Your Personal Perspective Can Make a Difference

EVENTS

Southwestern to Honor Three with Honorary Degrees

Tony Award-Winning Student to Sing National Anthem at Commencement

A Conversation with...

Don't miss "Table Days" in April

"Table Days" are intended to provide students with the opportunity to receive advice from faculty, deans and staff on planning their schedule for the upcoming academic year and preparing for their legal career. Tables will be grouped by areas of interests, including entertainment law, business law, criminal law, international law, skills courses, bar preparation, public interest, student honors groups and much more. The event will take place on the Promenade during the following dates and times:

• Monday, April 7, 5 - 6 p.m.
• Tuesday, April 8, 12 - 2 p.m. and 5 – 6 p.m.
• Wednesday, April 9, 12 – 2 p.m.
  
  

Bestselling Author Returns to Southwestern

Leading State Jurists to Preside Over Final Intramural Moot Court Rounds

On Saturday, April 12, Southwestern's top two oralists, selected that day after earlier rounds, will present their arguments before five of the nation's leading jurists in the final round of the law school's 2008 Intramural Moot Court Competition. The event will take place at 4 p.m. at the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 125 S. Grand Avenue, Pasadena. Presiding over the competition are Hon. Louis B. Butler, Jr., Wisconsin Supreme Court; Hon. Rives Kistler, Supreme Court of Oregon; Hon. Elizabeth B. Lacy, Supreme Court of Virginia; Hon. Steven H. Levinson, Supreme Court of Hawaii; and Hon. Charles R. Wilson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Presiding over the semi-final competition, immediately prior at 2 p.m., are Hon. J. Gary Hastings '72 (ret.), Hon. Paul Turner and Hon. Thomas L. Willhire, Jr. of the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District; Hon. George P. Schiavelli, Hon. Andrew J. Wistrich, and Hon. Otis D. Wright, II of the U.S. District Court, Central District of California; and Hon. Erithe A. Smith of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California. All members of the Southwestern community are invited to attend the events (please RSVP to the Moot Court Office).

CAREER SERVICES CORNER

The Career Services Office (CSO) has several upcoming events to help students make connections, obtain clerkships, learn about the Patent Bar and prepare to be a summer clerk. For more information on any of the following programs, contact the Career Services Office.

Panel Presentations Feature Practitioners in Various Areas of Law

Lawyers speak about their experiences in various areas of the law in a series of panel presentations.

• Lawyers Working in Public Interest will take place on Wednesday, April 2 at 12:30 pm in W311. Panelists include Priscilla Musso, Los Angeles District Attorney's Office; Chris Newman, National Day Laborer Organizing Network; Pegah Kamrava, Bet Tzedek Legal Services; Dennis Smeal, Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers/Law Offices of Barry Allen Herzog; and moderated by Professor Laura Cohen.
  
• Find out what its like to be a litigator as well as the different types of law encompassed under this concept at What does it mean to be a "litigator?" This panel will take place on Thursday, April 3 at 12:30 pm in W311. Panelist include: Craig Breitman, Selman Breitman LLP; Cecilia Amo, The Cochran Firm; Heidi Yoshioka, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP; and others.
  

Early Planning Encouraged for 2009 Post-Graduate Judicial Clerkship Applications

Applications for 2009 federal court clerkships will be due early September 2008, but students are encouraged to begin their planning now. Those interested in State Court clerkships need to check deadline dates, as they vary from state to state.

For more information, please see the Career Services Office and plan on attending the Career Services Seminar on Post-Graduate Judicial Clerkships, scheduled for Thursday, April 10 at 12:30 and 5 p.m in W311.

Summer Job Listings and Networking Reception

In an effort to assist students, the Alumni Association in conjunction with the Institutional Relations and Career Services offices, have contacted Southwestern alumni and encouraged them to list positions for Southwestern students for the summer as well as for graduates pending bar results. Last year, more than 100 paid and volunteer positions were listed. The CSO has lists already published and more will come out every Friday until the end of the semester. The CSO will also host a Networking Reception on Wednesday, April 9 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the Salle Moderne, where many of these employers will be present to chat with students. This is a great networking and career-building event and should not be missed!

