SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Academic Dean Morris Ratner (BA, Stanford University 1988; JD, Harvard Law School 1991) manages and supports the faculty and all academic programs, including clinics, centers, academic support, career development, and the legal writing program. In addition, he manages and supports associate and assistant deans responsible for degree programs or departments (e.g., Global Programs, the LLM, MSL, and HPL degrees, and the Library), oversees the Associate Academic Dean, and manages the classroom budget. Consistent with the College’s mission and strategic plan and the vision of its Chancellor & Dean, Dean Ratner’s priorities include:
Creating a cohesive student experience from admission through graduation that prepares students for professional success; Adapting the curriculum to anticipate technological and other changes in the practice of law; Collaborating with faculty and staff to develop innovative teaching methods, courses, and co-curricular programming; Supporting faculty research and faculty and staff professional development; Integrating faculty, students, alumni, and the wider community in which UC Hastings is situated; Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion; and Fostering a culture of continuous and evidence-based self-reflection and improvement. Dean Ratner joined the UC Hastings Faculty in 2012 after teaching at Harvard Law School as a visiting lecturer and then as a visiting assistant professor from 2009 to 2011. He teaches civil procedure, legal ethics, and the business of law practice, and produces scholarship at the intersection of those fields.
While at UC Hastings, Dean Ratner has received multiple awards for his teaching and scholarship, including Student Choice Award for Professor of the Year (twice) and the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence, as well as the Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize for Scholarship in Professional Responsibility awarded by the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility.
Dean Ratner was a litigator at the San Francisco-based plaintiffs’ firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, where he was a partner for ten years and where he prosecuted product liability, environmental, mass personal injury, consumer, and human rights actions. Among other high-profile matters, he prosecuted and settled Holocaust-era slave labor, looted asset, dormant bank account and unpaid insurance claims against European companies, producing global settlements in those cases worth more than $7.5 billion.
Jerry Nickelsburg joined the UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and The Anderson Forecast in 2006. Since 2017 he has been the Director of The Anderson Forecast. He teaches economics in the MBA program with a focus on Asian economies. As the Director of The Anderson Forecast he plays a key role in the economic modeling and forecasting of the National, and California economies. He has conducted research in the areas of labor economics, industrial organization, statistics, and international monetary economics, focusing on the development of new data and the application of economic theory and statistical methods to policy issues. His current academic research is on specific skills, structural unemployment, and on energy efficiency in transportation. He is a regular presenter at Economic Conferences and is cited in the national media including the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Reuters.He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota in 1980 specializing in monetary economics and econometrics. He was formerly a professor of Economics at the University of Southern California and has held executive positions with McDonnell Douglas, FlightSafety International, and FlightSafety Boeing during a fifteen-year span in the aviation business. He also held a position with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors developing forecasting tools, and has advised banks, investors and financial institutions.
From 2000 to 2006, he was the Managing Principal of Deep Blue Economics, a consulting firm he founded. He has been the recipient of the Korda Fellowship, USC Outstanding Teacher, India Chamber of Commerce Jubilee Lecturer, and he is a Fulbright Scholar. He has published over 100 scholarly and popular articles on monetary economics, economic forecasting and analysis, labor economics, and industrial organization and he is the author of two books on monetary economics and exchange rates.
William Yu joined the UCLA Anderson Forecast in 2011 as an economist where he focuses on the economic modeling, forecasting and Los Angeles economy. He also conducts research and forecasts on China’s economy, and its relationship with the U.S. economy. His research interests include a wide range of economic and financial issues, such as time series econometrics, data analytics, stock, bond, real estate, and commodity price dynamics, human capital, and innovation. Currently, he teaches business forecasting and data science courses at UCLA Anderson and UCLA Extension. He also serves as a faculty advisor for the Applied Management Research Program at UCLA Anderson.He has published over a dozen research articles in Journal of Forecasting, International Journal of Forecasting, Journal of International Money and Finance, etc. He also published op-ed articles in Los Angeles Times and other newspapers. He developed the City Human Capital Index and the Los Angeles City Employment Estimate. He has been cited in the local, national and overseas media frequently including Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Time, Bloomberg, CBS Money Watch, Al Jazeera, U-T San Diego, LA Daily News, LA Daily Breeze, Straits Times, NBC, ABC, CNBC, CNN, and NPR, as well as various Chinese and Korean media. Yu has been invited as a speaker for various events, including the annual Woo K. Greater China Business Conference and National Association for Business Economics.
