Why did you decide to join the University of California, Irvine School of Law faculty?
I thought it was a great opportunity to play a role in shaping the first public law school to be opened in California in decades. More specifically, I relished the chance to work at a law school led by Erwin Chemerinsky, a terrific constitutional scholar and a wonderful person who is dedicated to creating a school that will serve the public interest. I also welcome the opportunity to work at a school where the dean believes so strongly that there must be an emphasis on experiential and interdisciplinary learning—approaches that definitely were under-emphasized when I was in law school. Although I don’t want to over-emphasize the importance of my own role, it strikes me that Erwin’s decision to hire a journalist as one of his founding faculty members graphically illustrates that he is going to be working out of a new playbook.

Describe your work as a journalist covering the law.
I have written a great deal about the death penalty, civil liberties, indigent defense, consumer fraud, workplace safety, mass torts and white-collar crime against the poor. As a journalist, I gravitated toward subjects with cutting-edge social issues in the hope that I could help educate the public on these topics. Stories I wrote helped free an innocent man from prison, after serving 24 years on a wrongful murder conviction, and played a role in sending a vicious slumlord to prison. I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in America’s courtrooms and law offices and hope that I can bring students the perspective of someone who has observed the system closely and written about it.

What inspired you to go to law school?
I entered law school in 1966 with the hope of becoming a civil rights lawyer. About two-thirds of the way through law school, I decided that I could make as socially useful a contribution as a journalist that I could as an attorney. I hope to continue to be socially useful as a member of the UC Irvine School of Law faculty.

What are you most excited about doing in the first years of the law school?
I avidly look forward to helping shape curriculum and clinical programs at the law school, including assisting in the development of better ways to teach legal writing. In addition, I hope to help the law school forge relationships with other departments at UCI. In particular, I plan to teach a class each year in the Literary Journalism program in the School of Humanities and anticipate working with professors in the criminology program that is part of the School of Social Ecology.

hweinstein@law.uci.edu
949-824-3642
401 East Peltason Drive, Law 3500-G
Irvine, CA 92697-8000

Faculty Assistant Sara Galloway
sgalloway@law.uci.edu
(949) 824-2370

• University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, J.D., 1969
• University of California, Berkeley, B.A, History, 1966
• Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government, summer postgraduate program in state and local government, 1981
• Between 1998 and 2000, Weinstein participated in a two-and-a-half-year study of indigent defense issues co-sponsored by Harvard Law School and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

• Los Angeles Times, 1978-2008
  • Legal affairs writer, 1993-2008
  • Staff writer, 1978-1993
  • Labor writer, 1982-1989
• University of Southern California, Gould School of Law, adjunct professor of law, co-taught seminar on media law issues with Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, 2000, 2002 and 2004
• San Francisco Examiner, staff reporter, 1976-1978
• The New York Times, San Francisco bureau stringer, 1973-1976
• California Delegation to the Democratic National Convention, press secretary, 1972
• McGovern for President, Northern California press secretary, 1972
• Wall Street Journal, San Francisco bureau, staff writer, 1969-1971

• Weinstein has written more than 3,000 stories and done reporting on the ground in 36 states plus the District of Columbia and Canada. In addition, he has written about cases in six other states. In collaboration with colleagues, he also has written about events and issues in other countries, including Bosnia, the Congo, Iraq, Israel, Mexico, the Philippines and Switzerland. In addition to regular work for the four newspapers above, Weinstein has written for California Lawyer, Coronet, Juris Doctor, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Mother Jones, The Nation, New Times, Ramparts, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Saturday Review of Education and the Saturday Review of Science.
• Read highlights from his legal affairs reporting on his Articles page

• Death Penalty Focus, Special Achievement Award, 2008
• The John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 2006
• John B. Oakes Award for Environmental Reporting (part of a team of Times reporters), 2006
• Daily Californian Alumnus of the Year, 2002
• Los Angeles Times Editorial Award for Explanatory Journalism, shared with colleague David Savage, 2000
• Champion of Justice, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 1998
• State Bar of California, Silver Medallion, 1996
• Los Angeles Times Editorial Awards for Best Metropolitan or Statewide article or series of articles (part of a team of Times reporters), 1995 and 1996
• The State Bar of California, Excellence in Legal Reporting, 1995
• Orange County Bar Association, Excellence in Reporting, 1995
• Pulitzer Prize for local reporting of spot news (part of a team of Times reporters), 1995, 1993
• Sidney Hillman Foundation Award (shared with two other Times reporters), 1987
• California-Nevada UPI Editors, best news story, 1983
• Los Angeles Press Club, first prize, investigative reporting, 1983
• Special Award from Public Counsel, 1983
• San Francisco Media Alliance, special award for investigative reporting, 1981
• National Press Foundation, excellence in consumer reporting, first place, 1980
• California Newspaper Publishers Assn., first prize, investigative reporting, 1980
• Clarence Darrow Award, 1980
• National Legal Aid and Defender Society, commendation, 1980
• Los Angeles Times editorial award, first place, outstanding metropolitan series, 1980
• Associated Press, first prize, metropolitan investigative series for California, Nevada and Hawaii, 1978
• San Francisco Press Club, first prize, investigative division, 1978
• Hearst newspaper chain, first prize, investigative division and community service division (shared), 1978
• McQuade Award, Society for Catholic Journalists, for Service to Fellow Human Beings (shared), 1978

• Weinstein has visited or worked in 48 of the 50 states, and traveled in Argentina, Austria, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Tanzania, Turkey and Uganda.