Santa Clara Law - Faculty - Service and Scholarships

Center for Social Justice and Public Service

Faculty: Service and Scholarship

Santa Clara’s law faculty share a commitment to social justice and public interest work in both their research and public service work. As Professor Eric Wright has commented: "Seventy percent of our faculty have done public interest work – more than almost any law school in the country." With this wealth of experience, faculty help students to bridge the gap between legal theory and law practice. Here is a sampling of the scholarship and activities represented by the Santa Clara faculty.

Evangeline Abriel co-wrote, with Sally Kinoshita, the 2009 version of the The VAWA Manual: Immigration Relief for Abused Immigrants, published by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center. She represented two clients pro bono, one before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and one before the Board of Immigration Appeals. She also accompanied students to New Orleans on Santa Clara’s third annual Student Bar Association Alternative Spring Break program in March. On March 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a certificate of appreciation to Santa Clara Law and Evangeline Abriel, "in recognition of outstanding contributions of time and legal expertise in support of the Pro Bono Program.” She presented a two-day training in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, entitled "Preparing for the Transition to U.S. Immigration Law,” on behalf of Karidat and Micronesian Legal Services in May. She also spoke at a panel on T visas for victims of human trafficking at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network’s Annual Convening in Denver, Colorado in May.

Margalynne Armstrong was appointed the associate academic director of the Center for Social Justice and Public Service and continues to serve on boards and committees for several local not-for-profit organizations.

Angelo Ancheta continues to work on constitutional and civil rights law, and directs the law school’s civil clinical program at the Katharine & George Alexander Community Law Center. In 2009, he published "Science and Constitutional Fact Finding in Equal Protection Analysis” in the Ohio St. L. J. and "A Constitutional Analysis of Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and Voluntary School Integration Policies” in the Rutgers Race & L. Rev. He also edited and co-wrote multiple articles for the chapter "Asian Americans and the Law” in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today. He continues to work with national, state, and local organizations addressing race-conscious affirmative action, desegregation, and voting rights issues.

Stephen Diamond has been frequently quoted in the press on the UAW/GM contract negotiations and the Hollywood labor negotiations. He is also completing a study of the structural changes underway in the financial markets with Jennifer Kuan of Stanford’s Institute for Economic Policy Research. They recently presented this paper at the Sloan Industry Studies Conference in Chicago and will present it at the International Society for New Institutional Economics meetings at U.C. Berkeley. He served as an expert witness in two cases involving corporate governance in the high technology sector this past year and advised two startup companies founded by SCU students.

Mary Emery has served on the board of directors of Santa Clara County Legal Aid Society since 1979.

Pratheepan Gulasekaram published his article "Sub-National Immigration Regulation & the Pursuit of Cultural Cohesion,” U. Cin. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2009). He spoke at a conference in January at Southwestern Law School, titled Fast Times in Hollywood: Keeping up with Cutting Edge Issues in Entertainment and Media Law. He spoke on the conflicts between protected speech and product promotional and advertising activities.

Anna Han published four chapters on Chinese intellectual property laws in China (on patent, trademark, copyright and Internet related IP, respectively) in Business Law in China: Trade, Investment, Operations and Finance (Daniel Arthur Lapre, ed.)(2d ed. 2008)), an ICC publication. She also spoke about U.S.-China IP Cooperation at a gathering of Chinese lawmakers and judges at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. Professor Han attended the National Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association meeting in Seattle where she gave two talks: one on doing culturally sensitive business in Asia and the other on the effects of FCPA on foreign operations of U.S. companies. She also gave an interview to a Chinese language paper, the World Journal, interested in her comments on the trial of Taiwan’s ex president Chen.

Marina Hsieh was reappointed to a three-year term on the State Bar of California’s Council on Access and Fairness. Created in 2007, the Council addresses issues of diversity and inclusion at all stages of the participants in the "legal pipeline” from elementary schools to judgeships. She also continues to serve on the Council’s subcommittees on Law Schools, and the Carnegie Report on Legal Education. Dean Hsieh and Lecturer Robert Cullen showcased Santa Clara’s initiatives in Leadership Education for Lawyers at a workshop, Legal Education at the Crossroads at the University of Washington, in Seattle in Sept. 2008. She returned for a second year to speak and conduct a teaching demonstration on "Technology in the Classroom” at the AALS Conference for New Law Teachers, Washington, D.C., June 26-27, 2008. She also led breakout sessions on teaching civil procedure. Dean Hsieh served as moderator of a panel, "Democracy and Disenfranchisement: Protecting and Restoring Voting Rights in America,” at the Shaking the Foundations: The West Coast Progressive Lawyering Conference at Stanford Law School, Oct. 4, 2008. She was elected vice president of the national ACLU board of directors at their Oct. 2008 meeting. She also chairs the $200 million national planned giving component of the ACLU’s current Leading Freedom Forward campaign.

