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Meet the Law Library

We’re down on LL1 and LL2 in the fancy, newish part of the law school. Our Director is Kathleen Vanden Heuvel who you can find in Rm. 216 near the Dean’s Office. Our Associate Directors are Marci Hoffman and Michael Levy. Marci is also the Foreign and International Law expert while Michael teaches Advanced Legal Research.

Then there are the Reference Librarians, Dean Rowan (Director), Marlene Harmon, I-Wei Wang, Joe Cera, Romona Collins, Janice Kelly, Keri Klein and Edna Lewis. Currently we also have 2 fabulous student research assistants, Maia Livengood (2L) and Gus Tupper (2L). We staff the ref desk, answer faculty and student research questions, teach legal research, maintain the law school’s institutional repository, and most importantly fill the candy bowl.

Ref Desk Staffers I-Wei Wang, Ramona Collins, Keri Klein (seated), and Marlene Harmon

Our back office has our Collection Services folks who you may not see but make the trains run on time. They handle ordering books and other materials, cataloging the stuff, and making sure everything is available on the shelves or via the website. These include catalogers Chris Tarr (head of cataloging), Enedina Vera, Irina Migal, and Shelly McLaughlin.

Catalogers Shelly McLaughlin, Chris Tarr, and Irina Migal

Our acquisitions/serials/conservation/stacks staff are Joaquin Clay, Precy Garcez, Oliver Kay, Monique Macauley, Kathy Renfro, and Blanca Sanchez.

Collection Services Joaquin Clay, Monique Macauley, Kathy Renfro, Oliver Kay, and Precy Garcez

The Circulation people who manage the circ desk (and our wonderful student workers) are Ramona Collins and Doug Avila.

The Computing folks are Mike Lindsey (Director of Web Development), Allison Cogen and Thomas Lee. Thomas also handles library administration and budget monitoring.

The Law Journal staff are Kira Abrams and Maria Vidal-Manou who work with the law school’s 13 student journals. Kevin Durkin-Oritz is the managing editor of the Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, a multilingual legal journal index covers over 500 journals published worldwide .

What else do we do? Publish the semiannual book list (we want your reviews!), throw the new student party every August, hand out morale boosting donuts and cookies on holidays, provide study break puzzles and games stations throughout the law library, create research guides (including a student wellness guide), curate the popular reading and law in movies collections, organize the annual Faculty Book celebration, and so much more. As the adage goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover so come down and see us sometime.

ShoutOuts

Mallory Lass

Technically she is employed by UDAR, but her services encompass everyone doing fundraising in Law. Mallory is flexible, thoughtful, and incredibly patient. She has produced innumerable reports that guide my planning, and she has provided invaluable orientation in the ways of UDAR and Berkeley fundraising as a whole. She is a trained lawyer which may explain why she is such a clear communicator and incisive thinker. I would have been at a total loss without her encouragement and direction in this first year of my working here.

~Judith Katz

Emma Lindley

We received feedback from one of our Lecturers today, who reached out to compliment Emma Lindley, describing her as “prompt, friendly, professional and a pleasure to work with.”  We feel the same way!  Thank you, Emma, for all you do! We’re so thrilled to have you on our team!!

~Marva de Marothy

Roberto Contreras Osorio

He is so helpful with anything having to do with the very important issues having to do with the physical office space. Friendly, modest, and meticulous about details. He hung up a number of framed items in my office, schooled me on office temperature control, and advised me on the care of my fake tree, based on his own experience decorating the home of a famed Hollywood director.

~Judith Katz

Matthew Ray

Thanks for the good company and all the community and capacity building you’ve facilitated leading the Center Admins group. (We tried lobbying for 4 more years but settled for your moving on to another exciting position.)

~Your Center Admin devotees

 Ron Skinner x2

Thank you, Ron, for managing the Mail Room and single handedly making sure that mail and supplies are delivered in a timely fashion. You are living up to the Postal Service creed “neither rain nor snow nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Thank you!

~gar Russell

Thanks SO much for keeping the boat afloat in stormy waters!

