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A Tribute to Professor Lauren Edelman by KT Albiston

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A Tribute to Professor Lauren Edelman by KT Albiston

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I write with a heavy heart to report the untimely death of our dear colleague and friend Laurie Edelman. An exceptional scholar, she developed the field of law and organizations through her pathbreaking and award-winning scholarship about civil rights laws and work organizations. Empirically sophisticated and theoretically rich, her work helped explain why civil rights laws failed to bring about promised change. More than an internationally recognized scholar, Laurie was also an extraordinarily generous mentor, colleague, and friend. She served the field in so many ways, from helping to found the ASA Sociology of Law Section, serving as President of the Law & Society Association and on numerous LSA committees, serving on the National Science Foundation Law and Social Science Program Panel, on the Board of the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, and on the Board of the American Bar Foundation, and on the editorial boards of the American Sociological Review, the American Journal of Sociology, and Contemporary Sociology, among others. She also was a generous mentor to junior scholars and graduate students across the country, taking time from her own work to counsel young scholars on research design and funding, grant applications, the tenure process, and publishing. She founded mentoring programs for junior faculty both in the ASA Sociology of Law Section and the Law & Society Association, and she was especially enthusiastic in promoting the careers of young scholars of color. Every time I talked to her, she was offering comments on someone’s paper or grant proposal or serving on a national committee or writing a tenure letter or peer review. In recent years, she led the Legal Studies honors program, mentoring young scholars in their undergraduate careers. It is hard to comprehend such a devastating loss for Berkeley Law, JSP, CSLS, LSA and the broader law and society community. We are grateful for the time we had with her, and we will always remember her generosity, kindness, and brilliance.

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We will hold a memorial service for Laurie Edelman on Tuesday, April 4, at 4:00 p.m. in the Warren Room at Berkeley Law.

The service will also be streaming live on youtube, click here to view.

We hope very much that you can join us to celebrate Laurie’s life and to remember our beloved colleague.

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Laurie Edelman Memorial Fund at Berkeley Law

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Laurie Edelman Memorial Fund at Berkeley Law

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This current-use fund provides unrestricted support for the Jurisprudence and Social Policy Ph.D. program at Berkeley Law.

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Empower students & faculty to embody the Fiat Lux spirit!

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Empower students & faculty to embody the Fiat Lux spirit!

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I am Laurie's sister Sarah. I am sad in every way but these messages are uplifting and amazing and I will treasure them forever. This aspect of her life is one that I am not as familiar with as her love of my kids, all dogs, art, music, open-mindedness, travel, sushi, coffee and intellect. We are both lawyers and we both teach, but I am seeing depths of her professional accomplishment that I had not appreciated fully, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to do so. Thank you all. - Sarah Edelman Coyne

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To me it seems unreal that Laurie is gone. Her brilliance as a scholar might be equaled only by her dedication as a mentor. For myself, I know that I will always miss her laugh, her sly sense of humor, her sharp, sage advice, her reassuring presence. I consider myself lucky to have known her. --Dylan Penningroth

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One of my sweetest memories:   We were at an ABF Board meeting and these things go all day and late into the night and they can be stressful.  It was my birthday and when someone mentioned it, she jumped up mid-meeting, took her necklace off her neck (that she had MADE!) and gave it to me for my birthday.  I am so grateful to have that leaf pendant which always makes me smile when I wear it because it was everything about Laurie.  There we were. . . working hard. . . digging in on the research . . . but like the flip of a light switch, she wanted to do something special for my birthday and made this meeting fun and lively and  sweet and personal.  With a big hug to everyone grieving this giant loss, Laura Beth Nielsen

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When Philip was spending more time at home, Laurie thought he would enjoy having a dog as a companion. She took me in hand to select a proper canine friend at the local Animal Shelter, and we bought home Bella, a sweet, light brown cockerpoodle. She would follow us around the house,, loved walking with me, and snuggled up to Philip. But when he stumbled around, cane in hand, seeing as best he could, he was nervous about her getting under his feet and both of them tripping down the stairs. So we had to give her back, which was disappointing for all of us. Laurie was a dear personal friend, beloved by both of us, and I think her last piece of writing was a  brilliant introduction to the recent  reprint of the book she claimed was her introduction to her subsequent work, Selznick's "Law, Society and Industrial Justice." Hers is both a personal and an institutional loss. May her memory be a blessing.

