Law Briefs: News from Santa Clara Law Fall 2021

Building Community Through Conversations

Santa Clara Law Dean, Michael Kaufman, has introduced a variety of new communication vehicles to promote a greater sense of community within the Law School, among its external constituents and across the University as part of a comprehensive first year strategic engagement plan. While the bi-weekly Kaufman’s Korner is directed towards students, staff and faculty inside the Law School, monthly Rising Together blog posts are a regular feature of the externally focused Santa Clara Law Newsletter. Leadership in Law: A (video) Series with Dean Michael Kaufman is in development, and the creation of a Law School Podcast is being explored. Once created, all of these materials will be archived in an official “Office of the Dean” webpage. We invite everyone to access this collection of messages, interviews and other community building content as we set a new course for Santa Clara Law.

Santa Clara Law Welcomes an Impressive & Diverse Incoming Class

With total applications exceeding 2,300, Santa Clara Law experienced a 13 percent year-over-year increase in applications. From this robust and accomplished applicant pool, Santa Clara Law admitted a class of full-time students with a higher median LSAT (157 vs 156) and higher median GPA (3.43 vs 3.34) than last year. Moreover, the incoming class is one of the most diverse in the country, with 58 percent representing ethnic minorities, and 23 percent identifying as first-generation law students. Read more.

High Tech Law Institute Publishes Diversity In Innovation
Best Practices Guide

A research team from the High Tech Law Institute has published an “insanely practical” manual of best practices for increasing diversity in innovation, intended to be a valuable tool for in-house intellectual property and innovation managers. The study was conducted in collaboration with the United States Patent Office (“USPTO”), who assisted in kicking off the study by populating 6 roundtable sessions with highly innovative companies from around the nation. Read more.

Members of research team, clockwise from top left: Professor Laura Norris, Tech Edge J.D. 3L Sydney Yazzolino, HTLI Interim Managing Director Joy Peacock, and Professor Mary Fuller.

Recent Law Faculty Research and News

Santa Clara Law’s Faculty Scholarship Blog shares news and information about the scholarly activities of our law faculty. Read more.

Clockwise from top left: Pat Cain, Stephen Diamond, Colleen Chien, and Eric Goldman.

Tech Edge JD program profiled in LexBlog

The Tech Edge JD program just graduated its first cohort in May 2021, and is an innovation in law school education that attempts to change the return on investment in legal education by providing graduates with essential legal, technology, and business skills required of tech lawyers in Silicon Valley. Read more.

Northern California Innocence Project Secures Conviction Reversal for Wrongfully Incarcerated Man

Juan Bautista, a 31-year-old man who was wrongfully incarcerated for 12 years for a 2009 Lodi shooting he did not commit, had his conviction reversed and all charges dismissed after the Northern California Innocence Project (NCIP), Covington & Burling LLP, and Sidley Austin LLP, teamed up to present newly discovered evidence and secure his freedom. Read more.

More Stories

3rd Annual Second Chances Empathy Hackathon October 23

As in the two previous years, teams of data scientists, engineers and lawyers in training will gather to create technology and legal solutions for county public defender offices and nonprofit re-entry and criminal justice organizations. Read more and register online.

The Advocate wins 2021 ABA Law School Newspaper National Award of Excellence

This is the second year in a row that Santa Clara Law has received this honor. The Advocate is the student-run newspaper for Santa Clara Law. Read more.

Silicon Valley Business Journal Names Professor Laura Lee Norris a 2021 Woman of Influence

Norris is associate clinical law professor, co-director of the High Tech Law Institute, founding director of the Entrepreneurs’ Law Clinic, and founding director of the Tech Edge J.D. Program. Read more.