David B. Oppenheimer (New York City, 18 March 1950) is a clinical professor of law at Berkeley Law.[1] He is the director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law and the faculty co-director of the pro bono program.[2][3][4] He is the author of ten books on civil rights and discrimination law, including the first law school casebook in comparative equality law.[5][6][7]
Oppenheimer attended the New Lincoln School in New York City.[8] He attended a number of universities and graduated from the University Without Walls in 1972 with a degree in political science,[1][9][10][11] and from Harvard Law School in 1978.[1] He is married to Marcy Diane Kates and has two step-children.[12] His sister Amy J. Oppenheimer is the senior partner of a law firm in Berkeley California (Oppenheimer Investigations Group) and a playwright/actress;[13][14] he also has a brother.
Oppenheimer believes “the cause of racial justice is responsible for his existence.”[15] His grandparents Harry Centennial Oppenheimer and Amy Vorhaus Oppenheimer were troubled by the 1915 release of "The Birth of a Nation" so they independently reached out to Booker T. Washington, who then introduced them to each other.[15]
Career
Oppenheimer graduated from Harvard Law School where he was a research assistant to Laurence Tribe.[1][16] Following graduation in 1978, Oppenheimer clerked for the Chief Justice of California, Rose Elizabeth Bird.[17][10][18][19][20][21][11] He then went to work as a civil rights prosecutor for the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing handling discrimination cases.[20][17] In 1982, he founded the Boalt Hall employment discrimination clinic, serving as its Director.[22][10][11] He moved to the University of San Francisco and then Golden Gate University, where he served as the Associate Dean.[21][17][10][19] He returned to Berkeley Law in 2009 as Clinical Professor of Law and Director of Professional Skills.[23][20][24] He has served as a visiting professor at Sciences Po Paris, University of Paris I, University of Paris X, Queen Mary University of London, University College London, University of Bologna, and LUMSA Rome.[25]
Oppenheimer is a member of the American Law Institute and the advisory committee of the European Union Rewiring project on gender equality.[26][12] He is a former board member of the ACLU of Northern California, Bay Area Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, and Equal Rights Advocates.[27][28][29][30][25] He is a member of the US Supreme Court Bar and California State Bar.[31][32]
Expertise
Oppenheimer is best known for his expertise and publications on comparative discrimination law and U.S. civil rights history, including the origins of diversity policies.[15][33][34][35] In The New Yorker magazine, he was described as the “diversity detective” for his historical accounts of the origins of the diversity justification for affirmative action.[15] He has written for numerous news sources including the Los Angeles Times, The National Law Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner.[36][37][38][39]
In 2011, Oppenheimer founded the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, which includes over 1000 scholars, advocates, and activists from every continent except Antarctica.[2] Under his direction, the center has facilitated the publication of webinars, books, and conferences by bringing together scholars and advocates from around the world focused on equality law.[2] The Center has developed online multi-university courses on equality law with universities around the globe.[44][45] The Center works on a variety of issues including climate equality, digital equality, disability rights, global systemic racism, gender-based harassment and violence, equity and criminal justice, LGBTQI rights, intersectional class discrimination, and pay equity.[46] With the Center, Oppenheimer has organized conferences with legal experts on gender discrimination, harassment, and violence.[47] Oppenheimer also mentors young scholars and students at Berkeley and around the globe.[3][20][23][30]
Scholarship
Oppenheimer has written 10 books as well as scores of scholarly papers and articles. His work focuses on U.S. civil rights history, racism, anti-discrimination law, and comparative equality law.[48] His co-authored book Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law: Cases, Codes, Constitutions & Commentary is the first U.S. textbook on comparative anti-discrimination law.[6][5] His article Negligent Discrimination in the Pennsylvania Law Review is regarded as part of the established canon for discrimination law.[49] His co-authored Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society, won the 2004 Benjamin L. Hooks outstanding book award.[50][51]
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