BLAST Alaska (aka A-BLASKA!) aspires to provide critical legal services to underserved and overburdened communities in Alaska. We also hope to build relationships between Berkeley Law and community organizations for the future and expose Berkeley law students to necessary work in locations and communities they would otherwise not have access to.
We will partner with the Alaska Public Interest Research Group to address important legal needs in several areas, such as consumer justice and environmental justice. In the past, A-BLASKA worked on tackling the state’s unsupportable interest rates on loans, in addition to work to ensure that state agencies hold oil and gas companies to account for remediating their properties after oil & gas projects are completed. We are also excited to work alongside First Alaskans Institute where we hope to support Alaska tribes through indigenous sovereignty research as well as work on environmental/resource issues.
Time Commitment: The estimated time commitment over two semesters is about 50-60 hours: about 10 hours for readings/official team meetings, about 6 hours of miscellaneous training and activities, and the entire Spring Break (3/25-3/29) during which students will work about 40hrs. Between meetings, there will be assignments designed to familiarize participants with the history, current events, and legal issues prevalent in Alaska. In the spring semester, we will complete any training materials that our partner organizations assign.
For more information, please contact the student leaders at alaskablast@berkeley.edu