JD Journal » UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law

Obama Nominates 3 to District Court Bench

Erik Even — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:25:49 +0000

In more Obamanomination news, the President has nominated three California lawyers to the United States District Court bench.

Edward Chen has been nominated for the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Chen currently serves as a US Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California. He was a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, Northern California Chapter. His law degree is from the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law.

Dolly Gee has been nominated to the US District Court for the Central District of California. She is a managing partner in the Los Angeles law firm of Schwartz Steinsapir, where she practices labor and employment litigation. She received her JD from the UCLA School of Law.

Richard Seeborg has been nominated to the US District Court for the Northern District of California. He is currently a US Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California, and previously worked at Morrison & Foerester, in both Palo Alto and San Francisco, where he was an equity partner. Seeborg also served as an Assistant US Attorney in San Jose, California. His JD is from the Columbia University School of Law.

The 94 United States district courts are the general trial courts of the US federal court system. Both civil and criminal cases are filed in the district court, which is a court of law, equity, and admiralty.

Virtual Law Partners Hires Four Attorneys

Erik Even — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:07:57 +0000

Virtual Law Partners, which hired five new partners four weeks ago, has this week brought on four new partners for its commercial lending and intellectual property practices.

David Lawson joins from Troutman Sanders, where he was a partner, to chair Virtual Law’s commercial lending practice. He earned his JD from the University of Southern California Law Center.

Janyce Mitchell joins from Strategic Patent Group, where she was a vice president. She received her JD from the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, and her MS and C. Phil in Physics from the University of California, San Diego.

Stephen Sullivan also joins from Strategic Patent, where he was president. He will focus on patent prosecution for software companies. His JD is from the Santa Clara University School of Law.

David Roise joins from Ropes & Gray, where he was an associate. He is a former assistant professor of biochemistry and cellular biology at UC San Diego. He specializes in patent law. He earned his Ph.D in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his JD from Stanford Law School.

Founded in 2008, Virtual Law Partners is a distributed, web-based law firm that goes beyond the constraints of brick & mortar law firms to provide legal services at rates lower than those of conventional law firms. Powered by a digital infrastructure, VLP eliminates costly physical offices and minimizes environmental impact, while significantly lowering administrative costs and overhead.

‘US News’ Top Law School Rankings Leaked

Erik Even — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:07:18 +0000

The US News & World Report rankings for top US law schools will not be officially published until tomorrow — but the rankings are all over the blawgosphere anyway.

The top 20 are:

1. Yale Law School
2. Harvard Law School
3. Stanford Law School
4. Columbia Law School
5. New York University School of Law
6. University of California Berkeley School of Law – tie – University of Chicago Law School
8. University of Pennsylvania Law School
9. University of Michigan Law School
10. Duke University School of Law – tie – Northwestern University School of Law – tie – University of Virginia School of Law
13. Cornell Law School
14. Georgetown University Law Center
15. UCLA School of Law – tie – University of Texas School of Law
17. Vanderbilt University Law School
18. University of Southern California Gould School of Law
19. Washington University School of Law
20. Boston University School of Law – tie- Emory University School of Law – tie – University of Minnesota Law School

The unobservant might miss the most important story here — that UCLA beat USC by two slots! You can’t spell SUCK without USC!!!

UC Law Students Benefit from DC Interships

Erik Even — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 21:48:24 +0000

Two top California law schools have created a DC internship program to expose law students to the intricacies of law- and policy-making.

The for-credit UCDC Law Program brings students to the nation’s capital from the University of California Berkeley School of Law and UCLA School of Law, and provides internships in congressional offices on Capitol Hill, in the Department of Justice, and in various nonprofit institutions and regulatory agencies.

The program, which started last month and runs through early May, shows students how lawyers in Washington forge statutes, policies and regulations.

This semester, seven students from Berkeley and three from UCLA participated in the program, and almost 20 have applied for the Fall. UC Irvine plans to join the program, and will begin sending students to Washington in spring 2011.

Keker & Van Nest Partners Leave to Found Firm

Erik Even — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:54:03 +0000

Four partners at litigation boutique Keker & Van Nest are setting out to found their own firm, Durie Tangri Lemley Roberts & Kent.

Daralyn Durie, Ragesh Tangri, Clement Roberts and Ryan Kent are founding the firm along with Stanford patent law professor Mark Lemley, who was of counsel at Keker.

The new firm, which opened yesterday, is handling matters for marquee clients including Google, Genentech, Comcast and Ticketmaster.

In 2006, Durie won a huge patent infringement trial for Comcast. More recently, she represented Google in its settlement with authors and publishers in a copyright dispute over putting books online.

Durie, Tangri and Lemley first talked about starting their own firm when they were law students at UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law in the early ’90s.

The new firm’s rates will be up to 20% less than what they were charging at Keker, and they’ll also be more open to alternative fee arrangements.

The firm has just one associate right now. Durie says the firm could grow to eight to 10 lawyers, but not much more. The firm won’t be highly leveraged and instead will look to take advantage of the efficiency of experienced partners, she said.