Rachel Moran, Maria Blanco, and Melissa Murray Praise Sonia Sotomayor

The Promise of Berkeley, October 2009
http://issuu.com/shawnm/docs/_x7319a_pob_fall_09_compiled.v2/18?mode=a_p

Rachel Moran: I was surprised at the level of attention that [wise Latina] remark received. I felt it was about how diversity can improve outcomes. When you have all kinds of people on the bench, they reach better results through the vigorous exchange of ideas.

Maria Blanco: She will bring more trial court and appellate experience than any sitting on the court. She has the most judicial experience of any Supreme Court nominee in the last 70 years and the most federal judicial experience in 100 years.

Melissa Murray: She made sure we understood that behind every appeal there was a person who wanted and deserved to be heard. She also emphasized the importance of giving back. She routinely went out of her way to mentor young people and young lawyers in New York City.

Oliver Williamson Puts UC Athletic Spending in Perspective

USA Today, October 13, 2009 by Steve Wieberg
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2009-10-14-athletic-spending-california_N.htm

Oliver Williamson … who Monday was awarded a Nobel Prize in economics, keeps his office directly across the street from Memorial Stadium. “I don’t think the chancellor and the leadership on the campus think of athletics as being immune (to the financial crisis),” he says. “But some things, you can deal with immediately and directly. Other things, you deal with in the fullness of time…. I don’t see any reason to believe they’re lacking in judgment in this respect.”

Charles Weisselberg Questions Impartiality of District Court Judge

El Paso Times, October 13, 2009 by Ramon Bracamontes
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13546071?IADID=Search-www.elpasotimes.com-www.elpasotimes.com

“The judge has to ask himself right now, ‘Can I still be impartial?’ It’s the one question he alone has to answer,” said Weisselberg, who teaches federal criminal law procedure. “It’s a tough question to answer because federal law clearly states that if a reasonable person can question the judge’s impartiality, then a judge has to disqualify himself.”

Aaron Edlin Explains Nobel Laureate’s Analysis of Corporate Governance

San Francisco Chronicle, October 13, 2009 by Kathleen Ponder
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/13/BUTV1A4KNT.DTL&type=printable

“One of the central questions that firms always face is when it makes sense to merge with another firm, when it makes sense to write a long-term contract with the other firm and how that long-term contract should be structured, and when it makes sense to deal on a short-term basis and buy things on spot markets,” said Aaron Edlin, a UC Berkeley professor of law and economics. “His work is about which of these decisions make the most sense.”

Christopher Edley and Oliver Williamson React to Economist’s Nobel Win

The Berkeley Daily Planet, October 12, 2009 by Riya Bhattacharjee
http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-10-08/article/33909?headline=UC-Berkeley-Prof-Wins-Nobel-Prize-for-Economics-

“I am lucky,” said Williamson, to applause from his colleagues.

“I was quite surprised to hear my former student had won the Nobel Peace Prize, but I was not surprised to hear this,” said UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Christopher Edley. “For years he has been an anchor for regulating behavior and dealing with issues of authority and agency,” Edley said. “We could not be more pleased.”

Joseph Lavitt Thinks Storm Ruling Leaves Insurance Issue Unresolved

MSN Money, October 9, 2009 by The Associated Press
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=AP&date=20091009&id=10480434

Joseph Lavitt, a Berkeley Law School professor who teaches insurance law, said the Supreme Court disagreed with part of the 5th Circuit’s ruling but didn’t address whether insurers are liable for damage “when either the wind or the water could have caused the loss without the other and they acted at the same time. The Corbans’ battle is far from over. Either party may yet prevail under today’s ruling,” he said.

Christopher Edley, Stephen Rosenbaum, Susan Gluss Comment on Student Anti-Torture Initiative

The Berkeley Daily Planet, October 9, 2009 by Riya Bhattacharjee
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/issue/2009-10-08/article/33908?headline=Berkele

-Berkeley law school Dean Christopher Edley has … [said] … in a public statement that the university would carefully review the Justice Department’s internal ethics investigation findings regarding the authors of the torture memos upon its release.

-Berkeley law school lecturer Stephen Rosenbaum said he was looking forward to Tuesday’s panel. “Recent national studies have chastised law schools for offering curriculum that is short on professional skills and values,” he said. “This initiative appears to be a serious effort by Boalt students to examine ethical and policy issues in a conventional format—presentations by scholars and practitioners.”

-Berkeley Law spokesperson Susan Gluss told the Daily Planet that students were allowed to form whatever group they wanted at Boalt. “It could be to discuss all sorts of controversial issues—political, international, medical—UC Berkeley is the home of the free speech movement and we are a critical part of it,” she said.