By Andrew Cohen and Sarah Weld
While it can be hard to fully quantify just how committed Berkeley Law students are to public service, some telling metrics do exist. The new graduating class logged 35,900 hours of pro bono work, and this academic year alone J.D. and LL.M. students recorded 27,855 hours — providing much-needed legal help to people in need locally, throughout the state, and across the country.
The annual public interest and pro bono graduation ceremony honors extraordinary students and project supervisors who personify Berkeley Law’s public mission. This year’s award recipients, listed below, are exceptional examples:
- Pro Bono Champions: Ami Shirriff ’24 and Ariane Walter ’24
- Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service: Adriana Hardwicke ’24 and Ariane Walter ’24
- Brian M. Sax ’69 Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy: Gabby Areas ’24
- Sax Prize Honorable Mention: Cassidy A. Veidelis ’24
- Clinical Legal Education Association Outstanding Clinical Student Award: Grace Erger ’24
- Clinical Legal Education Association Outstanding Externship Student Award: Kat Reilley Harlow ’24
- Francine Marie Diaz Memorial Award: Athena Arana ’24 and Jocelyn Gomez ’24
- Kathi Pugh Award for Exceptional Mentorship: SPZ Legal
Pro Bono Champions
(given to the graduating students who best exemplify a commitment to and the values of pro bono work)
Shirriff not only participated in several pro bono initiatives, she co-created a new Student-Initiated Legal Services Project (the Drug Policy, Education, and Decriminalization Project, aka DECrim, which works with the Drug Policy Alliance to conduct research on drug policy issues) as well as a new Berkeley Law Alternative Service Trip (BLAST-Alaska). She also took on leadership roles in the school’s Food Justice Project and with environmental justice efforts, and helped drive support for grants supporting student summer public interest work by helping the Public Interest Faculty Committee’s video campaign toward that end. One of her supervisors says, “She embodies the ethos of advocacy and breathes the same spirit and drive for ethical lawyering into each and every one of her peers.”
Shirriff says: “I came to Berkeley Law because of the Pro Bono Program and I’m immensely grateful to have connected with and served so many communities I care for deeply, as the opportunity to provide resources to and support both our partners and my fellow students growing in these spaces has been the highlight of my law school experience.”
Walter participated in many established public service opportunities, created new ones, drove efforts to make public interest careers more affordable and accessible, expanded support to low-income families in contact with the child welfare system, and sought to expand support available for incarcerated youth and adults. She co-founded the Family Defense Project (fighting racism and classism in the child welfare system), co-ran Berkeley Law’s Youth Advocacy Project (supporting youth at Contra Costa County’s juvenile hall) and its BLAST Atlanta trip (supporting unaccompanied minors seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status), supported a youth in foster care as a court-appointed special advocate (CASA), and served on Berkeley Law’s Public Interest Placement Committee. She participated in myriad public service externships and clinics during law school, including EBCLC’s Youth Defender Clinic, San Francisco Unified Family Court, The Legal Aid Society’s Special Litigation Unit, and Legal Services for Prisoners with Children. A supervisor says, “We’ve hardly ever seen someone so motivated by a desire to do good in the world, combined with the utmost competency and creativity. Ariane is a force to be reckoned with.”
Walter says: “As public interest students, we are part of a community encouraging us to think about all the injustices incorporated in our legal system, to analogize, and to come to our conclusions that something is wrong, and something must be done; it always means something to speak up, try to move the needle, and keep fighting — because if we don’t, we are working against ourselves.”
Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service
(given to an exceptional member of the Berkeley Law community — student, staff, or faculty — who has performed outstanding work to strengthen Berkeley Law’s commitment to public service)
Hardwicke spanned many public interest jobs, committees, and campaigns, and pushed diligently to make public service career paths accessible to all Berkeley Law students. She generated over $120,000 in additional funding and led a campaign to raise $15 million in annual funding for public interest students at UC law schools. Hardwicke worked for the Education Justice Clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), the Foster Education Project, Public Advocates, and the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. She also co-led the East Bay Dreamers Project, a student initiative assisting DACA recipients, and served on Berkeley Law’s Public Interest/Public Service Career Support Committee. Supervisors hail her “leadership, integrity, and fearlessness,” “sheer power of will,” and “exceptional commitment.”
Hardwicke says: “I chose to come to Berkeley Law because of the school’s public mission and the community’s commitment to public service, and I’m so grateful for all the opportunities I had here to grow as a future public interest attorney and for those who have constantly pushed our school to be a better place for public interest and social justice work.”
See above for Walter’s impact and comment.
Brian M. Sax ’69 Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy
(given to a clinic student who displayed excellence in advocacy, professional judgment, collaboration, and reflection)
Areas worked with EBCLC’s Housing Clinic throughout law school, first in the Tenants’ Rights Workshop, then as a clinic student, and finally as an EBCLC student board member. She represented tenants in more than 30 eviction lawsuits and secured over $600,000 for those clients in relocation payments and rent waivers. Areas handled negotiations with opposing counsel, successfully drafted and argued motions in court, and engaged in complex discovery and fact investigations. Her supervisor says she “stood out not only because of her brilliant legal advocacy, but also because of her genuine commitment to social justice, her humility, and her unwavering dedication to our clients.”
Areas says: “Housing is a human right, and as lawyers we are uniquely positioned to combat systems of oppression; there is no better time to start than as a law student in a clinic.”
