Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law's Eleventh Annual Wm. Matthew Byrne, Jr. Judicial Clerkship Institute March 17 - 19, 2011
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 also served as an advisor to the American Bar Association Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. Judge Amon is presently an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School where she teaches a seminar in federal sentencing. She is a graduate of William and Mary and the University of Virginia School of Law. Prior to her appointment to the district court in 1990, Judge Amon served as a U.S. magistrate, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Honorable Duane Benton
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Duane Benton became a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on July 8, 2004. Judge Benton served on the Missouri Supreme Court from 1991 until 2004, serving as chief justice from 1997 to 1999. He is a 1972 graduate of Northwestern University and a 1975 graduate of Yale Law School, where he was managing editor of the Yale Law Journal. From 1975 to 1979 Judge Benton served with the U.S. Navy as a judge advocate. While in the Navy, he earned a master’s in business administration and accountancy from Memphis State University, becoming a CPA in Missouri in 1983. After private practice from 1983 to 1988, Benton served as Missouri’s Director of Revenue from 1989 to 1991. A Vietnam veteran, he retired from the U.S. Naval Reserve at the rank of Captain, after 30 years of active and reserve service. Judge Benton is also an adjunct professor at Westminster College and the University of Missouri– Columbia School of Law.
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, Northern district of California in 1997 by President Clinton.
The Honorable Jeremy D. Fogel
United States District Court for the District of California
Judge Fogel received his B.A. from Stanford University and his JD, cum laude, from Harvard University. Judge Fogel was in private practice in San Jose, 1974-1978, and was founder and directing attorney, Mental Health Advocacy Project, Santa Clara County Bar Association Law Foundation, 1978-1981. In 1981 he was appointed to Santa Clara County Municipal Court and appointed to Santa Clara Superior Court in 1986. He is a frequent lecturer on ethics, discipline, and professional conduct for both bench and bar and a lecturer at Stanford University Law School. He was appointed to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, in 1998.
The Honorable Paul L. Friedman
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Judge Friedman was law clerk to Judge Roger Robb on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to Judge Aubrey E. Robinson, Jr., on the U.S. District Court. He previously was an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, an assistant to the solicitor general of the U.S., associate independent counsel for the Iran/Contra Investigation, a partner in the firm of White & Case, and the managing partner of its Washington, D.C. office. Judge Friedman is a past president of the District of Columbia Bar. He is a member of the American Law Institute, its council, and the executive committee of the council; he chairs ALI's program committee and is an advisor to its Model Penal Code Sentencing Project.
The Honorable Mitchel Goldberg
Retired
Mitchel R. Goldberg is a mediator with Judicate West. After 18 years of private practice, he served as a judge of the United Stated Bankruptcy Court from 1988 to 2008. During his tenure Judge Goldberg mediated over 500 cases ranging from insolvency matters to all kinds of complex civil suits that were stayed because of the bankruptcy filing. Judge Goldberg has been a featured speaker in various legal forums on topics ranging from bankruptcy, the interplay of family law and bankruptcy, real estate, and effective communication skills. Since his retirement, Judge Goldberg has taught Advanced Mediation as an adjunct professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law. He also volunteers to teach small groups the importance of developing “wealth” through home buying and personal savings as part of a financial literacy program with a nonprofit HUD grant program for first time homebuyers.
The Honorable Sandra Segal Ikuta
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Sandra Segal Ikuta was confirmed as a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on June 19, 2006 by the United States Senate. She filled a judgeship vacant since September 1, 2000, when Chief Judge Emeritus James R. Browning took senior status. Before becoming a U.S. Circuit Judge, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her to be deputy secretary and general counsel of the California Resources Agency in January 2004. Prior to her political appointment, Judge Ikuta was a partner at the Los Angeles office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. She joined the law firm in 1990 as an associate and became a partner in 1997. She specialized in environmental and natural resources law and co-chaired the firm’s environmental practice group. She previously served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, 1989 to 1990, and Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1988 to 1989. She received her JD from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and a Master of Science from Columbia University School of Journalism. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976. In addition to her duties as an active U.S. Circuit Judge, Judge Ikuta is currently an appointed member of the United States Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules.
The Honorable Brett Kavanaugh
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Judge Kavanaugh was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2006. He graduated from Yale College and Yale Law School. He served as a law clerk to Judge Walter Stapleton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and for Judge Alex Kozinski of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. From 1992-1993, he worked as an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States. Judge Kavanaugh was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C. from 1997 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, he served as associate counsel and then as senior associate counsel to the president. From July 2003 until his appointment to the court in 2006, he was assistant to the president and staff secretary to President Bush. Since joining the court, he was assistant to the president and staff secretary to President Bush. Since joining the court, he has taught courses at Harvard Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.
