Transcript Archive

A surge in scholarships helps expand student access and opportunity. Alumni professors spread Berkeley Law’s extraordinary intellectual culture. Our Human Rights Center leads training sessions worldwide on digital investigations of international atrocities. Star students make their mark helping small businesses, increasing police accountability, and advancing environmental reform.

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The arrival of eight new standout professors further bolsters our world-class faculty. Four research centers, three new and one revitalized, confront vital issues across the legal firmament. Our Environmental Law Clinic successfully takes on toxic polluters, compelling action from the federal government. Students blast off on memorable spring break pro bono service trips all over the country.

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Our Death Penalty Clinic has made a major difference in the lives of clients, and students, for over 20 years. The scholarly impact of Berkeley Law’s junior faculty continues to shine across many legal fields. A compelling photo essay celebrates bar exam success, student life, small mods, and our Brains of Berkeley Law series. Three top students deliver inspiring leadership and advocacy.

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How we’re fighting for rights and working to advance justice, freedom, and equality at home and around the world. Driven leadership, dedicated alumni coaches, and skilled students fuel our surging Advocacy Competitions Program. Berkeley Law welcomes a new talent infusion as six stellar educators join an already world-class faculty. A $5 million award bolsters key environmental law initiatives.

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Guiding law firms big and small, alumni rise to the leadership challenge. Meet some of the students, faculty, and alumni who fuel our thriving pro bono culture. With a far-reaching record of success as dean, Erwin Chemerinsky is reappointed to a second five-year term. New projects help advance corporate sustainability, law’s role in the life sciences, and legal services for military veterans.

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With resolute students ready for the challenges ahead, Berkeley Law reopens its doors. A look at our wide-ranging work fighting for fairness throughout the criminal legal system. Three exceptional professors join a faculty that has added nearly two dozen top scholars since 2017. Students and faculty play lead roles in driving initiatives to streamline contract review and combat antisemitism.

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Tenacious faculty and students spearhead seven newly signed bills to protect Californians’ civil, financial, and environmental rights. Five students and recent alumni describe their formative niches within Berkeley Law. At a critical juncture, the school launches a center focused on workers’ rights. A mother and daughter in India embark on a new legal adventure together in our LL.M. Program.

Faculty and students respond quickly to legal issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and the national reckoning over racial unrest. One of our clinics leads the fight against toxic chemicals in federal court and the California State Legislature. One of our centers cooks up a tasty niche for foodtech startups. How six years in a wheelchair transformed California Law Review’s editor-in-chief. 

Berkeley Law plays a lead role in helping tech law and policy spheres keep pace amid COVID-19. Snapshots of the wide-ranging Berkeley Law experience showcase a remarkable community. Innovative research by two professors help level the forensic playing field in criminal cases. Douglas Letter ’78 embraces his chaotic, sleep-deprived role as the House of Representatives’ general counsel.  

A whopping nine new faculty members, all with first-rate credentials, join Berkeley Law. Native Americans gain a meaningful foothold at the law school. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan spends a memorable day with students, faculty, and staff. Timely new series helps the Women in Business Law Initiative expand its reach. Student comedian mines law school for laughs.

A surge in active military and veteran students enriches the law school in meaningful ways. Berkeley Law plays a pivotal and expanding role in California’s climate leadership. Three remarkable graduates will soon being clerking for U.S. Supreme Court justices, a single-term school record. The new Berkeley Alumni-In-Residence Program instills an early sense of community.

Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic and Human Rights Center stand tall for justice around the world. A Q&A with Nolo founder Ralph “Jake” Warner ’66, who helped pave a path for four 2013 alums to expand access to law. The new Civil Justice Research Initiative and Berkeley Judicial Institute take flight. School a capella troupe hits all the right notes.

The school’s flourishing LL.M. Program scales new peaks. Berkeley Law’s wide-ranging racial justice work confronts inequities throughout the legal system. A major gift launches the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice. Professor Dan Farber delivers a telling state-by-state study on the key factors that drive renewable energy policy.

Visionary (and often clairvoyant) lawyer David Estrada ’93 helps shape the world’s tech revolution. Renowned legal scholar and proven law school leader Erwin Chemerinsky is named Berkeley Law’s new dean. Legalizing marijuana creates a whole new field of opportunity. Edward Tom reflects on 30 memorable years of guiding the law school’s Admissions Department.

Berkeley Law expands its hands-on learning opportunities so graduates can hit the ground running. Faculty use predictive analytics to mine research gold. Five inspiring alums harness the power of paying back. Startup@BerkeleyLaw helps new ventures take root and take off.

A pioneering student group helps first-generation professionals find their footing at Berkeley Law. Professor’s study reveals problems with how police killings are documented. A rising number of alumni judges hold court from Hawaii to The Hague. Jim Dempsey explains how Berkeley Law keeps ahead of the tech-law pack.

