Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Professor Lan Cao’s newest book Culture in Law & Development: Nurturing Positive Change, which examines conventional law and development projects funded by institutions ranging from the World Bank to the U.S. Agency for International Development, will be released this spring by Oxford University Press.

The book explores why projects that have exported property, commercial, contract, corporations and other laws to developing countries have failed and argues that engaging with local cultural norms should be an integral part of the law and development endeavor. Background cultural norms affect whether a law will be supported. For example, international human rights laws, especially those that promote women’s rights, may face entrenched opposition from some on cultural grounds. This book draws on foundational principles of a variety of scholarly disciplines related to law and development – public international law, international relations, international human rights and private international law – to demonstrate that although culture has been historically sidelined by those disciplines, law and development should actively integrate universal norms into the law and development agenda. More precisely and more controversially, the book also proposes that law and development projects work to change cultural norms that are in opposition to development objectives.

From pre-release reviews:

Culture in Law & Development: Nurturing Positive Change is a pioneering book that systematically shows how culture has been neglected – at significant cost – in a range of separate but interrelated fields, from public international law to international human rights to international relations to law and development. Almost everyone acknowledges that ‘culture is important.’ But few scholars are willing to engage the thorny issues raised by culture – what should we do, for example, when local cultures are antithetical to international development norms? In this fascinating and provocative book, Professor Lan Cao takes on that challenge, arguing that culture can be changed, should be changed, and has been changed before.

– Amy Chua, Yale Law School, Professor of Law

Lan Cao has a rare gift – in her luminous debut as a writer she sketched the experience of exile, what it meant to be a young woman forced to leave Vietnam during the war. Her first two works – Monkey Bridge (Penguin Books 1997) and The Lotus and the Storm (Viking Press 2014) – captured the dysplasia that attends anyone who must start over – the difficulty of reconstructing a sense of place and belonging, regaining courage within the frailty of life.

Her current work translates this wisdom into a different milieu – as guidance to policymakers seeking to assist post-conflict societies and jumpstart economic development. Lan Cao persuasively argues that this cannot be done without taking account of culture and trauma – engaging a society with sympathy and internal understanding, while conceding how hard it is for an outsider to facilitate change. Informal institutions and social practice will matter as much as rules and law. The current chaos in the world instructs that there is no end to history – and that a sense of poetry may be necessary to intervene effectively in mitigating the hardship of the poor.

– Ruth Wedgwood, Edward Burling Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, D.C.; and former U.S. member, United Nations Human Rights Committee

This path-breaking book examines the necessity of engaging forthrightly with cultural questions if rule of law building efforts are to be sustainable and effective. With insight and sensitivity, [Professor Cao] explores both the challenges and opportunities of addressing culture directly. How, for example, can tensions between international standards and local practices be addressed? How can opportunities for creative engagement and empowerment of marginalized voices be nurtured? Highlighting the often fluid nature of cultural traditions and debates, [the author] offers innovative approaches that will be of broad interest to rule of law practitioners, scholars, policy makers and advocates on the ground.

–  Jane Stromseth, Professor of Law, Georgetown University

Professor Lan Cao is the Betty Hutton Williams Professor of International Economic Law. She joined the Fowler School of Law faculty in 2013 after serving for more than a decade on the faculty at William & Mary Law School, where she was the Boyd Fellow and Professor of Law. She clerked for Judge Constance Baker Motley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. She practiced with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison in New York City. Professor Cao was a Ford Foundation Scholar in 1991. She has published scholarly articles in the area of international trade and finance, international economic development, finance and culture in law. She is also the author and co-author of several books and supplements, including The Lotus and The Storm (Viking Press 2014) and the novel Monkey Bridge (Penguin 1997), about the Vietnamese War and its impact on a young Vietnamese American girl.

See more of Professor Cao’s scholarly writing.

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law competition team Kyle Hindin (JD ’16) and Melissa DuChene (JD ’17) took fourth last Friday at the Environmental Negotiations Competition, which was sponsored by the Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of California. Hindin and DuChene competed alongside a second Fowler School of Law team, Sabrina Tanamachi (JD ’16) and Vanessa Corona (JD ’17), against 17 other California law schools in the statewide competition.

This success comes on the heels of a number of wins in the 2015-2016 year, including a recent advancement to the American Bar Association Client Counseling Competition nationals next month.

Congratulations to our teams on their hard work!

Read more competition news.

Learn more about Fowler School of Law Competition Boards.

Professor Julie Marzouk recently received California Lawyer’s CLAY Attorney of the Year Award for immigration. Marzouk was one of nine attorneys receiving the award for their role in bringing about a “major development for transgender rights.” In three individual cases, the team successfully convinced a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel to grant relief to transgender Mexican women at risk of being tortured or killed if they were deported from the United States.

Professor Julie Marzouk

“The Court’s three decisions are ground-breaking in that in each case the Court overturned the Board of Immigration Appeal’s false conflation of sexual orientation with gender identity,” Professor Marzouk said. “The Ninth Circuit clearly held that transgender women are a distinct social group who face particular persecution in Mexico. I am honored to have been involved in the cases and grateful that my client now has a valid work permit and protection against deportation. The cases create important precedent that will be used to provide relief to other victims of persecution and torture.”

Professor Marzouk took on the case as Supervising Attorney at the Public Law Center, prior to joining the Fowler School of Law faculty as a clinical professor for the Bette and Wylie Aitken Family Protection Clinic. The case took more than five years to be fully litigated. Her client, a transgender woman, survived a violent attack and surrendered herself at the U.S. border to seek relief under U.S. law and the U.N. Convention Against Torture. The client was denied immigration relief after a judge refused to recognize her transgender status and claimed that she failed to prove that the Mexican government could not or would not protect her.

After an unsuccessful appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which also rejected the distinction between homosexuality and gender identity, Professor Marzouk appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where the case was ultimately heard along with the two other cases in 2015. All three cases directly addressed whether transgender women from Mexico can be considered a particular social group for purposes of applying for asylum (and related relief) and whether the government of Mexico fails to protect such individuals from persecution. The Board of Immigration Appeal’s decisions were overturned in each case.

Read more.

