Beverly Taylor Honored for Securing Clerkships

Every year, dozens of students apply for post-graduate positions as clerks with the more than 1,500 federal judges and magistrates, as well as hundreds of state-court judges, around the country. It is an incredibly competitive process; each student may send out 200-300 application packages.

Beverly works with Prof. Rory Little, the chair of the UC Hastings Clerkship Committee, and others to help students organize their packages, manage the on-line federal application process, and meet filing deadlines. This is no mean feat. Each student needs two letters of recommendation from a faculty member. Organizing and producing those letters means Beverly is the master of roughly 8,000 to 12,000 letters each application season.

“Beverly has had to invent how to manage this process,” said Little, who was among numerous faculty who nominated her for the award. “She is a workhorse. With the students, she is like a mom and a drill sergeant at the same time.”

Prof. Lisa Faigman recalled a student who, having misunderstood the application requirements on the eve of a deadline, called Faigman in a panic. Faigman immediately patched in Beverly. “Beverly was kind and reassuring, and everything ended up working out perfectly—after Beverly stayed late on her own time to finish.”

“Those are the selfless acts of kindness that students remember after graduation” Faigman said.

Indeed, Beverly has on more than one occasion pulled off the seemingly impossible, Little said. “She will have several letters in the evening, each needing dozens or even hundreds of copies, and say ‘this can’t be done, I can’t reproduce these by the morning’.”

“And then you come in the next day, and she hands them to you. ‘Here they are’. So students end up loving her, because she always gets things done.” She has received several thank-you notes from students for her help and kindness in the process.

Prof. Roger Park also praised Beverly. “She is better than any staff member I know at visualizing what the professor wants and helping to accomplish it,” Park said. “The only reluctance I had in nominating her was that one of the deans might try to take her away from me.”

The award was created to recognize a staff member who contributes "above and beyond" to UC Hasting, and honors the memory and contribution of Charles A. and Jane Rummel. Charles ’31 was one of the founding members of the 1066 Foundation, and he and his wife were dedicated to advancing UC Hastings. Rummel Award honorees are recognized on a plaque prominently displayed on the second floor of Kane Hall.

Beverly is a native San Franciscan and loves going out to the movies. She has two daughters and four grandchildren, ranging in age from 15 years old to 17 months. The youngest, finally, is a girl. She says they are “her pride and joy,” and she loves spending time with them.