Christopher Edley Puts Black Political Campaigns in Perspective

The Washington Post, June 3, 2010 by Perry Bacon Jr.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/03/AR2010060302523_pf.html

“We have had breakthroughs, but the obstacles are still there,” said Christopher Edley, who was special adviser to the president for the White House Initiative on Race in the Clinton administration and is now dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. “The bench is weak. If you look at lower office levels or state legislatures, I think the picture is dramatically better, but we haven’t been able to bring enough people up from there.”

Charles Weisselberg Denounces SCOTUS Miranda Ruling

Chicago Tribune, June 2, 2010 by David G. Savage
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/la-na-court-miranda-20100602,0,909528.story

“This is the most important Miranda decision in a decade. And it will have a substantial impact on police practices,” said Charles Weisselberg, a law professor at UC Berkeley. “This decision approves of the practice of giving the warnings and then asking questions of the suspect, without asking first whether he wants to waive his rights.”

Stanley Lubman Examines Chinese Criminal Law

-The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, June 2, 2010 by Stanley Lubman
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/06/02/stanley-lubman-chinas-lawyers-muzzled/

The Chinese government’s heightened determination to discourage and intimidate lawyers from representing clients in cases deemed “sensitive,” or for speaking out on violations of human rights, has been on harsh display in recent weeks. The month of May was marked by several examples of tactics that the central and local governments have employed or condoned in recent years to pressure lawyers. Among these tactics have been abductions and beatings of lawyers, detention by police, pressure on law firms to stop taking cases, and permanent disbarment.

-The Wall Street Journal, China Real Time Report, June 15, 2010 by Stanley Lubman
http://bit.ly/bzFBFo

Criminal law and procedure are so politically sensitive that reform is being carried out slowly and cautiously. It is difficult to reform one set of institutions, however, without encountering obstacles presented by defects in the operation of related institutions. For example, more criminal lawyers are needed to step forward to defend clients—but risk being viewed as threatening social stability by representing elements of Chinese society seen as dangerous. Criminal lawyers need greater access to their clients than the system presently allows.

Rachel Moran and Ian Haney Lopez Discuss Moran’s Job Offer as UCLA Law Dean

The Daily Journal, June 1, 2010 by Susan McRae
http://www.dailyjournal.com/ (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

“I think this is fantastic,” said Berkeley law professor Ian F. Haney Lopez. “I think she would make a phenomenal dean.”

In a brief interview with UC Irvine, Moran said her decision to go into law came when she was helping her professors at Stanford…. “That experience made me realize how powerful law could be in changing people’s lives, and so I went to law school instead of graduate school in psychology,” Moran said in the interview.

Holly Doremus Criticizes MMS’ Environmental Reviews

-St. Petersburg Times, PolitiFact.com, Truth-O-Meter, June 1, 2010
bit.ly/aYZsSV

Holly Doremus, a law professor at the University of California-Berkeley who has studied the MMS permitting process, called it “a bit disingenuous” for Obama to focus solely on the 30-day limit….”I think rather that MMS has thought, and acted, as if it didn’t need to do detailed environmental review at the exploration plan stage” because it does them at the two earlier stages. “If that review were more thorough, and considered true worst-case scenarios, it might well be the case that 30 days would be enough to look at the environmental impacts of exploration in a particular location,” she said.

-Dateline NBC, June 4, 2010 by Aram Roston
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37518051/ns/dateline_nbc/

“They pretended they had already taken a careful look,” says Holly Doremus, an environmental law professor at University of California at Berkeley. “But it seems badly wrong. The bottom line was that the environmental analysis was completely unrealistic.”

-Rolling Stone, June 8, 2010 by Tim Dickinson
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965?RS_show_page=0

“There was a complete failure to even contemplate the possibility of a disaster like the one in the Gulf,” says Holly Doremus, an environmental-law expert at the University of California. “In their thinking, a big spill would be something like 5,000 barrels, and the oil wouldn’t even reach the shoreline.”

Joseph Lavitt Examines BP Spill Costs, Liability

Bloomberg TV, May 28, 2010 Host Margaret Brennan
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/video/playlist/1778/1485755?title=bloomberg&wpid=0

Initially there are the response costs: the costs of cleaning up and remediating the oil leak. The situation in the Gulf is complicated by the fact that the hurricane season may approach and force some of this spilled oil on shore. Secondly, there will be potentially fines and penalties owed under the Clean Water Act…. Finally, there is damage to the natural resources and damage to the persons and businesses that operated the Gulf. There is recreation, there is commercial fishing, there is tourism…. As the oil pours out, the litigation pours in.

Elisabeth Semel Inspires College Student Melinda Haag to Study Law

The Daily Journal, May 12, 2010
http://www.dailyjournal.com/ (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

When Hagg was a senior in college in the early 1980s, she worked as an assistant for a criminal defense attorney in San Diego. She brought him lunch and made copies but also happened to see a young female defense attorney representing a co-defendant in one of her boss’s murder cases. That attorney, Elisabeth A. Semel, now heads the Death Penalty Clinic at UC Berkeley School of Law. Haag said Semel inspired her to go to law school.

Barry Krisberg Calls for Reform of CA’s Juvenile and Adult Prison Systems

-The Daily Journal, May 28, 2010 by Sandra Hernandez
http://www.dailyjournal.com/ (requires registration; go to G:\Law School in the News\News Clips for article)

“There is no uniform screening test or tool for even diagnosing severe mental health conditions such as a juvenile who is bipolar or schizophrenic.”

-The San Diego Union-Tribune, May 30, 2010 by Jeff McDonald
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/may/30/more-state-parolees-getting-less-supervision/

“They’re being asked to manage an extraordinary number of people,” Barry Krisberg, a distinguished senior fellow at the University of California Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, said of the corrections system. “People get released who shouldn’t be released. Then you have people who should have been released but stay longer. The system can’t even manage the basics.”

-The Bay Citizen, May 31, 2010 by Angela Kilduff, Robert Rogers, Steve Saldivar and Karen McIntyre
http://www.baycitizen.org/prisons/story/children-chowchilla/

“California locks up more women, and more mothers, than any other state in America,” said Barry Krisberg…. “The collateral consequences are substantial.”

-The Crime Report, May 31, 2010 by Barry Krisberg
http://thecrimereport.org/2010/05/31/the-slow-march-to-justice-for-children/

There is growing evidence that children placed in prisons and jails are more likely than adults to commit suicide, to be subject to rape, and that the minors spend more of their confinement time in segregation. Moreover, there are many juveniles sentenced to long prison terms for non-lethal behavior, such as conspiracy or alleged gang involvement. But there is no credible research supporting the theory that these harsh penalties increase public safety.

Daniel Farber Shares Facebook Anecdote

The New York Times, May 28, 2010 by Aimee Lee Ball
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/fashion/30FACEBOOK.html?pagewanted=2&sq=Berkeley&st=nyt&scp=6

“I’m a Facebook friend of Bob Dylan, which probably means I have a deeply meaningful relationship with his publicist,” said Daniel A. Farber (1,762), a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “I was hoping to impress my wife. And on the scale of things I’ve done to impress her, it’s pretty good.”