an associate at Brayton Purcell in Novato. David Saunders is an attorney at the San Jose office of Fisch Sigler.

2009 Stephanie Rocha B.A. ’00 and Tae Woong Koo both appeared in the 2014 Silicon Valley Business Journal’s 40 under 40 list. Rocha is an associate attorney at Miller Morton Caillat & Nevis, where she handles construction litigation, real estate, and business-related matters. Before attending law school, she worked in technology and real estate. Koo is a senior associate at Morgan Lewis in intellectual property. His practice focuses on patents and counseling inventors. The holder of more than 30 patents, Koo worked as a research scientist before law school.

2010 Matthew Faustman MBA is co-founder and CEO of UpCounsel.

2012 Andrew Freyer is on the board of directors of Metro Denver Partners. He is an associate at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck in Denver. Yuki Ku is an associate at Hanson Bridgett in San Francisco. She focuses on corporate business matters. Claudine Wong is an associate at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton in its Silicon Valley office. She works in the software and electrical engineering team. Previously, she was a hardware engineer in the semiconductor field.


CLASSACTION

1949 John Matthews BSC ’43, Dec. 23, 2014. He first came to SCU on an undergraduate scholarship. After serving in the Army with his wife, Annie, during World War II, he practiced law in San Jose. He is survived by his wife and six daughters, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

1957 John C. Fell III, Aug. 13, 2014.

1957 Marshall Frazier, Aug. 1, 2013. During and after World War II he served in the U.S. Navy for eight years. He maintained a

private practice in San Jose for 33 years. Survivors include his wife, Faye, a son, three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

1957 Charles “Ken” James Jr., May 5, 2014. He served in the U.S. Navy in Germany for four years. An attorney in Santa Rosa, he started as an assistant public defender and then became a civil litigator. He served as president of the Sonoma County Bar Association and was a diplomat emeritus of the American Board of Trial Lawyers. Survivors include his wife, Donna, three children, three stepchildren, and many grandchildren.

1964 David Ferrari, July 14, 2014. A San Jose native, he attended Creighton University. He practiced law, his life’s passion, for 47 years. He enjoyed traveling and duck hunting. Survivors include his wife, Marian, two children, and four grandchildren.

1965 William H. Carney, May 13, 2013. Survivors include his wife, Theresa.

1971 Thomas Twist, Aug. 21, 2014.

1973 John Roger Alcorn, Oct. 31, 2014. An immigration attorney, he was named a top attorney in Orange County in 2012 and 2014 by OC Metro Magazine. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford in 1970. From 1974 to 1977, he served as a captain and judge advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps. He did corporate immigration work before starting his own firm in 1980. He is survived by his wife, a son, two daughters, and two grandchildren.

1974 Ronald Westphal, Sept. 1, 2014. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force before graduating from the University of Maryland. Westphal was an estate planning and business law attorney in the Bay Area. An avid cyclist, he belonged to the Almaden Cycle Touring Club. Survivors include his wife, Carolyn, and two children.

1984 Jonnie Herring, July 26, 2014. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Rice University and a master’s in the same

subject from the University of Houston. Practicing family law for almost 30 years, she specialized in mediation, helping pioneer methods to minimize the strife of divorce proceedings. She was honored for her work by the Santa Clara County Bar Association. She is survived by two children and two grandchildren.

1984 Robert “Bob” Lee, Oct. 18, 2014. The district attorney of Santa Cruz County, he was proud of his trial record, having never lost a jury trial there. He earned his undergraduate degree from California State University, Sacramento. After law school, he worked as a prosecutor in the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office. He moved to Santa Cruz County in 1988 and was elected district attorney in 2002. He was an avid body surfer. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, his mother, and three brothers.

1995 Donald Chavous Jr., July 29, 2014. He served as a congressional page in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1969. He earned an M.D. degree from the University of Miami. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he co-founded and directed Los Altos Medical Clinic. Following law school, he worked as an attorney and urgent care physician in Southern California. He was an avid skier and tennis player. Survivors include his wife, Linda, two children, and four granddaughters.

In Memoriam

Anthony “Tony” T. Oliver B.A. ’51, J.D. ’53 died Feb. 3. A proud Eagle Scout, he served in the National Guard and retired in 1974 as a lieutenant colonel. An attorney in Los Angeles since 1954, he joined Parker Milliken Clark O’Hara & Samuelian in 1963, and formed the firm’s labor and employment law department. Through the years, he served as a partner, board member, chairman, and shareholder until his retirement in 2011. He was chairman of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, a management co-chair of the ABA Committee on ADR in the Workplace, and a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. He served on Santa Clara Law’s Board of Visitors and in 1974 received the Law School’s Edwin J. Owens Award for his distinguished service to the Law School and the profession. He is survived by his five children and seven grandchildren.

