Santa Clara University

Law Briefs

Ogletree Lectures on Race and the Supreme Court

During his visit to the School of Law, Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., talks with Dean Donald Polden.

Last fall, Harvard Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., spoke on campus on race and the Supreme Court, coincidentally just hours after United States Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist had died.

Ogletree offered a unique perspective during a social justice diversity lecture. In 1991, he was on the team that represented Anita Hill during the Senate confirmation hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas. He has also been a public defender and in private practice in Washington, D.C.

The professor predicted that the new court would feel the influence of Justice Antonin Scalia, who will be at its intellectual center, due to his seniority, deep understanding of the judicial process, and commanding leadership.

But he also noted that because of stare decisis and the desire for consensus, new justices initially seen as conservative often grativate towards the center.

Ogletree, who grew up in the Central Valley city of Merced, has written several books, including With All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education. His most recent book is Brown at 50: The Unfinished Legacy, which he co-authored with Stanford University Law Professor Deborah Rhode. The book commemorates the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.

Capital Defense Training

Thanks to funding by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, a capital trial defense training was held at the law school in November. SCU was chosen as the site in part because of the law school’s long commitment to death penalty issues. The Death Penalty College at Santa Clara, which has trained capital lawyers in summer programs since 1992, is viewed as a model for capital training.

The federal training at the law school is the first of five that will be held around the nation, and was funded pursuant to a White House initiative to provide better training for lawyers handling state capital cases, according to Santa Clara law professor Ellen Kreitzberg, who co-directed the program.

“The government paid for the costs of all those who attended,” Kreitzberg said, “allowing those in underserved areas who are grossly underpaid for capital work to attend a training. For some, it was the first training program they had attended.”

Attendees included teams working on specific cases, including lawyers, investigators, and mitigation specialists who discussed actual cases they are working on. In addition, the attendees also learned how to train others when they return from the course.

Community Law Center hosts Japanese Law School Visitors

The innovative work of the Katharine and George Alexander Community Law Center attracted five visitors from a Japanese law school in November, who wanted to learn more about American clinical legal education, and to develop new models for legal clinics in Japan.

The professors and clinical attorneys from the Omiya Law School met with KGACLC staff to discuss models of service delivery, clinical instruction, and legal practice in California and the United States. Omiya Law School is located near Tokyo, and is one of several new graduate-level law schools established in Japan that are similar to the post-graduate law schools in the U.S. Until recently, Japanese lawyers typically studied law as undergraduates and then took the bar examination.

Professor Angelo Ancheta, KGACLC’s director, visited Omiya Law School in return in February. He addressed a local bar association to discuss opportunities and models for clinical legal education in Japan.

International Journal Now Peer Reviewed

The Santa Clara Journal of International Law is now the law school’s first peer-reviewed academic publication. The new process is a departure from the way most American law journals are published.

The peer review process will introduce new requirements at the journal. With the addition of faculty review of scholarly work, the relatively new journal is expected to attract renowned scholars from around the world. Students will continue to play a major role in the journal’s production, in everything from selecting themes for future issues to reviewing articles.

“Santa Clara’s international faculty are very excited about working with our Journal members to produce high quality scholarship on contemporary issues of international and comparative law,” said Professor Beth Van Schaack, who is the journal’s faculty advisor.

“In particular, we are looking forward to working more closely with members of our international faculty who have contributed so much to our many summer programs in this new scholarly endeavor.”

Samantha Power to speak at Commencement

Prize-winning author Samantha Power will speak at the School of Law’s 2006 commencement, which is May 20 in the Mission Gardens at SCU.

Samantha Power, award-winning author and Harvard Law professor, will be the 2006 Commencement speaker.

Samantha Power is a Professor of Practice in Public Policy at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University. Her book, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Award for general nonfiction. Power was the founding executive director of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy (1998-2002). From 1993 to 1996, she covered the wars in the former Yugoslavia as a reporter for U.S. News and World Report, the Boston Globe, and the Economist. She is the editor, with Graham Allison, of Realizing Human Rights: Moving from Inspiration to Impact. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, she has written a new introduction to Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism and has begun work on a book on the causes and consequences of historical amnesia in American foreign policy.

“Power is one of the leading commentators and thinkers about international and national government policies that affect the protection of international human rights,” says Dean Donald J. Polden. “I am pleased that our graduates will have an opportunity to hear from her as they begin their work as lawyers and public servants.”

Mabie Family Foundation endows $1.25 million scholarship

Assistant Dean for Development John Baldwin recently announced a gift of $1.25 million from the William and Inez Mabie Family Foundation. The gift will establish an endowed scholarship for entering students from Santa Clara County or San Benito County.

Dean Donald Polden expressed his thanks to alumnus Ronald Hayes Malone ’71, director of the Mabie Foundation, for arranging the gift. “The generous support of Ron and the Mabie Foundation has significantly aided the School of Law in exceeding its $12 million goal in the current capital campaign, From Promise to Prominence, and its goal of $4 million for student scholarships,” Polden said.

Law Review Symposium

The United States Supreme Court’s controversial ruling on eminent domain in Kelo v. City of New London was a key focus of the Santa Clara Law Review’s 2006 symposium, held in February at the Hotel Valencia in San Jose’s Santana Row. A daylong event, The Future of Property Redevelopment: From Eminent Domain to Affordable Housing focused on the constitutional, social, and economic consequences of property redevelopment, featured a variety of speakers, including Judge William A. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, who delivered the keynote address.

The day featured three panel discussions, each examining different issues involving property redevelopers and municipalities. Panelists included Thomas Merrill, professor of law at Columbia University; Scott Bullock and Daniel Krisch, both of whom were directly involved in litigating Kelo before the Supreme Court; and California land use experts Daniel J. Curtin, Jr. and Norman E. Matteoni. Other distinguished professors and practitioners on the panels included Judith E. Koons, Roger Marzulla, Matthew Parlow, Eric Claeys, and Debra Saunders.

Berg Retires

“I loved every minute of teaching at Santa Clara,” said recently retired law professor Richard Berg. “It was great life experience.”

Berg taught at the law school 31 years, instructing countless first year students in civil procedure, and teaching second and third year students about alternative dispute resolution and public interest law.

“Richard is a great mentor and a person who truly cares about teaching,” said Ruth (Edman) Hauswirth ’94, who spoke at a recent reception on campus to honor Berg.
“He brought a lot of energy,” said former law school dean George Alexander. “He developed the alternative dispute resolution program and he helped develop the public interest program.”

In retirement, the professor is keeping busy with activities both on and off-campus. But surfing near his Santa Cruz home isn’t one of them. “I tried surfing, but I’m too old to make it work,” he said. “I’ll stick with tennis.”

Berg also owns several downtown San Jose businesses, including South First Billiards and Angels nightclub, and is involved in efforts to improve the area.

At the law school, he continues to chair the Public Interest Endowment and also directs the school’s summer law programs in Singapore and Bangkok.

Berg is also on the board of the Watsonville Law Center and is active in international issues, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Father of two grown children, he spends two months each year on the Indonesian island of Bali, the native land of his wife, Madé.