Doris Fine

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Laurie was among several wonderful hosts when I visited the CSLS. She was always friendly and generous. In law and society studies I thought of her as the go-to person for the most interesting ideas about law in the sociology of organizations. A superb scholar who opened up new perspectives. Roger Cotterrell

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Like many, I'm struggling to wrap my head around the fact of Laurie's passing. Mostly, I am just feeling so grateful: grateful to have had the chance to learn from her while a student at JSP, grateful for her collegiality post-graduation, grateful for how kindly she treated my children when I would bring them to JSP gatherings when they were little, grateful to all she contributed to our understanding of organizations, and through that, the world. - Alexa Koenig

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We had a little Laurie celebration last summer in our backyard (she wasn't familiar with the WrestleMania reference but was still really excited about the sign!)

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So sorry to hear about Laurie's passing. Great scholar, very nice person. Not a bad legacy! Bill Gallagher

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I’m adding my voice to the chorus of memories of Laurie.  I too can hardly believe that she is gone so suddenly and prematurely.   Others are better placed to speak to her brilliance as a scholar and central figure in law and sociology.  My memories are more personal: Laurie was one of the first people I got to know when I joined JSP, and I remember walking with her and her dogs, meeting her parrot, hearing about her musical interests (including her delight in her folk music camp), and learning the new (to me) term, “endogeneity.”  I remember our late colleague Sandy Kadish talking about the pleasures of playing chamber music with Laurie.  I’ll always be grateful for her help, as chair, in figuring out how I could extend a foreign leave to finish a project I was working on; and I know from sharing students with Laurie how dedicated she was to them, and how she helped many over the finish line of a completed dissertation.  Our program and community will feel so strange and different without her.
--Chris Kutz

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What a punch to the gut!  To have to say good bye to and never again see this brilliant, musical, forgiving, generous, warm and loving undergraduate music classmate, roommate and friend is a heavy load.  I met her in 1973 at UW Madison. I doubt I'm alone in remembering story after story of her lifelong impression on me as one of my exceptional women friends.  Her informed and liberal observations on life and on her journey through it changed the way I think and forever changed my attitudes and assumptions.  If we're formed by the people with whom we surround ourselves, I am partly Laurie.  I too have a necklace made by her. When I admired it she took it right off and gave it to me, and I think of her every time I wear it.  Such a loss for all of us who knew, loved and admired her.
Virginia Kron

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I took Laurie's Law & Society workshop @ CLS circa 2007. Changed my academic life, and I found a home for my work. sending peace and light to everyone she touched. sg

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What a tragic and premature loss. I joined the Cal faculty in 2019, and hoped very much to get to know Laurie better - I knew her work - but alas COVID and her own illness overshadowed some of the socializing we might have done. I knew her from meetings as a responsible and often very funny colleague; and I knew her ideas from her brilliant published works. I am so glad she was able to touch so many lives and also so sad that she did not have further decades in which to do so. I am grateful to all the family and friends who sustained her, especially in Washington state, where she happened to be when she fell ill. May she rest in peace.

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Laurie’s role in shifting the JSP program from a do-it-yourself graduate program to one with advising is one for which she probably did not receive enough credit. Her skill in encouraging students to pursue their research interests but to be careful about methods was another plus for the program.

At some point we had an exchange where she expressed concern that her father’s work would not be remembered , and it was tinged with the suggestion that no academic’s work is remembered after they are gone. Laurie’s ideas and research will certainly carry on (like her father’s). And she mentored a lot of scholars, especially female scholars, who carry on not only her ideas and but also her practice of intergenerational academic caretaking.

