On September 17, 2018, Judge Jeremy Fogel became the first Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, a center at Berkeley Law School whose mission is to build bridges between judges and academics and to promote an ethical, resilient and independent judiciary. Prior to his appointment at Berkeley, he served as Director of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC (2011-2018), as a United States District Judge for the Northern District of California (1998-2011), and as a judge of the Santa Clara County Superior (1986-1998) and Municipal (1981-1986) Courts. He was the founding Directing Attorney of the Mental Health Advocacy Project from 1978 to 1981.
Judge Fogel has served as a faculty member for the Federal Judicial Center since 2002 and was a lecturer at Stanford Law School from 2003 until his relocation to Washington. He taught for the California Continuing Judicial Studies Program and California Judicial College from 1987 to 2010 and has served as a faculty member for legal exchanges approximately twenty foreign countries. He received his B.A. from Stanford University in 1971 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1974.
Judge Fogel has received numerous accolades, including the President’s Award for Outstanding Service to the California Judiciary from the California Judges Association, the Vanguard Award for notable contributions to intellectual property law from the State Bar of California, and, most recently, the Samuel E. Gates Litigation Award from the American College of Trial Lawyers, which is given from time to time to recognize “a lawyer who epitomizes ethical conduct, integrity, collegiality, and professionalism.”
Among his major areas of interest are judicial ethics, judicial administration, judicial decision making (including effective ways to teach judges about unconscious bias and the impact of emotion), and judicial wellness.
In Spring, 2026, he will be teaching Colloquium on the Courts and Judicial Process.
Jeremy D Fogel is not teaching any Law courses in Fall 2026.
Justice Dept. Tries to Rebuke Federal Judges for Speaking to The Times
Jeremy Fogel, a retired federal judge who consults with judges on ethics questions and who leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute, said he did not believe the judges had engaged in misconduct. The judges’ comments in the article, he added, “described breaches of professional obligations by government lawyers” and “appear to have been directed to matters within their purview as judges rather than broader policy questions.”
Justice Alito Recuses Himself Days Before Major Climate-Change Case
Jeremy Fogel, a retired federal judge and ethics expert who leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute, said that he agreed with Justice Alito’s decision to recuse because, while Justice Alito doesn’t own stock in the companies directly involved, the court’s code of ethics applies to situations where a justice’s financial interests were likely to be affected by the outcome of a case.
Opinion: Federal judges are being targeted with pizza doxing; no one has been held to account
“The persistence of coordinated attacks on the judiciary without visible consequence for perpetrators poses a grave threat to our constitutional order,” write Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute at Berkeley Law and Amrit Singh, professor of practice and faculty director of the Rule of Law Lab at New York University School of Law.
New Report Rings Alarm On Threats To Judicial Independence
“It really is tremendously hard on almost anybody when you get the kinds of threats that people are getting now — the language and the specific threats that are made. The impact on the judges, the impact on the judges’ families and loved ones, the impact just on the routines of their life, I think that’s underreported,” said Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute which published the report “Threats to the Independence of the Federal Judiciary,” along with New York University School of Law’s Rule of Law Lab.
‘Is This the Day I’m Going to Get Shot At?’ Lawyers Urged to Do More to Protect Judges
Judge Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute said lawyers have “a direct stake in an independent judiciary and in the rule of law and in public confidence in the system” and can help explain concepts such as judicial independence, checks and balances and the constitutional role of the courts to the public.
Fogel on judiciary threats
UC Berkeley Law, Berkeley Judicial Institute Executive Director Judge Jeremy Fogel joins Legal Face-Off to discuss the latest on judiciary threats around the country.
Three judges, three scandals and new scrutiny of judicial accountability
“When judges act badly, even in their private lives, it reflects badly on everyone else,” said Jeremy Fogel, a retired judge who now leads the Berkeley Judicial Institute, which works to promote an ethical and independent judiciary. “The focus in all three of these cases has to be the larger reputation of the judiciary and not just these three individual people.”
The “Civility” Problem for Judges
Judge Jeremey Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute joins Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick to discuss threats against American judges.