Professor Marzouk teaches the Bette and Wylie Aitken Family Protection Clinic Immigration seminar which focuses on core lawyering skills such as interviewing, counseling, fact investigation, affidavit drafting and brief writing. In the clinic, students explore the dynamics of domestic violence while studying substantive immigration law and regulation. Professor Marzouk supervises students in the direct representation of immigrant victims of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault and other gender-based crimes. Family Protection Clinic Immigration students represent clients in administrative proceedings and in federal Immigration Court, as well as engage in community-based education and local advocacy. Prior to joining the Chapman faculty, Professor Marzouk was the Supervising Attorney at Orange County’s Public Law Center (PLC). While at PLC, she provided direct legal services to low-income immigrant clients and directed county-wide legal initiatives serving immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She managed the legal services portion of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, oversaw PLC’s partnership in the Orange County Immigration Detention Collaborative, and developed the Orange County Naturalization Initiative Collaboration. Professor Marzouk has worked as an Immigration Staff Attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, and as a private practice immigration attorney, representing individuals in removal and deportation proceedings. She began law practice as an associate at Bingham McCutchen LLP in San Francisco, California. Professor Marzouk has published on clinical teaching pedagogy, asylum law and diversity issues. She has presented numerous lectures on issues including global violence against women, immigration detention, LGBT asylum claims, human trafficking and the representation of immigrant victims of crime. Professor Marzouk has traveled extensively throughout Latin America, and lived and worked in Oaxaca, Mexico as a human rights investigator. She is fluent in Spanish. Professor Marzouk graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University. She received her JD from Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Professor David Dowling

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Professor and Mediation Clinic Director David Dowling was awarded this month a five-year grant from the County of Riverside Probation Department to support the addition of a new restorative justice program as part of the expanding clinic. The program will offer an unconventional route to finding justice, bringing together the court, District Attorney’s Office, police and probation departments, and students from the Fowler School of Law Mediation Clinic to provide restorative justice services to Riverside County.

The grant will provide $805,585 to the clinic over the five year term, with annual payments of $161,117.

“I’m grateful to the Riverside Probation Department for its continued support of the clinical programs at Chapman,” Professor Dowling said. “This is an exciting opportunity to provide much needed services to the most vulnerable members of the community while also giving students a chance to develop valuable practical skills.”

According to Dowling, the restorative approach relies on a set of principles that guide responses to conflict by focusing on the needs of both victims and offenders. Victims are able to take an active role in the process, providing them with a voice, which they rarely get in the traditional justice system. Offenders, on the other hand, can take responsibility for their actions and make amends by apologizing, returning stolen money or completing community service.

The expansion adds to the Mediation Clinic’s existing services that include aid in civil harassment restraining orders, debt collections, unlawful retainer, small claims trial de novo matters, and limited civil cases. This is the third time in as many years that the clinic has expanded its reach. In 2013, Dowling worked with Fowler School of Law students to create the Juvenile Hall Conflict Resolution Clinic to help at-risk juveniles develop skills to help them deal with conflict and resolve disputes in a positive way. The program invites youth for a 10-week mediation skills class along with one-on-one individualized mentoring. Since its start, Fowler School of Law students have mentored more than 250 youths referred by Juvenile Hall staff.

Most recently, the clinic updated its juvenile mediation services to include a Juvenile Restorative Justice Clinic, which inspired the creation of a new, larger restorative justice program.

Learn more about the Fowler School of Law Mediation Clinic.

Read more clinic news.

On March 14, Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law welcomed Richard A. Epstein, Inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law, as a guest speaker for the 2016 Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series. His presentation, “Justice Scalia’s Jurisprudential Legacy of Property Rights,” was followed by a discussion with Fowler School of Law Associate Dean Donald Kochan, and a lively question and answer session with the approximately 100 student and faculty guests.

Chapman Dialogue guest speaker Richard Epstein

Professor Epstein opened with some remarks on the jurisprudence and influence of the late Justice Scalia, who had a substantial influence on the development of takings law and property rights during his tenure on the United States Supreme Court, before moving toward a more particularized study of his influence in property rights cases.

To fully understand Justice Scalia’s decisions, Professor Epstein noted that all of Justice Scalia’s property rights decisions were in some way influenced by his philosophy of judicial restraint and his study as a public law lawyer rather than developing expertise with private law. Each tendency served to constrain his view of property rights in his decisions more so than Professor Epstein might in deciding those cases. Professor Epstein began his analysis of the jurisprudence by describing the historical antecedents presented to Justice Scalia as he and other members of the court have struggled to make sense of property rights law across the years.

After describing this “state of play” present when Justice Scalia joined the court, Professor Epstein dissected several of Justice Scalia’s property rights opinions, including those issued in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, and Pennell v. San Jose. Professor Epstein analyzed the cases and Justice Scalia’s reasoning in them to help the audience better understand his jurisprudential legacy. Professor Epstein also delighted the audience with his own critique of each of these cases. Along the way, Professor Epstein articulated what he believes is a more coherent view of the takings clause (including its related effects on exactions law and unconstitutional conditions), focusing on the ways in which it acts as a price system that seeks the right resource allocation, with costs to the public that deter bad actions (those the public values less than the private owners) and yet also lead to compensation when actions are taken that the public values more than the private owner.

View the webcast.

See the full 2015-2016 Chapman Dialogue schedule.

Chapman Federalist Society President Jeremy Talcott (JD ’16) and Fowler School of Law Associate Dean Donald Kochan with Chapman Dialogue guest speaker Richard Epstein (center)

Richard A. Epstein is the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law. He has served as the Peter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution since 2000. Epstein is also the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. His initial law school appointment was at the University of Southern California from 1968 to 1972. Epstein received an LLD, honoris causa, from the University of Ghent in 2003. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985 and has been a senior fellow of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago Division of Biological Sciences, also since 1983. He served as editor of the Journal of Legal Studies from 1981 to 1991, and of the Journal of Law and Economics from 1991 to 2001. From 2001 to 2010, he was a director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago.

He has written more than a dozen books, the newest being The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (Harvard U. Press, 2014). Epstein has also written numerous articles on a wide range of legal and interdisciplinary subjects. He has taught courses in administrative law, antitrust law, civil procedure, communications law, constitutional law, contracts, corporations, criminal law, employment discrimination law, environmental law, food and drug law, health law and policy, legal history, labor law, property, real estate development and finance, jurisprudence, labor law, land use planning, patents, individual, estate and corporate taxation, Roman Law, torts, water law and workers’ compensation.

About the Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series

The Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series is a special lineup of distinguished lectures by innovative and thought-provoking legal scholars as well as some of the nation’s most prominent legal practitioners. Invited speakers present their research and ideas to a wide audience of faculty, students, alumni and special guests. Each Dialogue concludes with a lively Question and Answer session, typically led by one or two discussants from among the Fowler School of Law faculty.

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School is pleased to announce the recent promotions, effective at the start of the 2016-2017 academic year, of the following six faculty members:

David Dowling – Promoted to Clinical Professor of Law

Professor Dowling joined the Fowler School of Law faculty in 2007 as an adjunct professor working with the interscholastic competition teams in mediation, negotiations and client counseling. Currently, he serves as Director of the Fowler School of Law Mediation Clinic. After receiving his B.A. from Brigham Young University, he received his JD from Chapman University Fowler School of Law. Professor Dowling also received a Master in Dispute Resolution (MDR) from the Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law. Prior to joining Chapman, Professor Dowling worked with the State and Local Tax group for PricewaterhouseCoopers from 2006 to 2008, resolving tax disputes.

