COVID-19 Legal Perspectives & Information from UC Law SF

UC Law SF has created a podcast series to share insights related to pressing legal questions arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Co-Hosts
Areca Smit, Associate Director for Electronic Media
Drew Amerson, LexLab Director

 


Episode 20

A California Bar Exam Like None Before It


In this episode, we speak with class of 2020 alums Cindy Muro and Shandyn Pierce about their experiences transitioning to online learning and sheltering in place during their last semester of law school, and the unique challenge of taking the California State Bar exam during the pandemic.

Cindy Muro is a post-bar clerk representing indigent clients in the Santa Clara County Alternate Defender Office.

 

 

Shandyn PierceAnd Shandyn Pierce is an associate at Meyers Nave, a law firm that handles transaction, litigation and regulatory compliance challenges for clients across California.

 

 

Both Cindy and Shandyn were in the Legal Education Opportunity Program and both are the first in their families to become lawyers.

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Episode 19

How the Center for WorkLife Law Stands with and for Working Mothers

In this episode, we welcome back Professor Joan Williams, founder of the Center for WorkLife Law, to discuss the impacts of the pandemic on working mothers and caregivers and what has happened since our original conversation.

Professor Joan Williams

Professor Williams has played a central role in reshaping the conversation about work, gender, and class over the past quarter-century.  She has authored 11 books and over 90 academic articles.  Most recently, she was quoted in a New York Times article titled Three Things Lockdowns Have Exposed About Working and Parenting.

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Episode 18

How COVID-19 in California Prisons Still Affects You

Today, we speak with Professor Hadar Aviram to learn the latest developments in the fight to stem the outbreak of COVID-19 in California prisons, which have become hotspots for community transmission.  She advocates for substantially reducing prison populations—including by early release.

Professor Hadar Aviram

Professor Aviram is an expert in criminal justice, civil rights, and social movements.  She is the author of Yesterday’s Monsters: The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole, which examines the California parole process.

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Episode 17

Rebuilding Trust in the FDA and the CDC

Today, we speak with Professor Dorit Reiss about waning public confidence in the FDA and the CDC—agencies crucial to managing the pandemic.

Professor Dorit Reiss

Increasingly, Professor Reiss focuses her research on legal and policy issues related to vaccines, school mandates, and tort and administrative issues related to vaccines.

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Episode 16

Overview of the Perkins Coie Estate Planning for Front-Line Health Care Workers Clinic

In this episode, we speak with Perkins Coie attorneys Paula Goodwin and Jody Bryson about their pro bono project to provide estate planning to the health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 response.

Paula Goodwin is an alumna of UC Law SF and a Partner in Perkins Coie’s Personal Planning Group. She recently served as the pro bono chair of the firm’s San Francisco office.

Jody Bryson is an associate in Perkins Coie’s Personal Planning Group. She provides legal counseling and guidance in the areas of estate, tax and gift planning.

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  • In March of 2020, amidst the outbreak of COVID-19, the Perkins Coie pro bono team, in partnership with the Disaster Legal Assistance Collaborative, quickly responded by developing an estate planning clinic to front-line health care workers. By the first week of April, the clinic-style model for training attorneys as well as offering both an informational webinar and phone consultations to essential health care workers was up and running and all employees at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital were able to access the informational webinar and schedule free legal consultations to ask questions and get instructions on preparing stopgap estate planning documents. The model and webinar are also being used by the Disaster Legal Assistance Collaborative at Kaiser hospitals throughout the state and the Bar Association of San Francisco with input from Perkins has developed a similar project titled Essential Planning for Essential Workers.

For more information on the development and implementation of Perkins Coie’s Estate Planning for Front-Line Health Care Workers clinic, please email LegalHelp@perkinscoie.com, attention Estate Planning Clinic. To contact Disaster Legal Assistance Collaborative about their involvement and current clinics, go to their website at: https://disasterlegalservicesca.org/.


Episode 15

How the Pandemic and Racism Collide

In this episode, we speak with Professor Sarah Hooper about why communities of color are hospitalized and dying at disproportionately higher rates and what we can do to mitigate this serious issue.

Professor Sarah Hooper

Professor Hooper is Executive Director of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy. Her research focuses on legal issues in aging and dementia care, including health care decision making and informed consent.

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Episode 14

Who’s the Liability? A Look at COVID-19 Waivers

In this episode, we speak with Professor Shanin Specter about liability waivers and whether they are a viable legal strategy or simply a deterrence tactic.

Professor Shanin Specter is a preeminent American trial lawyer. He is a founding partner of Kline & Specter, one of the leading catastrophic injury firms in the United States.

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Episode 13

Pandemic or Pretext? Changes to the US Asylum System

In this episode, we speak with Professor Karen Musalo about changes to the U.S.  asylum system since the pandemic hit.

