From: Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
Date: Monday, April 13, 2026
Dear Berkeley Law Community,
I feel deeply privileged to have served as dean of Berkeley Law for nine years. It is a very special law school and I feel constantly fortunate to be part of it. I am honored that Chancellor Rich Lyons, Provost Ben Hermalin, and Vice Provost Vicky Plaut asked me to extend my deanship by two years, until June 30, 2029. I am very grateful to the alumni, faculty, and staff who reached out to encourage me to do this. After great thought and discussions with Catherine, I am excited to accept this offer.
In part, I want to do this because of important unfinished work. The Law School, and the campus, are in a very difficult financial situation. My top priority is to put the Law School in a good stable and secure long-term financial situation. I believe that we can do this with a concerted effort from all of us.
Also, I think it is essential that Berkeley Law play a crucial role at this unprecedented moment in the history of our democracy. Our faculty, our students, our centers, and our clinics are all doing terrific work in a myriad of ways to uphold the rule of law. They are fighting to protect the climate, to safeguard immigrants, to reform the criminal justice system, to use AI constructively, to protect workers, to restore funding to University of California faculty and researchers, and so much more. We can and must do even more in the next few years. Berkeley Law, with its public mission, is uniquely positioned to do so.
But most of all, I want to use this additional time as dean to encourage us all to think big about what we can do to position Berkeley Law to truly make a difference in legal education, the legal system, and society. I look forward to meetings with faculty, staff, and students as we envision what we should be doing in the years ahead and to laying that foundation in my last years as dean. I will ask every department, center, and clinic to carefully consider what we can do better and how we can accomplish it.
We, of course, will continue to work very hard to hire great faculty and recruit outstanding students. We will continue to provide an excellent legal education and do cutting edge research. My hope in the next few years is to do all I can to advance us even further in our excellence, our public mission, and our warm and vibrant community.
I very much look forward to continuing to work together.
Warmly,
Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
University of California, Berkeley School of Law