The Honorable Royce C. Lamberth
Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Judge Lamberth graduated from the University of Texas with a B.A. degree in 1966 and from the University of Texas School of Law in 1967. He served as a captain in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the U.S. Army from 1968 to 1974. After service at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and in Vietnam, he served in the Litigation Division of the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Army at the Pentagon from 1971 to 1974. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia from 1974 to 1987. He was chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, 1978 to 1987. He was appointed U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia in 1987 and assumed his current position as chief judge in 2008.
The Honorable Barbara Jacobs Rothstein
United States District Judge for the Western District of Washington
Judge Rothstein is a U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Washington and was appointed director of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. She was chief judge of the Western District of Washington from 1987-1994. She graduated from Cornell University and Harvard Law School. Before her appointment to the federal bench in 1980, she served as a King County Superior Court judge for the State of Washington.
The Honorable Deanell Reece Tacha
United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Judge Tacha was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in December of 1985. Judge Tacha served as chief judge of the Tenth Circuit from January 2001 through December 2007. Named a White House Fellow in 1971, she was assigned as special assistant to Secretary of Labor James D. Hodgson. The following year, she joined the law firm of Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C. In 1974, she jointed the University of Kansas School of Law Faculty. She was appointed as a U.S. Sentencing Commissioner from 1994 to 1998, and she chaired the Judicial Division of the ABA from 1995 to 1996. From 1990 to 1994 and again from 2001 to 2005, she served as chair of the U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on the Judicial Branch. She has received the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award and the American Bar Association's John Marshall Award. She earned degrees from the University of Kansas and the University of Michigan.
The Honorable Vaughn R. Walker
Chief Judge, United States District Court, Northern District of California
Judge Walker became United States District Judge in February 1990 and chief judge in September 2004. He worked briefly at the Securities & Exchange Commission and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in economics at the University of California (Berkeley). He studied law at the University of Chicago and Stanford University. From 1971 to 1972, he was law clerk to the Honorable Robert J. Kelleher of the United States District Court in Los Angeles. From 1972 to 1990, he practiced law with Pillsbury Madison & Sutro (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) in San Francisco, becoming a partner in 1978. In 2007, Judge Walker was assigned to handle In re National Security Agency Telecommunications Records Litigation, MDL No 06-1791, a series of cases challenging telecommunications carriers’ alleged cooperation with the Terrorist Surveillance Program of the Bush administration. In 2000, Judge Walker was assigned by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to handle a series of cases arising out of claims by former prisoners of war; resolution of the claims required interpretation of provisions in the 1951 Treaty of Peace entered into by the United States, Japan, and other nations. Judge Walker is a member of the Civil Rules Advisory Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, chair of the St. Francis Foundation, and a member of the American Law Institute. He will end his term as chief judge on December 31, 2010.
The Honorable Kim W. Wardlaw
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Judge Wardlaw graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA in 1976, and from UCLA Law School in 1979, where she served as an Articles Editor of the UCLA Law Review, externed for the late Honorable Joseph T. Sneed, III of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, was awarded Order of the Coif and named the Outstanding Graduate of her class. She clerked for District Court Judge William P. Gray, and joined the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers, where she practiced complex civil litigation for sixteen years. Confirmed as a District Court Judge for the Central District of California in 1976, Judge Wardlaw joined the Ninth Circuit in 1998. She currently serves on the Court’s Executive Committee, the Circuit's Federal Public Defender’s Committee and the ABA Commission on Hispanic Rights and Responsibilities.
Bankruptcy Faculty
The Honorable Margaret Mahoney
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Alabama
Judge Mahoney was appointed U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Southern District of Alabama in 1993. She served as chief judge from 1996 to 2003. Before serving in the state of Alabama, she was a bankruptcy judge in Souther District of Texas and also in the District of Minnesota. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Mahoney was a partner with Weil, Gotshal & Manges. She is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy, a former editor-in-chief of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal and a member of the board of governors of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Judge Mahoney received her BA from the College of St. Catherine, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and her JD with honors from the University of Minnesota Law School.