~Charles Cannon

Delia Violante & Rachel Zuraw

Thank you Rachel and Delia for starting the Knitting Club! You inspired me to learn how to crochet and knit and now I’m sufficiently embarrassed by the size of my yarn stash, just like a real knitter. It’s been really fun to learn. But maybe most importantly, I especially appreciate the opportunity to get to know staff members in other departments and on other floors through non-work activities.

I know it’s not easy to manage this group on top of all that you both do for your day jobs, so I wanted to say thank you!

~Anya Grossmann

Oliver Kay, Monique Macaulay, Kevin Durkin-Ortiz, and Doug Avila

We would like to nominate four library staff members for ShoutOut Awards. We feel they deserve this recognition for helping the library keep the Circulation desk staffed during the first two weeks of law school in January when we had no undergraduate student assistants. These four people set aside their normal responsibilities to make sure that students, faculty and staff received excellent service at the Circulation desk at a time when the rest of the campus was still on break. We shouted out “help” and they stepped up!

~Marci Hoffman and Michael Levy

Toni Mendocino

Thank you Toni for your hard work–well beyond the call of duty with technology recalcitrants!

~Charles Cannon

Marva de Marothy

During this frightful transition to UCPath, Marva has been really looking out for my group to make sure we are prepared for the transition. Although my group of visiting scholars and visiting student researchers are unpaid non-employees, Marva still treats them with the same level of importance as paid employees. She has been proactive and diligent. I am so grateful to her. Thank you, Marva.

~Farrah Fanara

Emma Lindley

Emma Lindley is great, really. This week, we asked her to help with two field placement things and she turned it around in no time and she helped to clarify a discrepancy she discovered that will make all lecturers helping with the field placement program much happier and our lives a bit easier in terms of administering the program! While generating the information may have been part of your regular job, her willingness to do it immediately and to find the answer that benefits all is the above and beyond!

Thank you, Emma – cheers to you,

Sue Schechter and Kristen Holmquist

I-Wei Wong

Thank you I-Wei for making my life infinitely better by finding a Restatement in an editable format when nobody else could help me. You even made a movie to walk me through it. You’re a fabulous part of the excellent law library team. Thank you! With respect,

~Toni Mendicino

David Whiteneck, Anthony Chin, Julia Lai, Melissa Kendrick

Thank you so very much for your hard work expanding and improving the law school’s departmental budgeting process. However much the results are behind the scenes, the impact on the school is tremendous. The Berkeley Law budget process and materials have never been this good!

~Charles Cannon

10-Second Bio: Tyler Slay

NAME
Tyler Slay
EMAIL
tslay@law.berkeley.edu
MY ROLE:
Staff
DEPARTMENT/UNIT
FSU
WHEN I STARTED WORKING HERE:
June 2015 in my current role, though I had assisted during exam periods since 2011.
WHAT I DO IN FIVE WORDS OR LESS:
Printing. Lots of printing these days…
THE BEST PART ABOUT WORKING HERE:
The vibrant community at the law school.
SOMETHING YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT ME:
I was once helped on the side of a road by John Grisham.
ONE OR TWO TIPS ABOUT THINGS YOU LIKE TO DO AROUND THE BAY AREA:
Monthly classic movie screenings at the Paramount Theatre. BBQ from Everett and Jones.

The Statewide Database – Berkeley Law’s Best-Kept Secret!

The Statewide Database moved to Berkeley Law in 2009 from the Institute of Governmental Studies.  For most of the past 9 years, we’ve been Berkeley Law’s best-kept secret! We were located at 2850 Telegraph until mid-2017 when we were repatriated to central campus and we are now occupying 3 offices in Barrows Hall.