IN MEMORIAM

Anthony “Tony” T. Oliver (1929-2015)


CLOSING ARGUMENTS

My Drug Policy class this spring semester has gotten a lot of media attention, but the press

mostly wants to talk about the subject matter. On some level, I understand their focus: marijuana legalization and regulation is an issue that is moving incredibly quickly, especially here in California, and it seems inevitable that we will have a ballot initiative in 2016. But to me, marijuana isn’t the most interesting thing about the class. What I’m most excited about is the way that my students are getting the chance to influence public policy and civic discussion, and that they are circulating their work widely via our class blog, druglawandpolicy.com.

I have always looked for ways to get students to research subjects that are of interest to contemporary policy mak-ers and practitioners. I work with a lot of policy makers, and I often ask them what questions they would try to answer if they had enough time (or a really smart assistant). I then take these responses and come back to students with this proposal: Someone is interested in the answer to this question, and you are looking for a subject for a term paper. If you do your paper on this topic, someone else is going to read it besides me and your parents. This will be actually useful to someone. This is a win for the students, since they don’t have to think of a topic, and a win for the practi-tioner, since they get an answer.

Last June, I became chair of the Public Safety Working Group for the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Law and Policy. Formed in 2013 by Lt. Gov Gavin Newsom B.S. ’89, the panel is studying the myriad legal and policy issues that California faces as it considers the legalization and regulation

of marijuana. I knew the Blue Ribbon Commission would need a lot of help doing research and writing reports, and I wanted to have my students get experience writing blog posts and papers that could help inform California as it transitions from prohibition to regulation. Rather than writing a standard 20-page paper, students are being graded on their posts to our blog, druglawandpolicy.com, which is being read by the public as well as policy makers.

such as how to design the blog, what our authorial voice should be, how we should market the blog using Twitter, etc. This process, much more so than writing a standard paper, has helped develop important career skills my students will need—and that, ultimately, is why I’m excited about the class.

I would love to teach this class again, depending on the curricular needs of the law school. But what is so fascinating and so energizing for me as a professor is that my students are not waiting for me to say what needs to happen to the blog—they are coming to me with proposals to keep it going after the class is over. Maybe it should be a new kind of academic journal, or something they do for academic credit. But they have taken ownership of this project into which they have put so much thought and effort. By giving the students a combination of autonomy and responsibility, everyone has learned a great deal—including (and maybe even especially) me.

BY W. DAVID BALL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, SANTA CL ARA L AW

Why Marijuana Isn’t the Most Interesting Thing about My Drug Policy Class

“What I’m most excited about is the way that my students are getting the chance to influence public policy and civic discussion, and that they are circulating their work widely via our class blog, druglawandpolicy.com.” —DAVID BALL

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I am proud to say that the reaction to our blog has been fantastic and the student work has been amazing. Santa Clara Law students are really invested in doing quality work that is going to help society at large. My students are serving as a resource for the public sector and the general. Students are getting exposure of the best kind—people reading and engaging with their writing and ideas. In fact, the Blue Ribbon Commission is going to be producing brief policy papers and because of the quality of their work on this blog, our students will be drafting some of these policy papers.

This is the first time I have ever taught a class where the “paper” is a series of blog posts. Of course, there is a lot of pressure to make sure the writing is good since it is so public. But this approach has offered other advantages. In addition to exercising their legal skills and writing skills, these students are also learning a lot of what are called “soft skills,” which include making decisions about things

Santa Clara UniversitySanta Clara Law500 El Camino RealSanta Clara, CA 95053-0435

The Law School of Silicon Valley

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF HUTCHENS

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDSan Jose, CAPermit No. 1

Martina E. Vandenberg, the founder and president of The Human Traf�cking Pro Bono Legal Center (HT Pro Bono), has spent nearly two decades �ghting human traf�cking, forced labor, rape as a war crime, and violence against women. She has represented victims of human traf�cking pro bono in immigration, criminal, and civil cases, and she has testi�ed before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, the Helsinki Commission, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Armed Services Committee on an array of human rights issues. Through HT Pro Bono, Vandenberg has trained more than 1,200 pro bono attorneys nationwide to handle human traf�cking matters.

Founded in 2008, the annual Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize aims to bring recognition to legal advocates who have used their legal careers to help alleviate injustice and inequity.

law.scu.edu/alexanderprize/2015

2015 Katharine & George Alexander Law Prize Awarded to Martina E. Vandenberg

Documents

Santa Clara Law Magazine Spring 2015