Summer Clerk Boot Camp

Find out what to do to get the most out of summer clerking experiences at Summer Clerk Boot Camp on Tuesday, April 22 at 12:30 and 5 p.m. in W311. Topics will include how to approach assignments, effective networking skills, how to deal with billable hours, and everything else that students need to know to make the summer a success.

Get Ready for the On-Campus Interview Program

The On-Campus Interview Program (OCIP) will begin in August - the week before school starts - so if you would like to participate, you should attend How to Participate in the On-Campus Interview Program and Other Things You Should Know about Finding a Job on Monday, April 24 at 12:30 and 5 pm in W311. During OCIP, employers will visit campus to interview students for summer 2009 and post-graduate positions. In order to participate in the OCIP, students must attend one of the mandatory sessions offered in April and again over the course of the summer. Learn about law firm recruiting, the mechanics of the OCIP, and what you will need to do to be ready for it.

AROUND CAMPUS

Senior Staff Promotion

New Staff

Katrina Nierva, Student Services Assistant, Student Affairs Office - Ms. Nierva earned her bachelor's degree in Political Science from UCLA, where she worked as an Academic Peer Counselor in a student-initiated and student-managed retention projects. In this position, she designed and conducted workshops on a variety of academic and social topics to ensure student development and satisfaction.

Southwestern Campus - Part of Angels Walk LA

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

A Dozen Questions for Professor Sung Hui Kim

Q: At what point, and how, did you determine what area of law you wanted to practice?
A: Believe it or not, I was pretty clueless about practice areas during law school. In fact, I really didn't decide on a specific practice area until probably a year into my law practice. These days law firms expect that you have a concrete preference early on, which I think forces young lawyers to commit prematurely. It was not until I practiced at Hale and Dorr in Washington, D.C. (which has since merged into Wilmer Cutler Hale and Dorr) that I decided that I really enjoyed corporate finance transactions, such as IPOs and bond offerings.

Q: What was the biggest difference between working for law firms and serving as General Counsel for Red Bull?
A: The biggest difference was the control I had over my workflow. In many respects, law firm practitioners have become slaves to their clients and their deadlines. As general counsel, you are much more of a strategic player, so you have much more control over deadlines. In fact, you are the client in many respects. Because I had a sizeable legal department budget, I could cherry-pick which projects that I would personally focus on and farm out the projects that I was less interested in or that I had less expertise in. Law departments with small budgets don't necessarily have that luxury.

But I will say that, as general counsel, the ultimate buck stops with you, so it is your responsibility that the necessary internal legal controls get implemented as soon as possible. For some people, that would be too much stress, but I enjoyed that. Also, as general counsel, you need to make sure that you have enough time to devote to quality control. If you farm out work to law firms, you need to supervise their work. Even the best firms have partners with varying quality levels, and partners have incentives to create more billable work that are not in the client's best interests.

I recall one occasion when a top partner at a top law firm was persuading me to engage in a variety of merger transactions that would suit our needs. I asked him why we couldn't take an alternative route that would lead to minimal legal fees, and he finally acknowledged that, in fact, that was entirely feasible. Of course, we took that route, which was the simplest and most cost-efficient.

Q: Why did you decide to leave practice to teach law?
A: One thing that I didn't enjoy about practice was the lack of time for extended reflection. In private practice, you are juggling so many deals at the same time and in-house you are putting out so many fires that you actually don't have much time just to think. This job is great because you can spend some time thinking about legal issues that matter to you. Also, I was always the type of practitioner who wasn't interested in just how things are, but about how things should be. There were many aspects of legal practice that I believed didn't have to be that way. Given my mindset, law teaching was more suitable to my interests. Finally, I enjoyed training young associates in practice. Here, I enjoy training young legal minds.