Samuel Ernst – Promoted to Associate Professor of Law

Professor Ernst’s scholarship focuses on patent law, and he teaches in the areas of intellectual property, contracts and civil litigation practice. Prior to joining the Fowler School of Law in 2013, Professor Ernst was a partner at the international law firm of Covington & Burling in San Francisco, practicing intellectual property, commercial and appellate litigation, while maintaining an active pro bono practice focusing on veterans disability recovery and homeless advocacy. In 2010, Professor Ernst was recognized by the Federal Circuit Bar Association for his work on behalf of veterans. In 2006 and 2008, he received a Certificate of Excellence from the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. Prior to joining the Fowler School of Law, Professor Ernst taught pre-trial civil litigation at the UC Berkeley School of Law. Professor Ernst earned his JD magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. He has a B.A. in Modern Literary Studies from UC Santa Cruz and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from UCLA.

Carolyn Larmore – Promoted to Full Professor of the Practice of Law

Professor Larmore joined the faculty of Chapman University Fowler School of Law in 2005. She received her B.A. from U.C. Berkeley in 1994, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and her JD from UCLA in 1997, graduating Order of the Coif and completing two externships, one with the Honorable John G. Davies, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and the other with the ACLU of Southern California. After graduating from law school, Professor Larmore joined the law firm of Irell & Manella LLP in Los Angeles as a litigation associate, and later Proskauer Rose LLP’s Labor & Employment department in its Los Angeles office. Professor Larmore then worked at the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School, where she litigated cases under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other state and federal laws designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities. She also supervised law students from around Southern California as part of the DRLC’s externship program.

As Externship Director at Chapman University Fowler School of Law, Professor Larmore supervises about 150 students per year as they work for judges, district attorneys and public defenders, government agencies, non-profits, in-house counsel departments and private law firms. She advises students on which placements would best meet their career and learning goals, helps them prepare for the externship experiences, and counsels them throughout the externship semester on how to succeed in their placements. She is also a regular presenter at national and regional externship and clinical academic conferences.

Mary Lee Ryan – Promoted to Full Professor of the Practice of Entertainment Law

Professor Ryan is an entertainment attorney with more than 25 years of experience in the domestic and international entertainment industries. While still a law student at New York University, she enjoyed teaching contract law and was awarded the Walter Derenberg Fellowship in Copyright Law. Following her passion for music and business, Professor Ryan moved to Los Angeles where she got her start in the entertainment industry negotiating media contracts as an associate for Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. In 1988, she joined Columbia and TriStar pictures in Burbank, where she negotiated music agreements for motion pictures and television shows, including the use of soundtracks, composers and publishing agreements. A year later, she joined Rondor Music International, Inc., where she was the Senior Vice President of Business Affairs. There, she negotiated major agreements, such as the sale of Rondor Music International, Inc. to Universal Music Group, which was reported by the Wall Street Journal to be a 400-500 million dollar transaction. In 2002, Professor Ryan went into private practice, working as an attorney and consultant to individuals and companies throughout the entertainment industry. She joined Fowler School of Law as a visiting assistant clinical professor in 2010.

Wendy Seiden – Promoted to Clinical Full Professor of Law

Before joining Chapman in the fall of 2010, Professor Seiden taught the mediation clinic as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Law. From 2006 to 2009, Professor Seiden served as a clinical fellow at the University of Baltimore School of Law and coordinated the UB Family Mediation Clinic from 2008 to 2009. Professor Seiden received her J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School where she was an executive editor of the Harvard Women’s Law Journal and founded the Teen Violence Education Program. She received her A.B. degree from the University of Michigan, graduating summa cum laude. In 1993, Professor Seiden was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar at the Universidad de Sevilla and in 2005 she was awarded a Rotary Alumni International Service to Humanity Award.

Professor Seiden began law practice as a Skadden Fellow at Legal Services for Children in San Francisco, where she co-founded the Teen Moms Shelter and represented children in a variety of legal forums. In 1998, Professor Seiden founded Advocacy for Children, Youth & Families, a small multi-forum legal services and advocacy office dedicated to children and adults in California’s foster care system. Professor Seiden served as a Juvenile Court Consultant for the Judicial Council of California in 2004. She was a founding member of the California State Task Force on the Intersection of Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment. Professor Seiden was a contributor to Jane C. Murphy and Robert Rubinson, Family Mediation: Theory and Practice (LexisNexis, 2009) and was the principal author of the ABA February 2009 Report on Child Victims of Crime Resolution. Professor Seiden has presented papers and taught skills at national conferences, primarily focusing on child welfare, domestic violence and crime victims’ rights.

George Willis – Promoted to Clinical Full Professor of Law

Professor George Willis is the Director of the Tax Law Clinic and the Administrator of the law school’s Graduate Tax Programs including the LL.M. in Taxation. He earned his B.S. degree in Finance from California State University, Long Beach and earned his JD degree from Chapman University Fowler School of Law.

He has achieved numerous advanced certifications in varied areas of development. Professor Willis primarily teaches tax law clinic courses in which students represent taxpayers on a pro bono basis before the IRS and in the U.S. Tax Court. He joined Chapman in 1999 after working in practice as a tax, business and estate planning attorney serving individuals and close corporations. Before opening his practice, he worked for the Internal Revenue Service, Estate and Gift Tax Division and at the First American Corporation under their general counsel. Prior to his legal career he was a Senior Engineer, working for nearly a decade with the Northrop-Grumman Corporation concentrating in special projects at their Advanced Systems (later called B-2) Division and other locations. He is a member of the ABA sections for Taxation and Probate & Real Property. As part of the Tax Section, he is actively involved with the committee for Low Income Taxpayers and serves as the moderator of their listserv. He is also a member of the California Bar Association Taxation section and the Orange County Bar Association sections on Estate Planning, Probate & Trusts, and Taxation. He has served as panelist and moderator at numerous ABA and IRS symposia. He also performs pro bono work as a member of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Pro Bono Panel, and as an attorney-volunteer for the Public Law Center in Orange County, California.

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law was honored on April 4 for its partnership with Legal Aid Society of Orange County’s (LASOC) Lawyers Entrepreneur Assistance Program (LEAP) at a launch party and ribbon cutting ceremony for the program’s new office building.

Fowler School of Law Assistant Dean of Career Services Melissa Berry accepted the American Bar Association’s 2016 Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access for the law school’s partnership with LEAP since 2013.

“We’re proud to be partners with LASOC in this innovative program,” Dean Berry said. “Through LEAP, our alumni gain valuable experience and connections in the legal community while helping to address the access to justice gap in the local community.”

Justice William W. Bedsworth, Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, 4th District, and Orange County Bar Association President Todd Friedland, served as guest speakers in welcoming the incoming 2016 LEAP class to the program and their new office space.