Professor Musalo is the founding director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic. She has contributed to the evolving jurisprudence of asylum law through her scholarship, as well as her litigation of landmark cases.

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Episode 12

An Overview of the UC Law SF’s Transition to Online Education and What’s to Come

In this episode, we speak with Professor Abe Cable about how UC Law SF had to suddenly adapt to the pandemic and the implications for fall 2020 and beyond.

Professor Cable is the faculty director of online legal education at UC Law SF. This past February, he wrote the college’s online education handbook, which contains information and best practices for faculty.

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Episode 11

Bank Accounts for All – The Federal Reserve Could Get It Done

In this episode, we speak with Professor John Crawford about the role of the Federal Reserve in managing the financial fallout from the pandemic and his proposal that the Fed should provide a bank account to every American.

Professor Crawford’s current research focuses on the regulation of financial markets and institutions. In addition to U.S. corporate and securities law, his interests include business and property law reform efforts in developing and emerging markets.

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Episode 10

Can They Do This, Too? Shelter in Place Updates and the Curfews

This week marks a historic time for the United States, as curfew orders have been put in place across the country in response to protests following the death of George Floyd.

Professor Matt ColesBefore joining the UC Hastings Law faculty, Professor Coles was Deputy National Legal Director at the ACLU.  He also helped defeat three California ballot initiatives aimed at quarantining people with HIV in the 80s.

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Episode 9

The Accelerated Adoption of Legal Technology

In this episode, we speak with Professor Alice Armitage about law firm economics and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Alice ArmitageProfessor Armitage is the Director of Applied Innovation at UC Hastings, where she teaches a course on the business skills necessary to build a tech startup.  She’s also a two-time entrepreneur.

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Episode 8

Finding a Cure That is Better than the Disease: The Toolbox for Defeating COVID-19

In this episode, we speak with Professor Dorit Reiss about the vaccine development process and other tools being deployed to combat COVID-19.

Professor Dorit ReissIncreasingly, Professor Reiss focuses her research on legal and policy issues related to vaccines, school mandates, and tort and administrative issues related to vaccines.

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Episode 7

A Bird’s Eye View of Tax
Provisions of the CARES Act

In this episode, we speak with Professor Manoj Viswanathan to get an overview of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act.

Professor Manoj ViswanathanProfessor Viswanathan teaches doctrinal tax courses as well as the UC Hastings Business Tax Practicum for Social Enterprises.  His research focuses on tax policy, economic development, and the regulation of tax-exempt organizations.

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Episode 6

Clearing California’s Barriers to Creating Advance Care Directives Online

In this episode, we speak with Professor Sarah Hooper about how to complete an advance care directive in the age of social distancing.

Professor Sarah HooperProfessor Hooper is Executive Director of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy.  Her research focuses on legal issues in aging and dementia care, including health care decision making and informed consent.

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Episode 5

Where’s My Stimulus?
Why the IRS is Ghosting You

In this episode, we speak with Professor Amy Spivey about the economic impact payments and get answers to many logistical questions related to this and the IRS more generally.

Professor Amy SpiveyProfessor Spivey joined UC Hastings Law earlier this year as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Clinic Director for the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.

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Episode 4

The Vaccine Pipeline for Pandemics

In this episode, we talk to Professor Robin Feldman about the potential hurdles to the development and distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Professor Robin FeldmanProfessor Feldman’s work focuses on the role of intellectual property law in technology, as well as drug pricing and health care law.  Her most recent book is Drugs, Money, & Secret Handshakes: The Unstoppable Growth of Prescription Drug Prices.

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Episode 3

The Long-Term Impacts of COVID-19
on the Workplace

In this episode, we speak with Professor Joan Williams about the pandemic and the implications for telework.

Professor Joan WilliamsProfessor Williams has played a central role in reshaping the conversation about work, gender, and class over the past quarter-century.  She has authored 11 books and over 90 academic articles.  Most recently, she was quoted in a New York Times article titled Three Things Lockdowns Have Exposed About Working and Parenting.

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Episode 2

Shelter-in-Place and the
Constitution: Can They Do This?

In this episode, we ask Professor Matt Coles: “Can They Do This?” to get his take on shelter-in-place orders and the Constitution.

Professor Matt ColesBefore joining the UC Hastings Law faculty, Professor Coles was Deputy National Legal Director at the ACLU.  He also helped defeat three California ballot initiatives aimed at quarantining people with HIV in the 80s.

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Episode 1

How COVID-19 in California
Prisons Affects You

In this episode, we ask Professor Hadar Aviram why we should care about the threat of COVID-19 in California prisons.

Professor Hadar AviramProfessor Aviram is an expert in criminal justice, civil rights, and social movements.  She is the author of Yesterday’s Monsters: The Manson Family Cases and the Illusion of Parole, which examines the California parole process.

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