The most wonderful things about Laurie were her generosity and humor, even when she was overburdened with work or not feeling well. I’m better for the nurturing support she provided at important moments. I’m sad that more people won’t get that experience.

Kaaryn Gustafson

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I first met Laurie Edelman when she  came to UC Berkeley to be vetted for a tenured JSP faculty position. My most vivid impression of her – and the first image of Laurie that came to my mind today – stem from the conversation we had when I drove her to the airport for her flight back to Madison. At some point along the way, Laurie and I were discussing Philip Selznick’s Law, Society and Industrial Justice. That book, it turned out, had been inspiring to both of us early in our sociolegal careers.

I was intent on keeping my eyes on the road, but I found myself taking quick sideways glances at Laurie. I was struck by how she was moving her hands and fingers, shaping and reshaping the air as she worked to find the right words, the most accurate and concise way, to relate Selznick’s rich conceptions of the rule of law and corporate governance to her own empirical research finding. Somehow, the movements of her hands gave me an insight into how Laurie’s mind worked. “Ah,” I thought to myself, “this person has the blend of legal and sociological sensibilities, the facility in shifting smoothly between data and theory that would make her a fine teacher of JSP students and a fine colleague for faculty members.

A second, related image of Laurie also comes to my mind. Over twenty years, Laurie and I must have attended well over 100 of the Center for Law and Society’s “brown bag” lunch talks together. Those talks constituted an ongoing, multi-disciplinary seminar. After the speaker finished her or his presentation, Laurie often asked one of the first questions. No matter what the subject, Laurie would make a comment that invariably was incisive, but quizzical and supportive, not didactive – and, as in my image of her in the ride to the airport, articulated as if she was thinking her way through the issued she raised, working to find just the right words.

One final thought about my memory of Laurie’s and my drive to the airport. Laurie’s superb body of scholarship –particularly her probing empirical studies of internal corporate dispute resolution systems, culminating in her prize-winning book, Working Law: Courts, Corporations and Symbolic Civil Rights (2017) – can be viewed as an ongoing (and powerful) response to the Selznick book we discussed in my car.  And more generally, I think Laurie’s life and scholarship beautifully embodied Selznick’s conception of a “humanist social science,” dedicated to careful empirical study of “the fate of values in the world.”

As these images and reflections come to my mind, they are cloaked in sadness, weighted by the reminder that these words are written in a world in which Laurie is no longer present, suddenly and shockingly not here. I hope her suffering in her final weeks was not too terrible. Unfortunately, since the spring of 2016, the last semester I lived and taught in Berkeley, I have not interacted with Laurie often. I wish I had taken one of those occasions to tell her how much I admired her as a scholar and teacher, and admired her as a human being – brave in dealing with her physical problems, generous and good humored in her relationships with everyone in her orbit.

--- Bob Kagan

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I am so saddened by the news of Laurie's passing. As others have said, it is hard to take in. I knew Laurie for decades as a professional colleague and brilliant scholar, but I grew much closer to her when I moved to Berkeley in 2010. That was the year I retired from UCI and Val Jenness and Carroll Seron gave me a necklace that Laurie had made. That necklace never fails to bring compliments, and I beam with pride when I say it was made by my friend, Laurie.

Laurie was a meticulous and creative thinker, winning every possible award for her shcolarship. She brought that same meticulousness and insight to the classroom. Several years ago, Laurie asked me to substitute for her in her Sociology of Law class. That day the topic was "The Limits of Regulation". Laurie had prepared forty (40!) PowerPoint slides and pages of typed lecture notes, which were not only replete with detail but full of insightful summaries that pulled together the detail into a whole. Needless to say, I was awed and humbled.

