UCI Intellectual Property, Arts, and Tech Clinic

10/07/2025

Last month, the University of California, Irvine School of Lawʻs IPAT Clinic, Press Freedom Project, and Defending Democracy Clinic hosted a wonderful screening of Ninety Minutes Later, Cyndy Fujikawaʻs heartbreaking profile of Marquezʻss life and tragic death. Daniel Villarreal, Will Gotay, and Sandra "Pocha" Peña Sarmiento spoke afterward, along with Professors Susan Seager, Paul Hoffman, and Jack Lerner. We wrote about it on our website!

https://ipat.law.uci.edu/uci-law-clinics-host-screening-of-documentary-ninety-minutes-later/

09/17/2024

Today our client Katey Rusch has published a MASSIVE story about a decades-long practice of burying in "clean record" agreements so that cops who have committed misconduct can conceal that when they go to get another job. This story was made possible after years of advocacy by our brilliant students in the UCI Press Freedom Project led by Susan Seager. After years of back and forth with hundreds of agencies and dogged reporting, The San Francisco Chronicle has published this story.

The story exposes "a secret system of legal settlements that has whitewashed the corruption, criminality and other misconduct of law enforcement officers throughout California for decades, an investigation by the San Francisco Chronicle and UC Berkeley’s Investigative Reporting Program found.

"At least 163 California police agencies have executed separation agreements concealing misconduct allegations against at least 297 officers and deputies, records obtained by this investigation show. The actual numbers are likely much higher, because one-third of police agencies asked to release the agreements refused, citing privacy laws.

"Those whose conduct is hidden by these deals — also known as 'clean-record agreements' — include a deputy accused of groping a woman held in a county jail, an officer who investigators determined falsified a report to link a man to a crime, and a deputy who was found to haveviolated department policy when he fatally shot a teenager as he lay wounded.

"More than half of the officers who secured clean-record agreements uncovered by the investigation also received lump-sum payments as part of the deals, totaling $23.7 million. One officer got $3.1 million. At least five officers have secured multiple clean-record agreements.

"In many cases, police departments hid alleged misconduct even while maintaining it occurred. In every case where reporters could establish the outcome of a department’s internal investigation through documents or interviews, they found that clean-record agreements were given after police agencies had fired the officer, or had begun the process of doing so, based on what they saw as clear evidence of wrongdoing."

Today is a great day for press freedom and for holding government accountable to the people. Congratulations to Katey Rusch and Casey Smith, and a big thank you to the IPAT Clinic's Press Freedom Project!

Behind locked drawers, in police departments all over California, sit documents no one is supposed to see. Known as clean-record agreements, they conceal officers' misconduct, helping them land new jobs. These documents have been secret — until now.

09/11/2024

UCI PRESS FREEDOM PROJECT WINS DISCLOSURE OF COURT RECORDS IN HIGH-PROFILE PROSECUTION OF DISTRICT ATTORNEY

Earlier this summer, the IPAT Clinic’s Press Freedom Project won the disclosure of a sealed affidavit in a high-profile prosecution of a deputy Los Angeles district attorney, Diana Teran, charged with the alleged misuse of confidential sheriff’s deputy disciplinary records. The Project filed a successful motion to unseal the affidavit in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of our client the LA Public Press, an independent news website reporting about Los Angeles.

The Project’s work was featured in a major story today in the Los Angeles Times, in which Press Freedom Project director Professor Susan Seager was quoted:

“This just shows how Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has wasted the time of several Los Angeles judges by asking them to keep these court records secret,” said Susan Seager, the UC Irvine law professor who has been fighting on behalf of the L.A. Public Press for the release of the deputies’ names since May. “Anyone can go to the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse today and find all the deputy lawsuits challenging their discipline and post them online. What happens in our public courts belongs to the public.”

While this is an important victory for transparency and accountability, the case is not over. We are still fighting to unseal other court records in the case.

Read the full LA Public Press story here: Judge unseals DOJ affidavit in Diana Teran case after LA Public Press motion https://lnkd.in/g7AQib2G

Read the full Los Angeles Times story here: Spotty redactions and public records reveal names of deputies in case against D.A. advisor
https://lnkd.in/gTb3yvSP

05/06/2024

Amazing news! Lau, Jalena Keane-Lee, and Amber Espinosa-Jones's powerful, inspiring film Standing Above the Clouds just won the Bill Nemtin Award for Best Social Impact Documentary at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival! We have felt so privileged to work with these brilliant filmmakers to help this important film get made.

