Spirit of the Law

• Spirit of the Law featuring Elyn Saks

  

  Thursday, September 22, 12:30 PM- 1:20 PM

  Elyn R. Saks is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences. She teaches Mental Health Law, Mental Health Law and the Criminal Justice System, and Advanced Family Law: The Rights and Interests of Children. She served as USC Law's associate dean for research from 2005 to 2010. She also teaches at the Institute of Psychiatry and the Law at the Keck School of Medicine at USC and is adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. Professor Saks was a 2009 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship and in fall 2010 announced she is using the funds from the "genius grant" to create the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy and Ethics.

• Spirit of the Law featuring Hedieh Mirahmadi

  

  Thursday, October 20, 12:30 PM - 1:20 PM (USC School of Law, Room 1)

  Hedieh Mirahmadi serves as legal counsel and consultant to a wide range of clients focused on counter-terrorism and violent extremism. As President of the World Organization for Resource Development and Education (WORDE), she developed one of the first Muslim-led initiatives to address the evolving threat of homegrown radicalization. Her innovative research explores ways Muslim communities can forge greater cooperation between their communities and the United States government. As the co-chair of the first ever all female Islamic Law Council, she works with other influential Muslim women to re-examine the current standing of Islamic jurisprudence on a wide variety of issues. She earned her undergraduate degree in History from UCLA and law degree from USC's Gould School of Law. 

   

• Spirit of the Law featuring Stephen Lee

  

  Monday, November 14, 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM (USC School of Law)

  Co-sponsored by the Faculty Diversity Initiative and the Critical Legal Studies Association

  Stephen Lee is an assistant professor at UC Irvine School of Law. He writes at the intersection of administrative law and immigration law, and is particularly interested in the ways in which enforcement realities constrain immigration policies across a variety of contexts and institutions. His work has been published in the Stanford Law Review, the Arizona Law Review and the California Law Review. He received his B.A. from Stanford University, his M.A. in Asian American Studies from UCLA and his J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law. A former Fulbright Fellow, Professor Lee worked at Skadden, Arps, clerked for Judge Mary Schroeder on the Ninth Circuit, and completed a fellowship at Stanford Law School before joining the UCI faculty.

• Spirit of the Law featuring Neil Gotanda

  

  Wednesday, January 11, 12:15 PM - 1:25 PM (USC Gould School of Law)

  Neil Gotanda has litigated, taught and published deeply on discrimination and civil rights, and has extensive experience in the classroom and in practice. He has taught at California Western, City University of New York, Duquesne University and the Western State University College of Law. Gotanda has also worked with the Asian Law Caucus, California Rural Legal Assistance and the California Fair Employment Commission. His litigation experience includes trials and appeals involving employment discrimination, civil rights and constitutional law. Gotanda is presently active in the Society of American Law Teachers, the Association of American Studies, the Asian Pacific Americans and Religion Research Initiative, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California. He was awarded the 1997 Clyde Ferguson Award by the Section on Minority Groups and the American Association of Law Schools.

• Spirit of the Law featuring Mia Frances Yamamoto

  

  Wednesday, March 21, 12:20 PM - 1:15 PM ( Musick Law Building, 103)

  Born in Poston Relocation Camp in Arizona in 1943, Mia Frances Yamamoto graduated from Cal State University, Los Angeles, in 1966 ad went on to serve in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. In 1971 she graduated from UCLA Law; while there, she co-founded the Asian Pacific Islander Law Student Association. Before entering private practice as a criminal defense attorney, Yamamoto was a poverty lawyer for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a deputy Los Angeles County public defender and California state public defender. She has been involved in many community-based organizations and is past president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the Japanese American Bar Association. Yamamoto has been involved in the boards of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Asian Pacific American Women Lawyers Alliance, the Criminal Courts Bar Association and International Bridges to Justice. She is also a frequent commentator on issues relating to criminal law for the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily Journal, KPFK, KPCC, MSNBC, CNN and other media outlets.