Like so many others, I will miss Laurie terribly. She has left such a legacy in her remarkable scholarship, mentorship, teaching, and friendship. We will always remember her for these things and in this way she will be with us. I am just now learning that there is a sisterhood of law and society folks who wear Laurie's amazing jewelry. That too goes on and keeps Laurie's memory forever alive. Missing Laurie and grateful for the privilege of having known her...

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It's so hard to believe that Laurie is gone. The last time we got together in person was in December 2021 -- she invited me to take a walk near her house in the hills. I was 6 months pregnant and my doula had been coaxing me to walk more, so I walked all the way there and arrived huffing and sweating. Laurie was so understanding! She invited me inside for some water and a chat before we got going again. We talked about ideas and plans for the future, and I'm so sad she'll never be able to retire in Madison the way she was considering doing. It was a beautiful winter day, and I took this photo of some blooming flowers near her house. I hope her family and close friends find comfort in happy memories during this horribly difficult time. -Becca Goldstein

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Professor Edelman was a great mentor who not only helped me navigate graduate spaces but helped me get over my imposter syndrome regarding research. I am extremely grateful for our many office hour chats and your support of my future. You have positively influenced so many lives and I hope your family, friends, and colleagues can look back and find comfort in your memory and legacy. -Zhané G.

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I kept hoping that if I took more time to process, I’d suddenly be able to name all that Laurie taught me.  But I’m realizing maybe that’s just not possible -- because I don’t know who I would have been as a scholar without her, whether I’d have stuck this all out to begin with.

Laurie was academia at its best.  She was endlessly curious and wanted to facilitate greater understanding (all towards a better world).  But no matter how many awards she won, she held on to a beginner’s mind.  She still wanted to know what YOU thought, because she knew with certainty that YOU had something important to say.  She took methodological rigor and theoretical precision incredibly seriously, but she never used those as tools of exclusion.  She just wanted to help you be the best version of yourself.

Laurie also had the most perfectly tuned bullshit detector. She took her work seriously, but not herself, and she invited the people around her to feel that same grace.  In the margins of one of my drafts, she wrote: “What exactly is ‘hang together’ supposed to mean here, Diana?  To me, it connotes movements, frames, and legal interventions sitting on a porch smoking weed together.”  I’ve never loved a piece of feedback more!

I’m heartbroken to think about continuing as a sociolegal researcher without her, and even more so when I think about continuing the projects we worked on together.  But she was so fierce and brave and wise, and I’m going to try to keep channeling that energy.  And to her family, please know that Laurie lives on.  She changed what we know, and how we know what we know, and how we treat each other.  Everything is better because of her.

Diana Reddy

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Laurie was a fixture in my life from my first day as an assistant professor, when I was given an office adjacent to hers. She was a morning person and I'm not, so we often joked that we had to go to professional meetings to run into one another -- but it wasn't true: We co-taught, we co-authored, and in between, we shared innumerable dinners, movies, conversations, and hikes. I pet-sat her beloved ferret Laska (who stole all my handheld appliances), and she put me up in her guest room in Berkeley (where I fantasized about stealing some of her mother's remarkable handmade ceramics). Laurie was an incredibly generous colleague and mentor who always treated me as a peer, even when I was a new PhD and she was already tenured. But her intellect, her commitment, her love for her students, and her sense of humor continually reminded me that I was in the presence of someone truly special. I will always be grateful to have been able to enjoy that presence for as long as I have. But oh how I wish it could have been longer. We have lost a giant.
-- Mark Suchman

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It is so hard to believe that Laurie is gone. My first memory of her is the graduate workshop in Budapest (2001!), and since then she has been a real mentor to me. It  was thanks to her that I visited the CSLS two times in 2014 and 2018. A great memory is when she invited me to participate, with Diana and Katie among other, to write an anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policy for LSA. I loved how she navigated between self irony -she had well demonstrated how such policy might be used as an alibi- and commitment.  I will remember restaurants in Paris as well as jewelry classes in Berkeley - I came back not only with memories but also with great earrings that we made together and that I'm  wearing today...