Brad Joondeph published "Judging and Self Presentation: Towards a More Realistic Conception of the Human (Judicial) Animal,” 48 Santa Clara L. Rev. 523 (2008); "Federalism, the Rehnquist Court, and the Modern Republican Party,” 87 Or. L. Rev. 117 (2008); "The Many Meanings of "Politics” in Judicial Decision Making,” 77 UMKC L. Rev. 349 (2009); and "Business, the Roberts Court, and the Solicitor General: Why the Supreme Court’s Recent Business Decisions May Not Reveal Very Much,” 49 Santa Clara L. Rev. (forthcoming 2009) (co-authored with Sri Srinivasan). He presented papers at the AALS conference on constitutional law (Cleveland, June 6, 2008), and at the conference Red State v. Blue State: The Judicial Role in an Era of Partisanship, hosted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law (Sept. 12, 2008.)

Ellen Kreitzberg works principally in the criminal justice area and specifically on issues surrounding the death penalty. She is a co-founder and director of the Death Penalty College, which brings 100 capital defense litigators to Santa Clara for six days of training in preparing and presenting their pending capital cases. Started in 1992, the College is committed to raising the level of representation in capital cases. She is a member of the core committee for the statewide death penalty moratorium effort in California and serves on the California Attorney for Criminal Justice Death Penalty Conference Committee that organizes the annual death penalty training each February for more than 900 defense counsel. Professor Kreitzberg is a member of the board of the Northern California Innocence Project working to free those who have been wrongfully convicted and incarcerated. She regularly speaks at local high schools and provides radio and media commentary on issues of criminal justice. The second edition of Understanding Capital Punishment Law (with Linda Carter and Scott Howe) was released in 2008 and is currently being translated into Chinese. Professor Kreitzberg also wrote a report for and provided testimony before the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice: "A Review of Special Circumstances in California Death Penalty Cases,” available at http://www.ccfaj.org/rr-dp-expert.html. Her article, "But Can it Be Fixed: Constitutional Challenges to Lethal Injection Executions” (with David Richter) appears at 47 Santa Clara L. Rev. 445 (2007). In Jan. 2008 Professor Kreitzberg presented "Lethal Injection: How to Maximize the Debate” at a meeting of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Jean Love presented "Teaching Sexual Orientation Issues in Constitutional Law,” at the AALS Annual Meeting, San Diego, in January. She also presented "Varnum v. Brien: The Legal Arguments,”at the annual Iowa Journal of Gender Race & Justice Symposium, in February. Professor Love participated in a mock class presentation at the SCU Parents and Partners Day, Sept. 13, 2008. She also participated in the amicus brief in the Prop. 8 case from constitutional law and civil rights professors, in an amicus brief in the Prop. 8 case from Family Law Professors, and in the amicus brief in Varnum v. Brien from Iowa professors of law and history.

Kenneth A. Manaster continued to serve on the selection committee for the Justice John Paul Stevens Fellowship.

Cynthia Mertens has worked closely with Katharine and George Alexander in the establishment and continuation of the endowment that awards the Katharine and George Alexander Law Prize to recognize a person who has used his or her skill, knowledge, and abilities in the field of law to correct an injustice in a significant manner. She continues to provide pro bono advice to members of the university community, many of whom have sought her assistance because of her expertise in real estate finance. She organized the 2009 law student immersion trip to El Salvador where 20 law students participated in what many have described as the most intense experience of their law school careers, if not their lives, to study human rights.

Michelle Oberman served as a community member of the University of California at San Francisco’s GESCR committee (Gametes and Embryonic Stem Cells Research). In Aug. 2008, Professor Oberman traveled to Santiago, Chile on behalf of the Center for Global Law and Policy to assist in developing externship placements and opportunities for collaboration in the field of women’s rights. She serves as a judge for the National Advocates for Pregnant Women’s annual law student writing contest. In Spring 2009, she began working with the New York based Center for Reproductive Rights Law School Initiative, which aims to produce teaching modules and host programs targeted at assisting law professors to teach reproductive health issues. Professor Oberman continues to advise members of the public and the media on issues touching on her areas of expertise.

