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.
And 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.
Related Resources
- ACLU, ACLU civil rights concerns with potential use of facial recognition in proctoring the California Bar Examination
- Law.com, 2020 Bar Applicants Held Hostage by Hubris
- Law.com, Law School Grad: California Bar Exam Decision Is a ‘Hurtful Half-Measure’
- Law.com, Overcoming a Historic Bar: Victory for Applicants, Not High Court
- United for Diploma Privilege
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 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.
Related Resources
- Center for WorkLife Law, Resources for Pregnant and Lactating Employees During COVID-19
- Center for WorkLife Law, COVID-19 Helpline
- New York Times, Know Your Workplace Rights
- New York Times, Real Life Horror Stories from the World of Pandemic Motherhood
- New York Times, The Primal Scream
- WorkLife Law GoFundMe Campaign
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 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.
Related Resources
- America Is Letting the Coronavirus Rage Through Prisons, New York Times
- COVID-19 Resources for Incarcerated People from UnCommon Law
- In re Von Staich – Order to reduce San Quentin population to 50% capacity
- Megan Cassidy and Jason Fagone, Potential transfers out of San Quentin raise dire concerns for inmates, San Francisco Chronicle
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.
Increasingly, Professor Reiss focuses her research on legal and policy issues related to vaccines, school mandates, and tort and administrative issues related to vaccines.
Related Resources
- Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Is it time for the FDA to be independent?, STAT
- Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, Institutionalizing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Independence
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.
Related Resources
- 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 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.
Related Press
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- Richard A. Oppel Jr., The Fullest Look Yet at the Racial Inequity of Coronavirus, New York Times
- Maria Godoy, What Do Coronavirus Racial Disparities Look Like State by State?, NPR (May 30, 2020).
Related Organizations
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.
Related Press
-
- Is Trump Liable If a Rallygoer Catches COVID-19, CNN
- Shanin Specter, Coronavirus Waivers and Immunity Bills Are a Big Mistake, CNN (June 19, 2020).
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.
Related Press
Related Organizations
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.
Related Press
-
- James Wagstaffe, 7 Steps to Romancing the Virtual Classroom, Law 360 (May 20, 2020).
- Jeannie Suk Gersen, Finding Real Life in Teaching Online, The New Yorker (April 23, 2020).
- Tamara Babaian and Bill Schiano, Energize Your Online Course with Group Work, Harvard Business Publishing (April 13, 2020).
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.
Related Press
-
- Morgan Ricks, John Crawford, and Lev Menand, Fed Accounts: Digital Dollars, (April 15, 2020).
- Ben Winck, The Fed Sees Near Zero Interest Rates Lasting Through 2022 to Curb the Coronavirus’ Economic Damage, Business Insider (June 10, 2020).
- Jeanna Smialek and Alan Rappeport, Fed Leaves Rates Unchanged and Projects Years of High Unemployment, New York Times (June 10, 2020).
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.
Before 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.
Related Press
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 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.
Related Press
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- Alice Armitage, Design Thinking: The Answer to the Impasse between Innovation and Regulation, Georgetown Law Technology Review (2017).
- Sara Lord, ANALYSIS: The New Normal-Law Firms May Never Be the Same, Bloomberg Law (May 7, 2020).
- Brian Baxter, Coronavirus Crisis Could Bring Big Changes to Legal Operations, Bloomberg Law (Apr. 20, 2020).
- Jenn Betts, Embracing Legal Technology is Critical in the COVID-19 Era, Law.com (May 13, 2020).
Related Organizations
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.
Increasingly, Professor Reiss focuses her research on legal and policy issues related to vaccines, school mandates, and tort and administrative issues related to vaccines.
Related Press
-
- Natalie E. Dean, How to Conduct Coronavirus Research at Pandemic Speed, Washington Post (Apr. 10, 2020).
- Nicole Lurie, Melanie Saville, et al., Developing Covid-19 Vaccines at Pandemic Speed, New England Journal of Medicine (Mar. 30, 2020).
- Joe Palca, When Can We Expect a Coronavirus Vaccine?, NPR (May 12, 2020).
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 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.
Resources
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- IRS, Deferral of Employment Tax Deposits and Payments through December 31, 2020 (Last Updated: Apr. 16, 2020).