LEAP serves as an incubator for new attorneys seeking to pursue solo practice. Through the yearlong program, attorneys are given access to discounted office space, hands-on training and mentorship as well as the LASOC’s client base in order to gain practical experience and income while starting up. In exchange, participants are expected to provide 300 hours of pro bono hours over the course of their year enrolled in LEAP to benefit modest-mean individuals who do not qualify for free legal services but cannot afford average legal fees. Run by volunteers and partially funded by grants from the Orange County Bar Association Charitable Fund, American Bar Association Legal Access Job Corps Catalyst Grant, the State Bar of California Modest Means/Incubator Project, and the J.B. and Emily Van Nuys Charities, LEAP law school partners include Fowler School of Law, Whittier Law School, Western State College of Law and the University of California, Irvine School of Law.

Learn more about LEAP.

Above: Orange County Bar Association President Todd Friedland (left), co-director of LEAP William Tanner, LASOC Executive Director Robert Cohen, Fowler School of Law Assistant Dean of Career Services Melissa Berry, and co-director of LEAP Scott Barnes

Photo courtesy of Legal Aid Society of Orange County

On March 29, Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law welcomed Lonnie T. Brown, Jr., A. Gus Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Legal Ethics and Professionalism at the University of Georgia School of Law, as a guest speaker for the 2016 Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series. His presentation, “From Watts to Ferguson: The Prophetic Wisdom of Ramsey Clark,” was followed by a discussion with Fowler School of Law Interim Dean Scott Howe, and a lively question and answer session with student and faculty guests.

Professor Brown’s presentation was based on part of his larger book project on Ramsey Clark, a notable American lawyer who served many roles across the years including as Attorney General of the United States between 1967 and 1969. In his Dialogue presentation, Brown highlighted the period of time when Clark served as chair of a task force to study the appropriate federal government response to the Watts riots that occurred in Los Angeles in 1965.

Professor Brown provided a detailed description of the events leading to the Watts riots and the devastation that resulted from those events, providing context by describing other riots that had preceded them and the growing racial tensions that were percolating throughout the country. President Lyndon Johnson created a small task force led by Clark to consider the causes of the Watts riots and to identify policies that might be implemented in response. Professor Brown explained the open-minded, sincere and empathetic approach taken by Clark in carrying out the work of the task force, designed to give voice to the affected community. Professor Brown explained the findings in the report, including the calls for a massive effort for providing greater employment opportunity, for opening doors to education and providing an equalization of educational opportunity and quality, to instilling a greater culture of community policing to help overcome distrust and fear among racial minorities, and to fostering greater communication between blacks and whites in the communities. Despite being submitted to him, President Johnson never publicly released the Clark task force report.

Professor Brown explained messages such as those offered by the task force were not well-received by many who saw the riots as unjustified and spurred by illegitimate grievances and the fault of activists, agitators and professional minority leaders exploiting the problems of their own communities. Some came to the defense of the police against what they saw as illegitimate criticism. Others replied to these claims, explaining that the riots were a reminder of deep-seated problems that must be understood and addressed at their roots.

Professor Brown continued by discussing further riots and other tumultuous developments in race relations that occurred post-Watts. He explained Ramsey Clark’s rejection of the law and order mentality to controlling civil unrest and Clark’s favor of more compassionate and understanding approaches instead. Clark eventually left the Department of Justice, but in 1970 published his bestselling book Crime in America, largely echoing and expanding on the sentiments and recommendations provided in his task force report. Professor Brown contended that Clark’s analysis and observations in that book are still relevant today and that we have been reminded of Clark’s concerns periodically across the ensuing 47 years, including most recently with the events in Ferguson, Missouri.

Professor Brown concluded with a riveting comparison of the climate and events in Watts to the same surrounding conditions and beliefs in Ferguson, demonstrating that many problems of the past persist today and that there is a renewed, past-due need to consider some of Ramsey Clark’s decades old, yet under-implemented recommendations. Indeed, as Professor Brown identified through representative comparisons, many parts of the post-Ferguson Department of Justice report sound discouragingly familiar to the analysis and recommendations offered in the Clark task force report nearly 5o years ago. If things are to change, Professor Brown stated, we must acknowledge that stagnation and take a different path, including committing to a more patient, determined and massive effort to give a voice to the unheard and to address the underlying causes of violence and unrest.

View the webcast.

See the full 2015-2016 Chapman Dialogue schedule.

Lonnie T. Brown Jr. is the A. Gus Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Legal Ethics and Professionalism at the University of Georgia School of Law. He joined the Georgia Law faculty in the fall of 2002 and teaches courses in civil procedure, the law and ethics of lawyering, ethics in litigation and conflict of laws. From 2013 to 2015, he served as the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs.

Brown’s research concentrates primarily on legal ethics in the adversary system and he has authored various law review articles in this area. His scholarship also involves biographical research on former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and, to date, includes: “A Tale of Prosecutorial Indiscretion: Ramsey Clark and the Selective Non-Prosecution of Stokely Carmichael” in the South Carolina Law Review (2010), “Ramsey Clark” in the Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law (2009) and “Representing Saddam Hussein: The Importance of Being Ramsey Clark” in the Georgia Law Review (2007).

Prior to joining UGA, Brown was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and served as a visiting assistant professor at Vanderbilt University. In addition, he taught at Emory University as an adjunct professor. He also served as a judicial clerk for Judge William C. O’Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. From 1991 to 1999, he practiced law as an associate and a partner at Alston & Bird in Atlanta.

Brown currently serves on the Drafting Committee for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam and on the State Bar of Georgia Formal Advisory Opinion Board. He also serves as the reporter for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia’s Local Rules Revision Project. In addition, he has been a member of the Executive Committee for the Professional Responsibility Section of the Association of American Law Schools, the AALS Committee on Bar Admission and Lawyer Performance, the American Bar Association’s Center for Professional Responsibility and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers.

In 2007, Brown was the recipient of the inaugural C. Ronald Ellington Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is also an eight-time recipient of the Student Bar Association’s Professionalism Award and has been twice selected as an honorary faculty marshal by graduating classes. At the university level, Brown has served as an Administrative Fellow in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost and as a Senior Teaching Fellow. In addition, he is a member of the UGA Teaching Academy.

Brown earned his bachelor’s degree from Emory University, where he was a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar, student body president and a recipient of the Marion Luther Brittain Award, Emory’s highest student honor. He then earned his law degree from Vanderbilt University, where he was a Patrick Wilson Scholar and editor-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.

About the Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series

The Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series is a special lineup of distinguished lectures by innovative and thought-provoking legal scholars as well as some of the nation’s most prominent legal practitioners. Invited speakers present their research and ideas to a wide audience of faculty, students, alumni and special guests. Each Dialogue concludes with a lively Question and Answer session, typically led by one or two discussants from among the Fowler School of Law faculty.

A team of three Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law students traveled to Kansas City last weekend for the annual Show Me Challenge, the only voir dire competition in the nation. After beating the 2015 winner, University of Texas School of Law, Ashley Daniel (JD ’16), Alex Koehler (JD ’16) and Jessica Roundy (JD ’16) advanced to the semifinal round of the competition.

