Ahmed Lavalais ’17, Clinical Teaching Fellow, Policy Advocacy Clinic
Ahmed Lavalais is a tenacious advocate for juvenile defendants and the poor. As a law student, he was a key player in the Policy Advocacy Clinic (PAC), pursuing non-litigation strategies to address systemic racial, economic and social injustice in the community. In one of PAC’s most gratifying success stories, Lavalais and his fellow students persuaded California’s Alameda County to repeal its juvenile justice fees—the first in the state to do so. Named one of the 2017 Law Students of the Year by National Jurist magazine, Lavalais will be a powerful voice in PAC’s legal advocacy.
Jodi Collova, Director of LL.M. Writing and Academic Support
Jodi Collova has a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School, and a Masters of Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. She has significant experience as a law librarian and as a legal writing instructor at Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, at Golden Gate University, where she designed an LL.M. legal research and writing workshop, and at the University of San Francisco, where she taught an online tax research course as well as first-year legal research and writing. Jodi has just returned from teaching a two-unit intensive legal writing course to Chinese law students in Shanghai. She previously practiced employment law and has taught mindfulness meditation sessions for law students. She is a Pilates instructor in her free time.
Catherine Fisk ’86, Professor of Law
Catherine Fisk was Chancellor’s Professor of Law and a member of the founding faculty of the University of California, Irvine Law School from 2008 to 2017. Fisk was the Douglas Blount Maggs Professor of Law at Duke University from 2004 to 2008, and before that, she was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School and Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. She regularly teaches Labor Law, Employment Law, and Employment Discrimination, along with Civil Procedure, First Amendment, and Legal Profession. Read more about Fisk here.
Frank Partnoy, Professor of Law
Frank Partnoy has taught at the University of San Diego (USD) School of Law for 20 years and directs its Center for Corporate and Securities Law. A 1992 Yale Law School graduate, Partnoy worked as a derivatives structurer at Morgan Stanley before spending two years as a lawyer at Covington & Burling. He studies financial markets and fraud and is the author of six books, including two law school textbooks. He joins Berkeley Law in 2018. Read more about Partnoy here.
Whitney Mello, Executive Assistant to Dean Chemerinsky
Whitney received her J.D. from the University of San Diego in 2008. After graduation, she pursued work as a law clerk for a private law firm. Later, Whitney moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked for more than six years as a legislative assistant, a staff assistant to Congress, and as an executive assistant for a Washington public relations organization. Whitney comes to Berkeley Law most recently from the Institute of Governmental Studies here on campus, where she worked as the executive assistant to the director for over two years.
We are sad to see Ryan Kwock go from the Dean’s Office, but are so excited and proud of him to become a 1L at Berkeley Law next month! Ryan, thank you for all that you have done for the Dean’s Office during this transition, and for the school as a whole. Your professionalism and excellence in everything you do is much appreciated by many.