The Judges Are Talking. Will Anyone Listen?
Judge Jeremy Fogel, executive director Berkeley Judicial Institute, discusses a new ethics advisory opinion which permits sitting federal judges to speak openly about threats against the judiciary and address “persecution.”
What Was Behind a Spike in Judicial Misconduct Complaints Last Year?
“It’s more common for public officials to say things about judges that go beyond respectful disagreement with a decision,” said former U.S. district judge Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute. “They tend to be more personal in nature,” added Fogel, who served in the Northern District of California. “I don’t think that the court system is perfect by any means… but I think the uptick in misconduct complaints, that is sort of an environmental result of people criticizing the courts more in the public sphere.”
Legal Experts at Berkeley Law Event: Engaged Public, Judicial Courage Vital to American Democracy
Panelists addressed the growing personal and political threats facing judges, and how modern pressures from social media harassment to political tribalism threaten the independence necessary for a fair society.
LA city attorney accused of ethics breach before settling major case for $18M
Retired Judge and Executive Director, Berkeley Judicial Institute Jeremy Fogel said the city attorney’s phone call would not be something the State Bar would follow up on for an ethics review if — as her campaign manager said — she did not know Fox was an expert witness in the case, and thus, it sounds like there was no intentional wrongdoing.
Fed. Judges’ Public Spat With Justices May Undermine Courts
“Most district judges really try hard to get these cases right, and they spend a lot of time doing that,” Jeremy Fogel, executive director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute, told Law360 Pulse. “So to go through that whole process, and to have an evidentiary hearing and to issue a preliminary injunction and to do the legal analysis with the precedent that you have, and then have an emergency docket order that says nothing other than the district court order is set aside or stayed,” Judge Fogel said, “that is just not a good look.”
Trump officials and judge face off over flights to El Salvador in rare, high-stakes contempt probe
“The judge has to believe that some line may have been crossed that you can’t ignore,” said Judge Jeremy Fogel, executive director, Berkeley Judicial Institute. Fogel said the issues raised by Boasberg’s contempt probe — whether the migrants were deprived of their due process rights and whether the court’s authority was flouted — meet that standard.
As judges face more threats, only the Supreme Court gets new security funds
“There are people in the judiciary who are afraid that judicial security for the lower courts and politics are getting played off each other, and no one wants to be in that position,” said Jeremy Fogel, a retired judge who served in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. “In the short term, I think that many in the judiciary will believe that their need for increased security because of threats against judges is being neglected,” Fogel said. “In the longer term, I think that problems with understaffing and aging infrastructure will increase the chances of a tragic incident.”
How Paul Newby Made North Carolina a Blueprint for Conservative Courts
“Disclosing can mitigate the appearance of impropriety,” said Jeremy Fogel, the executive director of the University of California, Berkeley Judicial Institute and a former federal judge. “I think people ought to disclose. That’s what I would have done.”
How are the Courts Doing?
Jeremy Fogel, executive director, Berkeley Judicial Institute joins Lawfare Daily to talk about how the courts are faring amidst the enormous stresses of the day: a huge number of legal challenges to Trump administration actions, a judiciary under constant attack from critics—including several instances of real violence—and serious intra-branch tensions. And to discuss why it is so crucial that judges retain their independence—and how to make sure they do.
Legal opinions usually aren’t exciting. This one has everyone talking
“Judges are free to use their opinions to comment on the law and larger issues, as long as the focus of the opinion is right,” said Fogel, who now directs the Berkeley Judicial Institute at UC Berkeley Law. “Legal opinions are not usually that exciting. He was trying to say, this is really important.”
Judges’ Mental Well-Being Gets New Attention as Threats Rise
For Jeremy Fogel, a former federal trial judge in California and executive director, Berkeley Judicial Institute, increasing the focus on judicial well-being is a project decades in the making.
Retired judges condemn attacks on the judiciary — and say California officials are also to blame
Judge Jeremy Fogel, executive director, Berkeley Judicial Institute weighs in on attacks on the judiciary.