A Back-To-School Message from Chancellor & Dean David Faigman

David Faigman is Chancellor and Dean of UC Law SF College of the Law.

Welcome, and welcome back, to campus!

I am extraordinarily excited to start the new year. Despite COVID’s ever-continuing presence, now distressingly joined by monkeypox as a health concern, we have resumed normal operations on campus. Of course, we will monitor health conditions, and continue to follow public health guidelines, to ensure our community’s safety. That said, it was wonderful to see faculty, staff, and students engaging with each other during our LEOP, First-Gen, LLM, MSL/CSL, HPL, FX and JD orientations over the past two weeks; I witnessed an inspiring and energizing level of enthusiasm for what lies ahead.

In some ways, however, “normal” does not quite capture the uncommon excellence of a UC Law SF education. Our staff and faculty are extraordinary, and preside over an academic program in law second to none in the country. A wide-ranging assortment of clinics and externships provide tremendous depth and breadth of experiences. The ten scholarly journals publish leading scholarship on subjects at the cutting-edge of jurisprudence. The research and programmatic centers cover diverse areas of law, ranging from tax to Indigenous law, all doing extraordinary work. The Moot Court team is ranked first in the country. Our staff work incredibly hard to provide substantial programmatic and individual support to ensure our law students’ success inside and outside the classroom. And our faculty of nationally and internationally renowned scholars are dedicated to great classroom teaching and to student mentorship and success.

All of the greatness of our community and curriculum is joined by physical facilities that already exceed the norm in American law schools and, when joined by the new building at 198 McAllister in the fall of 2023, will surpass in size (and quality!) any law school in the country.

With that greatness comes a responsibility—baked into our mission as a public law school devoted to service—to squarely tackle the most difficult challenges. As a nation, we confront political division at unprecedented levels, all inflamed by social media that turn brush fires into conflagrations. Our society, founded upon the twin pillars of liberty and equality, has too often failed to live up to those ideals. Today, concerted efforts to realize those ideals in practice have thrown into greater relief the depth and reach of the fault lines that exist in American society, lines largely drawn on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, sexual identity, and religion. Our social fabric has long been infected with systemic racism and endemic prejudice; but in recent years we have witnessed the rise of white nationalist movements, growing economic inequality, and a retrenchment of voting and civil rights.

These challenges are compounded by those confronting the world. At the top of any list of earthly dangers is climate change. Human-induced impacts on the world have become horrifically recognizable over the last decade, with incessant wildfires, once-in-a-century superstorms occurring annually, extended periods of extreme drought, and mass extinctions of animal and plant life, all impacting the lives and fortunes of people across the globe.

Law and policy, understanding and communication, engagement, and advocacy—in short, all the knowledge and skills we aim to teach successive generations of legal or law-adjacent professionals—are at the heart of the solutions to these problems. Advancing the rule of law, and pursuing the ends of justice, is our mandate at UC Law SF. This is true both institutionally and as a foundational principle of our pedagogy. To you, our incoming and returning students, I say: welcome or welcome back; you are exactly where you are most needed.

Institutionally, we are committed to a diverse and inclusive campus environment. Though much work remains to be done, I am proud to say that much of the work done by our staff, scholars, clinics, and centers focuses on substantive concerns over promoting equity. These include work on race and economic justice, economic empowerment, racial, gender, and class equity in the workplace, the rights of indigenous persons, neighborhood economic justice, health disparities, and immigrant rights. Additionally, our centers devoted to business, tax, technology, innovation, negotiation and dispute resolution, and litigation and the courts, regularly spotlight issues and practices involving diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. Being an inclusive campus, where all members of the community are valued and heard, is an ongoing obligation. We must continue to broaden and deepen our pledge to these principles.

Pedagogically, we are similarly devoted to principles of inclusion; indeed, a good legal education demands that students are introduced to the full panoply of arguments that might be legitimately advanced on an issue. This means that we must understand the arguments of Sonia Sotomayor and Samuel Alito; it means understanding the legal positions of Exxon Corporation and those of the Sierra Club; and it means understanding the federal charges brought against the insurrectionists of January 6 and the defenses of those who invaded the Capitol. Effective advocates must fully immerse themselves in the substantive arguments and perspectives of those sitting on the other side of the courtroom, bargaining table, or political divide.

At the same time, I want to emphasize that our law school is, and must be, a place dedicated to creating a sense of belonging for all. As a public institution, we do not silence speakers because what they say may be offensive. But while the freedom to speak is a fundamental right, it brings with it responsibilities. We are an academic community that must sometimes embrace contradictions; this includes reconciling the rough-and-tumble of full debate and the maintenance of civil discourse. The challenges and opportunities we face locally, nationally, and globally are complex. As a center of higher learning, our mission is to bring our intellect, curiosity, and skills, to explore the nature of the underlying problems and the range of possible solutions—together.

I am thrilled at the prospect of seeing you all this week and throughout the year. I will have office hours throughout the year, and I hope that you won’t hesitate to sign up and come visit.

I wish you and yours all the best; please be safe and stay healthy.

Warm regards,
David

David L. Faigman
Chancellor and Dean
William B. Lockhart Professor of Law and
John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California Hastings College of the Law