Emerita Chancellor & Dean Mary Kay Kane Excellence Awards
Emerita Chancellor & Dean Mary Kay Kane Excellence Awards
The annual Kane Excellence Awards recognizes exceptional faculty who have shown excellence in teaching, scholarly and intellectual life, and service. Founded in 2023, the award has been generously endowed by the late Emerita Chancellor & Dean Mary Kay Kane, UC Law SF’s first woman dean.
Congratulations, 2026-27 Recipients
Provost & Academic Dean Morris Ratner has announced the winners of the 2026-27 Kane Excellence Awards.
The awards ceremony will be held Nov. 12 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m in the Alumni Reception Center (ARC). Please RSVP here to join the lunch event and celebrate the recipients.
Teaching Excellence Award
Nira Geevargis, Clinical Professor and Director of Externship Programs (full-time faculty)
Geoffrey Hansen, Director of the Trial Team and Trial Advocacy Curriculum and Professor of Practice (part-time, adjunct, or visiting faculty)
Scholarly Excellence & Contributions to Intellectual Life Award
Zach Price, Eucalyptus Foundation Professor of Law
Service Excellence Award
Richard Boswell, Professor of Law
Teaching Excellence Award
Awarded for pedagogical innovation, student mentorship, or creating classroom inclusivity, two awards in this category recognize full and part-time faculty.
Scholarly Excellence & Contributions to Intellectual Life Award
Awarded for exceptional engagement at conferences, peer mentorship, or the profile and impact of recent publications.
Service Excellence Award
Awarded for exceptional committee service, innovation in program development, or excellence in the performance of duties.
Nomination & Selection
The 2026-27 selection committee included Chancellor & Dean David Faigman, Provost & Academic Dean Morris Ratner, Associate Dean for Research Dave Owen, Faculty Executive Committee member Ming Chen, and two additional award winners from last year, Distinguished Professor of Law Jodi Short and Professor of Law Jeff Lefstin.
2026-27
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Teaching Excellence Award
Full-Time Faculty
Nira Geevargis, Clinical Professor and Director of Externship Programs (full-time faculty)
Part-Time, Adjunct, or Visiting Faculty
Geoffrey Hansen, Director of the Trial Team and Trial Advocacy Curriculum and Professor of Practice (part-time, adjunct, or visiting faculty)
Scholarly Excellence & Contributions to Intellectual Life Award
Zach Price, Eucalyptus Foundation Professor of Law
Service Excellence Award
Richard Boswell, Professor of Law
2025-26
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Teaching Excellence Award
Full-Time Faculty
Laurie Zimet, Director of Academic Support and Professor of Practice
Part-Time, Adjunct, or Visiting Faculty
Rachel Proffitt, Adjunct Professor
Scholarly Excellence & Contributions to Intellectual Life Award
Jodi Short, Mary Kay Kane Distinguished Professor of Law
Service Excellence Award
Jeff Lefstin, Professor of Law
2024-25
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Teaching Excellence Award
Full-Time Faculty
Abe Cable, Professor of Law, Harry & Lillian Hastings Research Chair, Faculty Director of Online Legal Education, and Faculty Director of the Center for Business Law
Heather Field, Stephen A. Lind Professor of Law and Senior Co-Director of the Center on Tax Law
Part-Time, Adjunct, or Visiting Faculty
Marsha Berzon, Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and Adjunct Professor at UC Law SF
John Dean (‘79), Mediator and Adjunct Professor at UC Law SF
Scholarly Excellence & Contributions to Intellectual Life Award
Dave Owen, Associate Dean for Research and Harry Sunderland ’61 Professor of Law
Reuel Schiller, the Hon. Roger J. Traynor Chair and Professor of Law
Service Excellence Award
Brittany Glidden, Clinical Professor and Faculty Co-Director of the Social Justice Center
Margaret Greer (‘15), Professor of Practice and Director of Bar Passage Support
2023-24
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Teaching Excellence Award
Full-Time Faculty
Jennifer Freeland (’14), Associate Dean of Academic Skills Instruction and Support (OASIS) and Professor of Practice
Lois Schwartz, Professor of Practice
Part-Time, Adjunct, or Visiting Faculty
Rebecca Arons, Director of the Legal Writing Resource Center
James (“Jim”) Wagstaffe, Adjunct Professor
Scholarly Excellence & Contributions to Intellectual Life Award
Scott Dodson, James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair in Litigation, Geoffrey C. Hazard Distinguished Professor of Law, and Faculty Director of the Center for Litigation and Courts
Dorit Reiss, James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation and Professor of Law
Service Excellence Award
Jo Carrillo, Faculty Director of the UC Law SF Indigenous Law Center, Member of the Chancellor & Dean’s Restorative Justice Advisory Board, and Professor of Law
Sarah Hooper (’08), Associate Dean for the HPL Program, Executive Director of the UCSF/UC Law Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy, Concentration Advisor for the Health Law & Policy JD Concentration, and Professor of Practice
Emerita Chancellor & Dean Mary Kay Kane
UC Law SF honors the legacy of Mary Kay Kane with an award for faculty and an endowed chair.
UC Law SF is honored to commemorate the extraordinary life and legacy of Emerita Chancellor & Dean Mary Kay Kane with this award. Dean Kane, who passed away in 2021, was a devoted teacher and an outstanding scholar in the field of civil procedure.
The Mary Kay Kane Professorship of Law endowed chair has been created to honor her legacy. Please make a gift here if you wish to support the endowment.