invited roughly 60 graduating law students for a celebratory dinner

You're talking like this professor ran background on each student or specifically invited her because of her position. This sounds like he just invited the graduating class as a whole.

Rather than just declining, this lady premeditated a way hijack it for her own cause.
That said, a law dean/professor at Berkley? There's a 0.0000001% chance he didn't deserve this anyway.