These are busy days for Representative Xavier Becerra, JD ’84 (BA ’80). Media appearances, phone conferences with constituents, interviews with his alumni magazine. Sure, the life of a public official is always hectic, and Becerra is dedicated to the job of serving the people of the 31st District of Los Angeles, something he has done since he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1992.
Q & A: Legal Matters
In this Q&A, Professor Mark A. Lemley explores innovation, entrepreneurialism, and law with PayPal co-founder and Stanford Law alumnus Peter Thiel.
On International Cooperation and Security
The son of a German mother and an African-American father, he was raised in a working-class suburb of New Jersey—often spending weekends and evenings helping his father with the family’s office cleaning company. A bright student, he was encouraged by his parents to pursue higher education and he excelled at Stanford Law School. He was elected Law Association president following his 1L year, became a notes editor for Stanford Law Review …
Q & A: Legal Matters with Scott A. Blackmun ’82 and PattiSue Plumer ’89 (BS ’85)
Scott A. Blackmun ’82
Two Thousand and nine is a year that members of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) would probably prefer to forget. Reeling from the stinging loss of its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games in Chicago—ousted in the first round of voting, despite a very public trip by President and Mrs. Obama to Copenhagen to support the bid—the USOC couldn’t avoid the beating it received in the press…
Q & A: Legal Matters with David J. Hayes and Michael Wara
When David J. Hayes ’78 graduated from law school, he planned to be a trial lawyer, heading off to clerk first for Judge William Jones and then for Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer, both on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. But that fall something happened that changed the direction of his career.









