Node Quickview

UCSF Law Professors Natalia Ramirez Lee, Matthew Coles, and Rory Little discuss the first 100 days of Trump’s second term. They analyze what these early days reveal and what we can expect for the next four years and beyond.

Natalia Ramírez Lee is the C. Keith Wingate Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at UC Law SF’s Center for Racial and Economic Justice. Previously, she was a Visiting Associate Professor at Golden Gate University School of Law, where she co-led the Women’s Employment Rights Clinic, teaching employment law and supervising students representing low-wage workers. Before academia, she was an employment litigator in Oakland, advocating for workers in wage, discrimination, and harassment cases. She also has experience as a Human Resources Director in Bogotá, Colombia, and led HIV prevention programs for immigrant women in New York City. Professor Ramírez Lee earned her law degree from Berkeley Law, where she was active in multiple legal journals and received the American Jurisprudence Award in Constitutional Law.

Before joining UC Law SF, Matt Coles was Deputy National Legal Director at the ACLU, overseeing work on race, voting, disability, and immigration. Previously, he led the ACLU’s national LGBT Project, playing a key role in landmark cases, including Evans v. Romer, which struck down Colorado’s Amendment 2, and challenges to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and adoption bans. He was a primary drafter of Winning Marriage, the 2005 strategic plan for same-sex marriage rights, and developed the ACLU’s “integrated approach” to public interest litigation. Earlier in his career, he was a staff lawyer at the ACLU of Northern California, handling cases on free speech, the death penalty, and HIV-related discrimination. A Hastings graduate, he also wrote San Francisco’s first LGBT anti-discrimination and domestic partnership laws for Harvey Milk.

Rory Little is the Emeritus Joseph W. Cotchett Professor of Law at UC Law SF, where he has taught since 1994, specializing in constitutional law, criminal law, and legal ethics. A former litigator, prosecutor, and appellate lawyer, he has argued over 60 federal appeals and served as Appellate Chief for the Northern District of California U.S. Attorney’s Office. He took a leave in 1996-97 to serve as Associate Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno. He is an active contributor to legal scholarship, regularly writing for SCOTUSblog and leading ABA panels on Supreme Court criminal law cases. A Yale Law graduate, he clerked for Justice Potter Stewart and several other federal judges, and he remains engaged in pro bono work, expert witness testimony, and occasional litigation.