Q: Having lived on the East Coast and traveled the world, what do you like most about living in Los Angeles? What do you think sets this city apart from other places you've lived?
A: The great thing about Los Angeles is its deep cultural diversity. It's filled with many different ethnicities located in different parts of the city. What other city has Koreatown, Little Iran and Little Armenia, as well as the significant Latino areas of the city?

Q: What do you enjoy most about teaching at Southwestern?
A: I really enjoy the one-on-one contact with students. I love the fact that a student will seek me out to resolve any confusion that he or she has. And I love to see the light bulb go off. Students at Southwestern are, for the most part, genuinely really nice people and I really do enjoy getting to know them. I especially love talking to students who have taken all the courses that I teach. For me, it's a huge compliment that they would be willing to put up with me for three years, and I really get a kick out of shaping their legal minds and helping them out with career advice.

Q: What is your favorite course to teach and why?
A: That's a tough one, because I love teaching all my courses for different reasons. I love teaching first-year Contracts, because students are enthusiastic, bold and generally well-prepared, so that energizes me. Contracts is also an intellectually rigorous experience. But I also love teaching Business Associations because the policy issues are so profound, complex and timely. The role of corporations in our world cannot be underestimated. I love teaching Legal Profession because that goes to the heart of what I care about in my scholarship. I also enjoy discussing professional values with my students.

Q: What is the most important piece of advice you give to your law students?
A: There are no shortcuts in law school, and real practice rewards those who have developed the skill of self-teaching. If you spend your law school career relying on commercial outlines like Emanuel's and canned briefs and soliciting spoon-feeding from your professors without struggling with the doctrines yourself, you will never learn to reason (and write and research and argue) like a lawyer. If a student puts in the extraordinary amount of time and effort to learn the law the hard way, she will gain those skills that will make her a good lawyer.

Q: With scholarship focused on legal ethics, what aspect are you currently researching/writing about?
A: Currently, I am writing an article on the struggles between the SEC and the organized bar. For decades there's been conflict between this federal agency and the organized bar about what lawyers' responsibilities are when their clients commit or plan to commit fraud. Naturally, the regulator wants lawyers to step up to the plate and stop the fraud from happening and the organized bar constantly shouts, "But that's not our role!" I am trying to analyze and explain this conflict.

Q: What do you consider some of the biggest ethical issues attorneys face in the corporate world today?
A: Attorneys have difficulty when their clients ask them to do something that is either illegal or unethical. Due to a number of psychological factors, many attorneys end up acquiescing in client fraud. In my scholarship, I have extensively explored those issues and the structural problems that make acquiescence likely.

Q: What is the most recent novel or non-legal book you read?
A: I like to read non-fiction books about science. I think the last book was a compendium on the best science articles of a particular year. Currently, I am reading (albeit very slowly) a psychology book by Jonathan Haidt called "The Happiness Hypothesis." It's a fabulous book, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what makes humans happy.

Q: What are some of your hobbies outside of the legal profession?
A: I love yoga and try to do some every week. It's a great stress reducer. I also love to hike, although I haven't done so in quite a while, and I play the violin. But most of my free time is taken up by my 6-year-old daughter.

Q: If you could not fail, what would you do?
A: To be honest, I love my job so much that I can't imagine doing anything else! I will admit that, occasionally, I have fantasized about retiring in England and sipping tea with cranberry-orange scones, clotted cream and cucumber sandwiches as I watch a Hugh Grant film or read an Oscar Wilde novel.

