Four exceptional faculty join the Law School, including former Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law L. Song Richardson
IRVINE, Calif. (June 26, 2024) — 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.”
This latest group to join UC Irvine School of Law are remarkable scholars and teachers, and fabulous additions to our exceptional faculty.
Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law Austen Parrish
“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
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.
Andrew Gold, Professor of Law
A leading voice in the legal philosophy field, Professor Andrew Gold’s primary research interests address private law theory, fiduciary law, and the law of corporations. His recent work has also focused on law as a complex system. Prof. Gold will hold a courtesy joint appointment with the Department of Philosophy in UC Irvine’s School of Humanities.
Prof. Gold’s scholarship is nationally acclaimed. He is the author of “The Right of Redress” (Oxford University Press 2020), the co-editor of “The American Law Institute: A Centennial History” (Oxford University Press 2023) (with Robert Gordon), “The Oxford Handbook of The New Private Law” (Oxford University Press 2020) (with John Goldberg, Dan Kelly, Emily Sherwin, and Henry Smith), and the “Philosophical Foundations of Fiduciary Law” (Oxford University Press 2014) (with Paul Miller). Prof. Gold’s work has appeared in the nation’s leading publications, including the Michigan Law Review; Northwestern University Law Review; University of Toronto Law Journal; Ethics; Law and Philosophy; and the American Journal of Jurisprudence. His most recent work includes, “The Equity in Corporate Law,” forthcoming in 100 Notre Dame Law Review (2024-2025) (coauthored with Henry Smith), and “When Private Law Theory Is Close Enough,” in Methodology in Private Law: Between New Private Law and Rechtsdogmatik (Thilo Kuntz & Paul B. Miller, eds.) (Oxford University Press 2024).
Honored for his teaching and scholarship, Prof. Gold previously was the Bruce W. Nichols Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School; an HLA Hart Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford; and a Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at McGill University. He is a co-founder of the North American Workshop on Private Law Theory and is a member of the American Law Institute. Among other accolades he has received a Canadian Fulbright Award, two awards for Excellence in Scholarship, and an award for Excellence in Teaching.
Prof. Gold joins UC Irvine School of Law from Brooklyn Law School, where he served as associate director of the Center for the Study of Business Law and Regulation, and director of its Program on Private Law. He has also taught at DePaul University College of Law, practiced corporate litigation for Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, and served as a law clerk for Judge Daniel Manion of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and with Judge Loren Smith of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. He received a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and a B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Susan McMahon, Professor of Lawyering Skills
Joining the Law School’s acclaimed lawyering skills program, Professor Susan McMahon is a national leader in the field of legal writing and lawyering skills.
Prof. McMahon’s scholarly work is widely recognized and centers on lawyering and legal education, with a particular focus on how lawyers can drive change within legal systems. She is also an expert on the intersection of mental disability and the criminal system, and she has written on topics such as competence restoration, involuntary medication, and stigma against individuals with mental illness. Her scholarly work has found a home in journals such as the Minnesota Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, American Criminal Law Review, and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Public Affairs. Her most recent scholarship includes the article, “What We Teach When We Teach Legal Analysis,” 107 Minn. L. Rev. 2511 (2023), which won the Legal Writing Institute’s 2024 Teresa Godwin Phelps Award for Scholarship in Legal Communication. She is also the co-author of “Legal Writing in Context” (Carolina Academic Press, 2nd ed. 2024) (with Sonya G. Bonneau).
Active in national organizations, Prof. McMahon currently serves on the Board of the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute. Among other activities, she previously has served on the program committee of the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research; as an assistant editor of the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute; as a member of the scholarship development committee of the Legal Writing Institute; as a member of the conference committee of the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference; and as peer reviewer of Legal Communication & Rhetoric (Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors).
Prof. McMahon joins UC Irvine School of Law from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Prior to that, she taught at the Georgetown University Law Center for ten years. Before entering academia, Prof. McMahon was a litigator at Debevoise & Plimpton, where she represented clients in securities litigation, intellectual property disputes, and federal criminal cases. She also represented, pro bono, several Guantanamo Bay detainees in their habeas corpus petitions before federal courts. From 2008 to 2009, she clerked for the Honorable Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Prof. McMahon received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. from College of the Holy Cross. Before attending law school, Prof. McMahon was an award-winning reporter.
