UCLA School of Law

06/02/2026

On May 18, members of The American Law Institute voted to approve the "Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Remedies," for which UCLA Law professor Rick Hasen served as a lead reporter. 🏛️

"Restatements are statute-like statements of the law, along with comments and extensive notes," Hasen says. "Courts rely heavily on restatements, especially when there is no law on point in a jurisdiction." The Restatement of Torts has been among ALI's most cited projects, and each restatement draft goes through four levels of review and requires the agreement of judges, lawyers, and professors across disciplines and the ideological spectrum.

Hasen and co-reporter Douglas Laycock, an emeritus professor at the University of Texas and University of Virginia, spent seven years – assisted by a group of judges, lawyers, and law professors who served as advisers – crafting the remedies piece of this significant legal undertaking. “The project has advanced our understanding of how civil remedies work, not only in tort but across the law,” Hasen says. “It has been a great collaborative project, and courts have already started relying on our work. It is nice to work on a project that I am confident will have lasting impact on the legal field.”

Read more, including a Q&A with Hasen on the importance of this project, for both himself and American law, at the link below.

UCLA School of Law professor Rick Hasen has been uncommonly busy lately. At a time when his agenda has been full of successful projects and honors, Hasen traveled to Philadelphia for the annual meeting of the American Law Institute. There, on May 18, members voted to approve the Restatement of the L...

05/28/2026

UCLA Law's Theater and Law seminar trades cold calls for curtain calls as students crisscross LA seeing plays that probe legal and social issues, which they discuss over shared meals. 🎭

Part of UCLA Law's Perspectives on Law and Lawyering series, the one-unit, pass/no-pass seminar uses live theater to build empathy and confront difficult issues. The course was developed by Professor Andrew Verstein, who also serves as the law school's vice dean for curricular and academic affairs and as the faculty co-director of the Lowell Milken Institute for Business Law and Policy.

A longtime theater enthusiast since his undergraduate years, Verstein says live performances offer an immersive and entertaining way to build empathy, confront difficult issues, and connect with abstract concepts. Drawing on theater's ability to build worlds with their own rules, Verstein asks students to consider how lawyers and judges similarly shape meaning in the courtroom, where persuasion, narrative, and performance are central.

"I'm giving students what I was grateful for in college: access to the humanities as a different way of knowing and coming together," says Verstein.

Read more at the link below.

Learn about UCLA Law’s Theater and Law seminar where students see plays that probe legal and social issues and discuss the plays over shared meals. The course is part of the school's Perspectives on Law and Lawyering series.

05/26/2026

Members of the UCLA School of Law community gathered on April 16 to celebrate the publication of Distinguished Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw’s new book,"Backtalker." Crenshaw's memoir explores her journey from Canton, Ohio, to UCLA Law, where she coined the term “intersectionality” and has served on the faculty for 40 years, to prominence as a leading Critical Race Theory scholar and civil rights advocate.

"My thinking starts from the bottom up, from interactions with people and experiences across my entire life that have made me feel some type of way," Crenshaw says. "It’s a feeling that tells me to pay attention, to ask some questions, and to struggle to put into words something that needs to be said. That’s what these stories are."

Read more at the link below.

Members of the UCLA School of Law community gathered on April 16, 2026 to celebrate the publication of Distinguished Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw’s new book, Backtalker.

05/22/2026

Diploma? Check. ✅

Click to see UCLA Law grads' reactions moments after walking the stage.

05/21/2026

UCLA Law’s 75th Commencement, from our camera roll 📸

Read the full recap at the link below.
https://vist.ly/542qx

05/20/2026

Last month, UCLA Law’s annual U. Serve L.A. celebration honored the alumni, faculty, and students whose commitment to public interest and pro bono work is making a lasting impact in Los Angeles and beyond.

Every year, the auction and awards ceremony shines a spotlight on the trailblazing excellence of students, scholars, alumni, and leaders connected to UCLA Law’s David J. Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy and the Judge Rand Schrader Pro Bono Program. Honorees include students and alumni working on the front lines of public interest law throughout Los Angeles and the country.

Congratulations to all of this year’s honorees! 👏

05/19/2026

On a sunny Sunday in March, students and staff of UCLA Law's Resentencing Practicum gathered in the backyard of a Los Angeles home to celebrate the release of Joseph Turner, who had been freed from federal prison after more than 25 years.

"It felt surreal," says student Destinee Dickson '26 in the days after Turner's welcome-home party, which followed years of judicial denials and other legal disappointments. "When the judge granted his release, it felt like everything paused for a moment. It was overwhelming in the best way. It reminded me why this work matters."

The Resentencing Practicum allows students to advocate for incarcerated clients who are seeking sentence reductions. They litigate in federal court for clients who are facing medical or family emergencies, and they file cutting-edge motions for clients — including Turner — who are serving lengthy prison terms due to unjust or outdated sentencing laws. Working alongside federal public defenders, students conducted extensive factual investigation and legal research and ultimately drafted an expansive motion for compassionate release.

"I hope this case is just the beginning of the work we are able to do in the Resentencing Practicum, which joins a national movement of clinics and practitioners seeking second chances for incarcerated people," Josh Weiss, the practicum's director, says.

Read the full story at the link below.
https://law.ucla.edu/news/second-chance-how-ucla-laws-resentencing-practicum-helped-one-man-go-free

Read about how students and staff members of UCLA Law’s Resentencing Practicum helped bring about the release of Joseph Turner.