By Gwyneth K. Shaw
Patricia Lucas ’79 didn’t have any role models in her family or friend circles when she decided to try law school. In her family’s first generation to attend college, she’d worked as a file clerk in a law firm but didn’t really know what to expect.
“When I look back, I knew so little about law when I showed up on the steps at Berkeley Law,” she says. “But I got very lucky. It really was an amazing place.”
She thrived amid her “remarkable” fellow students and found the faculty personable, engaging, and approachable. And law school paved the way for a distinguished career: First as a litigator in San Francisco, then Silicon Valley, followed by two decades as a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge until her retirement from the bench last year. She recently joined the JAMS dispute resolution firm.
“All of this really could not have happened for me if Berkeley hadn’t been really accessible to people who didn’t have the funds to do it themselves,” Lucas says. “I could work part-time, pay my fees and my Berkeley rent, ride the bus, and not incur any additional debt. Obviously, that’s not the situation today, but it was a tremendous opportunity, and it’s given me a career that has been a great privilege.”
Lucas wanted to give back to the school that meant so much to her, but living in San Jose made it difficult to get to Berkeley more than occasionally. So she signed up for the Alumni Guide program, an initiative launched by the Development & Alumni Relations Office in 2020 to keep students and alums connected during the pandemic. It proved so successful that it’s become a permanent fixture.
The program matches alums with incoming students over the summer before their 1L year, then asks them to touch base again six weeks into the fall semester and do a final check-in at the beginning of the spring semester. Lucas, however, has been a particularly stellar and extremely involved mentor, says Director of Alumni Engagement Erin Dineen, who runs the Alumni Guide program.
Not only has Lucas stayed in touch with her four mentees after their 1L year, she’s fostered relationships between Gabby Cirelli ’24, Lucia Lopez-Rosas ’25, Jenny Chen ’25, and Claire Davidson ’26.
“When she sent me the photo of her four mentees last December, I was thrilled,” Dineen says. “She went so above and beyond what the ask is of our alumni for this program. I’ve printed it out and it’s in my cubicle as a reminder of what an impact this program has made on students and alumni alike.”
‘So grateful’
Davidson says Lucas was an ideal fit for her, striking the perfect balance between offering professional mentorship and encouraging personal growth.
“She prioritizes personal meetings, even when teaching on the other side of the world, and intentionally creates connections between her mentees in different class years. With dinners, coffees, and museum visits, Judge Lucas takes the time to get to know me and my goals and tailors her perspective to my needs,” Davidson says. “I know that throughout my time at Berkeley Law and beyond, I can and will continue to learn from Judge Lucas. She’s the best, and I’m so grateful Berkeley Law connected us!”
Being an Alumni Guide has been hugely rewarding, particularly as she’s built the bonds between students at different stages in their law school careers, Lucas says.
“When this opportunity came up, it appealed to me because it was something I could do long-distance and also because it was so direct and one-on-one with students,” she explains. “And then I just got assigned to fabulous people — and once we were connected it just took off.”
It was a natural thing to introduce the students she mentored to one another, she adds, and fun to watch them grow together.
“It was really lovely to see them mentoring each other and learning from each other, and not always the juniors from the seniors,” Lucas says. “At one point there was some insight that the first-year student had that the third-year student just hadn’t thought about.
“It just goes to show how really rewarding it is for everybody involved in the process.”
Legal veterans are able to share real-world insights and aid in narrowing down what can seem like an overwhelming number of career choices, Lucas says, while learning from students how law school is different now and the many impressive things that animate today’s budding lawyers. She recommends the program to any alum looking to get involved at Berkeley Law.
“It’s a joy, because they’re really wonderful folks, very engaged, very bright, and very appreciative,” she says. “This is just the best deal, because it’s a modest commitment and there’s a great return.”