Vibrant Alumni Chapters Keep UC Law SF Grads Connected In Los Angeles

UC LAW SAN FRANCISCO

Take a hike through Griffith Park in Los Angeles or check out a lively bar near the beach and you’re likely to run into some UC Law SF alumni.

The two Los Angeles alumni chapters – the Westside Chapter and the Downtown LA Chapter (DTLA) – are among the most vibrant and busy of the 20 alumni and affinity groups that crisscross the nation.

Westside Chapter co-chair Jon Davidi ’18 said, “The best thing about LA is its vibrancy, which makes it easy for alumni chapter leaders to get creative with our events.”

Through alumni get-togethers, UC Law SF graduates from diverse practice areas expand their networks, help each other succeed, and make a positive impact on the profession.

Rodolfo Estrada ’05, who has practiced special education law in New York and California and today serves as senior counsel with Olivarez Madruga Law Organization LLP, leads the Downtown LA (DTLA) UC Law SF alumni chapter with a roster of events with a definite outdoor flare. “SoCal’s natural beauty makes it easy to coordinate events like hikes in Eaton Canyon or Griffith Park, and meet for drinks a few blocks from the beach,” says Estrada.

Westside Co-chair Natalie Alameddine ’13, who also serves on the UC Law SF Alumni Association Board of Governors, said chapter leadership is a meaningful way to give back to her alma mater. Alumni chapters are also a source of critical career support throughout one’s legal career, she said.

A newly-appointed partner at Blank Rome focusing on labor and employment law, Alameddine said, “There will always be ups and downs in the legal market. UC Law SF alumni chapters are full of alumni willing to help students get their start, provide mock interviews, and make introductions that could help lead to that first job.” She adds that they are also a hub for valuable mentorships and firm and job leads for seasoned attorneys.

Davidi, a trial attorney handling complex personal injury cases with Panish Shea Boyle Ravipudi LLP, said he finds his UC Law SF ties more valuable than ever, “I loved Hastings for the people I met there. I formed some of my closest friendships and found my most important mentors and closest friendships while I was in law school. We share a bond through our time in San Francisco, our professors, and the many challenges of law school. Our alumni events help us stay connected so we can support each other’s success.”

The DTLA Chapter has hosted many events, keeping a focus on welcoming Hastings 1L students, including a hike for newly admitted students, and an in-person and virtual panel for students home on spring break. The two chapters also collaborated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to host a popular series of virtual events that connected alumni from across the miles and decades.

The three attorneys, who also serve on the UC Law SF Alumni Board of Governors, had candid advice for today’s law students. Alameddine encouraged students to look beyond class rank and connect with alumni chapters to grow their careers. Estrada reminded that UC Law SF leaders are there to help students succeed long after graduation. While law school demands epic commitment, Davidi said students should set aside time to explore “fun, eccentric” San Francisco.

UC Law SF students or graduates who want to get more involved in the LA Chapters or any of the other 18 chapters can visit the UC Law SF Alumni Association web page. Estrada said, “The legal world can feel very overwhelming, especially for new lawyers starting their careers. When you join a chapter, you’re building valuable relationships with colleagues who truly understand your world, and they’re ready to share their knowledge and opportunities.”

Fall Reading From The University Presses

THE PRICE OF THE TICKET: BARACK OBAMA AND RISE AND DECLINE OF BLACK POLITICS. By Frederick C. Harris. Hardback, 232 Pages. Oxford University Press. In The Price of the Ticket, Harris puts Obama's career in the context of decades of black activism, showing how his election undermined the very movement that made it possible. The path to his presidency began just before passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, when black leaders began to discuss strategies to make the most of their new access to the ballot. Some argued that black voters should organize into a cohesive, independent bloc; others urged a more race-neutral approach, working together with other racial minorities as well as like-minded whites. This has been the fundamental divide within black politics ever since. At first, the gap did not seem serious. But the post-civil-rights era has accelerated a shift towards race-neutral politics. Obama made a point of distancing himself from older race-conscious black leaders, such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson--even though, as Harris shows, he owes much to Jackson's earlier campaigns for the White House.

