Students Celebrate 2012 Law Day at Los Angeles Federal Court

Local high school students throughout Los Angeles County celebrated 2012 Law Day at the United States District Court in Los Angeles. Some 1,000 students, teachers, and volunteers gathered for the three-day event held April 24-April 26, 2012. The program included mock trials and presentations by judges, attorneys, pretrial services and probation officers,court staff, and the U.S. Marshals Service. Court staff and volunteers from Justice Corps and Trinity Law School worked tirelessly to ensure a successful and rewarding program for the students.

Judges Welcome Students, Others to the Browning Courthouse



Jefferson High School students from
Daly City, California

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, headquartered in the James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco, frequently welcomes students who want to learn more about the federal judiciary.  Despite their busy schedule, the judges were generous with their time in welcoming and taking questions from several groups of local high school students, law school students from here and abroad, as well as interns and externs, seeking to expand their knowledge of the United States judicial system.

Judges who participated in several programs conducted by the court include

Circuit Judges Carlos T. Bea, Jay S. Bybee, Richard R. Clifton, William A. Fletcher, Sandra S. Ikuta, M. Margaret McKeown, Mary H. Murguia, Richard A. Paez, Johnnie B. Rawlinson, and Richard C. Tallman; and Senior Circuit Judges Ferdinand F. Fernandez, Michael Daly Hawkins, Dorothy W. Nelson, Stephen S. Trott, and A. Wallace Tashima.  Senior District Judge Charles R. Breyer of the District of Arizona, District Judge Raner C. Collins of the District of Arizona, and Chief District Judge Sarah S. Vance, a visiting judge from the Eastern District of Louisiana, also participated.

Beginning in May, 19 students from Jefferson High School in Daly City, California, visited the court and watched oral arguments before Circuit Judges M. Margaret McKeown, William A. Fletcher, and Senior Circuit Judge Stephen S. Trott. 

On June 11 and June 13, 2012, Circuit Judges Sandra S. Ikuta and Johnnie B. Rawlinson met with a group of appellate advocacy students from the University of Santa Clara School of Law, and law students who were volunteers at the immigration court and the ICE attorney’s office in San Francisco, and at Gibson Dunn law firm.  Later that afternoon, Senior Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins and several staff attorneys met with students from Oakland International High School, Dream Academy, and toured the courthouse.

On June 12, 2012, the court welcomed 35 students from the California Attorney General’s offices in Oakland, Sacramento, and San Francisco, and seven law students from Townsend Kilpatrick law firm.  They observed oral arguments and met with Circuit Judge Carlos T. Bea and Senior Circuit Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez.

Circuit Judge Carlos T. Bea and Richard C. Tallman met on June 14, 2012, with 10 law students working as externs for the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California, and another group of law students from Santa Clara Law.  Later that afternoon, Senior Circuit Judge Dorothy W. Nelson and Judges Rawlinson and Ikuta met with 15 students and externs from Santa Clara Law and the district court, including staff members.  The following day, a group of international law students from a summer program at UC Berkeley Law met with Judges Bea and Nelson.

Judges Clifton, Murguia, and Tashima met and took questions on July 16, 2012, from groups of law students including 30 from the San Francisco Attorney’s Office, 10 from Pillsbury law firm in San Francisco, and 10 externs for judges in the Eastern District of California.  The students and externs also had the opportunity to observe oral arguments and meet with law clerks. 

A group of 15 international law students in a program at Santa Clara Law had the opportunity to meet with Judges Clifton, Murguia, and Collins on July 18, 2012.  Fifteen law student interns for the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Federal Public Defender’s Office in the Northern District of California, and six judicial externs who are working for district and magistrate judges in Oakland also met with the judges.

Judges Bybee, Paez, and Vance met with a group of 25 UC Berkeley Law students who are participants in a joint program with the University of Tel Aviv.  The group also observed oral arguments.

On July 31, 2012, a group of 30 high school students from Mid-Peninsula Housing Summer Program in San Mateo, California; together with 20 high school students from Stanford’s Education Program for Gifted Youth; and 10 law student externs from the California Attorney General’s Office observed oral arguments before Judges Fletcher and Breyer, and with Judge Trott, who participated by video.  The judges took questions from the group following the oral arguments.