Awards

At Berkeley Law, there are three awards that recognize contributions to the Pro Bono Program and/or public service at Berkeley Law.  These three awards are the Pro Bono Champion Award, the Eleanor Swift Award, and the Kathi Pugh Award.

 

Group photo of Berkeley Law's 2023 Public interest and Pro Bono Awardees. From top row: Amanda Chang, Gabby Birog, Myka Yamasaki, Taliah Badot, Rebecca Oyama. Bottom Row: Susan Beaty, Priya A. Patel, Jermel E. Thomas, Meredith Huang, and Sara Clark. Followed by Pro Bono logo and "Congratulations Award Recipients 2023"
Pro Bono award recipients banner image
2020 Pro Bono Award Recipients
Pro Bono Champion & Eleanor Swift Award Recipients 2019
Pro Bono Champion & Eleanor Swift Award Recipients 2019

Pro Bono Champion Award

Each year, the Pro Bono Champion award is given to the graduating student who best exemplifies a commitment to and the values of pro bono work. Factors that will be considered include but are not limited to hours spent on pro bono work during the academic year, leadership, and support for the Berkeley Law Pro Bono Program (e.g. through SLPS, BLAST, or other efforts). 

Nomination Process: Anyone in the Berkeley Law community may nominate any Berkeley Law student. Nominations shall be made in the form of a memo of up to two pages on why the nominee should receive the award. Nominees will be asked for consent to be considered, and must submit a bio, CV or resume. Nominations are currently being accepted and are due by Sunday, February 25, 2024. Nominations should be submitted to the Pro Bono Program at probono@law.berkeley.edu.

Past Recipients:

2023

Amanda Twain-Yi Chang ’23

Gabrielle Anne Basco Birog ’23

Myka Jo Yamasaki ’23

Taliah Sadaat Batol Mirmalek ’23

2022

Sam Sokolsky 22

2021

Lindsay DeRight Goldasich ’21

Tae Hwan (Ted) Lee ’21

Simone Lieban Levine ’21

Kelsey J. Peden ’21

2020

Alex Copper ’20

Kiki Tapiero ’20

2019

Amanda Allen ’19

Hannah Flanery ’19

 


Eleanor Swift Award

Students may nominate themselves or others for the Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service. Each year, the award is given to an exceptional member of the Berkeley Law community (students, staff or faculty) who—like Professor Eleanor Swift—has performed outstanding work to strengthen Berkeley Law’s commitment to public service. Eligible candidates will have increased the law school’s commitment to public service through any or several of the following activities that enable Berkeley Law students to engage in public service legal work during law school or in their careers either as public interest and social justice lawyers or on a pro bono basis: exceptional leadership, administration and support, innovation, outreach, teaching, professional or public writing, mentoring, advocacy, advising, and/or participation in Berkeley Law’s public service programs and activities.
 
Nomination Process: Anyone in the Berkeley Law community may nominate anyone else in the community. Nominations shall be made in the form of a memo of up to two pages on why the nominee should receive the award. Nominees will be asked for consent to be considered, and must submit a bio, CV or resume. Nominations are currently being accepted and are due by Sunday, February 25, 2024. Nominations should be submitted to the Pro Bono Program at probono@law.berkeley.edu.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Past Recipients:

2023

Rebecca Oyama, Lecturer at Berkeley Law and Staff Attorney/Clinical Supervisor in the East Bay Community Law Center’s Clean Slate Practice

Meredith Eva Huang ’23

Sara Clark ’23

2022

Lucinda Sikes (posthumously) Professor of Legal Writing, University of California, Berkeley – School of Law

Sara Jaramillo ’22

2021

Simone Lieban Levine 21

Ted Mermin ’96, Executive Director, Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice

2020

Safa Ansari-Bayegan ’20

Miguel Soto, Clinical Supervising Attorney of the Consumer Justice Clinic & Supervising Attorney for the Pro Bono Consumer Rights Workshop, East Bay Community Law Center

2019

Amanda Allen ’19

Hannah Flanery ’19

Rey Fuentes ’19

Zainab Ramahi ’19

2018

Marina Lillian Henri ’18

Rosa Bay, Director of the Education Advocacy Clinic, East Bay Community Law Center

2017

Alexa Koenig, Ph.D. ’13, Executive Director, Human Rights Center  

Alynia Phillips ’17

2016

Sharon Djemal, Director, Consumer Justice Clinic, East Bay Community Law Center

Amy Utstein, Director of Administration, Berkeley Law Clinical Program

2015

Marc Janowitz, Clinical Supervisor, Housing Practice, East Bay Community Law Center