The Honorable Steven Rhodes
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan
Judge Rhodes recently completed a term as chief judge. From 1997 to 2004 he also served on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the Sixth Circuit, the last three years as chief judge. Judge Rhodes was appointed to a new four-year term on the BAP beginning January 1, 2008. He has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Michigan Law School Teaching bankruptcy law, and is a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. A past member of the American Bankruptcy Institute Board of Directors, he also served as ABI's vice president-research grants. Judge Rhodes received his undergraduate degree from Purdue University and his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School.
The Honorable Barry Russell
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California
Judge Russell serves as Chief Judge Emeritus on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Central District of California in Los Angeles. Appointed in 1974, he served as chief judge from January 2003 to December 2006, later serving on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel and becoming its chief judge from September 1999 to December 2001. Judge Russell has been a member of the faculty of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C., since 1977, and frequently lectures to the bankruptcy judges throughout the United States. He has been the author of West's Bankruptcy Evidence manual since August 1987. A member of the American Bankruptcy Institute Board of Directors, he received both his BS and JD from UCLA.
Jack F. Williams
Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law and Middle East Institute
Professor Williams teaches and/or conducts research in the areas of bankruptcy and business reorganizations, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, taxation, Islamic Commercial Law and law and terrorism. He served as the American Bankruptcy Institute’s inaugural Robert M. Zinman Scholar in Residence in 2001 and 2008. Additionally, Williams is a managing director at Mesirow Financial Consulting in the New York and Atlanta offices, where he brings 25 years of experience in restructuring and financial advisory services, financial fraud and fraudulent transfers, distressed business valuations, restructuring and insolvency taxation, forensic accounting, commercial damages modeling, investigation, litigation consulting and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Williams is a Fellow in the American College of Bankruptcy. He is a graduate of the George Washington University Law School where he was a member of the Order of the Coif.
Academic Exchange
Jack M. Balkin
Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Jack M. Balkin is the Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School. Balkin received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Cambridge University, and his AB and JD degrees from Harvard University. He served as a clerk for Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Balkin is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he writes political and legal commentary at the Weblog Balkinization. He is also the founder and director of the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, an interdisciplinary center that studies law and the new information technologies. His most recent book is Cybercrime: Digital Cops in a Networked Environment.
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Distinguished Professor, University of California, Irvine, School of Law
Dean Chemerinsky is the founding dean of the School of Law, University of California, Irvine. From 2004 to 2008 he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law and he was on the USC faculty for over 20 years. Dean Chemerinksy 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 is the author of six books and over 100 law review articles. He regularly argues appellate cases, including in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Donald E. Childress III
Associate Professor of Law
Professor Childress received his BA from the University of Virginia, MA from Oxford Brookes University, and a JD/LLM (in international and comparative law) from the Duke University School of Law. After law school, Professor Childress clerked for the Hon. Paul V. Niemeyer on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Prior to joining the Pepperdine Caruso Law faculty, Professor Childress was associated with the international law firm Jones Day in Washington, D.C., as a member of their Issues and Appeals practice, where he focused on Supreme Court litigation, general appellate litigation, and significant motions practice in trial litigation. While in private practice, his appellate representations included preparation of writs of certiorari, merits briefs, and amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Childress has briefed and argued appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and has briefed matters in numerous other trial and appellate courts in the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, and D.C. Circuits, as well as in various state courts. He teaches and researches in the areas of civil procedure, international litigation, comparative law, and ethics.
Robert F. Cochran, Jr.
Founder and Director, The Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion,
and Ethics, and Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law
Robert F. Cochran, Jr. is the Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law at Pepperdine University. He founded the Judicial Clerkship Institute and directed it from 2000-03. Professor Cochran’s books include: Louis D. Brandeis’s MIT Lectures on Law (Carolina Academic Press, forthcoming); Lawyers, Clients, and Moral Responsibility (West, 2nd ed. 2009; 1st ed. 1994) (with Thomas L. Shaffer); and Christian Perspectives on Legal Thought (Yale University Press, 2001) (with Michael McConnell and Angela Carmella). Professor Cochran is the editor of the SSRN Law and Religion eJournal and the moderator of the LawReligionEthics.net blog. He founded and currently directs Pepperdine’s Herbert and Elinor Nootbaar Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics. Recent trips have taken him to Rwanda, Uganda, and Sudan, lecturing on justice, religion, and law.