Eager, ambitious, and grateful, Sujit Choudhry says that leading Berkeley Law represents “the opportunity of a lifetime.” Sports super-agent Leigh Steinberg ’73 recovers from a highly public downfall to stage an impressive fourth-quarter rally. Meet six graduates who have returned to the law school as staff members—and as important mentors for students. New programs enable Berkeley Law students to help military veterans navigate a wide range of legal issues.

Transcript follows Matt McDermott ’03 and three other alums who veered away from the big-firm path to discover new opportunities—and who they are. Berkeley Law’s new California Constitution Center serves attorneys, judges, and students. Corporate law wiz Charles Charnas ’84 finds harmony after a near-fatal injury. And a Q&A with EBCLC leaders Jeff Selbin and Tirien Steinbach ’99 on the center’s meteoric rise.

As Berkeley Law powers into its second century, a vision emerges for tackling the changes and challenges ahead. Oil-spill victims find a tireless champion in star litigator Elizabeth Cabraser ’78. Berkeley Law’s Jason Schultz ’00 explains why lawmakers struggle to keep pace with omniscient technology. And buzz-generating research by two students could lead to compensation for college athletes.

Three years of law school renovations finally pay off. Berkeley Law Professor David Caron ’83 tackles the state of international law. We profile Irving Tragen ’45, a man of the Americas. And we ask whether privacy is even possible in an online world by exploring the issues around “Do Not Track” legislation.

A pair of UC researchers (and life partners) risk their lives to help bring human rights to the Central African Republic. Also, a Q&A with Jonathan Simon ’87, who thinks California’s penal system is punishing the entire state. And for litigator and restaurateur Stuart Gordon ’65, life’s a banquet. Plus: Welcome aboard!
 Berkeley Law adds to its faculty ranks.

The Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security helps bring to light a stunning transformation of American society. Featuring a Q&A with Maria Shriver and excerpts from the Shriver Report edited by Ann O’Leary’05. Veteran California legislator Joe Simitian ’77 wades in to play a leadership role in California’s water reform battle. And President Obama has tapped several Berkeley Law alumni for important administration posts.

Which Berkeley Law alumna is still practicing law well into her eighties? When’s the earliest that the Arctic could experience ice-free summers? Which of Berkeley Law’s clinical programs is entering its third decade of service to the community? How can someone simultaneously be a top member of UC Berkeley’s men’s gymnastic team and a Berkeley Law 1L? And what pastime is Dean Edley too busy to pursue? Find out in this issue of Transcript.

The research of two Berkeley Law human rights scholars reveals the shattered lives of many former Guatanamo Bay detainees. Public education expert and Professor Goodwin Liu advocates a daring plan for reforming California’s K–12 funding system. Berkeley Law’s first Journal of Middle Eastern and Islamic Law, one of only two U.S.-based law journals dedicated to Middle Eastern, Islamic, and comparative law scholarship. A Q&A with Herma Hill Kay, Berkeley Law’s first woman dean (1992 to 2000), named one of the country’s 50 most influential female lawyers.

In this issue, the cover story looks at Erin Murphy’s research, which shoots holes in our hopes for high-tech, DNA-based evidence. Also, a story on Jess Jackson ’55, Berkeley Law’s most famous vintner. And a Berkeley Law think tank gets down to business in China’s supercharged private equity market. Plus, how a Berkeley Law professor helped a Berkeley Law alumnus raise the privacy protection bar.

In this issue, Berkeley Law’s new California Center for Environmental Law and Policy tackles the rising challenges ahead, including climate change. We profile Dallas Mavericks CEO Terdema Ussery II ’87. The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology is calling for patent law reform. And David Onek is bringing street cred to the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice.

Inside this issue, learn about how Berkeley Law alums and faculty are pursuing myriad issues raised by Hurricane Katrina. And get to know one of the 18 displaced Tulane Law School students who joined us this fall as visiting students. Our cover story, The Campaign for Boalt Hall, details the centerpiece of an unprecedented effort to invest in the law school as well as introduces you to five spectacular new faculty members. We also look at innovative faculty research on E-Voting and Sarbanes-Oxley. Catch up on more exciting news about Berkeley Law and alums in sections In Brief and Nota Bene.

The summer 2005 issue highlights research by Berkeley Law faculty, including a study of predictors for lawyering success co-authored by Professor Marjorie Shultz ’76. We also profile the inspiring Joan Samuelson ’77, a leading patient advocate for Parkinson’s disease who serves on the governing board for California’s new $3 billion stem cell initiative. You can catch up on more exciting news about Berkeley Law and our alums in such regular sections as Class Notes, In Brief, and Nota Bene.

Transcript profiles Silicon Valley law pioneer Larry Sonsini ’66 and includes a special section detailing the faculty luminaries behind Berkeley Law’s widely lauded Berkeley Center for Law & Technology.