Ted Mermin

Ted Mermin is the Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice.

Ted has directed the Center since its founding in 2018. In that time, the Center has conceived and helped organize four annual or biennial conferences, including the Consumer Law Scholars Conference and the Economic Justice Policy Advocates Conference; four regular regional and statewide convenings of experts from government, legal services, nonprofits, and academia; and symposia on the application of consumer protection law to private companies providing prison services and coerced debt arising from domestic violence and elder financial abuse. The Center also co-founded the ever-growing Consumer Law Advocates, Students and Scholars (CLASS) Network, which comprises (and seeds) student economic justice organizations in law schools around the nation.

Ted has also guided the Center’s litigation work, filing amicus briefs in salient consumer protection and economic justice cases around the nation as well as overseeing the unique Published Justice project, which has led to the publication of numerous California court of appeal decisions that would not otherwise have seen the light of day.

At Berkeley Law, Ted teaches Consumer Protection Law and Comparative Consumer Protection Law. He coordinates the Consumer Law Program, serves as pro bono counsel to the Consumer Justice Clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center, and advises the student Consumer Advocacy and Protection Society (CAPS) and Consumer Protection Public Policy Order (C3PO).

Outside the law school, Ted serves as director of the California Low-Income Consumer Coalition (CLICC), a partnership of legal service providers dedicated to furthering the rights of vulnerable consumers through state and local policy advocacy. CLICC’s efforts have included laws to reform debt collection practices in the state, to preserve assets in the face of bank levies and wage garnishments, and to establish the revamped Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.

Ted also serves as executive director of the Public Good Law Center, in which guise he has, for the past decade, assisted local, state, and federal agencies in the development and defense of innovative policies in public health and consumer law; helped litigate consumer rights and public health cases in appellate and trial courts around the nation, including in the United States Supreme Court; and written and spoken extensively on issues of free speech, preemption, tobacco control, marketing to children, deceptive advertising, and unfair competition.

Before founding Public Good, Ted served for eight years as a Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice, litigated in private practice, and served as a law clerk for the Hon. Louis H. Pollak. He holds degrees from UC Berkeley (J.D.) and Yale (B.A.).

Education

J.D., UC Berkeley School of Law
B.A., Yale University