Lynette Parker co-created and co-presented a national webinar on human trafficking, and immigration benefits for victims of human trafficking. She also participated on panels addressing human trafficking as part of the Shaking the Foundations conference at Stanford University and the Northern California American Immigration Lawyers Association conference, as well as part of trainings on human trafficking provided to the Santa Clara County Department of Social Services. She co-presented "Managing Stress in the Law Practice” at the Silicon Valley Legal Services Retreat, and was a panelist on "Notary Fraud and Unauthorized Practice of Law” for the Pro Bono Project. She continues to serve as the legal advisor on the executive committee of the South Bay Coalition to End Human Trafficking, and as the liaison to the Office of Chief Counsel, Department of Homeland Security, for the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She has written "A Case Study in Assisting Victims of Human Trafficking” published in the 21st Annual AILA California Chapters Conference Handbook (2008).

Kathleen "Cookie" Ridolfi, executive director of the Northern California Innocence Project, co-authored an op-ed piece in the Orange County Register with former Attorney General John Van de Kamp. Professsor Ridolfi and Van de Kamp urged Governor Schwarzenegger to sign important legislation that would provide post-release services to victims of wrongful conviction. Professor Ridolfi received recognition from the California Senate Rules Committee for her outstanding service to the State of California as a member of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. She was a commissioner from Nov. 2004 until June 2008. The commission investigated the causes of wrongful conviction and made recommendations to the governor and the legislature. Professor Ridolfi also was highlighted in "Profiles in Justice: Lawyers Working to Defeat the Death Penalty,” an article appearing in the Fall 2008 San Francisco Attorney magazine, published by the Bar Association of San Francisco.

Margaret Russell was elected in Fall 2008 as a member of the American Law Institute. In Fall 2008, she was the keynote speaker for Humanity in Action’s San Francisco fellowship program to develop international human rights leadership. She also participated in a Santa Clara Ignatian Center discussion on the Ignatian Decrees, which was published in Explore magazine. For the 2008-2009 academic year, she participated in the interdisciplinary Ignatian Faculty Forum sponsored by the Ignatian Center. She volunteered for the campaigns for the election of Barack Obama and for the defeat of Proposition 8. In February, she was chosen to serve on Senator Barbara Boxer’s advisory committee for judicial and U.S. Attorney nominations for the Northern District of California. She is completing editorship of an anthology of constitutional scholarship on the Assembly and Petition Clause of the First Amendment (forthcoming Feb. 2010), and has written two reviews of historical works on race and the law for California Lawyer magazine. She served on an amicus brief advisory committee for the Santa Clara County Bar Association regarding the Proposition 8 challenge before the California Supreme Court. She appeared twice on KQED’s Forum radio show, and several times on the California Report, to discuss and debate the key arguments in the Proposition 8 case. She will discuss the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor on a July 10, 2009, panel co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society and the Equal Justice Society. She continues to serve on the boards of directors of the national American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Equal Justice Society, the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, and on the Legal Committee of the ACLU of Northern California. She also volunteers with the American Constitution Society’s project to bring knowledge of the Constitution to local high schools.

Catherine Sandoval recently published "Antitrust Language Barriers: First Amendment Constraints on Defining an Antitrust Market by a Broadcast’s Language, and Its Implications for Audiences, Competition and Democracy” in the Federal Communications Law Journal. She also gave a presentation on antitrust and net neutrality at the Oxford Round Table at Oxford University.

Kandis Scott published her article, "Why Did China Reform Its Death Penalty?” in the Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal (University of Washington) (forthcoming). She also introduced a new course entitled Comparative Government Spending Programs.

David Sloss published The Role of Domestic Courts in Treaty Enforcement: A Comparative Study, (Cambridge University Press, editor, forthcoming, 2009); "Place Matters (Most): An Empirical Study of Prosecutorial Decision-Making in Death-Eligible Cases” (forthcoming, Arizona Law Review, 2009) (co-authored with Katherine Barnes and Stephen Thaman); and "Judicial Foreign Policy: Lessons from the 1790s,” 53 St. Louis U. L.J. 145 (2008).

E. Gary Spitko published "Open Adoption, Inheritance, and the ‘Uncleing’ Principle,” 48 Santa Clara L. Rev. 765-804 (2008). In Feb. 2008, he presented an earlier version of the paper at the 2008 Santa Clara Law Review Symposium, When Change Comes Home: Legal Repercussions and Comparative Perspectives on the Transforming Structure of American Households. Professor Spitko, together with Professor Mary Louise Fellows (Minnesota) and Charles Q. Strohm (UCLA), have published an article, "An Empirical Assessment of the Potential for Will Substitutes to Improve State Intestacy Statutes,” in 85 Indiana Law Journal (forthcoming 2009). Professor Fellows and Spitko presented an earlier version of "Open Adoption, Inheritance, and the ‘Uncleing’ Principle” during a panel, "Creating New Knowledge and Exploring New Approaches in the Law of Donative Transfers,” at the joint annual conference of the Law and Society Association and the Canadian Law and Society Association, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in May, 2008. Professor Spitko presented a draft of a paper in January at the annual meeting of the Labor and Employment Relations Association in San Francisco. The paper was published as "Exempting High Level Employees and Small Employers from Legislation Invalidating Predispute Employment Arbitration Agreements,” 43 U.C. Davis L. Rev. (forthcoming 2009).

