Michael S. Sorgen ’64

Michael S. Sorgen ’64, of Berkeley, Calif.; Jun. 1, from Alzheimer’s. After Brown he earned a law degree from Harvard Law School and moved to San Francisco. He later taught political science at Virginia Union University and American literature at Tuskegee University in Alabama. Returning to San Francisco, he joined the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation, where he fought the use of racially biased IQ tests in public schools, among other precedent-setting cases. He worked to improve public education as legal counsel for the San Francisco and Oakland Unified School Districts and taught law at UC Hastings, Golden Gate University Law School, Whittier College, and UC Berkeley Law. He taught law in French as a Fulbright professor in Nice, France, and in Spanish while on a second Fulbright professorship in Bogotá, Colombia. He returned to private law practice in San Francisco and for 30 years litigated civil rights, access to education, employment discrimination, and prison and labor reform cases. He defended the rights of U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam and first Iraq wars. His international human rights work included seeking restitution for Vietnamese citizens affected by Agent Orange, challenging Chevron’s suppression of labor organizing in Nigeria, and releasing child immigrants detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. He enjoyed music, dancing, tennis, the outdoors, and good conversation. He is survived by his partner Mary Maloney Roberts; two daughters; two sons; a daughter-in-law; a son-in-law; three grandchildren; a brother; and the mothers of his children.