Journalists and Media Professionals

UC Law San Francisco’s Office of Communications connects reporters with scholars who can provide expert legal analysis on current issues. Whether you’re covering a breaking story or high-profile case, seeking expert commentary on policy and legislation, or examining trends or impacts on people and communities, we’re here to assist.  

Contact

For media inquiries or interview requests, please contact:
UC Law SF Office of Communications
Email: communications@uclawsf.edu

AI & Technology

Emerging technologies present ethical, legal, and regulatory challenges, including privacy, intellectual property, and algorithmic accountably.

Robin FeldmanFeldman is one of the nation’s leading experts in the complex areas of intellectual property and pharmaceutical law. 
HendersonZac Henderson research focuses on emerging technologies and their effects on healthcare, national security, and the economy. 
Tal NivNiv has worked at major technology companies and startups, and contributed to academic and policy discussions in the U.S and EU.

Business Law  

Governing regulatory compliance, corporate governance, commercial transactions, securities law, and how businesses operate within legal and ethical boundaries.

CableAbraham Cable’s experience includes securities, venture capital investments, subprime mortgage-backed securities, and software licenses.  EpsteinEvan Epstein provides corporate governance advice to founders, executives, and directors in the Silicon Valley, U.S and internationally
Jodi ShortShort focuses on regulatory compliance, governance, and enforcement and separation of powers in the U.S. administrative state.
StraussEmily Strauss is an expert in securities regulation, banking, and business law. Her previous practice focused on securities litigation, and criminal and regulatory investigations.

Civil Rights

Protecting individuals from discrimination and providing equal protection under the law to uphold fundamental freedoms and justice.  

ColesMatt Coles is the former deputy national legal director at the ACLU, where he was responsible for the organization’s work on race, voting, disability, and immigration. GonzalesThalia González is a nationally recognized scholar whose research focuses on restorative justice, education law, health justice, juvenile justice, critical race theory, and adultification bias.   

Constitutional Law & Executive Powers

Interpreting the U.S. Constitution, defining the structure of government, and the separation of powers.

Ming Hsu ChenHsu Chen brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of race, immigration, and the administrative state, and frequently writes and speaks about birthright citizenship. ColesMatt Coles is the former deputy national legal director at the ACLU, where he was responsible for the organization’s work on race, voting, disability, and immigration.
Rory LittleLittle served as an associate deputy attorney general and as the appellate chief for the Northern District of California U.S. Attorney’s office. He has orally argued over 60 federal (and a few state) appeals.   PriceZachary Price’s scholarly work focuses on constitutional questions generated by current political polarization. He teaches and writes about constitutional law, administrative law, and criminal and civil law enforcement.  
Jodi ShortShort focuses on regulatory compliance, governance, and enforcement, and separation of powers in the U.S. administrative state.  

Criminal Justice

The laws, policies, and institutions that define crime, enforce laws, and ensure fair legal proceedings from investigation to sentencing.  

AbelJonathan Abel writes about informational asymmetries in the criminal justice system and the structural injustices they produce. His research on police misconduct records has been widely cited. AviramHadar Aviram specializes in criminal justice, civil rights, law and politics, and social movements, and her research employs socio-legal perspectives and methodologies.
Prithika Balakrishnan’sBalakrishnan research examines the intersections of criminal law, technology, and race. She previously served as a deputy public defender in San Francisco for over a decade.   Benjamin A. BarskyBarsky studies relationships between law and health inequality. His research focuses on how criminal law enforcement shapes health, focusing on incarceration, policing and controlled substance law. 
GonzalezThalia González is a nationally recognized scholar whose research focuses on restorative justice, education law, health justice, juvenile justice, critical race theory, and adultification bias.    WeisburdKate Weisburd focuses on criminal investigation and adjudication, civil rights, emerging technology and the changing dimensions of criminal procedure and punishment, and how these shifts impact inequity and privacy. 

Employment Law & Workers’ Rights

The legal protections for employees, covering wages, workplace safety, discrimination, and labor relations.

Jessica LeeLee advocates on behalf of pregnant and parenting students, and works at the intersection of employment, education, and maternal and infant health. Liz MorrisMorris works to advance justice in the workplace by developing policy solutions to racial and gender disparities in economic security, health, and wellbeing.
Seema Patel’sPatel research covers a wide range of fields, from work law and technology, social movements, employment law, and labor law, to state and local government law, and administrative law.      Reuel SchillerSchiller has written extensively about the legal history of the American administrative state, the historical development of labor law, and employment discrimination law.
WilliamsJoan Williams is a scholar of social inequality and is widely known for developing bias interrupters, an evidence-based metrics-driven approach to eradicating implicit bias. A headshot of Natalia Ramírez Lee wearing a green top.Natalia Ramírez Lee speaks nationally on workplace law and inequality. Her research explores the dynamics of discrimination in the workplace, with a particular focus on how flexible and remote work arrangements affect women and other historically marginalized groups.

Environmental Law

Protecting natural resources and public health through regulations on pollution, conservation, and development.  

Dave OwenOwen specializes in environmental protection, energy, land and water use, and the administrative state

Health & Vaccines 

Regulating public health policies, medical ethics, access to care, drug production, and vaccines.  

