Chesa Boudin is the founding executive director of Berkeley’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, a policy and advocacy hub. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the president of the board of the Prison Law Office, and a winner of the 2025 Eleanor Swift Award for Public Service. He served as San Francisco’s elected district attorney from 2020 until 2022. Prior to his election Boudin clerked for two federal judges and worked for years as a deputy public defender. He is a graduate of Yale college and Yale law school and attended Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. His biological parents spent a combined 62 years in prison starting when he was a baby.
Boudin’s work has appeared or been profiled in The Yale Law Journal, The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The LA Times, The Chicago Tribune, and many more. View his scholarly publications.
Education
JD, Yale Law School (2011)
MSc, Oxford University (2006)
MSC, Oxford University (2004)
BA, Yale University (2003)
Will a New Commission Finally Get California to Fund Public Defense?
Chesa Boudin, Executive Director, UC Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law and Justice Center discusses a new commission in California tasked with studying the best path forward for a state wide solution for Public Defense.
Opinion: Children Deserve the Right to Hug Their Incarcerated Parents
“Forty years after my family fought for the right for me to hug my mother in prison, children are still being denied the same human connection,” writes Chesa Boudin, executive director of Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center.
Report Finds Systemic Gaps in California’s Response to Sexual Misconduct in Men’s Prisons
A report from the Criminal Law & Justice Center at UC Berkeley School of Law, in collaboration with Amend at the University of California, San Francisco finds sexual misconduct remains a persistent threat in California prisons, while inadequate data, reporting barriers, investigative failures and institutional practices continue to undermine prevention and accountability.
Solano County profited from inmate video calls after banning in-person jail visits, lawsuit says
The Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law, along with three partner organizations filed a major new case challenging Solano County’s ban on in-person family visits at its jails.
Answering the Call: How Berkeley Law’s Faculty, Students, Staff, and Alumni are Defending Democracy’s Bedrock Principles
With the rule of law under unprecedented pressure, they’re standing up in courtrooms, classrooms, lecture halls, the media, and internationally to fight for justice.
Above and Beyond: Three Berkeley Law Standouts Receive Top Honor Given to UC Berkeley Staff
Sophia Wang, Toni Mendicino, and Amina Kirby are recognized for leading immigration rights advocacy, amplifying Berkeley Law’s international law work, and advancing technical innovations in the school’s classrooms and event spaces.
Building a Ripple Effect: Novel Immigration Liberation Practicum Helps Immigrants in Federal Detention
Stood up on a quick timetable, the project fits perfectly into the Criminal Law & Justice Center’s work at the intersection of immigration detention and the criminal justice system.
Sunshine, Golf, Pickleball and … Scams?
Retirement communities are often idyllic places to spend your older years. But they can also be hot spots for fraud.
Opinion: A Grand Jury Will Indict a Ham Sandwich? Not in the Trump Era.
“Federal grand jurors are showing that they will use their power wisely,” write Criminal Law and Justice Center Executive Director Chesa Boudin and UC Davis Professor Eric S. Fish. “We should embrace this trend and give them the procedural protections they need to serve as true checks on government power.”
How Alameda County’s stonewalling legal approach has cost taxpayers millions
“There is a long-term strategy that many big entities, government and private, subscribe to, which is, if we settle every case, then people will keep suing us with increasingly frivolous cases,” Boudin said. “Sometimes it is worth paying lawyers more than it would cost us to settle a case to fight and deter future copycat litigation.”
Service Stars: UC Berkeley Law’s Pro Bono and Public Interest Award Winners Make an Indelible Impact
Their wide-ranging work reflects the school’s deep commitment to public service that champions justice, equality, civil rights, transparency, fairness, and accountability.
Opinion: Trump’s hypothetical Alcatraz plan is scary. His move to end prison rape protections is scarier
Chesa Boudin, executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at the UC Berkeley Law and Kenneth E. Hartman, a formerly incarcerated lifer weigh in on Trump’s Department of Justice’s decision to terminate all funds for an effort to stop prison rape by defunding the national Prison Rape Elimination Act Resource Center.
UC Berkeley Law Experts Outline the Latest Developments at the Intersection of Technology and Criminal Law
Criminal Law & Justice Center Executive Director Chesa Boudin and Professors Colleen V. Chien ’02, Andrea Roth, and Rebecca Wexler spoke at a recent webinar for lawyers across the state.
Chesa Boudin represents former prisoners suing California for reportedly withholding ‘gate money’
UC Berkeley Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center and Edelson PC file lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, for alleged unlawful failure to provide some or all of the $200 “gate money” to possibly more than a million people.
New Resentencing Practicum Among a Slate of Fascinating, Varied Fall Course Offerings
The lineup is “a remarkable mix of classes covering topics relevant to practice areas old and new,” Professor and Associate Dean for J.D. Curriculum and Teaching Jonathan D. Glater says.
Blast Off: New Fellowship Launches Criminal Justice Careers for Recent Grads
Four Class of 2024 alums form the inaugural cohort of the Chris Larsen Justice Fellowship, which will fund their first year of public interest work on criminal justice issues.
Does the quashing of Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction spell hope for Trump?
“The legal precedent set by the Weinstein appeal should not have any direct bearing on Donald Trump’s case,” said Chesa Boudin, executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law.
Opinion: The Supreme Court could make homelessness worse in America
Chesa Boudin, the founding executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center at Berkeley Law School, Brendan Cox , and Miriam Aroni Krinsky write about the Supreme Court case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson.
An Illuminating Exchange on Crime, at Berkeley of All Places
A commentary about a criminal-justice conference at the University of California, Berkeley organized by Professor John Yoo and Chesa Boudin.