- IRS, IRS Offers Guidance under the CARES Act to Taxpayers with Net Operating Losses (Apr. 9, 2020).
- U.S. Small Business Administration, Paycheck Protection Program.
Related Press
-
- Garrett Watson, A Review of Net Operating Loss Tax Provisions in the CARES Act and Next Steps for Phase 4 Relief, Tax Foundation (Apr. 14, 2020).
Related Organizations
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 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.
Resources
-
- PREPARE: Advance Care Planning Tool.
- The National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, Webinar: Advance Care Planning During COVID-19, An MLP Town Hall (Apr. 16, 2020).
- Charles P. Sabatino & Louraine Arkfeld, A New Advance Care Planning Tool for Lawyers, American Bar Association (Feb. 1, 2019).
Related Organizations
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 Spivey joined UC Hastings Law earlier this year as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Clinic Director for the Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic.
Resources
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- Alameda County Bar Association, CARES Act 2020 Frequently Asked Questions (Apr. 22, 2020).
- Free Tax Prep Los Angeles, Non-Filers & the Economic Impact Payment (EIP) Stimulus – Portal(Apr. 10, 2020).
- IRS, Coronavirus Tax Relief and Economic Impact Payments(Last Updated: May 4, 2020).
- IRS, Get My Payment Tool (Last Updated: May 13, 2020).
- State of California, Franchise Tax Board.
- Taxpayer Advocate Service, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tax Relief.
- Taxpayer Advocate Service, Low Income Taxpayer Clinics.
Related Press
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- California Lawyers Association, Tax Implications and Eligibility of Benefits Under the CARES Act: Navigating COVID-19 Issues(Apr. 17, 2020).
- Jenny Jarvie, These U.S. Citizens Won’t Get Coronavirus Stimulus Checks – Because Their Spouses Are Immigrants, Los Angeles Times (Apr. 20, 2020).
Related Organizations
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 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.
Resources
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- UC Hastings Law, Center for Innovation, COVID-19 Survey.
Related Press
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- Robin Feldman, President Trump’s Coronavirus Response Highlights a Flawed Drug Pricing System, Washington Post (Feb. 27, 2020).
- UC Hastings Law, Center for Innovation, The Law & Medicine Initiative Recent Evidence in Health Care Policy (Feb. 2020).
Related Organizations
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 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.
Related Press
-
- Arianne Cohen, Managing the Parents on Your Team Requires Flexibility, Support, Bloomberg Businessweek (Apr. 22, 2020).
- Claire Cain Miller, Three Things Lockdowns Have Exposed about Working and Parenting, New York Times (Apr. 27, 2020).
- Brigid Schulte, What Moms Always Knew about Working from Home, New York Times (Apr. 6, 2020).
- Joan C. Williams, Solving the Part-Time Puzzle: The Law Firms Guide to Balanced Hours.
- Joan C. Williams, The Pandemic Has Exposed the Fallacy of the “Ideal Worker,” Harvard Business Review (May 11, 2020).
Related Organizations
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.
Before 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.
Related Press
-
- Jenny B. Davis, Pandemic Power Plays: Civil Liberties in the Time of COVID-19, ABA Journal (Apr. 21, 2020).
- Wendy E. Parmet & Michael S. Sinha, COVID-19 – the Law and Limits of Quarantine, New England Journal of Medicine (Apr. 9, 2020).
- Matt Reynolds, Contact-Tracing Apps Could Help Contain COVID-19 but Raise Thorny Legal and Privacy Issues, ABA Journal (Apr. 23, 2020).
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 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.
Related Press
-
- Hadar Aviram, Cause of Death, California Correctional Crisis (Apr. 9, 2020).
- Hadar Aviram, Yes, We *Have* to Release People Originally Convicted of Violent Crime: The Last Hearing of Susan Atkins, California Correctional Crisis (Apr. 7, 2020).
- Hadar Aviram, Gov. Newsom, Please Release More Prisoners to Prevent CDCR from Becoming a Mass Grave, California Correctional Crisis (Apr. 3, 2020).
- Margo Schlanger & Sonja Starr, Four Things Every Prison System Must Do Today, Slate (Mar. 27, 2020).
Related Organizations