Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law's Eighth Annual Wm. Matthew Byrne, Jr. Judicial Clerkship Institute

March 13 - 15, 2008

Judicial Faculty

The Honorable Carol Bagley Amon
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

Judge Amon was a member of the Judicial Committee on Codes of Conduct from 1993 to 2001 and chair from 1998 to 2001. She is currently serving as an advisor to the American Bar Association Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. She is a graduate of William and Mary and the University of Virginia School of Law. Judge Amon has served on the district court bench since 1990. Prior to that time, she served as a United States magistrate, a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice, and an assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

The Honorable Karon Owen Bowdre
United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama

Judge Bowdre received her bachelor's degree, cum laude, from Samford University and her law degree, cum laude, from Cumberland School of Law. She taught at Cumberland School of Law from 1990 until she took office in November 2001. Judge Bowdre was director of the legal research and writing program at the school and taught courses in insurance law, torts, professional responsibility, and appellate advocacy. Prior to joining the law faculty, Judge Bowdre practiced law with the Birmingham law firm of Rives & Peterson, handling numerous trial and appellate matters in state and federal court.

The Honorable Charles R. Breyer
United States District Court for the Northern District of California

Judge Breyer received his A.B. in 1963 from Harvard College and his JD in 1966 from Boalt Hall School of Law. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Breyer clerked for Oliver J. Carter, chief judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. He then served as an Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco until 1973, when he was appointed assistant special prosecutor, Watergate Special Prosecution force. He entered private practice in 1974, specializing in the defense of white collar criminal cases. Judge Breyer is also an adjunct professor at Hastings College of the Law. He was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on November 12, 1997, by President Clinton.

The Honorable Paul Friedman
United States District Court for the District of Columbia

Judge Friedman received his B.A. from Cornell and his JD from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He served as Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1970 to 1974 and Assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States from 1974 to 1976. He worked with the law firm of White & Case for 18 years, first as associate, then partner, then managing partner of the Washington D.C. office.

The Honorable Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Judge O'Scannlain holds a B.A. from St. John's University, a JD from Harvard Law School, and an LLM from the University of Virginia Law School. Before his investiture as a federal judge, he was in private practice and served Oregon as deputy attorney general, public utility commissioner, and director of the Department of Environmental Quality. His professional interests include judicial administration and reform, and continuing legal education. He has testified before numerous congressional committees. Judge O'Scannlain is an adjunct professor at Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College, where he teaches seminars on the Supreme Court and appellate practice. He has traveled to Hungary, Croatia, Belarus, New Zealand, and Australia to brief judges, government leaders, lawyers, and law students on judicial independence and ethics, protection of human rights, and the United States federal judicial system.

The Honorable Pamela Ann Rymer
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge Rymer brings experience on both the district court (1983-89) and the circuit court (1989-present) to the Byrne Institute. She has served on the Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals, the Federal Judicial Center?s Committee on Appellate Judge Education, the Judicial Conference of the United States Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction, and the Ad Hoc Committee on Gender-Based Violence. In 1990 she served as the chair of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. She is a graduate of Vassar College and Stanford University School of Law, and was a partner with two Los Angeles law firms prior to moving to the district court bench.

The Honorable Sonia Sotomayer
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Judge Sotomayer graduated, summa cum laude, from Princeton University in 1976, and received her JD from Yale Law School, where she served as editor of the Yale Law Journal. She began her legal career as an assistant district attorney in New York County and then practiced with the law firm of Pavia & Harcourt. Appointed in October 1992 as a United States district court judge for the Southern District of New York, she was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals in October 1998. Judge Sotomayer is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York City Chapter of the Women?s Bar Association, the National Hispanic Bar Association, the Puerto Rican Bar Association, the Association of Hispanic Judges, and the American Philosophical Society.

The Honorable Thomas B. Bennett
United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama

Judge Bennett is a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham. He is currently the president of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. He is a peer reviewer for and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal. Previously, he was a partner with the law firm of Bowels, Rice, McDavid, Graff & Love, PLLC in its Charleston, West Virginia office, where he was head of the firm's bankruptcy, creditors' rights and commercial litigation practice group. Judge Bennett received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in economics, as well as his JD, from West Virginia University. Following law school, he was a law clerk for the Hon. John R. Brown, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth circuit. Judge Bennett's primary areas of practice were bankruptcy, including bankruptcy related litigation, and commercial litigation. He has lectured frequently on bankruptcy and commercial law issues.

