Innovative and powerful leadership is evident throughout the Berkeley Law community, from students and alumni to faculty and staff. We highlight various examples to showcase how such leadership advances justice, accountability, access to the legal system, and the rule of law.
3L Johnsenia Brooks has a productive and proactive track record. As an undergrad at Georgetown, she was an educator at the Arlington County (VA) Jail and developed a novel literature program there. Brooks also produced an award-winning documentary related to her exoneration advocacy work and co-founded an events curation brand, working alongside artists and DJs to coordinate social events centered around celebrating the Black diaspora.
Her latest project is serving as the founding executive director of JD Genesis, a nonprofit that aims to help aspiring underrepresented law students not just get to law school, but thrive there. A recent daylong retreat for the initiative’s first four fellows included panels and programs on the admissions process, how to shop and pay for law school, legal pathways, wellness and mental health, and practical insights from faculty, alumni, and law students.
Berkeley Law Academic Skills Program Director Diana DiGennaro ’06 and Professor Andrea Roth were on the faculty panel; alums Judge Dorothy Chou Proudfoot ’99, Omari French ’10, and Simone Lieban Levine ’21 were on the legal pathways panel; one of the four fellows (Midori Kimata) is a staff member at the school; and Berkeley Law 2L Michael John serves on the nonprofit’s board as grants director.
Below, Brooks describes her motivation for creating JD Genesis and her hopes for its growth and impact.
Three thousand miles from home, with only three suitcases, I set out to build a life in the Bay Area over the next three years. Coming from the East Coast, I had no idea what awaited me in California, but I trusted there was a reason I felt drawn to this singular place.
Before coming to the Bay Area, I was no stranger to building community. As a proud Afro-Latina and first generation Honduran-American, bringing people together is what I grew up with and this attitude persists in my adulthood. From my entrepreneurial work with my business, an events curation brand, to supporting wrongly convicted individuals through the Innocence Project, I’ve always felt a natural pull towards bringing people together.
When I decided to attend Berkeley Law, I had a clear vision of what my experience would look like. Life, however, had other plans, and I learned quickly how to adapt. For some context, I was misdiagnosed with anxiety shortly after graduating college in 2020.
It wasn’t until I was in law school that I was properly diagnosed with ADHD, despite living with it all my life. Going through the psychoeducational testing process for the first time in law school made me realize how the structure and support I received at home made it possible to live with an invisible disability for so long.
The Bay Area was unlike anything I had ever experienced in life so far. Adjusting to a new environment while navigating law school in 2023 took a significant toll on my mental health during my first year. In my second year of law school, after a scooter accident left me with a severe concussion, I was forced to slow down. However, the world never stopped, not even for a second.
As much as I wanted to power through, it was my professors, specifically Professor Russell Robinson and Academic Skills Program Director Diana DiGenerro, who were the voice of reason and told me to get the help I needed. What began as me navigating the accommodation process would change my life and reshape my vision for the legal profession.
The numbers speak for themselves: Mental health is a growing crisis in legal education and worsens over time. The best evidence comes from the Survey of Law Student Well-Being, which noted that in 2021, 33% of students reported a depression diagnosis, 33% had serious thoughts of suicide, 40% reported a diagnosis of anxiety in their lifetime, and 69% thought they needed help for emotional or mental health problems.
According to the Law School Admissions Council, mental health accounted for 59% of all reported disabilities for the 1L class of 2023. This issue disproportionately affects women, who often under-utilize testing or academic accommodations or have undiagnosed mental health challenges.
Confronting the problem
As I informally mentored other women, the same recurring theme came up: High-performing women or individuals who had been living with an undiagnosed disability often did not feel that their application was “good enough” to get accepted into law school, let alone survive in it.
I get emails and messages on LinkedIn weekly from people, some whom I have never met in person, asking for guidance on where to even begin the law school application process while balancing their interests and life’s demands.
This informal mentorship through the course of my legal education is what sparked JD Genesis, a legal pipeline program that ensures women — who bring diverse life experiences into advocacy, policy, and justice — are mentally well, socially conscious, and professionally supported to achieve their goal of pursuing a legal career.
Our model emphasizes holistic wellness by offering mental health services coupled with pre-professional, academic, and admissions coaching, to provide participants with the tools to succeed in their legal training and thrive in their career. Our theory of change believes that improving admissions outcomes for underrepresented people, through rigorous test preparation and one-to-one advising, will increase their confidence to pursue their professional passions.
Too often, underrepresented students lack the social capital or socio-economic resources to complete the law school admissions process. Moreover, there are few resources that provide insights to low-income or first-generation women on how to enter and navigate elite academic and professional spaces.
By diversifying the legal talent pipeline and providing comprehensive resources, JD Genesis’s unique model teaches aspiring lawyers to marry professional success with personal wellness to achieve a fulfilling career in the law.
Thanks to my dedicated board and generous partners and sponsors, we welcomed our first cohort in January (originally intending to only support three women), after only six months of being a nonprofit. JD Genesis is no longer just an idea or an informal way to give back. JD Genesis is a living example of starting law with lifestyle.