CONGRATULATIONS!

05/03/2024

https://ipat.law.uci.edu/documentary-filmmaking-community-files-amicus-brief-in-important-fair-use-case-involving-tiger-king/

  Today five organizations representing the nationwide documentary community filed a brief amicus curiae in a massively important case involving fair use. The International Documentary Association, Film Independent, Kartemquin Films, Women in Film, and the University Film and Video Association....

03/21/2024

On April 23, 2024, Professors Jack Lerner and Charis Kubrin will participate in Defending The Mic: The Decriminalization of Rap Music, a webinar about the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials. The webinar, hosted by the Diversity and Racial Justice Committee of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, will also feature experienced trial attorney J. Samantha Vacciana, Esq.; Kristin Shockley, Senior Lecturer of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University; and Professor Andrea Dennis, who co-authored Rap on Trial: Race, Lyrics, and Guilt in America. The webinar has been approved by the Florida Bar for 2.5 CLE credits.

Go here to learn more!

  On April 23, 2024, Professors Jack Lerner and Charis Kubrin will participate in Defending The Mic: The Decriminalization of Rap Music, a webinar about the use of rap lyrics in criminal trials. The webinar, hosted by the Diversity and Racial Justice Committee of the Florida Association of Crim...

02/29/2024

UC IRVINE SCHOOL OF LAW SCHOOL SEEKS VISTING ASSISTANT CLINICAL PROFESSOR FOR FALL 2024

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA IRVINE SCHOOL OF LAW invites applications for an appointment as a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor/Visiting Clinical Professor to teach in its Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic for one semester in Fall 2024.

The UCI Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic is a one-semester, six unit course that satisfies the Law School’s clinical course requirement for graduation. The Clinic works to protect civil liberties and support innovation in the digital age by advising and representing clients on a range of matters dealing with copyright, media, trademark, privacy, and First Amendment law, among other areas. Clients include filmmakers, journalists, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, artists, policymakers, and others. More information about the Clinic is available here: https://ipat.law.uci.edu.

The person will be appointed a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor or Clinic Professor, depending on experience. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. Applicants should have at least 5-7 years of legal practice and/or teaching experience in the relevant practice area. Applicants must hold a J.D. degree or equivalent from an accredited institution and be a member of a state bar. In addition, they must have demonstrated potential for excellence in clinical teaching.

Full listing here: https://lnkd.in/gUprFKhz.

We hope you apply, and please reach out if you think you might be interested!

01/24/2024

We have received a wonderful response to our release yesterday of the Second Edition of RAP ON TRIAL: A LEGAL GUIDE. Since the first edition of the Guide was published in 2021, there have been many developments related to the use of rap lyrics and videos used in criminal proceedings. To keep up with these developments, co-authors Jack Lerner and Charis E. Kubrin, with the help of students in the UCI Intellectual Property, Arts, and Tech Clinic, have made numerous revisions and introduced new sections that reflect how “Rap on Trial” has evolved over the past few years.
Changes in the second edition of Rap on Trial: A Legal Guide include:
✅A new section on implicit bias and how attorneys can help courts curb its influence.
✅Negative media treatment of rap music spanning more than four decades, and the effects of that coverage
✅Analysis of major legislative developments like California’s AB 2799, the Decriminalizing Creative Expression Act of 2022, which is the nation’s first-ever legislation to place guardrails on the use of rap lyrics in criminal proceedings. We also discuss the California Racial Justice Act, and how it interacts with Rap on Trial
✅Discussion on how the legal environment has affected rap music, including the emergence of “cappin'” disclaimers before songs or at the beginning of albums
✅Discussion of the use of ghostwriters in rap music
✅New ways of thinking about Rap on Trial, such as a cautionary note on using the term “gangsta rap,” which can introduce prejudice in the court room
✅Coverage of the emerging use of state RICO statutes in the context of Rap on Trial, such as in the closely-watched YSL trial in Georgia
Since the Guide‘s original release, we have talked with hundreds of attorneys dealing with this issue, and their feedback on the Guide has been invaluable. And there has been important progress in the national conversation about systemic racism in the criminal justice system and how it relates to the “Rap on Trial” phenomenon. Despite the progress, prosecutors still attempt to use rap lyrics against young Black and Brown artists whenever they can. Much work still remains, and it is our hope that this guide will educate the public and aid attorneys in the fight against this pernicious practice.