FACULTY ACTIVITIES

• 19th Release, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE DESKBOOK, 3rd ed. (Practising Law Institute, 2008)
• Op-ed articles, "Multistate Sham" and "When There's a Will," Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal

• Presentation, "Top 10 Music Cases of the Last 50 Years," Grammy Foundation Luncheon, Los Angeles
• Quoted, "Clemens hearing useless unless we learn from it," Press-Enterprise

• Now It's Personal: Punishment and Mass Tort Litigation After Philip Morris v. Williams, 2 CHARLESTON LAW REVIEW 433 (Symposium Issue, 2008)
• Presentation, "Applications Panel," Crimtorts, Widener Law Journal Symposium, Harrisburg, PA
• Presentation, "Vexing Situations: Ethics and International Practice," State Bar of California's 80th Annual Meeting, Anaheim, and to White & Case LLP
• Interviewed in "Special Features," Damages: The Complete First Season (FX Television Series DVD, 2008)

- CLICK HERE FOR MORE FACULTY ACTIVITIES -

Southwestern Faculty Extends Curricular Reform to Upper Division Offerings

Following on the momentum and success of the initiatives introduced last academic year to enhance the traditional first-year experience, the Southwestern faculty has adopted several exciting new curricular innovations for the upper division.

Three new programs will be integrated into the curriculum commencing with the Fall 2008 semester: a Capstone Course, a January Intersession, and a Floating Mini-Term. The programs are designed to encourage student engagement during the second, third, and (where applicable) fourth years of study, respond to issues identified through the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE), and extend the momentum created by Southwestern's new first-year curricular reforms. The latter have been well received by students and commended by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Read more.

SCALE Program to Include 8-week Summer Session

Beginning with the 2008-09 entering class, the SCALE Program will introduce a new innovative Summer Session designed to provide a menu of alternative options to SCALE students.

The SCALE Summer Session will be held during the eight-week period from the end of May to the end of July between the two SCALE years. The SCALE I and SCALE II schedule s are being adjusted to accommodate the summer session. Read more.

FACULTY

Andrea Ramos to Direct New Legal Clinic

Dean Bryant Garth announced the appointment of Andrea Ramos, a prominent children's rights and immigration rights lawyer, as Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the new Immigration Clinic commencing in July 2008.

Professor Ramos brings many years of expertise as a public interest attorney and law professor to Southwestern. For the past decade, she has served on the staff of Public Counsel, originally leading the School-Based Legal Assistance Program. During the past three years, she has directed the organization's largest program, the Children's Rights Project, which involves more than 700 volunteers assisting over 6,000 children and youth annually. As Directing Attorney, Professor Ramos represents children in Special Immigrant Juvenile cases, Violence Against Women Act and U-Visa cases, and provides training and workshops to lawyers and social service providers. The Project facilitates adoptions of foster children, securing legal guardianships, a Guardian Ad Litem program for children under the jurisdiction of the Dependency Court, special education assistance, and programs for pregnant and parenting teens, among other work. Since 2004, Professor Ramos has also served on the adjunct faculty at the University of Southern California Law Center as a co-teacher of the Children and the Law course.

Professor Miller with Counsel General of the Argentine Republic Jorge T. Lapsenson

Professor Miller named "Oficial" of the "Orden
de Mayo"

In February, Professor Jonathan Miller was named an "Oficial" of the "Orden de Mayo" of the Argentine Republic, pursuant to a Presidential Decree, at a ceremony and dinner in his honor held at the Residence of the Argentine Consul General. Professor Miller was commended for his pro bono work on behalf of Víctor Hugo Saldaño, an Argentine citizen on death row in Texas.

Professor Dennis Yokoyama Elected as JABA President

In February, Professor Dennis Yokoyama officially began his term as president of the Japanese American Bar Association (JABA), one of the oldest ethnic minority bar associations in the country. He was elected to the position last spring and will serve until January 2009. Read more.

Professors Lind and Gordon to be honored at Awards Recognition Event

Southwestern Welcomes New Adjunct Faculty

Three Southwestern alumni have joined the adjunct faculty for Summer 2008. Read more.

STUDENTS

Southwestern Team Takes Top Honors at National Telecommunications Competition

Professor Epstein with Andy Owen, Celia Beckwith and Lee Previant

Wagner Team Takes Brief Honors

At New York Law School's Robert F. Wagner Sr. Labor and Employment Law Moot Court Competition, the Southwestern team took Second Place Respondents' Brief and advanced to the semifinals in the top four out of 42 teams.

