Berkeley Law professors are prolific, insightful scholars with broad and significant influence felt well beyond the school’s walls through their research, legal advocacy, policymaking and commentary.
New Research
Reviewing Resentencing
A new report from Berkeley Law's Criminal Law & Justice Center (CLJC) analyzes the impact of prosecutor-initiated resentencing in Alameda County, finding that “thoughtful resentencing policies” can achieve multiple goals simultaneously: reducing state costs, addressing excessive sentences, and maintaining public safety through careful case-by-case evaluation. “Measuring the Impact of Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing in Alameda County” examines 165 successful resentencings between October 2020 and January 2025 — spanning the administrations of District Attorney Nancy O’Malley and Pamela Price.Flourishing Faculty
Four members of the Berkeley Law faculty were named to the annual “Top 100 Legal Scholars of 2025” list, an analysis by George Mason Law Librarians Rob Willey and Melanie Knapp. The rankings use citations for articles published between 2019 and 2021. Professor Sonia Katyal came in at No. 24, Professor David Singh Grewal at No. 34, Professor Steven Davidoff Solomon at No. 35, and Professor Stavros Gadinis at No. 91.Data Privacy Details
Professor Paul Schwartz recently gave the keynote address at the Chapman Law Review symposium “Data Flow Frontiers: Privacy, Policy, Practice.” Schwartz, a faculty co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, gave a talk titled “Data Privacy Federalism 3.0,” discussing how the landscape around privacy data federalism has been altered by recent changes. As federal lawmakers have stood on the sidelines, individual states have passed a flurry of privacy laws, Schwartz noted.Tracking Immigration Enforcement
The Deportation Data Project, co-directed by Berkeley Law Professor David Hausman, recently released a report analyzing immigration enforcement in the first nine months of the Trump administration. The analysis shows that deportations from within the United States increased by a factor of 4.6 in the first nine months of the administration’s crackdown. During that period, ICE arrests quadrupled, and street arrests spiked by a factor of over 11 — with a sevenfold increase in arrests of people without criminal convictions.‘Secret Settlements’ Study Wins Civil Justice Award
A team of scholars including Professor Jonah B. Gelbach is one of two recipients of the 2026 Civil Justice Scholarship Award from the National Civil Justice Institute for an article published in the University of Chicago Law Review last year. “Shedding Light on Secret Settlements: An Empirical Study of California’s STAND Act” is an empirical and qualitative study analyzing how California’s ban on secrecy in sexual-misconduct settlements has functioned in practice, testing longstanding assumptions about the effects of restricting non-disclosure agreements.