The Honorable Margaret Mahoney

Judge Mahoney holds a B.A. from the College of St. Catherine and a JD from the University of Minnesota. She served as a bankruptcy judge in Minnesota and Texas from 1984 to 1989. From 1989 to 1993 she was a partner in the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges in Texas. In 2003 she returned to the bench as a bankruptcy judge in Alabama and from 1996 to 2003 she was the Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Alabama. She is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and was the Editor-in-Chief of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal from 1998-2002.

The Honorable Steven Rhodes
Chief Judge, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

The Honorable Steven Rhodes has been a bankruptcy judge for 22 years in the Eastern District of Michigan and is currently the chief judge. From 1997-2004, he also served on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Sixth Circuit, the last three years as chief judge. His undergraduate degree is from Purdue University and his law degree is from the University of Michigan Law School, where he has served as an adjunct professor. He is a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. His publications include: The Ethical Obligations of a Chapter 7 Trustee, 80 AM. BANKR. L.J. 147; An Empirical Study of Consumer Bankruptcy Papers, 73 AM. BANKR. L.J. 653; Eight Statutory Causes of Delay and Expense in Chapter 11 Cases, 67 AM. BANKR. L.J. 287. He presently serves as Vice President for Research of the American Bankruptcy Institute.

The Honorable Barry Russell
Chief Judge, United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California

Judge Russell received his B.S. and JD from the University of California, Los Angeles. He served as an assistant United States attorney before his appointment to the Bankruptcy Court in 1974. He has taught bankruptcy, evidence, and ethics at UCLA, USC, Loyola, and Whittier Law School. A member of the Federal Judicial Center faculty since 1977, he has lectured to other bankruptcy judges throughout the United States, China, Mexico, and Brazil. He has received outstanding jurist and distinguished service awards from several organizations, including the American Bar Association, the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and the Southern California Mediation Association. Judge Russell is the author of Bankruptcy Evidence Manual, a book first released in 1987, with new editions published annually.

The Honorable Wesley W. Steen
United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Texas

Judge Steen is a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System and chairs its Subcommittee on Automation. He is also a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, sits on the Board of Governors, and is president of the American Bankruptcy Institute. Judge Steen received his B.A. with distinction in English from the University of Virginia and his JD from the Louisiana State University Law School, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif, Louisiana Law Review and the Student Bar Association Board of Governors.

Academic Exchange

AKHIL REED AMAR
Southmayd Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale Law School

Professor Amar is considered by many to be the most outstanding constitutional law scholar of his generation. As an undergraduate he attended Yale College, where he majored in history and economics, won many prizes, earned a perfect grade point average, and was a star debater. Later, as a student at Yale Law School, he served as editor of the Yale Law Journal. Professor Amar is the author of several distinguished scholarly books and law review articles, and is one of the most frequently quoted academics in America. His most recent book is American Constitution: A Biography.

Erwin Chemerinsky
Alston and Bird Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law

Professor Chemerinsky regularly lectures to judges in programs for the Federal Judicial Center, the National Judicial College, and the American Bar Association. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School. He was on the USC faculty for over 20 years. He is the author of three books: Interpreting the Constitution (1987), Federal Jurisdiction (1999), and Constitutional Law (1997), and over 75 law review articles. He writes a regular column on the Supreme Court for California Lawyer, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and Trial Magazine.

Douglas W. Kmiec
Caruso Family Chair in Law and Professor of Law, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law

Professor Kmiec served as head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice, where among other responsibilities he assisted President Reagan in the selection of federal judges. He is the author of numerous books and scholarly articles, including the following with Northwestern legal historian Stephen Presser: The American Constitutional Order(2004), Individual Rights and the American Constitution(1998), and The History, Philosophy and Structure of the American Constitution(2004). The contributing editor for constitutional law for the ABA?s Supreme Court Preview, Professor Kmiec is a frequent commentator for the national media.

EDWARD J. LARSON
University Professor and Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law

Edward J. Larson is the author of seven books and the recipient of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History for his book Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion. His other books include A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign; Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory; Evolution's Workshop; God and Science on the Galapagos Islands; and Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution. Larson has also written over one hundred articles, which have appeared in such varied journals as The Atlantic, Nature, Scientific American, The Nation, The Wilson Quarterly, and Virginia Law Review.

KENNETH W. STARR
Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean and Professor of Law, Pepperdine Caruso School of Law

Kenneth W. Starr is counsel to the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he was a partner from 1993 to 2004, specializing in appellate work, antitrust, federal courts, federal jurisdiction, and constitutional law. From 1983 to 1989 he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He served as the Solicitor General of the United States from 1989 to 1993. He was formerly a partner with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Having received his B.A. from George Washington University in 1968 and his M.A. from Brown University in 1969, Dean Starr graduated from Duke Law School with a JD degree in 1973.