Sax Prize Honorable Mention
Veidelis worked three semesters in the International Human Rights Law Clinic, striving to bring a new case in the African regional human rights system to hold social media companies accountable for violating children’s rights in their business models. She interviewed stakeholders mobilizing around this issue in Africa and deepened the clinic’s understanding of how little these companies invest in protecting African children from online harms. Her supervisor says, “She is exceptionally intelligent, diligent and kind; a rare combination of skills and one that lends itself to particular success in the human rights world where the fights are long, protracted, and require coalitions and collaboration.”
Veidelis says: “The International Human Rights Law Clinic was, without a doubt, the best thing I did in law school and I am leaving a more confident advocate and even more on fire about using the law to advance human rights than I was before.”
Clinical Legal Education Association Outstanding Clinical Student Award
(given to one student or team that demonstrated excellence in a clinic)
Erger shined in the Death Penalty Clinic, spending the year working on a case for a client at risk of execution. She developed a full-scale operation to identify, speak to, and get support from witnesses, resulting in 30 critical new witnesses advocating for the client. She demonstrated excellence across many projects, including organizing major investigation trips and helping write a U.S. Supreme Court cert petition in just a few days for a client facing an imminent execution date. Her supervisors say she has the “maturity, thoughtfulness, effectiveness, legal skill, and nuanced judgment of a seasoned lawyer — and she tops it off with endless passion and commitment to her work.”
Erger says: “I learned what it means to provide zealous, caring, and creative representation, and that being in community with a group of generous, supportive, kind, and very funny people can make even the heaviest tasks a bit lighter.”
Clinical Legal Education Association Outstanding Externship Student Award
(given to a student who demonstrated excellence in assisting or representing individual or organizational clients or in undertaking advocacy or policy reform projects)
Harlow did three field placements with the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, TGI Justice Project, and Transgender Law Center. She also did summer internships at EBCLC and Lambda Legal, and co-led the student-led Queer Justice Project. Harlow helped transgender youth and adults appeal disability benefits denials and legally change their name and gender, and worked on impact litigation issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community, including challenges to Florida’s Don’t Say Gay censorship law and laws targeting transgender youth. Her supervisors praise her professionalism, commitment, and curiosity, and her “smart advocacy on behalf of transgender and gender-variant communities.”
Harlow says: “Pro bono work has provided me the opportunity to give back to my community while collaborating with clients, fellow students, and supervisors that have lent me so much inspiration and support, and kept me grounded in the values that brought me to law school in the first place.”
Francine Marie Diaz Memorial Award
(conferred each year to graduating students whose studies and career plans best reflect Diaz’s commitment to social justice for women of color)
Arana has worked extensively to fight for justice at the intersection of workers’ rights and immigrants’ rights. Prior to law school, she advocated for low-wage, immigrant women who had experienced sexual harassment, assault and/or labor trafficking in their workplaces. In law school, Arana represented clients in immigration proceedings and represented indigent workers in unemployment insurance appeal and labor commission hearings. She also helped the Berkeley Immigration Group assist Centro Legal de la Raza in its efforts to prevent indigent immigrant women from being transferred to immigration detention after their incarceration instead of being reunited with their families, and aided asylum seekers along the Arizona-Mexico border in their requests for humanitarian parole.
Arana says: “I took advantage of every opportunity to increase my understanding of immigrants’ and low-wage workers’ rights in both professional and voluntary work … knowing this knowledge was a privilege I had a duty to bring back to the community.”
Gomez saw from a young age how “unnecessarily complex and dehumanizing” it often was for women of color to navigate America’s legal institutions. In law school, she co-led the Berkeley Immigration Group, advocating for the release of two incarcerated women still detained after serving their sentence and successfully helped one reunite with family they hadn’t seen in over 10 years. Gomez also worked with EBCLC’s Health and Welfare Clinic, helping many women of color navigate the public benefits system, and spent last semester with Legal Aid at Work researching employment and anti-discrimination statutes and policies to advocate for low-income immigrant and marginalized workers of color. In addition, she co-led the U.S.-Mexico border BLAST pro bono trip, and served as an EBCLC student board member.
Gomez says: “My commitment to public service is largely driven by witnessing the sacrifices of my own parents, hard-working immigrants who amidst economic hardship still gave everything they could for me to get a legal education; I often see my parents reflected in the faces of those I serve and I hope to honor their sacrifices and hard work by using my legal degree to support low-income immigrants gain access to an often inaccessible legal system.”
Kathi Pugh Award for Exceptional Mentorship
(given to one or two supervising attorney(s) of our Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects for their outstanding efforts to encourage, mentor, and supervise Berkeley Law students engaged in pro bono work)
SPZ Legal partners with the school’s Startup Law Initiative (SLI), providing instrumental support and supervision of student fellows. The firm’s deep involvement enabled the group to double its student membership from 12 to 24 in just two years and expand its work to serve hundreds of local entrepreneurs and small business owners. This year, students worked with a client over two semesters for the first time, helped with myriad startup documents, and provided more vital early-stage legal guidance to underrepresented business founders. SLI’s nomination says SPZ Legal “exemplifies compassionate lawyering at the intersection of private and public interest law,” and “wholly deserves to be recognized for their mentoring, service, and commitment to the spirit of pro bono.”
SPZ Legal attorneys Gea Kang and Sam Taylor say: “All of us at SPZ strive to be intentional and thoughtful about doing our part to make the startup and innovation world more accessible — it’s very meaningful for us to work toward this goal with the SLI community, and we look forward to continuing to do so together.”