Linda Tam joined the faculty of the First Year Skills program in 2021. Tam has spent the majority of her career in the fields of immigrant rights and clinical teaching. In 2003, she joined the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC)—the largest clinical program at Berkeley Law—to start a project providing free immigration services to low-income immigrants living with HIV/AIDS. Tam went on to found EBCLC’s Immigration Clinic, counseling and representing immigrants on a broad range of affirmative and defensive matters. Tam represented detained and non-detained clients in removal proceedings and on appeal.
In 2015, Tam visited Myanmar as an International Clinician in Residence through BABSEA CLE (Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asian Clinical Legal Education Initiative), spending a month planning and leading workshops for law teachers and students in Myanmar. Tam spent the 2018-2019 academic year visiting UC Irvine School of Law as Co-Director of their Immigrant Rights Clinic and Clinical Professor of Law, where she focused on detention cases and criminal post-conviction relief.
Tam earned her J.D. at Berkeley Law in 2000 where she served as Senior Notes & Comments Editor of the Asian Law Journal. After graduation, Tam served as a judicial law clerk with the Attorney General’s Honors Program in the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Education
J.D., UC Berkeley (2000)
B.A. Yale University (1996)