Benjamin A. BarskyBarsky studies relationships between law and health inequality. His research focuses on how criminal law enforcement shapes health, focusing on incarceration, policing and controlled substance law.  Robin FeldmanFeldman is one of the nation’s leading experts in the complex areas of intellectual property and pharmaceutical law.  
MurphyEmily Murphy focuses on the use of neuroscience as evidence, and how neuroscience and behavioral science shape public policy and legal systems.  

ReissDorit Reiss focuses on legal and policy issues related to vaccines. She writes about vaccines mandates, policy responses to non-vaccinating, tort issues and administrative issues related to vaccines, and the anti-vaccine movement.


Immigration, Asylum & Citizenship  

The rights and processes for individuals seeking entry, refuge, and naturalization; definitions of citizenship; and examining legal, humanitarian, and national interests.  

Blaine BookeyBookey provides strategic litigation, policy advice, and advocacy on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers. Richard BoswellBoswell writes extensively in the field of immigration law and has worked on justice projects in Central Asia, Colombia, Palestine, and Haiti.

Ming Hsu ChenHsu Chen brings an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of race, immigration, and the administrative state, and frequently writes and speaks about birthright citizenship.

KarenMusalo Musalo is recognized for her innovative work on refugee issues and contributions to the evolving jurisprudence of asylum law.  

Indigenous Law

The legal principles, rights, and governance systems of Indigenous peoples, and their interactions with local and federal laws.  

CarrilloJo Carrillo has discussed legal aspects of the land back movement with media and has taught and written extensively in property and property-related subjects, including Federal Indian Law.

Intellectual Property 

Protecting creative and innovative works, including patients, copyrights, and trademarks.

Paul BelonickBelonik is director of the Startup Legal Garage, an innovative program in which law students provide legal work for early-stage tech and biotech startups.  DepoorterBen Depoorter has expertise in copyright law, with a focus on the enforcement of intellectual property law in the digital era.
Robin FeldmanFeldman is one of the nation’s leading experts in the complex areas of intellectual property and pharmaceutical law.  LefstinJeffrey Lefstin focuses on the intellectual architecture of patent law and problems of interpretation in patent litigation.  

Reproductive Rights 

Access to contraception, abortion, and fertility care, balancing individual rights, medical ethics, and legal regulations.  

Jessica LeeLee advocates on behalf of pregnant and parenting students and works at the intersection of employment, education, and maternal and infant health. Liz MorrisMorris works to advance justice in the workplace by developing policy solutions to racial and gender disparities in economic security, health, and wellbeing.
RaoRadhika Rao focuses on the law of the human body including abortion, assisted reproduction, cloning, and stem cell research.  

 


Tax Law 

Shaping economic policy and legal obligations for individuals and organizations.  

FieldHeather Field specializes in tax elections, the effect of tax law on businesses, alongside professionalism in tax practice and tax law pedagogy. SpiveyAmy Spivey advocates for low-income taxpayers and works to ensure fairness and integrity of the tax system.
ViswanathanManoj Viswanathan focuses on tax policy, inequality, and tax-exempt organizations

Technology and Crime

D.C. court officials repeatedly lost track of teens wearing ankle monitors. The timing was deadly.

Prof. Kate Weisburd discusses the limitations, both practical and societal, of relying on GPS ankle monitors for youths in a long-form piece on teens in Washington, D.C.

Vaccines

RFK Jr. purges every vaccine adviser on CDC panel, will pick replacements

While the removal of all members of the expert Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is legal, it raises questions of safety, conflict of interest, and politics, UC Law SF Prof. Dorit Reiss says “This will not restore trust in vaccines, and is not designed to do so.”

Constitutional Law

What is Due Process? Courts Push Back as Trump Moves to Limit This Right

Prof. Matt Coles explains that due process under the Fifth Amendment is only meaningful when applied fairly to everyone and not bypassed for the sake of speed.

AI

Efficiency vs authenticity: Where’s the line when using AI to create art?

Prof. Robin Feldman examines the legal battlegrounds over generative AI in Hollywood and beyond that are affecting jobs, art, and what it means to create.

Employment Law

Teachers tend to plan pregnancies with summer due dates. Could a LAUSD policy change that?

Center of WorkLife Law Co-Director Liz Morris explains how gaps in California’s paid family leave policies may contribute to teacher turnover in public schools as the Los Angeles Unified School District considers new policies.

Environmental Law

Simplifying environmental permits to boost their impact

Prof. Dave Owen suggests that modernizing small-scale permitting could ease regulatory backlogs and improve government efficiency without weakening environmental protections.

Evidence

Your legal rights: forensic science

Chancellor & Dean David Faigman is joined by National Medal of Science recipient Bruce Alberts for a discussion on the role of science in society and the law, and what should qualify as scientific evidence.

Technology and Crime

Amid Calls to Reform Bail, Judges in St. Louis Embrace Ankle Monitors

The increasing use of ankle monitors instead of bail for people awaiting trial raises important questions about efficacy and privacy rights, Prof. Kate Weisburd says.