Voir dire refers to the process by which prospective jurors are questioned about their backgrounds and potential biases before being chosen to sit on a jury. It is a highly skilled process by which attorneys select or reject certain jurors to hear a case.

This is the third year that Fowler School of Law has competed in the Show Me Challenge, and the second year that our teams have made it to the semifinal round.

“As always, I am very proud of our students, not only for the skill they demonstrated but also for the professionalism and civility,” said Director of Competitions and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program Nancy Schultz. “They received so many compliments and kind comments throughout the competition, from judges, jurors, fellow competitors and coaches.”

Read more competition news.

On April 5, the 2015-2016 Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series came to a close with a special installment featuring guest speaker Justice Salim Joubran of the Supreme Court of Israel. The law school community was honored with his presentation entitled “Freedom of Religion and the Role of the Supreme Court,” which was followed by a lively question and answer session with Fowler School of Law Professor Michael Bazyler and more than 100 student and faculty guests. The Dialogue was co-sponsored by the Rose Project of the Jewish Federation & Family Services of Orange County.

Justice Joubran’s presentation focused on explaining the judicial process in Israel, particularly at the Supreme Court and its large caseload of appeals and other actions originating there. He provided key insights from a comparative perspective on the similarities and differences between the judicial systems in Israel and the United States. He described the complications of an unwritten constitution compared with a written one, the role of the Basic Laws and protections for human rights in Israel, and the principle of separation of powers within the Israel system of governance. Justice Joubran’s first-hand, high-level insight on the Israeli judicial system and his deep understanding of comparative law provided a truly unique educational experience for the attendees.

Justice Joubran with LL.M. students Noga Halperin and Liora Kulik

Prior to the presentation, Justice Joubran met with Fowler School of Law faculty and students, along with members of the Rose Project. Two LL.M. students included in the meeting, Liora Kulik and Noga Halperin, both from Israel, said it was a unique opportunity to learn more about their own justice system, and one they’d be unlikely encounter at home.

Justice Salim Joubran is the Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel. A graduate from the Law Faculty at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Joubran has served as the Judge at the Magistrate Court in Haifa in 1982-1993 and the Appointed Judge of the District Court in Haifa in 1993.

Justice Joubran with Fowler School of Law Professor Michael Bazyler

Joubran currently serves as the Chairperson of the Central Elections Committee to the 20th Knesset. He is also a member of the Board of the “Jewish-Arab Center” at the University of Haifa, a member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Haifa, and is recognized as Honorary Doctorate from the University of Haifa.

View the webcast.

About the Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series

The Chapman Dialogue Lecture Series is a special lineup of distinguished lectures by innovative and thought-provoking legal scholars as well as some of the nation’s most prominent legal practitioners. Invited speakers present their research and ideas to a wide audience of faculty, students, alumni and special guests. Each Dialogue concludes with a lively Question and Answer session, typically led by one or two discussants from among the Fowler School of Law faculty.

After clerking for the District Attorney’s Office during the summer after his first year of law school, alumnus Hunter Taylor (’07) knew he’d found his place in the world. Nine years later and still with the DA, he’s helping a younger generation find theirs.

As a prosecutor in the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office’s Crime Prevention Unit in 2013, Taylor began an outreach program called Real Men Read to address the well-documented link between literacy and incarceration rates. Since then, Taylor and other volunteers have met weekly with incarcerated and at-risk young men to encourage literacy outside of the classroom and the development of positive life skills.

The program, which began with four participants working with the DA’s Youth Accountability Teams, serves roughly 350 youths in juvenile halls and the greater Riverside community. In December, Taylor was honored as Crime Prevention Prosecutor of the Year by the Riverside District Attorney’s Office.

The key to the reading program’s success, Taylor said, is meeting each participant at his own level and interests, and removing traditional institutional expectations. Rather than asking the group to read the same book, Taylor brings anywhere from 20 to 30 books to each meeting for participants. If nothing piques their interests, he hunts for more options.

“I can’t say, ‘Hey, you should really read Catcher in the Rye, it’ll change your life,’ because it may not for these kids,” he said. “We’re working with youths who proudly admit they have never finished a book before. After a while, they’re telling you about how many they’ve read as part of [Real Men Read] and you realize they were always receptive to the idea of literacy. It’s just the angle that they’ve been looking at it from.”

The weekly meetings typically begin with word games and exercises to inspire “divergent” and critical thinking, where participants are encouraged to propose solutions to riddles or puzzles to get them comfortable with speaking in a group setting. From there, participants discuss the books they are reading, breaking down their likes and dislikes. Finally, they finish with either a short story reading or a guest speaker.

Guest speakers are typically everyday people – construction workers, school teachers, pilots and occasionally servicemen – to present positive role models to the youths.

“The goal is to show that all these people are successful and that it comes down to their hard work, literacy and focus on education,” Taylor said.

Occasionally, the meetings also provide valuable life skills lessons, such as how to knot a necktie, change a tire or create a resume.

Eventually, Taylor said he’d like to see the program expand to clubs on local high school campuses. He said the response he’s seen from participants in the voluntary program and the community has been both surprising and encouraging.

“They don’t have to be there, but we get 20 kids showing up to a meeting,” he said. “And when you do the math on how many minutes they’ve spent reading where they’re not using drugs, not stealing – their noses are in books – it’s amazing.”

One of the juvenile hall participants even presented him with a handmade construction paper stocking for Christmas.

“I defy you to go into any jail and find an inmate who is making a gift for a district attorney,” he said. “A lot of these kids are pretty guarded and look at me and my office as the ones who put them there, so it’s a great feeling when they walk up and give you a fist bump and joke with you.”

Above: Hunter Taylor with civilian volunteer Dan Bernstein in front of the Riverside County Juvenile Hall

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Professor Julie Marzouk’s article “Ethical and Effective Representation of Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors in Domestic Violence-Based Asylum Cases” was recently published in the Clinical Law Review (Volume 22, Number 2).

From the abstract:

In the last two years more than 100,000 immigrant minors have flooded the southern border of the United States. Many of the children seeking refuge are domestic violence survivors whose governments cannot or will not protect them from familial assault, rape, and torture. Responding to the critical need for lawyers, the Family Protection Clinic at Chapman University Fowler School of Law represented four unaccompanied minors facing deportation. The children, siblings ranging in ages from thirteen to eighteen, fled Central America to escape extreme sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their father. This article focuses on specific opportunities and challenges encountered during the Clinic’s representation of the minors to shed light on the pedagogical possibilities presented by the legal and humanitarian crisis of child migration. The article seeks to engage clinicians and law students in the representation of immigrant children and attempts to articulate best practices for enhancing student learning. The purposeful lawyering of unaccompanied minors in domestic violence-based asylum cases is a meaningful vehicle to teach practical lawyering skills, professional ethics, and critical analysis of the current legal paradigm. In selecting these cases, clinicians will be afforded the opportunity to teach the law of asylum, respond to a refugee disaster, and train the next generation of effective social justice advocates.