Liora Israël

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I once had a favorite coffee cup go missing at work. I left notes asking people to keep an eye out for it and looked for it over several days to no avail. Laurie brought me a beautiful ceramic cup to help replace the one I lost and it was such a kind gesture that has always stuck out in my mind. I still use that mug from Laurie and it will always remind me of her.
I will miss you, Laurie.
-Erika Espinoza

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Laurie's passing leaves such a huge hole here in 2240 Piedmont. She was a scholar, mentor, and dedicated member of the JSP/Legal Studies community and the larger community of researchers in the law & society field.

True story--while I was looking for a full-time academic appointment I came back to Berkeley and affiliated with CSLS and taught for a semester for Poli Sci. I asked Laurie if I could sit in on a writing group for graduate students she was coaching. She graciously agreed. I remember that I presented something I had, and that Osagie Obasogie (now on the JSP faculty) presented something he had. Laurie critiqued both our presentations, and then told me that I needed to make my article (on administrative law and politics in Japan) more compelling, like Osagie's was. She was right, but I had a real hard time doing it given the subject matter.

Laurie always told it like it was, and I will miss her. May her memory be a blessing for all of us in JSP/Legal Studies, the LSA, and all of the other communities of which Laurie was a part.

--Jon Marshall

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Although I only knew Professor Edelman for a few months, I'm so lucky that my first-ever introduction to the world of sociolegal research was with such an incredible scholar. I was a student in her Legal Studies senior honors thesis seminar during the fall of 2022.  Although she wasn't my thesis advisor, she took countless hours out of her own time to support and guide my research. The feedback she left on my final thesis proposal consisted of the kindest things a professor has ever said to me. I look back at her comments whenever I'm feeling discouraged. I regret that I never thanked her for any of this—I took it for granted that I would see her again in the spring. I wish I could have gotten to know her better and told her about my future plans, but I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to learn from her.

Sanjana Manjeshwar

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When Laurie, then a graduate student at Stanford, contacted me about sitting in on Phil Selznick's JSP seminar (easily arranged) I did not foresee that she would one day be a key member of our faculty and would be teaching that seminar herself.  Others have commented on her impressive scholarly abilities and her impact as a teacher. I would like to say that it was a pleasure working with her as Vice Chair of the program when she served as Chair. She was a person whose support and good judgment in administrative matters could always be counted on. I especially appreciated her commitment to our undergraduate major, manifested, among other ways, in her willingness to mentor undergraduate research projects.
A final memory: of leisurely lunches with her at our home in Berkeley, with conversation often turning to our common interest in Bulgarian folk music.   I will always remember her with fondness.
Charles McClain

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Laurie was an incredible teacher, scholar, institutional citizen, and most importantly, human being.  Incredible, incredible, incredible.  One found memory I have of Laurie are our "Saturday" conversations while I was graduate school.  During the 2 years of grad school I always went to JSP to work on stuff. I always arrived at 9 and left at 5. And I set up my books in the JSP seminar room.  Usually, around 1 or 2pm, I'd hear some dogs upstairs and it was Laurie sitting at her desk, checking email, sometimes working.  Anyway, perhaps because we were the only 2 people in the building, it was always a chill moment where we would chat for about 30 minutes or so about life, whatever was going on, and sometimes scholarship.  I enjoyed those conversations so much. I looked forward to them. Eventually, she started to come down to the JSP seminar room with the dogs and we chatted there as well. Good times.
Laurie was my academic parent.  She always advised me, guided me, pushed me,  and helped shape my thinking and scholarship.  I'm forever grateful that I was fortunate enough to have known her.  In her office are many, many awards, but before I left for UCI, I had a plaque made in her name and it said MVP-Most Valuable Professor.  Laurie did NOT like sports and of course, the MVP award is given out in every sport.  After explaining what the MVP award is, I gave her the plaque and told her she was my MVP-Most Valuable Professor.  She told me she would put it up in her office and at least the last time I visited her office pre-COVID, it was there.