L. Song Richardson, Chancellor’s Professor of Law
Professor L. Song Richardson, former UC Irvine School of Law Dean from 2018-2021, has rejoined the Law School and will be appointed a Chancellor’s Professor of Law. An award-winning educator and scholar, Prof. Richardson has been recognized for her transformational leadership in higher education. Her plans upon her return include launching an innovative center and institute, focused on issues of equity, opportunity, and leadership
Prof. Richardson’s trailblazing career has been one of many firsts. She returns to UC Irvine after serving as the 14th president of Colorado College, making history as the first woman of color to hold the presidency. Previously, at the time of her appointment as the Law School’s second dean, Prof. Richardson was the only woman of color to lead a top-30 law school. She previously served on the Executive Committee of the Association of American Law Schools, on the board of the Council of Independent Colleges, and as chair of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference’s Presidents Council. She is currently on the board of Citizens and Scholars, and serves on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s consensus study committee titled “Advancing the Field of Forensic Pathology: Lessons Learned from Death in Custody Investigations.” She is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
Prof. Richardson’s impactful leadership has earned her widespread recognition, including the Association of American Law Schools’ Derrick Bell Award, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Trailblazer Award, the Inclusive Leader Award for Higher Education, and the Council of Korean Americans’ Empower Award. The Thurgood Marshall Bar Association in Orange County established the L. Song Richardson Legacy Award to honor individuals who make extraordinary impacts in the legal community. Prior to joining Colorado College as president, Prof. Richardson was named one of the Top Women Lawyers in California by The Daily Journal, one of the 100 Most Influential business and opinion shapers in Orange County, and one of the two most influential Korean Americans in Orange County.
An interdisciplinary scholar, Prof. Richardson teaches and writes in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, and law and social science. Her scholarship applies cognitive and social psychology concepts to criminal law, criminal procedure, and policing. She has consulted widely on issues of implicit bias, race, and policing, working with various public and private entities to address racial and gender disparities. Her scholarship has been published by law journals at Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, Cornell, Duke, and Northwestern, among others.
Before joining UC Irvine in 2014, Prof. Richardson held law professorships at DePaul University, American University, and the University of Iowa. In addition, she was a partner at a boutique criminal law firm, worked as a state and federal public defender in Seattle, and served as an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Prof. Richardson received a J.D. from Yale Law School and an A.B. from Harvard College. She is a classically trained pianist who performed twice with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
About the University of California, Irvine School of Law’s Extraordinary Faculty
The University of California, Irvine School of Law’s faculty are among the nation’s leading scholars and educators, representing a broad range of expertise. Ranked No. 2 in the nation for the quality of our faculty’s instruction, our stellar faculty contribute to the rich fabric of UC Irvine School of Law, developing new teaching strategies and enhancing the Law School’s impact across every field.
Ranked No. 14 in the nation for scholarly impact, our faculty are known for their translative, interdisciplinary research, and hold prestigious leadership roles in national organizations. At the heart of our faculty’s scholarship is a deep understanding and appreciation for interdisciplinary work, bringing together law with such disciplines as political science, tax law, criminology, sociology, public health, technology and business — UC Irvine School of Law is No. 5 in the nation in faculty interdisciplinary scholarly impact.
Our faculty are gifted teachers, too. These highly regarded thought leaders are not only influencing policy, law and the legal profession, they are also dedicated mentors who are committed to their students’ success at the Law School and beyond. Learn more about our extraordinary faculty at law.uci.edu/faculty.
About the University of California, Irvine School of Law
The University of California, Irvine School of Law is a visionary law school that provides an innovative and comprehensive curriculum, prioritizes public service, and demonstrates a commitment to equity within the legal profession. UC Irvine Law students have completed more than 160,000 hours of pro bono work since 2009. Nearly half of all UCI Law’s J.D. graduates are people of color, and almost a third are first-generation students. At UCI Law, we are driven to improve our local, national, and global communities by grappling with important issues as scholars, as practitioners, and as teachers who are preparing the next generation of leaders. The collaborative and interdisciplinary community at UCI Law includes extraordinary students, world-renowned faculty, dedicated staff, engaged alumni, and enthusiastic supporters. Connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, and sign up for our monthly newsletter for the latest news and events at UCI Law.