Four exceptional faculty join the Law School, including former Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law L. Song Richardson
Executive Director, Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality; Andrew Gold, Professor of Law; Susan McMahon, Professor of Lawyering Skills; L. Song Richardson, Chancellor’s Professor of Law. UCI
IRVINE, Calif. — The University of California, Irvine School of Law welcomes four full-time faculty members beginning July 1, 2024, including Robert S. Chang, Andrew Gold, Susan McMahon, and L. Song Richardson, former UC Irvine School of Law Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law.
These faculty members bring a wealth of expertise to UC Irvine School of Law as lauded scholars in their respective fields. Their areas of research and scholarship encompass corporate law, criminal law, criminal procedure, experiential legal education, fiduciary law, law school pedagogy, mental health, private law theory, and race and interethnic relations.
“I am grateful for the tremendous work of the faculty serving on our Appointments Committee, who continue our tradition of recruiting some of the nation’s very best to Southern California,” said Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law Austen Parrish. “This latest group to join UC Irvine School of Law are remarkable scholars and teachers, and fabulous additions to our exceptional faculty.”
“We are fortunate to welcome back former dean Song Richardson to the faculty,” Dean Parrish added. “A nationally recognized leader in higher education, Song’s return builds on a growing tradition we have at UC Irvine of extraordinary faculty returning after serving in leadership roles at other institutions.”
The arrival of Professors Chang, Gold, McMahon, and Richardson coincide with new initiatives and the strengthening of existing programs. This includes the arrival of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality; the development of a leadership institute focused on issues of leadership, equity and fairness to be launched over the coming year; the expansion of activities with the Center for Legal Philosophy, a joint endeavor of the Law School and UC Irvine’s School of Humanities; and the further development of the Law School’s nationally acclaimed Lawyering Skills program.
Additionally, Professor Katie Porter will rejoin the Law School faculty Spring 2025, with a formal announcement later in the year. Visiting Assistant Professor Heather Tanana, an expert in water law and tribal water infrastructure, indigenous health policy, and federal Indian law, will return to the Law School for a second year.
Robert S. Chang, Professor of Law, Executive Director, Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality
Executive Director, Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality. UCI
Professor Robert S. Chang joins UC Irvine School of Law as the executive director of the UC Irvine School of Law Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality. Professor Chang will hold a chaired professorship, the details of which will be announced this coming fall.
Prof. Chang founded the center — named for pioneering civil rights hero Fred T. Korematsu — in 2009 at the Seattle University School of Law. The center leads numerous initiatives and projects focused on research, advocacy, and clinical education. Learn more about Prof. Chang and the Korematsu Center’s move to its new home in Irvine.
Prof. Chang is one of the nation’s leading scholars on issues of race and interethnic relations, and one of the most recognized voices on Asian Americans and the law. He is the author of “Disoriented: Asian Americans, Law and the Nation-State” (NYU Press 1999) and co-editor of “Minority Relations: Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation” (University Press of Mississippi 2017) and has two books forthcoming late this year and early next year with Cambridge University Press. He has authored more than 60 articles, essays and chapters published in leading law reviews and books on minority relations, critical race theory, LatCrit theory and Asian American legal studies.
Prof. Chang has received numerous recognitions for his scholarship and service. He was recently honored with the King County Bar Association’s Friend of the Legal Profession Award and will be recognized this fall by the Washington State Bar Association’s Justice Charles Z. Smith Excellence in Diversity APEX Award. Among other awards, Prof. Chang is the 2022 recipient of Seattle University’s McGoldrick Fellowship, the most prestigious honor Seattle University confers upon its faculty; the 2021 co-recipient of the Kathleen Taylor Civil Libertarian Award from ACLU-Washington; the 2018 recipient of the M. Shanara Gilbert Human Rights Award from The Society of American Law Teachers; the 2014 co-recipient of the Charles A. Goldmark Distinguished Service Award from the Legal Foundation of Washington; and the 2009 co-recipient of the Clyde Ferguson Award from the Minority Groups Section of the Association of American Law Schools. He is also an elected member of the American Law Institute.
Prior to joining UC Irvine School of Law, Prof. Chang held professorships at Seattle University School of Law and Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Prof. Chang received an A.B. from Princeton University and holds M.A. and J.D. degrees from Duke University.