I'm heartbroken she is no longer with us.  May she rest in peace.
Shauhin Talesh

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Laurie was a wonderful colleague and devoted mentor to so many. She was assigned as my faculty mentor when I came to Berkeley and how lucky I was! Her sage advice, her kindness and sense of humor helped me focus on the important stuff and tune out the nonsense. She was a model of how to be a serious scholar and a caring human being. I had the pleasure of co-teaching the JSP Orientation Seminar with Laurie back in 2012 when she was serving as our first and only female Associate Dean for JSP. I was struck by her brilliance and her dedication to students and also by how she treated a relatively junior scholar-teacher like me as an equal. I was also struck by Laurie's many talents, like jewelry making and playing the violin. After Sandy Kadish passed away, I learned about how they'd played chamber music together. I'd recently learned Appalachia Waltz and we talked about getting together to play some fiddle tunes... I feel grateful to have known Laurie and will miss her so much. --Sarah Song

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Before starting JSP, I spoke with an alumnus about her experiences in the program. She explained that her advisor, Laurie, had become her biggest supporter and a dear mentor by the time she graduated. I didn’t think this was possible with faculty until I, too, had the good fortune of becoming Laurie’s student.

Laurie invited me to workshops, encouraged me to apply for national grants, and read my papers closely, even as she struggled with her physical pains. After meetings with her, I felt good about my work—because she had confidence in me and what I was doing and because she directed me to resources that could help me improve the work.

Laurie has also been a profound intellectual influence. There are few texts I have read as often as Working Law. I read the second chapter when I am puzzling through conceptual problems, and her discussion of the relationship between legalization and managerialization helps me to clarify what I am trying to say. I read the fifth and eighth chapters to be reminded of how precisely concepts—and their operationalization—must be defined.

Laurie, you and I would have retired/graduated the same year. I am heartbroken that we won’t finish our journeys in JSP together. I hope you knew how much I admire you, and how grateful I am for the rich ideas and wonderful people you brought into my life, and for the generosity, strength, and rigor you modeled.

To Laurie’s family and friends, I am so sorry for your loss. Laurie has imprinted my heart and mind, as she has with so many. If I am lucky enough to have the chance to teach somewhere, I hope I can be just a fraction of the mentor she has been to me.

Yan Fang

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We were walking in the halls laughing and talking about all the years we've seen, the changes. We talked about the future, about retirement, about doing one last thing before moving on. We were going to talk some more after the holidays, after we got back after the break, but then. But then...
I will miss you very, very much. A loss to Berkeley Law and the legal community, a loss to your family and friends. I feel this loss.
-gar

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I had the pleasure of meeting Laurie almost 20 years ago when we were in the 2003-2004 cohort at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. When she learned I was on the Wisconsin faculty (but had originally come from Stanford in 1991) we had lots of laughs about SF Bay Area elitism and Midwest “niceness.” She shared her love of klesmer (sp) music and her deep concern for social inequities. Her infectious smile and powerful scholarship will be deeply missed
Gloria Ladson-Billings.

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Professor Edelman was truly a remarkable person and a gifted scholar and educator.  I  was a nervous, shy, and young undergraduate when I first applied to be a researcher for her. Despite my lack of experience and nerves, she took me under her wing. She was my academic mentor, and her kindness, enthusiasm, and generosity helped mold the student I am today.  I'm thankful to have known her and learned from her. It was an honor and a privilege.
- Michael Brust

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Lauren and I were both in residence in the Rockefeller foundation’s Castle in Bellagio Italy. We met one afternoon and began talking about our work. It was one of those moments that I will never forget, the kind of joyful collaboration, that one seeks but rarely finds. We talked for hours and hours and then met the next day to start again. We were giddy with the possibilities of sharing insights and articles. The work was just the tip of the iceberg to our friendship, our connections. She was a brilliant, thinker and a warm and genuine human being. I am so so sorry for her loss.

