The Ecology Law Quarterly (ELQ) Banquet is an annual gathering of Berkeley Law students, alumni, andpractitioners to celebrate outstanding contributions to environmental law and policy. This year, the spotlight will shine on a figure whose career embodies the best of the field: Claudia Polsky, the founding Director of the Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic.
The 2026 ELQ Banquet will take place on Thursday, April 16 at the UC Berkeley Faculty Club. Besides honoring Claudia Polsky’s work, it will also celebrate ELQ’s 55th Anniversary, and its continued excellence as the oldest student-run environmental law journal in the country. Founded by alumnus William Chamberlain and a small group of other students in 1971, the journal has garnered worldwide recognition as a premier vehicle for environmental and energy law scholarship.
“We are really excited and honored to celebrate Professor Polsky at this year’s Banquet,” notes Jordan Perry, ELQ’s current Co-Editor-in-Chief and a three-time participant in the Environmental Law Clinic. “Especially since she was once ELQ’s Editor-in-Chief. Her advocacy truly embodies the quality of service that deeply matters to students today.”
As Ken Alex, Director of Project Climate, notes, “passion, excellence, determination, and an unbridled drive to make things better” have been hallmarks of Polsky’s work for over 30 years, leaving “an indelible mark” at institutions such as the State Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Toxic Substances Control, and Berkeley Law.
Over the course of her career, Polsky has demonstrated a deep commitment to the public interest. Before launching the Clinic, she spent eighteen years as a public sector and public interest environmental litigator, including fourteen years as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice and four years with Earthjustice and the Public Citizen Litigation Group. Her pro bono spirit has led her to litigate at every level of the judiciary, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and to testify before both Congress and the California legislature.
In the ten years since Polsky launched the Clinic, it has undertaken more than 60 environmental advocacy projects, encompassing litigation, legislation, rulemaking, report-writing, and strategy advice; trained more than 300 students; and gained a reputation that has drawn nonprofit, Tribal, and government clients from well beyond California (including: North Carolina, Michigan, Louisiana, Washington, and Alaska).
Most recently, in landmark pro bono litigation regarding the restoration of research funds to the University of California (Thakur vs. Trump), Polsky initiated a class action challenge on behalf of UC researcher plaintiffs. Working with Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and the legal teams at Lieff Cabraser and Farella, Polsky and team secured three federal court injunctions and orders that together compelled the federal administration to restore roughly $1 billion in unlawfully suspended research grants across the 10 UC campuses.
Although the durability of this victory is being tested on appeal, Polsky and team continue to work tirelessly to secure the permanent reinstatement of as many terminated grants as possible. By honoring her, the ELQ community celebrates an alumna who perfectly exemplifies the legacy of advocacy and impact the Leadership Award is designed to recognize.