Edward J. Larson
University Professor and Hugh & Hazel Darling Chair in Law
Edward J. Larson holds the Hugh and Hazel Darling Chair in Law and is University Professor of History at Pepperdine University and recipient of the 1998 Pulitzer Prize in History. He served as associate counsel for the U.S. Congress Committee on Education and Labor (1983 to 1987) and an attorney with a major Seattle law firm (1979 to 1983). The author of seven books and over one hundred published articles, Larson writes mostly about issues of science, medicine and law from an historical perspective. His books include A Magnificent Catastrophe:The Tumultuous Election of 1800 (2007); Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (2005, 2006 rev. ed.); Evolution’s Workshop: God and Science in the Galapagos Islands (2001); Sex, Race, and Science: Eugenics in the Deep South (1995); Trial and Error: The American Controversy Over Creation and Evolution (1985, 2003 rev. Ed.) and the Pulitzer Prize winning Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science an Religion (1997). His next book, An Empire of Ice: Scott Shackleton and the Heroic Age of Antarctic Science, is due out in 2011.
Colleen E. Medill
Warren R. Wise Professor of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law
Colleen E. Medill teaches and writes primarily on the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. She is the sole author of the law school textbook, Introduction to Employee Benefits Law: Policy and Practice (West 2004, 2007, 2010). Her scholarship has addressed such topics as ERISA fiduciary liability, judicial claims and remedies available to private litigants under ERISA, stock market volatility and 401(k) plans, and federal laws governing group health care plans. Professor Medill has received awards for her legal scholarship in the field of ERISA and as an outstanding teacher from both the University of Nebraska College of Law (2004-present) and The University of Tennessee College of Law (1997-2004). After receiving her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Kansas (BA 1985, JD 1989), she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Deanell Reece Tacha of the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Prior to entering academia, she practiced law for seven years in Kansas City, Missouri, specializing in tax, corporate, and litigation matters related to employee benefit plans.
Robert J. Pushaw
James Wilson Endowed Professor of Law
Professor Pushaw earned a BA from La Salle College and a JD from Yale University. Professor Pushaw clerked for Judge James Buckley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and then worked as an associate for Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle. Joining the University of Missouri School of Law faculty in 1992, he taught Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, Contracts, and Estates and Trusts. In 1998 he won the Blackwell Sanders Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award as the law school's top teacher. In 2000 he received the William Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.
Kenneth W. Starr
President, Baylor University
Kenneth W. Starr is the 14th President of Baylor University. Prior to his election, he served as the Duane and Kelly Roberts Dean and Professor of Law at Pepperdine University from 2004-2010. He was Of Counsel and a Partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP from 1993-2010, specializing in appellate work, antitrust, federal courts, and constitutional Law. He practiced law with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP from 1974-1981. Elected to the firm’s partnership in 1980, he resigned in 1981 to become Counselor and Chief of Staff to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith. Judge Starr served as United States Circuit Judge for the D.C. Circuit from 1983-1989 and as Solicitor General of the United States from 1989-1993. He was a law clerk to both Chief Justice Warren E. Burger from 1975-1977 and to Fifth Circuit Judge David W. Dyer from 1994-1999. He has argued 36 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Jonathan D. Varat
Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles
Jonathan Varat primarily teaches Constitutional Law I & II, and Federal Courts. He was awarded the School of Law’s Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1990. He served twice as Associate Dean of the law school and as its Dean from 1998-2003. Professor Varat is co-author of a major constitutional law casebook, Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials (with Cohen & Amar, 2009), and is an expert on federal courts. His scholarship focuses particularly on constitutional federalism. With undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (BA 1967; JD 1972), he clerked for Judge Walter Mansfield of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1972-73 and Justice Byron White of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973-74. He then practiced as a litigator for two years with O’Melveny & Myers before joining the law faculty in 1976. Among his nonacademic interests is long distance running.
Invited Keynote Speaker
Neal Katyal
Acting Solicitor General of the United States
Neal Katyal is the Acting Solicitor General of the United States. While serving in the Solicitor General’s Office, Katyal has argued several cases for the United States, including Northwest Austin v. Holder, the 2009 case challenging the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Before joining the Government, he was the Paul and Patricia Saunders Professor at Georgetown University Law School. Katyal previously served as National Security Adviser in the U.S. Justice Department, Office of the Deputy Attorney General, and was commissioned by President Clinton to write a report on the need for more legal pro bono work. He also served as Vice President Al Gore’s co-counsel in the Supreme Court election dispute of 2000, and represented the Deans of most major private law schools in the landmark University of Michigan affirmative-action case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). Katyal clerked for Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer as well as Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals. He attended Dartmouth College and Yale Law School. His Articles have appeared in virtually every major law review and newspaper in America.