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Laurie is—I can’t bring myself to write “was”—the rarest and most necessary of collegial figures. Her intellect was always telling—pointing directly to the crucial part of any argument; identifying what needed to be done to complete an idea that had promise, but wasn’t yet quite ready for prime time; or spotting outstanding potential in a line of inquiry that looked merely banal. She applied these all-too-rare gifts not only to her own domains of specialty but also to work quite different from her own.

What made her truly extraordinary was her ability to combine these critical faculties with deep and authentic concerns for others—including those whose work she sought to support and improve. Her criticisms and suggestions for improvement of others’ work were so diplomatic and thoughtfully-formed as to leave no room for resentment or ingratitude. When she went to work against bad ideas, she left no bruises. Her underlying good will was so evident as to leave all parties feeling enriched.

It’s hard to imagine how to fill a gap like this.

~ James Rule

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A world without Laurie physically in it is still difficult to process. To me, she seemed happiest when she was collaborating with folks on research, administrative work, or teaching. I once heard her tell a graduate student that they needed to establish a singular scholarly identity early in their career, but to sustain that identity they would need to collaborate with scholars they cared about and respected. “Why collaboration?” the student asked. Laurie responded that collaboration can open your mind to new ideas and expertise, and besides, she said with her wonderful smile, it’s more fun. Beyond her brilliance as a scholar and generosity as a mentor, she was a dear friend who would always share a good laugh about the absurdities of academic life or simply life in general. I count myself lucky to have known her as a friend and colleague.  Laurie, you will continue inspiring us and we miss you terribly. -- Calvin Morrill

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Across Laurie’s career, she somehow managed to find time for first-rate scholarship, programmatic leadership, hands-on advising and deep workplace friendships. (Spoiler alert: I suspect she worked very hard). I will remember her particularly as a fierce advocate for people and causes she believed in, including (but not limited to) her students & high standards for scholarship. It is hard to believe that I won’t be able to drop in Laurie’s office down the hall when I’m back from sabbatical next year. I will miss her tremendously as a trusted colleague and sounding board, as will so many of us. –Rachel Stern

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Professor Edelman was my honors thesis instructor from 2019-2020. She was such a constant in my life during a difficult time both personally and academically. As recently as last year she wrote my letters of recommendations for grad school (while on sabbatical nonetheless!)

I will never forget her kind, warm presence & her unmatched dedication to her students and academia. Thank you Laurie for such a memorable senior year at Cal & for helping me achieve my dreams of attending LSE for graduate school.

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I did not know Laurie in the context of Law. Rather, I knew her as a wonderful violin player that joined us to play folk music on top of the Tresidder Student Union at Stanford, and also as a lover of parrots (who liked to sit in her hair). She was always kind, caring, happy to participate, and quietly competent in all that she did. The moment was always better when she was with you. I will very much miss her.

David Reyna

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Professor Edelman was the first professor at Berkeley who helped me see my own potential. She was an amazing professor and mentor. Before her, I suffered horrible imposter syndrome and felt discouraged from doing research and pursuing a graduate degree. My life changed after my first encounter with Professor Edelman; I saw someone who truly believed in me and wanted to help me. I think about her impact on my life constantly and I know many others do too. I am eternally grateful for all that she did for me, in and outside of the classroom. Thank you for everything Professor Edelman.

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I am in disbelief that you are no longer here. I have come to this page many times, and each time, it’s harder and harder to process. You are a treasure to academia, your students, and your loved ones.

Your Law and Sociology class gave me clarity and a zest for understanding the world. Your Honors thesis course taught me that the answers are within reach with the right questions. You taught me how to work a room and inspire people at the Law and Society Conference.

While you are no longer here, know that your wisdom and teachings have left a legacy. In our hearts, you will always be.

Leilanie Martinez