Edward Steinman conducted research on the scope of California regulation of private postsecondary and vocational educational institutions who are not accredited in this state by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). While these institutions are accredited elsewhere in the United States, WASC requirements are the strictest in this country, especially in regard to student protection. For example, unlike other accrediting agencies, WASC requires detailed institutional disclosure of the possible transferability of units and credits to other institutions as well as information about the employment records of students after graduation. Imposing such requirements on nonaccredited institutions from other states raises not only political and educational issues, but potential conflict with the principles of dormant commerce under the U.S. Constitution. Professor Steinman also did research that expanded upon the food access projects. This work has included analysis of and policy recommendations for the federal law that deals with child nutrition programs, such as school meals, summer food, after-school snacks, child and adult care food, and the Women, Infants, and Children program. Since the child nutrition law is scheduled for reauthorization by the U.S. Congress in 2009, the research seeks to devise strategies and propose legislation that will improve the health and nutrition of children in this country.

Gerald Uelmen concluded his work as executive director of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice in 2008, and spent much of his sabbatical leave during the Spring 2009 semester speaking and writing about the Commission’s recommendations regarding the administration of California’s death penalty law. He is currently handling a case before the California Supreme Court regarding the quantitative limits placed upon users of medicinal marijuana (People v. Kelly). He is also engaged in researching and co-authoring a biography of Justice Stanley Mosk, who served on the California Supreme Court for 37 years until his death in 2001. Professor Uelmen continues to provide pro bono representation to the Women’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Santa Cruz and to chair the Editorial Advisory Committee for California Lawyer magazine. His annual assessment of the work of the California Supreme Court is published in California Lawyer each year.

Beth Van Schaack published The Essentials of International Criminal Law (Aspen Press 2008) (with Ron Slye); a chapter entitled "Engendering Genocide: Akayesu and the Affirmation of Genocidal Rape,” in Human Rights Advocacy Stories (Foundation Press 2008); "Finding the Tort of Terrorism in International Criminal Law,” 28 Univ. of Texas, Rev. of Litigation 381 (2009); "Crimen Sine Lege: Judicial Lawmaking at the Intersection of Law & Morals,” 97 Georgetown L. J. 119 (2008); "The Story Behind the Case that Launched a Legal Revolution,” 30 Hum. Rts. Q. 1042 (2008) (reviewing William J. Aceves, The Anatomy of Torture: A Documentary History of Filártiga v. Peña-Irala); and IntLawGrrls blog posts: http://intlawgrrls.blogspot.com/search/label/BVS.

Stephanie M. Wildman published "Pregnancy Discrimination and Social Change: Evolving Consciousness About a Worker’s Right to Job-Protected, Paid Leave” (with Patricia A. Shiu), 21 Yale J. Law and Feminism (2009) (forthcoming). She served on the AALS Committee on Professional Development and the Dean’s Long-Range Planning Committee. Professor Wildman also received the Santa Clara University President’s Special Recognition Award.

Eric Wright has been appointed to the executive committee of the California Commission on Access to Justice, serves on the Pilot Project Subcommittee, and the Administrative Agency Access to Justice Subcommittee (both as co-chair), and also serves on the Right to Counsel Committee. He is on the Board of the Watsonville Law Center and also on its executive committee. He continues to be active on consumer cases for the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center.

Nancy Wright wrote "Battered Children/Shattered Lives: A Plea for Self-Defense Based on Domestic Abuse Syndrome for Victims of Domestic Violence who Kill Their Abusers” in Georgetown J. on Poverty L. & Pol’y, Volume XV, Issue 3 (Summer 2008). She also serves on the selection committee for the Justice John Paul Stevens Fellowship.

Julia Yaffee conducted a pre-law workshop for minority students at the University of Wisconsin. In addition, she gave prelaw presentations at Columbia, UC Davis, Indiana, UCLA, and other schools, highlighting Santa Clara’s commitment to diversity and social justice. She also spoke at the quadrennial Prelaw Advisors National Conference and at the Northeast Association of Prelaw Advisors.

David Yosifon published "The Consumer Interest in Corporate Law,” 43 U.C. Davis L. Rev. (forthcoming 2009).