Richard Weir ’16

2014

Sean Darling-Hammond ’14

Adrian Kinsella ’15

2013

Elisa Della-Piana ’03, Director of Programs, East Bay Community Law Center 

Stephen Rosenbaum ’80, Faculty Advisor to Advocates for Youth Justice, Education Advocates, the Boalt Disability Law Society, Campus Rights Project

2012

Tony LoPresti ’12

Sue Schechter, Director, Field Placement Program

 

 

About Eleanor Swift

Eleanor Swift Photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During her thirty-six-year teaching career at Berkeley Law (1979-2015), Professor Eleanor Swift engaged in every aspect of the school’s gradual embrace of experiential learning and its increasing support for public interest and social justice law practice. In 1990, working with Professor Stephen Sugarman, Professor Swift developed and taught the first companion class to the clinical program at the East Bay Community Law Center. In 1992, she was appointed by Dean Herma Hill Kay to lead a special committee to develop a blueprint for clinical education at the law school, advocating for a plan that led to the clinics and the skills and field placement programs that we now have today. In 1996, in the wake of Proposition 209, Professor Swift teamed with Professors Rachel Moran and Angela Harris to start the Center for Social Justice (now the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice). Since then, she has chaired or participated in almost every committee dealing with school support for experiential learning and our students’ public interest and social justice careers.

Kathi Pugh Award


Each year the Pro Bono Program at Berkeley Law presents the Kathi Pugh Award for Exceptional Mentorship to one or two outstanding supervising attorney(s) of our Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects (SLPS) in recognition of their outstanding efforts to encourage, mentor, and supervise our law students engaged in pro bono work.  

Eligible candidates will have demonstrated commitment and support to a SLP that inspires and motivates the students involved to continue to provide pro bono services to the community.  Through their supervision and mentorship, eligible candidates will have also contributed to their students’ development of lawyering skills. 
 
Nomination Process: SLPS leaders or participants may nominate their supervising attorneys.  Nominations shall be made in the form of a memo of up to two pages on why the nominee should receive the award. Nominees will be asked for consent to be considered. Nominations are currently being accepted and are due by Sunday, February 25, 2024. Nominations should be submitted to the Pro Bono Program at probono@law.berkeley.edu.
 
Past Recipients:
 
 
2023
Jermel Elaine Thomas, Contra Costa Reentry Project
 
Priya Arvind Patel, Berkeley Immigration Group
 
Susan Beaty ’18, Berkeley Immigration Group
2022
DeCarol Davis ’17, Legal Aid at Work
 
Prof. Rose Carmen Goldberg, Legal Obstacles Veterans Encounter
 
Prof. Olivia Cole, Legal Obstacles Veterans Encounter 
2021
Prof. Eric Biber, Environmental Conservation Outreach
 
Lilliana Paratore ’17, Post-Conviction Advocacy Project
2020
Haley Fagan, Foster Education Project 
2019
Daniel Faessler, Name and Gender Change Workshop
2018
Ubaldo Fernandez ’13, Tenants’ Rights Workshop
 
Lara Finkbeiner, International Refugee Assistance Project
2017 Lisa Knox, Berkeley Immigration Group: Detention Project
2016 Keith Wattley, Post-Conviction Advocacy Project
2015

Yaman Salahi, Berkeley Civil Rights Outreach Project   

Kim Thuy-Seelinger, International Human Rights Workshop

2014

Stephen Poellot, Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project

Marc Janowitz, Tenants’ Rights Workshop

Brendan Darrow ’10, Tenants’ Rights Workshop

2013

Mike Gaitley, Workers’ Rights Clinic & Workers’ Rights Disability Law Clinic 

Gina Gemello, Workers’ Rights Clinic & Workers’ Rights Disability Law Clinic

2012 Kaveena Singh, California Asylum Representation Clinic

About Kathi Pugh

 

Kathi Pugh, is a graduate of Berkeley Law and a co-founder of the East Bay Community Law Center, the largest provider of legal services in Alameda County.  She served on the Board of Directors for the East Bay Community Law Center from 1988-1990 and 2007-2014. 

For twenty years, before retiring, she was the firmwide Senior Pro Bono Counsel at Morrison & Foerster LLP, and has won numerous awards and recognition for her work in the community.  Kathi continues to devote substantial time and resources to supporting many legal services organizations in the Bay Area.  Most importantly to Berkeley Law, Kathi is a Pro Bono Advisor to the SLPS Program, including working closely with individual projects and student leaders.