Chemerinsky (Erwin) papers, 1970-2017

Summary

Title:

Erwin Chemerinsky papers

Dates:

1970-2017

Creators:

Chemerinsky, Erwin

Abstract:

This collection comprises the papers of Erwin Chemerinsky, American lawyer, scholar, and founding dean of the UC Irvine School of Law. The papers consist of professional, scholarly, and personal materials documenting his life and career, including publications, teaching materials, case and research files, files related to special projects he worked on, audio and video recordings, media and publicity materials, correspondence, and college and early professional papers. Materials are in analog and digital formats.

Extent:

106 Linear Feet (127 boxes)

Language:

English .

Preferred citation:

Erwin Chemerinsky papers. MS-F046. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California. [Date accessed].

For the benefit of current and future researchers, please cite any additional information about sources consulted in this collection, including permanent URLs, item or folder descriptions, and box/folder locations.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection comprises the professional and personal papers of Erwin Chemerinsky, which documents his life and career as a scholar, dean of the UC Irvine School of Law, attorney, as well as the numerous special projects he has engaged in outside of the legal and academic sphere. Materials range from his early work as a student at Northwestern University in Illinois to his recent scholarly work. He is the author of more than 200 law review articles and the collection contains many of them up to 2011, as well as drafts of articles, books, and speeches. His academic career is documented by a comprehensive collection of teaching notes, evaluations, and other teaching materials, as well as correspondence and administrative files documenting his time teaching at DePaul University (1980-1984), University of Southern California (1983-2004), Duke University (2004-2008), and becoming the founding dean of the UC Irvine School of Law (2008-2017).

His professional career as an attorney is also well documented in the collection, with files from over 100 cases, including five cases he argued in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. The collection also contains a wide-range of research files and material related to special projects he undertook, most notably as Chair of the Los Angeles Elected Charter Reform Commission (1997-1999) and publishing an Independent Analysis of the Board of Inquiry Report on the Rampart Police Scandal (September 2000). Although the collection comprises mostly paper records, there is a significant portion of digital media and audio visual recordings. There is a small amount of personal material in the collection, including awards and certificates, appointment books, material about his time as a student at Northwestern and Harvard, a high school diary, private correspondence, and some photographs.

Biographical / historical:

Erwin Chemerinsky is an American lawyer and scholar, known for his studies in United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure. He served as the founding dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law from 2009 to 2017, and is currently the dean of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Chemerinsky was born in Chicago, Illinois, on May 14, 1953. He attended high school at University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Communications from Northwestern University in 1975, where he also competed as a debater. He then attended Harvard Law School and graduated cum laude in 1978. Chemerinsky married fellow law professor, Catherine Fisk, in 1993 and have two children, Alex and Mara. He also has two sons, Jeffrey and Adam, from his first marriage to Marcy Strauss.

Chemerinsky began his academic career teaching at DePaul University College of Law from 1980-1984. During this period he was also named Director of the National High School Institute in Speech, Forensics Division at Northwestern University (1981-1982), which provided intensive and comprehensive summer debate experience to high school debaters. He became a visiting Associate Professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law in 1983 and joined the faculty a year later. He became a Professor in 1987 before being appointed the Legion Lex Professor of Law (1991-1997), Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science (1997-2004) and Director of the Center for Communications Law and Policy (2000-2004). In 2004, Chemerinsky became the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University until 2008. He has also been a lecturer for BAR/BRI bar review since 1989, teaching Constitutional Law and Professional Responsibility.

In fall 2007, Chemerinsky was named the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law of UC Irvine School of Law, effective July 2008, where he appointed his "dream team" of faculty and staff to form the foundation of the Law School. His expertise in First Amendment law led to him being named as Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law with a joint appointment in Political Science in 2013, where he taught, wrote, and spoke on First Amendment issues, including the role of a free press in preserving democratic society. In the highest debut ranking by a new law school, UC Irvine School of Law ranked number 30 in its first year of eligibility. The Inaugural Class of 2012 passed the California bar at a rate of 90 percent, second only to Stanford among state law schools. The Class of 2012 was also ranked in the top 20 of The National Law Journal's list of Go-To Law Schools, which measured percentage of students obtaining jobs at the nation's 250 largest law firms.

Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law in July 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law.

In addition to his academic career, Chemerinsky began practicing law as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice (1978-1979) and at Dobrovir, Oakes & Gebhardt in Washington, D.C. (1979-1980). Since then he has frequently argued pro bono appellate cases, including serving as counsel of record and arguing in the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Apel (2013), Scheidler v. NOW (2005), Van Orden v. Perry (2005), Tory v. Cochran (2005), and Lockyer v. Andrade (2003). He has briefed and argued cases in federal courts of appeals, the California Supreme Court, and other courts.