BLSA Team Excels at Western Regional Competition

Evening students Bernetta Hardy and Anne Cheung ruled BLSA's Western Region competition recently held in Los Angeles, triumphing over the team from Stanford to win the Frederick Douglass Moot Court Competition and earning the opportunity to compete in the national rounds in Detroit at the end of March. In addition to their First Place Team honors, the second-year students received the award for Best Brief, and Cheung was named Best Oralist. Read more.

BLSA Mock Trial Team Reaches Semi-Finals

The Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial team also performed well at BLSA's Western Region competition, reaching the semi-final round. Professor Isabelle Gunning, who coached the team, said Shara Davenport, Lucy Kwak, Enrique Juarez, and Irma Martinez effectively argued a case involving a criminal trial where the defendant was accused of using his job as an interstate trucker to transport marijuana. The case was complicated by the fact that the co-defendant-turned-government-informant had arguably equal access to the truck with the drugs and had been recently released from prison. Additionally, Southwestern's BLSA chapter received the Second Place Award in Chapter of the Year honors.

Law Review/Law Journal Announce 2008-09 Leaders

Congratulations are extended to the following students on their appointment to leadership positions on the boards of Law Review and Law Journal.

Law Review Executive Board

Brian Chang
Romy Rahmanian
Michael Sacchetto
Erika Shao

Law Journal Executive Board

Editor-in-Chief
Jack Ross

Managing Editor
Sanam Yasseri

Lead Article Editors
Rudy Brandes
James Chyau
Adam Lee
Jonathan Turco

Note and Comment Editors
Chad Chen
Michael Vener
Jeff Walker
Vickie Yiannoulou

Special Project / Research Editors
Jenny Faitro
John Greenwall

Associate Editors
Jordan Esensten
Christina Hsu
Matin Rajabov

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

"W.A.Y." - Who Are You & Why Are You here?

For Charles Fairchild, adding some fun to challenging situations isn't just a way to survive - it's a way to thrive. The third-year evening student studied nonstop during his first semester at Southwestern and wound up stressed out and sick during his exams. "After that, I decided to enjoy law school," he said. He became more involved in the Southwestern community, joining both the Business and Tax Law Societies. "Apparently, I had to have a good time because the more fun I had, the better my grades got." During summer school, the Washington D.C. native also made sure he got to the beach every weekend, an exercise in relaxation that gave him his highest grades; he even earned a position on the Law Review. And along with teammate John Greenwall, Fairchild won Second Place in the J.D. Division at the ABA Section of Taxation Law Student Tax Challenge in January.

Prior to law school, Fairchild worked for ten years in sales and marketing positions, including stints as a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley and a sales account executive for Oil Price Information Services. Since 2002, he has served as a regional liaison at the American Arbitration Association (AAA), where he sets up seminars and programs for law firms to learn the ins and outs of the arbitration process and for businesses to teach their employees more about arbitration. It was through the AAA that he met Professor Robert Lutz.

When he decided to pursue a law degree, Fairchild's familiarity with Southwestern through Professor Lutz and SCALE alumna Carolyn Childers '94 (who successfully represented him in a legal matter) made the law school a top choice for him. "My classroom focus has been tax and I am passionate about civil rights," said Fairchild, who is not quite sure how he plans to use his law degree. "I'm looking forward to whatever I'm doing but I CAN wait for school to be over, because I'm having a blast."

When he's not working, studying, editing for Law Review or preparing for competition, Fairchild serves on the board of the Guild Opera Company, providing marketing and membership recruitment and tracking for the nonprofit, which presents abridged opera performances to children throughout Southern California.

ESSAYS & SCHOLARSHIPS

A selection of scholarships and essay contests are available online, in the Financial Aid Office (W102), and posted on the bulletin board in the Westmoreland basement.

Please note: The information regarding scholarships and essay contests on Southwestern's website provides a list for informational purposes only. Students interested in applying for any scholarship should contact the sponsoring organization directly for specific details and deadlines. External sites are provided for informational purposes only and are not endorsed by Southwestern.