Yu received his bachelor’s degree in finance from National Taiwan University in 1995 and was an analyst in Fubon Financial Holding in Taipei from 1997 to 2000. In 2006, he received his Ph.D. degree in economics from the University of Washington where he was also an economics instructor and won two distinguished teaching awards. In 2006, he worked for the Frank Russell Investment Group for Treasury and corporate yields modeling and forecasting. From 2006 to 2011, he served as an assistant and an associate professor of economics at Winona State University where he taught courses including forecasting methods, managerial economics, international economics, and macroeconomics.
Mr. Erik Davidson, CFA, has been the Chief Investment Officer since December 31, 2014 and Executive Vice President at Wells Fargo Private Bank and Wells Fargo Private Bank, Asset Management Arm. Mr. Davidson has been with the private bank for ten years in several leadership positions at both the regional and national level, including Managing Director of Investments, Senior Director of Investments, and Regional Investment Manager. He is the Chief Investment Officer and Executive Vice President at Wells Fargo Bank, National Association. He is the Senior Regional Investment Manager at Wells Fargo Private Client Services Inc. Mr. Davidson served as an Executive Officer of Western Region at Wells Fargo & Company. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, Mr. Davidson served as the President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of a separately managed account (SMA) outsourcing company. He served as a Managing Director of Franklin Resources, Inc., and he held several fixed income positions at Credit Suisse First Boston, including spending many years in Asia. Mr. Davidson holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He received a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University Of California Los Angeles Anderson School Of Management and a Bachelor's Degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Professor Jared A. Ellias joined the UC Hastings faculty in the Fall of 2014, after serving as a lecturer and teaching fellow at Stanford Law School. Prior to joining Stanford Law School, Professor Ellias was an associate in private practice at Brown Rudnick LLP in New York, where he represented financial institutions and ad hoc and statutory creditor committees in corporate restructuring transactions, both in and out of bankruptcy court. He has trial experience in the Bankruptcy Courts of the District of Delaware, the Western District of Louisiana and the Southern District of New York. Professor Ellias’ current research focuses on the governance of large bankrupt firms and the role played by activist investors. He is also studying agency costs in distressed firms more generally. His research interests include corporate bankruptcy, corporate governance, contract law, empirical methods in social science and law and economics.
Professor Ellias received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2008 and his A.B. from the University of Michigan in 2005.
Bio coming soon.
Samantha Good is a corporate partner in Kirkland’s San Francisco office. Samantha concentrates her practice on debt financing transactions, including secured and unsecured financings, cross-border transactions, workouts, restructurings, DIP and exit financing. She represents corporate borrowers, private equity funds, creditor groups and hedge funds. Samantha has been recognized by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business since 2011, in the area of Banking & Finance. According to the 2017 edition of Chambers, one client praised that she is “the best financing attorney we have encountered anywhere, she is simply amazing,” while another client commented that “she can be very creative, so if you have a complex issue then she can step back and figure out a way to address it.” In a prior edition of Chambers, a client commented that “she is super-responsive, enormously practical and the most proactive lawyer we have encountered.” Samantha was also recognized in the 2013-2019 editions of U.S. News and World Report, Best Lawyers®, as a leading banking and finance lawyer. The 2016 edition of The Legal 500 U.S. recognized Samantha in the area of Commercial Lending, and the 2015 edition recognized her in Bank Lending, commenting that she “provides practical guidance and great results.” Prior to relocating to San Francisco, Samantha was repeatedly recognized in the Los Angeles Business Journal’s “Who’s Who in Law” as one of the top 10 corporate attorneys in Los Angeles.
Angelo leads Reorg’s team of legal analysts and coordinates coverage on in-court and out-of-court distressed situations and restructurings in the U.S. for Reorg Americas. Prior to joining Reorg Angelo was a senior corporate restructuring associate at Brown Rudnick, where he worked on domestic and international restructurings. He has a J.D. from Vanderbilt University and a B.A. in political science from Miami (Ohio) University.