Our Services
Expert Counselors
Our Career Development Office is staffed by six attorney-counselors, each of whom has practiced law and can offer real-world insights into various career paths. They currently include an attorney for a non-profit organization providing assistance to the poor, a former executive director of a grass roots social change advocacy organization, a former government lawyer, a former partner in a large law firm, and a former small firm practitioner.
The counselors can help you create three years of custom-tailored education and experiences here at Berkeley Law that will help springboard you to your dream career.
Targeted Career Planning
We can help you explore a variety of legal career options—both traditional and nontraditional—and determine the best methods for pursuing those options.
Career planning for law students has two components:
- Exploration. You’ll learn about the types of opportunities compatible with your talents, work style, and lifestyle.
- Job search. The Career Development staff will help you target specific employers and conduct your job search.
Summer Jobs for First-Year Students
Most first-year students begin an active job search for Summer internships during the Spring semester.* Beginning in November and continuing through the Spring semester, the office provides career-oriented programs and opportunities for first-year students.
Firms that employ first-year students for Summer positions solicit student résumés. Other employers participate in a Spring on-campus recruiting program.
* Pursuant to National Association for Legal Career Professionals (NALP) rules, first-year students and prospective employers cannot be in contact with each other prior to December 1. First-year students can begin to see career counselors after November 1.
Career Programs
The Career Development Office sponsors programs for all law students throughout the year on such topics as
- résumé writing
- interviewing skills
- the art of networking
- job-search techniques for the public and private sectors
- diversity in the legal profession
- various legal practice areas
Employment Program
In the Fall and Spring of each year, Berkeley Law offers an extensive recruitment program that includes
- mock interviews, in which you can develop interviewing skills through simulated job interviews conducted and evaluated by practicing attorneys.
- on-campus employer interviews. Typically, more than 300 law firms, corporations, and government agencies interviewed second- and third-year students for Summer and permanent employment. Most employers came from California, although firms from New York, Washington, DC, and other cities around the United States, Europe, and Asia were also represented.
- other job opportunities. Many employers—including some not represented at the on-campus event—regularly solicit résumés from students to fill their hiring needs each year.
Public Service
Berkeley Law’s Career Development Office can help you take advantage of fellowship and employment opportunities targeted towards students interested in pursuing a career in the public or nonprofit sector. Summer and Postgraduate Fellowships
Berkeley Law encourages students to experience public interest/public service law by making it financially feasible for every JD student to do Summer legal work in this area.
Berkeley Law graduates are competitive candidates for all national legal post-graduate fellowships. Our graduates are regularly chosen as finalists for and recipients of prestigious fellowships sponsored by the Skadden Foundation, Equal Justice Works, Soros, New Voices, the Berkeley Law Foundation, and many others.
For Summer 2008, fellowship funding was available through the Boalt Hall Summer Fellowship Program, which provides up to $6,000 of funding to all JD students who request the support and meet the program requirements. The requirements include, among other things, completing at least 25 hours of public service or pro bono work during the previous academic year. Students may use up to $4,000 of this funding during their first summer of public interest/public sector work, and may use the additional $2,000 during a second summer of eligible work. In addition to this $2,000 award, students completing a second summer of eligible work may compete for supplemental funding. In past years, students completing a second summer of public interest/public sector work have generally received funding of around $5,000 through the Boalt Hall Summer Fellowship Program and other funding sources.
Public Service Employment
Over the past few years, about ten to fifteen percent of Berkeley Law graduates go on to public interest or government careers. A career counselor is available full time to counsel students who are interested in public interest or public sector employment.
Students can also take advantage of these programs:
- Public Interest/Public Sector Reception and Table Talk. Every semester, the office hosts a major event focused on public interest careers. In the Fall, 40 to 60 employers attend this session.
- Public Interest/Public Sector Legal Careers Day. Each year, more than 100 public interest organizations and state and federal government agencies participate in this event to inform students and graduates about the nature of their work and employment opportunities. Careers Day gives students a chance to establish contacts with public interest employers in the Bay Area. Berkeley Law, along with the eight other Northern California law schools and the Public Interest Clearinghouse, cosponsors the event.
- Public Interest/Social Justice Mentor Program. Each year, nearly 50 first-year students are matched with practicing government and public interest attorneys. Students attend hearings, depositions, and negotiations, discovering what a day in the life of a public interest attorney can involve. Mentors also are available to answer career-related questions and to provide networking contacts to students.
- Other Career Programs. Throughout the year, the office partners with various student organizations to present career programs focused on Summer and postgraduate fellowships, judicial clerkships, international human rights work, and much more.
Berkeley Law is a member school in the Public Service Law Network (PSLawNet). This innovative national resource helps law students across the country find positions with public interest organizations, government agencies, judges, and private firms with public interest or significant pro bono practices.
Career Development Library
In addition to the many practical guides and webcasts that enrolled students can access via the CDO website, we also maintain a library of print materials that include directories, periodicals, and other resources about the legal profession.
At the library, you will find information on
- employers’ hiring practices, salaries, benefits, gender and minority demographics, and more
- judicial clerkships
- state and federal government agencies
- public interest law organizations
- graduate programs and fellowships
- teaching opportunities
- jobs for students and alumni (available in an extensive online database)
Employment Outcomes (for the Class of 2008)
Salary Information:
Average (for those who reported salary information) $135,547
Median (for those who reported salary information) $160,000
Employment Status:
96% Employed
2% Pursuing Advanced Degree
Employment By Type of Position:
4% in Business
5% in Government
9% Judicial Clerkships*
72% private practice
10% public interest
Employment by Location:
• Pacific: 72%
• Mid-Atlantic (includes NY): 11%
• South- Atlantic (includes DC): 7%
• Mid and Central-West (includes TX): 4%
• Mountain: 2%
• International: 2%
• New England: 2%
* In addition, several recent alums -- equivalent in number to another 7% of the class-- obtained judicial clerkships for the 2008-09 term, which reflects a growing national trend of graduates waiting until after a year or two of practice before clerking
