Early on Saturday morning, my wife and I will load up our cars and drive from Irvine to begin our new positions, which officially start on that day, at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. My nine years in Orange County and at University of California, Irvine have been wonderful, everything I possibly could have hoped for and more. It sounds cliché, but I will drive away with a heavy heart for all I am leaving behind and very mixed emotions.
Many have asked me why I would leave UCI Law School, having devoted a decade of my life to helping to create it since my appointment as the founding dean in September 2007. From the outset, my expectation was that I would spend 10 years as dean. I already had decided and repeatedly said that next year was to be my last in the role. It is time for the Law School to go through a careful re-examination and I am not the one to lead that process; I am too invested in and identified with what we have done.
The opportunity at Berkeley arose at a time when I had begun thinking about what I want to do next. It is an ideal opportunity: I can use what I have learned, but in a very different context with quite different challenges. Berkeley Law School is more than three times the size of UCI Law School. It has existed since 1895 and has over 17,000 alums. UCI Law School began in 2009 and has 475 alums.
There always has been a sense of fragility in being part of creating something new. Yet, as I leave UCI Law School, I realize that it no longer is fragile. It is firmly established as a top law school, with a superb faculty and staff and great students. I am especially proud of its commitment to public service. Of the students who graduated on May 13, 95 percent did pro bono work in law school and they averaged almost 100 hours of volunteer service each. And that is in addition to their required clinical work and their classes. I truly believe that no law school in the country does a better job of preparing students for the practice of law at the highest levels of the profession.
Overall, it has gone far better than I, or I think anyone, could have imagined. Yet, there are disappointments too. My greatest disappointment is that I was unsuccessful in raising money for a new law school building, something that is urgently needed for the years ahead. The new building will cost over $100 million and unfortunately the State of California is unwilling to provide funds for it.
I have been surprised by how many people have asked me about what it has been like being an outspoken liberal in Orange County. The simple answer is that it has been great. I have been treated, almost without exception, with unfailing respect and kindness by liberals and conservatives alike.
I have enormously appreciated the chance to become involved in some of the important legal issues facing Orange County. Former California Attorney General John Van de Kamp and I sent a letter, signed by 25 lawyers and law professors, urging the U.S. Attorney General to investigate a pattern and practice of civil rights violations by the Orange County District Attorney and Orange County Sheriff. I was pleased when the Attorney General issued a letter saying that she had found such violations and was prepared to sue to correct them. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether the current Attorney General will follow up on this. I always will be very proud to have represented the Orange County Superior Court in its litigation against the District Attorney’s office for its abuses in retaliating against a judge who found that it had committed serious constitutional violations.
I will miss so much about living in Orange County and Southern California. There are the great restaurants. Taco Maria and Playground are my favorites. I will miss the beach at Crystal Cove where my wife and I walked every Sunday morning. There is the culture of Southern California: we have had tickets at South Coast Rep and at the L.A. Philharmonic throughout our time here. I also have had a part of season tickets to the Dodgers and the Clippers since I taught at USC in the late 1990s.
I will very much miss UCI, which is a terrific school and led by outstanding administrators in Chancellor Howard Gillman and Provost Enrique Lavernia. I will miss the warm community of University Synagogue, led by the incomparable Rabbi Arnie Rachlis. Most of all, I will miss my colleagues, the faculty and senior administrators, at UCI Law School.
I have lived in Southern California for 30 of the last 34 years, most of my adult life. I know I never will be a fan of the Giants or the Warriors. But I am excited to live in a new area and to begin a new adventure.
Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Irvine School of Law.