The SWDB is the redistricting database for the State of California, which means that we build datasets that merge voter registration and election data to census data. Our datasets go back to 1994 and include all of California’s Statewide elections.  Our data are used to draw electoral lines on all levels, to assess jurisdictions for compliance with the Federal and State Voting Rights Acts, and for research in many different areas, ranging from access to healthy food to gun ownership.  All of our data are free and we provide assistance with using them.  We work with agencies and department on the State and Federal levels, ranging from the California Secretary of State to the Department of Justice and the Census Bureau. We also frequently collaborate with good government, voting rights and advocacy groups including the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

We currently have 12 team members at UCB and were unfortunately only able to corral a few of us into a photo on short notice.  Our P.I and biggest cheerleader is Professor Chris Edley! Our GIS team consists of longtime staff member Nicole Boyle, Anushka Thakkar (Grad student in Public Health), and Anne Price (Undergrad, English).

Our IT and Application Programming team is led by Seth Neill in collaboration with Linus Kipkoech.  Mahmoud Hamsho (Graduate student, Information Science and Management) is working on our data management applications and Tyler Jacobson (Undergrad, Math and English) assists with data collection from the counties.  Data access and outreach is in the capable hands of Jaime Clark with assistance from Nicholette Tolmie (Undergrad, Urban Studies).  Karin Mac Donald is the Director of the SWDB and would be lost if not for the admin and research assistance of Melodie Deisher (Undergrad, English).

Please visit us in Barrows Hall to learn more about the Statewide Database!

“Thanks for coming in today” comes through with the win

The winners of last month’s trivia contest, team “Thanks for coming in today” (pictured below with pikachu Montie), have taken the crown from the reigning champions, “Consumed.” We can all rest easy knowing that the beloved and honorable Trivia Cup trophy has been rightfully seized from the clutches of the Dean’s Office. Stay tuned for more trivia updates and upcoming chances to reign most supreme.

Thanks for coming in today…

Nala, new assistant faculty

Nala (a golden doodle puppy) is the newest addition to the Chemerinsky-Fisk household. She is my sabbatical project for the spring semester, and is helping me write a book. Without her tireless assistance, I’m sure the book would have been done in half the time.
She is looking forward to meeting faculty, staff, and students in August as the junior assistant to our older dog, Teddy the Party Animal, when we host everyone for the annual start-of-year dinners.
Submitted by Prof. Catherine Fisk

Art Contest

Calling all Berkeley Law artisans
You may (or may not) recall that we had a Berkeley Law photography contest back in 2017. The winning entries are still hanging in the hallway where the HR offices are located. We have been given the go ahead to host another art contest this year, and we’re expanding the items eligible for entry this time around! 

  • We will accept anything that will fit in a 16×20 frame, e.g. photos, paintings, drawings, poetry, mixed media collage …
  • Email your entry (or a description thereof) to artcontest@law.berkeley.edu by the end of the day on January 18, 2019.
  • Members of the community will vote for their favorite submissions.
  • Winning entries will be announced at the end of January and will be hung in the 3d floor hallway between Rooms 325 and 369.

We look forward to seeing your contributions,

Ramona Collins and Ariana Ceja

Spotlight on: ADP

Since 1949, Berkeley Law has welcomed students with a first degree in law from a foreign country to our LL.M. (Master of Laws) program. Students from every continent (except Antarctica) have completed their LL.M. at Berkeley Law. Our 3-year J.S.D. degree (Doctor of Juridical Science) gives students the opportunity to deepen their knowledge, allowing them to teach law and become judges in their home countries.

 

Our LL.M. program has undergone a period of significant growth and change in the last 10 years. Today, our ADP team recruits, admits, on-boards, advises, and graduates 450+ LL.M. and J.S.D. students each year. Not only has the number of LL.M. students in our academic year, in-residence traditional track increased, but we have launched two additional program tracks, the professional track (two in-residence summer semesters ) and the hybrid option (two online semesters and one in-residence summer semester).

 

It takes a dedicated, entrepreneurial, and talented team to recruit and admit each geographically-balanced and highly qualified class of students, to advise them about courses and professional development, and to plan events for them that are intellectually engaging and foster connection to each other and the Berkeley Law community. And the staff in ADP does it all, with enthusiasm, efficiency, and good cheer. ADP is in Room 214, right across from the Dean’s Suite.