THE COLOR OF CHRIST: THE SON OF GOD AND THE SAGA OF RACE IN AMERICA. By Edward J. Blum & Paul Harvey. Cloth. University of North Carolina Press. The Color of Christ uncovers how, in a country founded by Puritans who destroyed depictions of Jesus, Americans came to believe in the whiteness of Christ. Some envisioned a white Christ who would sanctify the exploitation of Native Americans and African Americans and bless imperial expansion. Many others gazed at a messiah, not necessarily white, who was willing and able to confront white supremacy. The color of Christ still symbolizes America's most combustible divisions, revealing the power and malleability of race and religion from colonial times to the presidency of Barack Obama.

THE FIRE OF FREEDOM: ABRAHAM GALLOWAY & THE SLAVES' CIVIL WAR By David S. Cecelski. Hardcover. University of North Carolina Press. Abraham H. Galloway (1837-70) was a fiery young slave rebel, radical abolitionist, and Union spy who rose out of bondage to become one of the most significant and stirring black leaders in the South during the Civil War. Throughout his brief, mercurial life, Galloway fought against slavery and injustice. He risked his life behind enemy lines, recruited black soldiers for the North, and fought racism in the Union army's ranks. He also stood at the forefront of an African American political movement that flourished in the Union-occupied parts of North Carolina, even leading a historic delegation of black southerners to the White House to meet with President Lincoln and to demand the full rights of citizenship. He later became one of the first black men elected to the North Carolina legislature.

OBAMA AND AMERICA'S POLITICAL FUTURE By Theda Skocpol. Harvard University Press. Barack Obama’s galvanizing victory in 2008, coming amid the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s, opened the door to major reforms. But the president quickly faced skepticism from supporters and fierce opposition from Republicans, who scored sweeping wins in the 2010 midterm election. Here, noted political scientist Theda Skocpol surveys the political landscape and explores its most consequential questions: What happened to Obama’s “new New Deal”? Why have his achievements enraged opponents more than they have satisfied supporters? How has the Tea Party’s ascendance reshaped American politics?

ON BULLSHIT By Harry G. Frankfurt. Cloth. Princeton University Press. One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern. We have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much of it, or what functions it serves. And we lack a conscientiously developed appreciation of what it means to us. In other words, as Harry Frankfurt writes, "we have no theory."

TAKING IT BIG: C. WRIGHT MILLS AND THE MAKING OF POLITICAL INTELLECTUALS By Stanley Aronowitz. Hardcover. Columbia University Press.C. Wright Mills (1916--1962) was a pathbreaking intellectual who transformed the independent American Left in the 1940s and 1950s. Often challenging the established ideologies and approaches of fellow leftist thinkers, Mills was central to creating and developing the idea of the "public intellectual" in postwar America and laid the political foundations for the rise of the New Left in the 1960s. Written by Stanley Aronowitz, a leading sociologist and critic of American culture and politics, Taking It Big reconstructs this icon's formation and the new dimension of American political life that followed his work.

MADMEN, INTELLECTUALS, AND ACADEMIC SCRIBBLERS: THE ECONOMIC ENGINE OF POLITICAL CHANGE By Wayne A. Leighton and Edward J. Lopez. Cloth. Stanford University Press. Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers offers up a simple, economic framework for understanding the systematic causes of political change. In order to distill the smörgåsbord of scholarship on political evolution, Madmen takes up three fundamental, interrelated questions: Why do democracies generate policies that impose net costs on society? Why do such policies persist over long periods of time, even though they may be widely known to be socially wasteful and even though better alternatives could be implemented? And why do certain wasteful policies eventually get repealed (e.g., airline rate and route regulation), while others endure (e.g., sugar subsidies and tariffs)?

IN THE CROSSFIRE: MARCUS FOSTER AND THE TROUBLED HISTORY OF AMERICAN SCHOOL REFORM By John P. Spencer. Cloth. University of Pennsylvania Press. "In this timely and important book, John Spencer situates the tragically shortened life of the brilliant African American educator Marcus Foster in multiple contexts: the history of urban education, urban politics, and debates around strategies of school reform. Foster was one of the most dynamic and influential urban educators of the 1960s and early 1970s, and his career coincided with momentous developments in civil rights, the urban violence that rocked American cities, and economic crisis. Given the current prominence of school reform as an issue of national importance, In the Crossfire should have a wide and varied readership."—Michael Katz, University of Pennsylvania