By Andrew Cohen
Berkeley Law’s first-year J.D. students continue to scale new peaks.
“Every year, it seems they keep raising the bar,” says Dean Erwin Chemerinsky. “We also have exceptionally strong cohorts of entering students this fall in our LL.M. traditional track program, our Ph.D.-granting Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, and in our Doctor of Juridical Science Program.”
The current 1L J.D. class arrived with an undergraduate grade point average of 3.92 — up from 3.87 last year and the highest mark since the Career Development Office began tracking it — and a record-tying median LSAT score of 170, which ranks between the 95th and 96th percentile.
Class members hail from 33 states and nine countries, 55% are students of color, 37% identify as LGBTQIA+, and 17% are the first in their family to receive a college degree. More figures and examples of their work are available on the school’s entering class profile page.
But the academic data tells just a small part of the story. The class includes company founders, CPAs, a multimillion-dollar identity fraud investigator, active military members and veterans, a roller derby jammer, Teach for America and AmeriCorps participants, classical singers, ballroom dancers, a mayor, and scientists who hold patents, worked on neural implantable devices, and developed a system to sequester carbon dioxide in the ocean seabed.
And that’s just a sampling.
“What’s stood out most is how collaborative and intellectually generous everyone is,” 1L Maria Khan says. “My classmates bring such a wide range of lived experiences. Some have worked in tech, others in education, activism, or finance, and that diversity makes every class discussion more layered and dynamic. We challenge each other to think critically but also listen with empathy. It’s clear that people here genuinely care about understanding perspectives different from their own, and that makes the learning environment both rigorous and deeply human.”
Meanwhile, Berkeley Law’s LL.M. traditional track class features students who earned their first law degree at 135 schools in 33 countries, three Fulbright Scholars, and many recipients of highly prestigious and competitive scholarships. The group — 43% of whom have practiced law for at least three years — also has students with experience at the supreme courts of Canada, India, Indonesia, the Phillipines, and South Korea as a judge, attorney, clerk, and litigant.
Forging a strong class community
As the elected 1L representatives for the Student Association at Berkeley Law (SABL), Khan and Nyah Lamarre Blanc are working to improve cross-program engagement — including collaborations with other professional schools — enhancing transparency around student resources, and creating more inclusive, community-building events for their class.
“In my opinion, a defining characteristic of Berkeley Law is its collaborative culture,” Lamarre Blanc says. “While the academic rigor is intense, as expected from any top-tier institution, the overall atmosphere is very welcoming. After my first day of orientation, I knew that I had chosen the right law school. That sense of belonging isn’t accidental; it’s intentionally cultivated by student orgs like SABL, which plays a critical role in fostering our collective identity and the unity of the study body,”
Khan and Lamarre Blanc point to community events such as the Bearrister’s Ball, an end of the school year celebration for all students that supports scholarships, and Order on the Court, an annual basketball game between Berkeley Law and Stanford Law players that raises funds to help current and graduating students from each school pursue public interest law careers and pro bono projects.
“The enthusiasm surrounding those events and others like them is infectious,” Lamarre Blanc says. “I’ve been looking forward to them since my first week at Berkeley simply because of how highly the upperclass students speak about them. It’s clear that this community prioritizes celebrating success and having fun, which reinforced my conviction that I’m exactly where I was meant to be.”
From the school’s 50-plus student organizations to its 40-plus pro bono Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects to its 13 student-led journals, Berkeley Law routinely has first-year students collaborating in enterprising ways. Every day Khan and Lamarre Blanc say they see the school’s public mission and pro bono culture celebrated, prioritized, and woven into the fabric of their legal education — and how that fosters connection.
“I ran for 1L Representative because I wanted to help make our class feel connected and supported as we navigate such an intense first year,” Khan says. “SABL plays a huge role in building that sense of community — bridging students, administration, and organizations to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.”