Curiosity, intellect, compassion, and a steadfast belief in the law as a tool for justice. These are the qualities that defined former California Supreme Court justice and longtime UC Law San Francisco Professor Joseph R. Grodin, as recounted by the friends, colleagues, students, and family members who gathered to honor him during a Sept. 16 memorial ceremony at UC Law SF.
“Joe was brilliant, but he was so much more than extraordinarily smart and learned,” said Emeritus Professor Mark Aaronson, who worked with Grodin to launch UC Law SF’s Employment Law Clinic in the early 1990s. “He was wise, caring, trustworthy, dependable, and compassionate. To use the Yiddish word, he was the epitome of a mensch.”
A Life in Law and Teaching
Grodin, who died April 6 at age 94, helped modernize UC Law SF’s curriculum during his two stints as a UC Law SF professor. He first joined the faculty in 1972 after years of working as a labor lawyer at the firm founded by his friend and mentor Matthew Tobriner, also a former UC Law SF professor and...
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