In a rare rebuke of a campus event, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk on Friday distanced the university from a law school symposium about the 9/11 terrorist attacks that faced criticism for including a lawyer for alleged 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, prompting push-back from faculty who said a just legal system requires that even the most vile defendants receive legal defense.

The symposium, “25 Years After 9/11,” was sponsored by five law school centers and ran Thursday and Friday, highlighting legal issues raised by the U.S. response to the attacks. Topics included torture, rendition, detention, immigration enforcement and government surveillance. The program said America’s response ushered in “sweeping expansions of state power.” Some critics also believed the symposium line-up and program descriptions appeared to sympathize with extremism and antisemitism.

In his Friday afternoon statement, Frenk said: “UCLA’s values are clear. We reject antisemitism and terrorism in all their forms, and we believe our campus must be a place where the dignity of every member of our community is respected. Nothing about this event at the UCLA School of Law, which we do not endorse, changes or qualifies those commitments.”

Melanie T. Partow, an attorney who has represented Mohammed at Guantanamo Bay, was listed as a speaker on a Friday morning panel titled, “Torture, Rendition, and Detention: The Erosion of the Rights Regime Post-9/11.” The 9/11 Commission report described Mohammed as the “principal architect” of the attacks. The Washington Free Beacon first reported on the event.

Partow worked on Mohammed’s case as part of the Military Commissions Defense Organization, an entity of the Department of Defense. The department tasks the organization with “providing a zealous defense for each accused” during military tribunals. She did not respond to a request for comment.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-12/ucla-chancellor-law-school-9-11-event