Dear Friends,
During these last summer days, in the searing California heat, you may have been intrigued by the swarms of dragonflies that often surround you. While dragonflies may seem annoying at first, they are wondrous creatures, long believed to be messengers of comfort, transformation, and hope.
There are 118 diverse species of dragonflies in California, but they have much in common. They are born in the water, but they grow to be able to fly long distances, hover, focus, shift direction, and coordinate with each other. Dragonflies are flexible and adaptable; they adjust rapidly to new situations, challenges, and opportunities. They have tremendous short-range and long-range vision. In almost every part of the world, the dragonfly symbolizes a metamorphosis that comes with self-realization, maturity, and understanding the deeper meaning of life. We seek to instill this type of transformation in our law students and in our community as part of the learning experience that we embody here at Santa Clara Law. Over the past two weeks, our campus has been nothing short of transformative.
Following a successful orientation week, our newest 1Ls were joined by our returning students whom we welcomed back to Charney Hall. Our Flex J.D. students–from across the country–got a full immersion into campus life with on-campus classes and activities during their first residential week with full attendance at the SCU Resource Fair and the law school’s Club Day. So many students, faculty and staff-educators gathered together on the terrace for a beautiful First Gen mixer set against the backdrop of the East Foothills.
I am so grateful to the dedicated teams in Law Student Services, law departments, and campus partners for their great work to provide our students with high-touch, wrap-around support services to foster the kind of student-centered learning environment necessary for our students to thrive.
Over the past week alone, we hosted three incredible events: the annual Jerry A. Kasner Estate Planning Symposium (Kasner Symposium), the California Lawyers Association (CLA) Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference, and the Association of African-American California Judicial Officers (AAACJO) reception.
This year, Santa Clara Law hosted the International Law Section (ILS) of the California Lawyers Association (CLA) Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference. This year’s ILS symposium, “Law in an Era of Global Challenges: Climate Risk and AI Regulation,” brought together experts to explore solutions to today’s most pressing global legal challenges. The symposium tackled issues like environmental risk disclosure and data privacy, featuring panels on international and domestic corporate and regulatory approaches to climate risks and the implications of AI. We are so grateful to Professor Tseming Yang for moderating the symposium and bringing his expertise on environmental law and policy to the discussion.
At their opening meeting this year, the Black Law Student Association (BLSA) hosted a reception for the Association of African-American Coalition of Judicial Officers (AAACJO). Incredibly, no less than 18 judges from the Coalition traveled here from all over California to meet with our students in Charney Hall. The AACJO is a members-only organization established in 2017 to address the professional interests of state and federal judicial officers presiding in the State of California. The membership includes Federal Circuit Justices, Federal District Court Judges, Superior Court Judges and Commissioners, Appellate Court Justices, Administrative Law Judges, and State Bar Court Judges. Our BLSA students had the opportunity to learn from the AAACJO judges about their experiences and perspectives as judges, how they got to the bench, and what advice they might give to law students and new attorneys. We are so grateful to our student leaders Elijah Shelton and Jemila Moses who worked with Professor Thiadora (Dori) Pena, senior director of inclusive excellence and BLSA adviser, to arrange the event.
The week concluded with the wrap-up of a 2-day signature symposium. This year’s Kasner Symposium celebrated the 20th anniversary of the event at which we honored the late Jerry Allan Kasner, who was a nationally-recognized estate planning authority, lawyer, and former professor of law who taught at Santa Clara Law for 38 years, from 1961 to 1998. Jerry received lifetime achievement and meritorious service awards for his contributions to the estate planning profession, commitment to teaching, and service to the those whom he mentored. The symposium was established to honor his incredible legacy. What began as a fledgling event with just under three dozen attendees has grown to see a new attendance record over 600 and the largest sponsor count to date of 61.
Many of Kasner’s mentees–who have themselves established remarkable careers in estate planning–continue to devote their time each year to further Kasner’s legacy through their participation in the symposium. Among them, Chuck Packer ’80, an attorney and shareholder at Hopkins & Carley, stands at the helm of the symposium’s planning, alongside our dedicated staff member, Marjorie Short, who has provided her invaluable event management over the years to ensure the growth, success and visibility of the symposium. We are so grateful to Chuck, Marjorie, and the Santa Clara Law faculty, staff, and students who contributed to the success of this year’s event including: Professors Lisa Kloppenberg and Patricia Cain, Judge Risë Pichon ’76, our Tax and Estate Planning Society (TEPS) students, and members of the Law Student Services, Law Technology, and Law External Relations and Development teams.
Our impactful programming continues through the next month with an exciting schedule of Dean’s Democracy Series events. We’ve dedicated the series to further our efforts toward upholding our core democratic values through the sharing of invaluable information and the convening of community conversations about matters and issues that are personally meaningful and central to our thriving democracy. This year, in partnership with the Center for Social Justice and Public Interest and the Family Action Network (FAN), we will cover a broad range of topics from the science of motivating young people, to the science of human goodness; the role of women’s labor in America as a social safety net; how COVID-19 exacerbated racial inequalities that existed on college campuses; and more…
- On September 11th, Professor David Sloss (Santa Clara Law) will moderate a discussion on “An Overdue Reckoning: The Law and Politics of Campus Free Speech After October 7,” featuring our lecturer Professor Howard Schweber (UW-Madison).
- On September 19th, Professor W. David Ball (Santa Clara Law) will moderate an esteemed group of authors–Premal Dharia(Harvard Law), James Forman, Jr. (Yale Law), and Maria Hawilo (Loyola University Chicago Law)–on their recently published book, Dismantling Mass Incarceration.
- On October 8th, Santa Clara Law will proudly host “The Futures Happening: Fostering Civic Imagination,” a special session on harnessing the power of “futures thinking” and civic imagination, featuring Lisa Kay Solomon, Futurist in Residence at Stanford University’s d.school and futures facilitator and educator Jeffrey Rogers (UT-Austin). I invite you to join our hope-filled session in which we explore what we can learn about shaping our future from life experiences and unexpected sources, and harnessing the power of our individual and collective imaginations to be democracy futurists.
In the spirit of transformative learning, I want to express my gratitude to each and every one of you for your contributions to the enduring mission of Santa Clara Law—one that instills in all of us a shared and steadfast vision to use our legal education to serve our communities and our common home in ever-changing and ever-fruitful ways.
With warm regards and immense gratitude,
Michael J. Kaufman (He/Him/His)
Dean and Professor of Law
Santa Clara University School of Law
mjkaufman@scu.edu