Read the full article.

Professor Marzouk teaches the Bette and Wylie Aitken Family Protection Clinic Immigration seminar. She recently received the 2016 California Lawyer’s CLAY Attorney of the Year Award for immigration. Prior to joining the Chapman faculty, Professor Marzouk was the Supervising Attorney at Orange County’s Public Law Center (PLC). While at PLC, she provided direct legal services to low-income immigrant clients and directed county-wide legal initiatives serving immigrant victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. She managed the legal services portion of the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, oversaw PLC’s partnership in the Orange County Immigration Detention Collaborative, and developed the Orange County Naturalization Initiative Collaboration. Professor Marzouk has worked as an Immigration Staff Attorney at Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County, and as a private practice immigration attorney, representing individuals in removal and deportation proceedings. She began law practice as an associate at Bingham McCutchen LLP in San Francisco, California.  Professor Marzouk graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University. She received her JD from Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

Two first-year Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law students, Ashley Anderson and Lindsay Joanou, faced-off before a packed house in the appellate courtroom on Monday for the final round of the 2016 Rutan & Tucker Golden Gavel Competition.

Golden Gavel winners Lindsay Joanou and Ashley Anderson

Although the two winners are determined in advance, the final hearing offers the students a unique opportunity to test their advocacy skills before a panel of prestigious judges, family and friends.

Speaking to finalists at the conclusion of their arguments, competition judge and Rutan & Tucker partner John Hurlbut stressed, “I think one of the best things I saw – and this is something that every advocate needs to know  – was how well you had absolute presence and understanding of all the cases, and were able to turn them around in a way that supported your positions. That’s something that’s really hard to do, but both of you did an incredible job.”

The exhibition was the culmination of the weeklong annual competition in which all first-year students present a mock appellate oral argument based on legal briefs written in the spring semester of their required Legal Research and Writing (LRW) class. Out of more than 150 participating students, four made it to the final round, Ryan Cooper and Lindsay Joanou for the plaintiff and Ashley Anderson and Marie Sutton for the defendant. Ultimately, Joanou and Anderson received the coveted Golden Gavel award and $500 scholarship.

Ashley Anderson argues her case in the final round of the Golden Gavel Competition

“We think Ashley and Lindsay both performed extremely well,” said Legal Research and Writing Professor Rita Barnett. “They both knew their facts and their cases inside and out, articulated their respective positions clearly, and handled the judges’ questions respectfully and admirably. It’s always great as LRW professors to have our spring semester end with this competition and to watch our 1L students perform so professionally.”

This year’s judges were Judge Glenda Sanders, Superior Court of California; Justice David Thompson, California 4^th District Court of Appeal; and John Hurlbut, Partner at Rutan & Tucker.

The case related to whether the single purpose container exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement should be determined by the objective layperson viewpoint or the subjective officer viewpoint, and whether the defendant was entitled to a jury instruction on entrapment.

The annual competition is sponsored by Rutan & Tucker, LLP, a leading Orange County law firm with a strong history of investment in the mission of Chapman University and the Fowler School of Law, including the annual Golden Gavel and Golden Quill first-year advocacy and writing competitions.

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Professor and Vice Chancellor for Graduate Education at Chapman University Richard Redding’s article “The Counterintuitive Costs and Benefits of Clinical Legal Education” was recently published by the Wisconsin Law Review.

From the abstract:

Professor Jason Yackee’s recent study, Does Experiential Learning Improve JD Employment Outcomes?, finding no relationship between a schools’ clinical offerings and student employment outcomes was greeted with skepticism by the clinical legal education (hereinafter “CLE”) community. If we may tentatively conclude from the study that clinical courses fail to give students any significant leg-up in the job market, then perhaps CLE entails some counterintuitive pedagogical costs and benefits that we ought to consider. Could it come at the expense of what is nowadays often touted as being precisely its goal, which is to equip students with practice-ready skills? Contrary to what they promise to students and employers, clinics provide a relatively poor platform for students to learn and master legal skills. Instead, the often unrealized potential of clinics is that they can foster in students a better understanding and appreciation of the legal theory and analysis that is the mainstay of their doctrinal counterpart. The most meaningful, lasting, and transferable lawyering skill is knowing how to interpret, manipulate, employ, and reform legal (and relevant interdisciplinary and extralegal) theory, doctrines, and practices when applying them to solve real-world client problems. Clinical education is most effective when it actively engages students to grapple with the applications and limitations of legal theory and doctrine and the ways in which to interrogate and innovate existing law and practices. Thus, CLE can be immensely valuable, but not for the reasons typically advertised.

Read the full article.

Dr. Richard Redding currently serves as the Vice Chancellor for Graduate Education at Chapman University, where he is the current holder of the Wang-Fradkin Chair, the highest honor Chapman can bestow on a faculty member for exceptional merit in scholarly or creative activity.  Previously, he served as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Dean for Administration, at the Fowler School of Law. Dr. Redding specializes in forensic issues in criminal law; juvenile justice; the use of social science research in law and public policy; the role of sociopolitical attitudes in diversity, and interpersonal and professional functioning; and the ways in which social and political attitudes influence how science is used in policy making. His work in these areas is both theoretical (or policy-oriented) and empirical. Dr. Redding has published over 75 articles and book chapters in leading legal and peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Law and Human Behavior, Behavioral Sciences & the Law, University of Chicago Roundtable, Utah Law Review, American University Law Review, Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law, Washington & Lee Law Review, Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, American Psychologist, Psychological Science, Psychological Inquiry, Journal of Social Issues, and the Duke Journal of Gender Law and Policy, as well as publications of the American Bar Association, the MacArthur Foundation, the University of Chicago Press, Oxford University Press, and the U.S. Justice Department. He also has co-authored or co-edited four books.

Thirty students from Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law were honored at the law school’s fourth annual Scholarship and Award Luncheon last Thursday, April 21. The event not only provided an opportunity for the university to honor its scholarship and award recipients but also allowed some students to meet the generous donors of their respective awards.

The 2015-2016 Bechtel Tax Law Honors Scholarship was awarded to George Anezinos (JD ’16), William Bgdoian (JD ’17) and Sheri Wight (JD ’16). Through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bechtel, the law school presents the Bechtel Tax Law Honors Scholarship award each year, the first private scholarship offered by the law school. This cash grant is awarded to Tax Law Emphasis students who demonstrate academic excellence and have made significant contributions to the tax law program at Fowler School of Law.

