Rio, the smartest dog in the world

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Labradors don’t have the reputation of being the smartest dogs, but our eight-year-old chocolate lab, Rio, is out to prove ’em wrong. Not only did he figure out how to be rejected by TWO different families as a puppy (for being too energetic) just so he could be found on Craigslist and adopted by us, but he arrived just as our youngest was finishing high school so that he could become the main focus of our attention. Here’s how he demonstrates his intelligence:

  1. He mimics my intonation when I say “Good morning” to people on the running path and does a sort of Scooby Doo “Good morning” of his own.
  2. If we aren’t throwing his ball/frisbee/stick far enough or if we try to do something else when we’re at the beach/park with him, he finds someone else to play with him.
  3. If we aren’t picking up on his body language about whether he needs to eat, go outside, or whatever, he makes us go through a series of questions and will sit down or stand up to show his answer.
  4. If we don’t take the correct exit off the freeway when he thinks he is going to Pt. Isabel, he complains.
  5. When he doesn’t feel like running, he’ll stop to do his business and then turn around and try to trick me into heading home again.

But mostly, he endears himself to us so firmly that we don’t even notice that we plan our weekends and vacations with him in mind.

Tamara Morgenthau

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Clinical Teaching Fellow, International Human Rights Law Clinic

 

Prior to joining the Clinical Program, Tamara Morgenthau was a Bertha Legal Fellow with EarthRights International (ERI) where she worked on transnational corporate accountability cases, supporting communities defending their human rights and their environment. Tamara was also an associate at Lorne Waldman & Associates in Toronto, Canada, where she represented clients in immigration and refugee matters. Tamara holds an LL.M. from NYU School of Law, a J.D. from the University of Ottawa, an M.A. (International Affairs) from Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, and B.A. in Political Science and Media Information and Technoculture from the University of Western Ontario.

Mary Briese Matheron

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Senior Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations

 

Mary Briese Matheron is the Senior Assistant Dean for Development and Alumni Relations at Berkeley Law School, where she leads the team responsible for alumni programming and securing philanthropic support for core operations, such as financial aid and faculty support, transformational programs, and endowment.

 

Prior to joining the Berkeley community, Mary served as the Associate Dean of Development at Yale Law School, as a consultant on leadership giving to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and in numerous fundraising positions at Georgetown University Law Center.  She holds a B.S. in Kinesiological Sciences from the University of Maryland.

Roger Lin

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Clinical Supervising Attorney, Environmental Law Clinic

 

Roger Lin has practiced law in the public interest for over ten years, instructed the Environmental Justice course at Berkeley Law for three years, and will continue to explore the intersection of racial justice and the environment with students in the Clinic.  Roger was formerly a Staff Attorney at Communities for a Better Environment and a Senior Attorney at the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment.  He has extensive experience in environmental and civil rights litigation and was recently appointed to the State’s Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group to advise the California Public Utilities and Energy Commissions.  Roger graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Classics, and earned his J.D. at Golden Gate University School of Law.

Jim Gilbert

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Director of Executive Education

 

Jim Gilbert recently joined Berkeley Law and the Berkeley Center for Business and Law as the Director of Executive Education. Prior to joining the law school community, he worked as a marketing and business development consultant in Silicon Valley, held senior management positions at a number of tech startups and worked for several land use consulting firms. Jim graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a B.A. in Sociology and from UCLA with a M.A. in Urban Planning. He lives in Berkeley with his wife and two sons and spends much of his free time building and operating a garden railroad, exploring cities, visiting museums, watching movies, attending theater and reading.

Madison Farricker

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Legal Assistant, Faculty Support Unit

 

Madison is joining us from the office of Congressman John Garamendi where she served as an administrative assistant working with constituents, and coordinating media appearances and marketing and event functions.  Since 2013, Madison has worked with California Youth & Government as a volunteer advisor with over 400 students annually at state wide conventions providing supervision and coordination to students in the Department of Finance, California Investment Bank and Legislative Analyst programs.  Madison received her B.S. in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from U.C. Davis in March 2018.

Latest Faculty News

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Sonia Katyal has been selected to participate in the inaugural Berkeley Faculty Leadership Academy in Spring 2019. The Academy is “intended for tenured faculty who are interested in developing skills and knowledge for leadership on the Berkeley campus.”

To celebrate world refugee day on June 20, Katerina Linos and her research group launched the web site Digital Refuge. Katerina describes Digital Refuge as “an interactive mapping project that presents refugees’ experiences in their own words. With the help of many students who speak Arabic and Farsi, we mapped and analyzed multiple sources, including more than 6,000 in-person interviews and more than 10,000 social media posts from Facebook, to tell the story of displaced persons caught up in the refugee crisis.” Check it out!

Governor Brown has appointed Jordan Diamond, CLEE Executive Director and Co-Director of the Law of the Sea Institute, as one of two public representatives on the state’s Ocean Protection Council, whose mission is to “ensure that California maintains healthy, resilient, and productive ocean and coastal ecosystems for the benefit of current and future generations.”

Eric Biber‘s ongoing project analyzing the relative impact of state environmental review procedures and local land use regulations on limiting housing development in California was featured in a segment of Capital Public Radio’s California Report.

Catherine Crump and clinical teaching fellow Megan Graham penned an op-ed in the SF Chronicle on the Supreme Court’s decision in Carpenter v. US, holding that the government needs a warrant to get access to cell phone location records.

Library Folks & Building Services

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Thank you so much to Michael Lindsey, Michael Levy and Ramona Collins of the library.  I’m so happy to have you as my colleagues.  Thank you for all the support you’ve given to the Visiting Scholars Program.  I also want to say thank you to Edwin Bish, gar Russel and Kathleen Vanden Heuvel for the support they’ve also provided to the VSP.  I hope you all know that I appreciate your hard work and thanks so much for working with me to improve the Program.

2nd Law School Trivia Night – Monday, September 17th 2018

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Hi all,

We’re having the 2nd Law School Trivia Night on 09/17/18 in the Warren room. This is pub style trivia where teams of 3 to 5 listen to questions read by a moderator, talk amongst their team, then write down the answers. At the end of each round, the sheets are collected and scored, making it a fun, team-oriented and low pressure trivia contest.

Stop by the dean’s office and see the trivia trophy, currently held by “consumed” the winners of the first trivia night.

Sign up sheet is here: friends, family, and ringers welcome! – https://drive.google.com/open?id=1L5YcBaE8gWhg16toz9FbeBg6w82DqV6cO3_pulOTZ2Y

 

Welcome to the Registrar

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The Registrar’s office maintains the permanent record for Berkeley Law and our students. We are Carol Rachwald (Registrar), Claire Blide, Beth Borowski, Trish Keady (Associate Registrars), and Christin Stella (Assistant Registrar). Together we provide excellent service and official information to students, faculty, staff, alumni, administrators, main campus, and the general public. We collect, protect, and maintain student records and course information including enrollments, grades, transcripts, course schedules, instructional minutes, degree audits, bar certification, and order of the coif. Under the Federal Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) we are bound to protect each student’s privacy and not share their information without permission. We also work with instructors to schedule classes and coordinate make-up dates when classes are cancelled. If you have questions about any of these areas give us a call at 510-642-2278 or drop by our office at 270 Simon Hall at the top of the stairs and across from the Steinhart Courtyard.