 

Meet our team (and come visit us!):

 

Evelyn Borchert, Dir. of Academic Advising: Administers the J.S.D. program and provides academic advising and student services support to all J.S.D. and LL.M. students

 

Jodi Collova, Dir. of LL.M. Legal Research & Writing: Hires and supervises 14 lecturers and 21 tutors each year, develops the curriculum for LL.M. legal research and writing, and teaches courses in the program

 

Kara Ganter, Dir. of Communications: Directs communications and marketing strategies for all ADP programs and global recruiting events

 

Natalie Golden, Asst. Dir. of Admissions: Supports all aspects of admissions for LL.M. tracks and the J.S.D. program, guiding students through the application and enrollment process

 

Anya Grossmann, Dir. of Global Outreach & Recruitment: Directs global outreach strategy and efforts for LL.M. and executive education programs, personally meets with 100s of prospective students and travels to more than 10 international cities each year

 

Liza Jimenez, Assoc. Dir. of Student Services and Recruiting: Supports admissions and high-touch recruitment efforts by representing the LL.M. and J.S.D. programs at international recruitment events worldwide and by nurturing relationships with admitted students to foster retention

 

Peter Landreth and Rachel Zuraw, Directors of Professional Development: Direct professional development including trainings, mock interviews and resume review, and individual advising appointments

 

Vivian Le, Administrative Asst.: Gives a warm welcome at the reception desk and is the first point of contact for all calls and walk-ins; provides comprehensive administrative support for our staff of 9 by organizing logistics for student events and process all departmental financial logistics

 

Erin Weldon, Dir. of Admissions: Manages admissions and scholarships for LL.M. and J.S.D. programs, reviewing the majority of thousands of applications received each year; administers two databases used by admissions and recruiting staff

 

Susan Whitman, Asst. Dean for Academic Planning: Oversees ADP and its terrific team of student services, admissions, communication, and recruiting specialists.

 

Claire Blide, Registrar’s Office (not pictured): Supports ADP by providing invaluable assistance in scheduling our professional track and hybrid option

 

Image:

[front row, L to R] Jodi Collova; Liza Jimenez; Vivian Le; Kara Ganter; Erin Weldon

[back row, L to R] Peter Landreth; Anya Grossmann; Susan Whitman; Rachel Zuraw; Evelyn Borchert; Natalie Golden

 

 

Trivia Night – Wednesday, December 19th 5:15 PM to 8:00 PM in Warren

Let the true joy of the holiday season settle in with merriment, food, drink, trivia knowledge, trivial debates (the tenderloin is correct!!!!), Montie being bad at sound levels and radically misjudging difficulty of rounds,  and some semi-hyper-competitiveness! Yup, it’s that time again: Trivia Night – Wednesday, December 19th 5:15 PM to 8:00 PM in the Warren room.

Our vague clue of question theme this session is “ghosts of past to ghosts of present (no future ghosts)”.

The theme for food/drinks is pizza and more pizza. I’ll send out a list of what we have left over to the Berkeley law casual mailing list (an opt-in mailing list for sillier stuff, sign-up here –  https://groups.google.com/a/law.berkeley.edu/forum/#!forum/casual) and if people want to bring additional stuff, super awesome. We’ll also be ordering some pizza!
Just to stress, there are no requirements or expectations of donations either food or money. Just having people show up and have a good time is everything. If, however, people do want to kick in some money, it’ll be used to get more drinks and more pizza which I think will make everyone really festive.

Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14w3KaN9znJkYdqVJnJc8trMSodjIXyTml5LkYzpA0Rs/edit?usp=sharing

If you’d like to write questions (can’t play if you do), help with scorekeeping, etc. please e-mail mmagree@law.berkeley.edu

Berkeley Beni!

One great benefit (beni) we have as Berkeley staff is free access to Lynda.com, a LinkedIn learning site which offers all kinds of courses, from project management to logo design. You can access your free lynda account through the Blu portal. Enjoy!