Wendy Chan (JD ‘17), Vanessa Corona (JD ‘17), Lindsay Joanou (JD ’18), Addison Kahn (JD ’18), Thomas Padian (JD ’18), Mandi Shaughnessy-Ford (JD ’18), Aaron Short (JD ‘17), Armeeta Thakore (JD ’18) and Philip Ye (JD ‘17) received Bergener Mirejovsky Scholarships. Bergener Mirejovsky Scholarships are awarded annually to incoming first-year students who have worked full time for at least one year (preferably in a legal setting) prior to entering law school and demonstrated that they have acquired work skills and obtained competencies through real-world experiences. Bergener Mirejovsky is a California personal injury law firm that actively seeks lawyers who possess its brand of dedication to the law and client service. In 2014, the firm doubled the scholarship program, providing a second year of scholarships to each of the prior year’s recipients.

The M. Katherine Baird Darmer Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Kristin Hayes (JD ’17) and Lakshmi Odedra (JD ’17). The M. Katherine Baird Darmer Memorial Scholarship fund provides financial support to Fowler School of Law students who plan to use their degree to promote human rights and public interest law, and show commitment to gender equality issues. The scholarship honors the life and work of Professor M. Katherine Baird Darmer, a beloved teacher and colleague at the Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law who passed away in 2012.

Ashley Davies (JD ’17) was awarded the Holly Frost Memorial Scholarship. This award is designed to support students who emulate the ethic of giving to others and believe in the highest principles in the legal profession.

Tyler Costanzo (JD ’18), Jade McKenzie (JD ’16) and Mallorie Smith (JD ’17) were awarded as Kennedy Scholars. This award was established in the name of the late Donald P. Kennedy, former chairman of First American Financial Corporation.

The Lee Memorial Scholarship was awarded to Michelle Fraser (JD ’16). The Lee Memorial Scholarship is awarded to students who demonstrate a financial need in order to pursue the study of law. It is based on need and academic standing, and priority is given to students who demonstrate an interest in working in areas of public interest.

Kyle Hindin (JD ’16) and Heidi Stryker (JD ’16) received the CAL-ABOTA Marjorie W. Day Memorial Scholarship.

The Leonida and Stephanie Palmos ENLURE Scholarship was awarded to Craig Hayes (JD ’16).

Rutan & Tucker, LLP supports the Fowler School of Law Legal Research and Writing Program, which includes the Golden Gavel and the Golden Quill awards. The 2016 Rutan & Tucker Golden Gavel award recipients were Ashley Anderson (JD ’18) and Lindsay Joanou (JD ’18). The Golden Gavel award is given annually to students who are selected as the “Best Oralists” for the plaintiff and the defendant in the first year students’ Oral Argument Competition. The 2015 Rutan & Tucker Golden Quill award recipients were Grace Haeri (JD ’17) and Kerri Polizzi (JD ’17). The Golden Quill Award is presented annually to students whose briefs are selected as the “Top Briefs” for the plaintiff and the defendant in the first year students’ Legal Research and Writing Competition. Rutan & Tucker, LLP has sponsored the Golden Quill and Golden Gavel awards since 2006.

Sonia Masters (JD ’17), Kevin Oveisi (JD ’17) and Amanda Thyden (JD ’17) received the Stallworth Endowed Scholarship. Dr. William Stallworth was a founding faculty member of the Chapman University School of Law. As a Contracts professor, he relished working with students who excelled in these important courses. When he retired, Dr. Stallworth gave $50,000 for this endowment. The purpose of the fund is to award scholarships to Fowler School of Law students who excel in Contracts.

The Parham H. Williams Endowed Scholarship for Public Interest was awarded to Ashley Davies. This scholarship is awarded to graduating law students with a strong academic background, who demonstrate commitment to public interest endeavors and plan to become public interest practitioners.

Notable achievements include Ashley Davies, who received two awards – the Holly Frost Memorial Scholarship and the Parham H. Williams Endowed Scholarship for Public Interest.

Congratulations to all of our Fowler School of Law students on their hard work, and thank you again to our generous donors!

Learn more about available scholarships.

Click here to see a slideshow of the Scholarship and Award Luncheon.

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law Professor Frank Doti’s Contract Law, Flowcharts and Cases: A Visual Guide to Understanding Contracts will be published this May in its fourth edition.

The book, used by students, professors and lawyers worldwide, contains schematic flowcharts that visually plot the rules of contract law as well as recent case examples to help students better understand the subject matter in a unique way.

Professor Frank J. Doti is a cum laude graduate of Chicago-Kent College of Law and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana. He is a member of the bars of the states of California, Illinois and Colorado and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Professor Doti is certified by the California State Bar as a Tax Law Specialist under the demanding certification of law specialists program. Before coming to Chapman, he was an associate attorney for five years at McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago. He also served as vice president and tax law counsel for seven years at the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago.  He holds the William P. Foley Chair in Corporate & Taxation Law at the Fowler School of Law.

Doti teaches contract law, federal income taxation, and estate and gift tax law. Chapman students selected Doti as Professor of the Year in 2012. He was the first recipient of the Katherine Darmer Teaching Excellence Award.

He has published numerous law review articles on various taxation law issues. One of those was recently cited in a brief filed with the United States Supreme Court in Murphy v. U.S. He has served as an articles editor of the American Bar Association Tax Lawyer.

Doti founded the first pro-bono taxation law clinic in California. Fowler School of Law is one the first law schools to garner IRS funding and has been awarded more than $1.5 million since the clinic’s inception. He also founded Fowler Law’s JD Tax Law Emphasis program, the very first emphasis program at Chapman.

Professor Doti is also the founder and a board consultant of the Orange County Legal Education Foundation. The Foundation has granted over $1 million in scholarships to deserving law students in southern California since 1987.

Continued and increased student connectedness will be the focus of the 2016-2017 Student Bar Association (SBA) Executive Board, which was recently elected. The new board includes President Alexis King (JD ’17), Vice President Ashley Mascari (JD ’17), Treasurer Jon Abramson (JD ’17), Secretary Kristin Hayes (JD ’17) and Parliamentarian Ashley Davies (JD ’17).

King, President, received her bachelor’s degree in public relations with a minor in legal environment of business from Pennsylvania State University. As president, she hopes to bring students together through both social and professional events, and to increase communication between faculty and students.

“I am looking forward to further engrossing myself in student life by interacting with both my fellow students and the faculty to ensure that our school continues to foster an environment that is both academically rigorous and fulfilling,” she said.

Mascari, Vice President, graduated from Pennsylvania State University with a bachelor’s degree in Italian and political science. In addition to SBA, she is also on the Alternative Dispute Resolution Board and has served on the Nexus journal.

“This year I’m looking forward to working with the rest of all the amazing members of SBA to plan events that students are excited to attend and make my 3L year the best possible,” she said.

Abramson, who received his bachelor’s degree in media arts and animation from the Art Institute of California, Orange County, said he looks forward to helping other students become more involved on the Fowler School of Law campus through various events. He is also a member of the Chapman Air and Space Law Society, the Intellectual Property Law Society and the St. Thomas Moore Society.

Hayes, Secretary, received her bachelor’s degree from California State University, Fullerton in public relations. She is also president of the Mock Trial Board and a member of the Public Interest Law Foundation (PILF) and the Criminal Law Society.