Over the years he has been involved in many high profile projects and professional activities, including serving as Commissioner and Chair of the Los Angeles Elected Charter Reform Commission (1997-1999) which proposed a new City Charter, and was adopted by voters in June 1999; preparing and publishing an An Independent Analysis of the Los Angeles Police Department's Board of Inquiry Report on the Rampart Scandal (September 2000), at the request of the Los Angeles Police Protective League; serving as Chair of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Commission on City Contracting in Los Angeles to review irregularities, which issued its report in February 2005; helped draft the Constitution of Belarus (1992-1993); testifying many times before congressional and state legislative committees, including as a witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the hearings of Samuel Alito for confirmation to the Supreme Court in January 2006; and serving as a commentator on the O.J. Simpson trial on KCBS-TV, KNX, and CBS News in 1995.

Chemerinsky is the author of 11 books including The Case Against the Supreme Court, published by Viking in 2014, and two books published by Yale University Press in 2017, Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and Free Speech on Campus (with Chancellor of UCI, Howard Gillman). He is also the author of more than 200 law review articles. He writes a weekly column for the Sacramento Bee, monthly columns for the American Bar Association Journal and the Daily Journal, and frequent op-eds in newspapers across the country.

In 2016, he was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In January 2017, National Jurist magazine again named Chemerinsky as the most influential person in legal education in the United States.

Date	Event
May 14, 1953	Born in Chicago, Illinois
1975	Graduated from Northwestern University (B.S., Communications)
1978	Graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School
1978-1979	Attorney, Attorney General's Program for Honor Law Graduates, United States Department of Justice, Civil Division, Frauds Section, Washington, D.C.
1979-1980	Attorney, Dobrovir, Oakes, and Gebhardt, Washington, D.C.
1980-1984	Taught at DePaul University College of Law
1981-1982	Director, Northwestern University, National High School Institute in Speech, Forensics Division, Evanston, Illinois
1982-1983	Debate Manager, Mayoral Campaign of Harold Washington, Chicago, Illinois
1983-2004	Taught at University of Southern California Gould School of Law
1986-present	Lecturer, BAR/BRI bar review (Constitutional Law; Professional Responsibility)
1987	Published Interpreting the Constitution
1989	Published the first edition of Federal Jurisdiction
1992	Member, Technical Assistance in Constitution Drafting for the Republic of Belarus, American Bar Association, Central and Eastern European Law Initiative, Minsk, Belarus
1993	Married Catherine Fisk
1995	Commentator on the O.J. Simpson trial on KCBS-TV, KNX, and CBS News
1996-1997	President, Academic Senate, University of Southern California (President-elect, 1995-1996)
1997	Published first edition of Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies
1997-1999	Commissioner and Chair, Los Angeles Elected Charter Reform Commission
2000	Prepared An Independent Analysis of the Los Angeles Police Department's Board of Inquiry Report on the Rampart Scandal
2001	Published first edition of Constitutional Law
2003	Argued at the Supreme Court of the United States in Lockyer v. Andrade
2004-2005	Chair, Mayor's Blue Ribbon Commission on City Contracting in Los Angeles
2004-2008	Taught at Duke University
2005	Argued at the Supreme Court of the United States in Tory v. Cochran
2005	Argued at the Supreme Court of the United States in Van Orden v. Perry
2005	Argued at the Supreme Court of the United States in Scheidler v. N.O.W.
2008	Published Enhancing Government: Federalism for the 21st Century
2008-2017	Became founding Dean of UC Irvine School of Law
2013	Argued at the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Apel
2017	Became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law
2017	Published Closing the Courthouse Doors: How Your Constitutional Rights Became Unenforceable and Free Speech on Campus (with Howard Gillman)

Acquisition information:

Gift of Erwin Chemerinsky, 2017; a further accrual was transferred from UCI School of Law, 2019.

Appraisal information:

During processing the collection was reduced from 210 linear feet to 106 linear feet by discarding duplicate materials, financial records, personnel records, material under Attorney-Client Privilege or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and materials outside of the scope of the collection.

Processing information:

Processed by Sarah Glover, 2018-2019.

Arrangement:

The collection is organized in the following seven series:

1. Writings, 1979-2017. 15 linear feet
2. Academic career, 1980-2017. 23 linear feet
3. Case files, 1979-2016. 30 linear feet
4. Research and reference files, 1993-2008. 12 linear feet
5. Special projects and reports, 1977-2017. 15 linear feet
6. Audio visual material, circa 1984-2005. 2.5 linear feet
7. Personal, 1970-2016. 5.5 linear feet

Physical facet:

(89 records cartons, 25 document boxes, 7 audiovisual boxes, 6 digital media boxes)

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:

Finding aid prepared by Sarah Glover, 2018.

Date Encoded:

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2019-12-11 22:46:02 UTC .

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