“Although I enjoyed planning SBA’s events this past year, I am excited to have the opportunity to be more involved in the many facets of SBA and help effectuate a positive learning environment for all of the law students at Fowler School of Law,” she said.

Davies, Parliamentarian, received her bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of San Francisco. She is currently also a member of PILF and the Moot Court Competition Boards.

“My main goal for the year is to ensure that there is transparency between SBA and the rest of the Fowler School of Law student body,” she said. “I want all Fowler students to feel that they can voice any concerns they may have. Next year is going to be a great year, and I want to do everything I possibly can to make sure that it’s memorable for all of us.”

While many students were making their way through midterms and dreaming of tropical vacations or carefully building their Netflix queues the week before spring break, Nathan Grosch (JD ’16) and Sean Cruz (JD ’17) were putting their education to an entirely different kind of test.

Cruz and Grosch had instead taken their midterms early and traveled with Fowler School of Law Professor and Mediation Clinic Director David Dowling to help teach a weeklong course to 30 Ukrainian students, law professors and practicing professionals eager to learn about mediation, which is not currently taught or practiced in the country.  The experience offered both students a rare chance to put their education to use and gain some much valued perspective.

“We had some students who traveled hundreds of miles and stayed for the entire week, specifically for this class. It was incredible,” Cruz said. “These are students and professionals who are going to shape the country into what they want it to be. They’re trying to enact change while still students, and it was incredible to be a part of that.”

Professor David Dowling leads a class session at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Professor Dowling began working with Ukrainian students from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 2013, first providing impromptu lessons and mentorship at an international student competition, and later teaching a short introduction to mediation via Skype last summer. Thanks to the success of that course, Professor Dowling was invited by the same students to teach a week of in-person training. He immediately began searching for two students to assist.

“I thought this was a fantastic opportunity to travel to another country that had virtually no exposure to mediation and to see how their education can help others understand the benefits of mediation,” Professor Dowling said.

Professor Dowling, Cruz and Grosch with their class of 30 Ukrainian students, professors and professionals

For Grosch and Cruz, the participants’ eagerness was a powerful lesson in the significance of mediation. The course, which was originally intended for 25 students, had 75 applicants.

“It was a really moving and humbling experience as a student,” Grosch said. “You can’t really put it into words. This group of students sees that there’s only one way to do things in Ukraine and they feel that is doesn’t meet the needs of the community. They were so hungry for new ideas, unbelievably engaged and passionate about learning the material.”

Cruz and Grosch have both participated in the Mediation Clinics directed by Professor Dowling. As part of Fowler School of Law’s Juvenile Hall Conflict Resolution Clinic, both students taught mediation techniques to at-risk juveniles, which provided a unique palette of mediation techniques they were able to use when training the Ukrainian students. While Professor Dowling provided lectures, both students were responsible for leading role-playing activities and providing feedback for the Ukrainian students.

Professor Dowling (center), Cruz and Grosch with the two organizing Ukrainian students

One of the most telling moments of their success, Grosch said, was when a student asked to have another try at a role play activity that Grosch had provided feedback on the day before. After fumbling through a mock opening statement on the first try, the student took Grosch’s recommendations and returned the next day ready to try again.

“When he did it the second time, he was flawless. He had gone home and practiced. These people were all there voluntarily and all had school or work before our class,” he said. “They were just so willing to glean as much as they could from the material being presented. Every time I’ve traveled out of the country I come back with a renewed sense of how special it is to live in America where we have exposure to so many things, and these people are just so hungry to get parts of what we have access to all the time.”

Both students called the experience life-changing.

Grosch, Cruz and Professor Dowling explore the city of Kyiv

“I would call it awesome in the truest sense of the word,” Grosch said. “To watch people start to glow with the idea that maybe they could adopt certain aspects of our version to benefit their system, and to realize that we really had an impact and the people we worked with will now take what we gave them and use our ceiling as their floor to build upon is a very unique thing to have been a part of.”

“It was just one of those things that you’re going to tell your kids about,” Cruz said. “I made great friends, I have an entirely new appreciation for mediation and it was my first chance to really travel and experience a different culture. This experience, and working with the Mediation Clinic in general, has definitely changed the way I look at the law.”

Learn more about the Fowler School of Law Mediation Clinic and the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Board.

Photos courtesy of Nathan Grosch and Sean Cruz

Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law will welcome California Supreme Court Associate Justice Goodwin Liu as the class of 2016 commencement ceremony speaker on May 20.

Justice Liu is a prolific and influential scholar on constitutional law and education policy. He currently serves on the California Access to Justice Commission, the governing board of the American Law Institute, the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law of the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Bar Association Task Force on Financing Legal Education. He has previously served on the Board of Trustees of Stanford University and the board of directors of the Alliance for Excellent Education, the American Constitution Society, the National Women’s Law Center, and the Public Welfare Foundation.

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The commencement ceremony will take place on Chapman University’s Holly & David Wilson Field at 4 p.m. on May 20, with the procession beginning at 3:45 p.m. Graduating students are asked to arrive at 3 p.m. Commencement is a ticketless event and graduates are welcome to invite as many guests they choose. A live webcast will be streamed for those who cannot attend. A Twitter ticker will also run on the Jumbotron during the ceremony for anyone to send out congratulatory messages. Use #ChapmanU in your congratulatory tweets to have your messages on the big screen.

A reception in Kennedy Hall 237AB for graduates and their guests will immediately follow the ceremony.

Graduation Banquet

Commencement festivities will begin on Thursday, May 19, with the annual graduation banquet at Turnip Rose Celebrations in Costa Mesa. The special dinner banquet and awards ceremony, which recognizes the achievements of the graduating class, is free for graduating students. More information and ticket reservation can be found on the Graduation Banquet RSVP page.

Two Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law alumnae will perform Saturday, June 18 at 8 p.m. in the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown LA, as part of the LA Lawyers Philharmonic annual extraordinaire. Lauren Hazarian (‘10) will perform as a soloist and Lisa Mahlum (‘11) as an orchestra violinist. Both alumnae have been involved in the LA Lawyers Philharmonic & Legal Voices for several years.

Lisa Mahlum (’11), orchestra violinist

This year’s concert will include selections from Candide, Appalachian Spring, Rodeo and the Grand Canyon Suite. Favorites will include Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, along with enchanting music from Tom Sawyer, The Jungle Book, Iron Man II and the Disneyland theme parks. You will also hear some of their rock n’ roll hits including Tall Paul, You’re Sixteen and Let’s Get Together. The concert’s grand final will close with an arrangement of It’s A Small World conducted by Richard M. Sherman.

LA Lawyers Philharmonic & Legal Voices is also seeking new members! Open auditions are held throughout the year. Find more information about auditions.

For more information or tickets to the June 18 performance, visit the LA Lawyers Philharmonic website.

Read more alumni news.

Submit a class note.

Above: Lauren Hazarian (’10) performs as a soloist