University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
University of California,
Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
215 Boalt Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
www.law.berkeley.edu
Law School Pro Bono
Programs
Contact Information
Terrence J. Galligan, Assistant Dean of Career Development Career Development Office
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
290 Simon Hall - #7200
Berkeley, CA 94720
510-642-7746
510-643-5370 (fax)
tgalligan@law.berkeley.edu
Linda Maranzana, Associate Director, Public Interest/Public Sector Programs
Career Development Office
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
290 Simon Hall - #7200
Berkeley, CA 94720
510-643-2675
510-643-5370 (fax)
lmaranzana@law.berkeley.edu
Category Type
Formal Voluntary Pro Bono Program Characterized by Administrative Support for Student Group Projects
Description of Programs
Berkeley Law students have organized a variety of volunteer clinical projects, which include the California Asylum Representation Clinic; the East Bay Workers' Rights Clinic; Community Legal Outreach, through the East Bay Community Law Center; the projects of Advocates for Youth Justice, including Juvenile Hall Outreach, Expulsion Representation, Education Advocacy and Berkeley High School Student Court; the Napa Advocacy Project (providing legal advice in a state psychiatric hospital); and the Iraq Refugees Assistance Project.
These projects are typically open to first-year students who work under the supervision of second- and third-year students and skilled practitioners. No course credit is given for participation in student-run pro bono projects.
In addition to these opportunities, the Associate Director for Public Interest Programs in Berkeley Law’s Career Development Office develops and maintains a list of pro bono project referrals from local community organizations. Students have also initiated their own independent pro bono projects.
Berkeley Law Pro Bono Pledge: Students who complete at least 50 hours of law-related volunteer work before they graduate receive recognition in the graduation program and a certificate acknowledging their public service. Individual students also receive special recognition for exceptional service. Most students far exceed the 50 hour mark during their time at Berkeley Law.
Location of Programs
Location varies by project for student-coordinated pro bono projects. Pro bono hour tracking and a pro bono referral list are maintained through the Career Development Office.
Staffing/Management/Oversight
The student-run clinical projects are staffed by students and overseen by attorneys from community legal service organizations or law firms. The duties of the Associate Director for Public Interest Programs (within the Berkeley Law Career Development Office) include soliciting pro bono projects, publicizing these opportunities to students and educating students about Berkeley Law's voluntary pro bono program and the importance of making a pro bono contribution.
Funding
The Law School provides office space and, in some cases, funding to pro bono group projects.
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education
Projects
- The California Asylum Representation Clinic (CARC) enables Berkeley Law students to serve as legal advocates for asylum seekers. Students work in pairs to assist asylum seekers from all over the world, including Central America, Africa and Asia. CARC collaborates with the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant to allow first-year students, as well as 2Ls and 3Ls, to enrich their legal education by working directly with clients and providing a vital community service. Local immigration attorneys provide CARC students with additional support and mentorship.
- The Workers' Rights Clinic serves to provide free legal information to low-income workers with employment-related problems and to give Berkeley Law students, particularly first-years, an opportunity to interview and work with clients who need their help. Weekly, clients come to the Clinic, housed at the East Bay Community Law Center, where they meet one-on-one with a Berkeley Law student to discuss the details of the client's employment problem. The student then works with a supervising attorney to analyze the client's situation, identify legal issues, and determine what remedies the client might pursue.
- Boalt Hall Community Legal Outreach (CLO) provides a unique opportunity for first year law students to provide much-needed legal services to underrepresented communities served by the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC). Student volunteers help expand EBCLC’s service net by visiting homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters, welfare centers, and drop-in clinics, and staffing the Community Legal Access Service Site (CLASS) and the Low-Income Eviction Project. Students provide legal information in brief consultations and referrals to EBCLC and other legal service providers as well as connecting clients with other community resources. Students assist clients with problems associated with government benefits, housing, criminal records, citation defense, and other legal issues.
- Advocates for Youth Justice (AYJ) provides law students with training and opportunities to serve Bay Area youth through four student-run initiatives: Juvenile Hall Outreach, a know-your-rights program at Alameda County juvenile hall; the Expulsion Representation Clinic, providing advocacy for Bay Area youth facing school expulsion; the Education Advocacy Program where law students are certified as educational surrogates for foster youth; and the Berkeley High School Student Court, a restorative justice court at Berkeley High School.
- The Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) is a project of the Boalt Hall Committee for Human Rights that pairs students with Iraqi clients in the Middle East who are stuck in the refugee resettlement process. Law students work under attorney supervision, serving as legal advocates throughout the resettlement process to help refugees reach a safe and welcoming country of refuge.
- The Napa Advocacy Project (NAP) is a partnership between Berkeley Law students and Disability Rights California that sends students to the Napa State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital, to provide legal information to residents.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
Awards/Recognition
Berkeley Law Pro Bono Pledge: Students who complete at least 50 hours of law-related volunteer work before they graduate are acknowledged at annual celebration and reception hosted by the Career Development Office and the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice. In addition, these students receive recognition in the graduation program and a certificate acknowledging their public service. Individual students also receive special recognition for exceptional service.
Community Service
Law School Public Interest
Programs
Back to top
Contact Information
Terrence J. Galligan, Assistant Dean of Career Development Career Development Office
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
290 Simon Hall - #7200
Berkeley, CA 94720
510-642-7746
510-643-5370 (fax)
tgalligan@law.berkeley.edu
Linda Maranzana, Associate Director, Public Interest/Public Sector Programs
Career Development Office
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
290 Simon Hall - #7200
Berkeley, CA 94720
510-643-2675
510-643-5370 (fax)
lmaranzana@law.berkeley.edu
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Berkeley Law offers a rich array of courses that address social justice issues. In addition to standard law school classes, Berkeley Law offers theory courses that examine the legal history and rights of traditionally disadvantaged groups, a range of public interest law and social justice classes, and clinical courses and skills classes.
In addition, Berkeley Law’s Honorable Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice offers a Social Justice Thursday seminar series for first year students that views the first year curriculum in particular and legal education in general through a social justice lens. Facilitated by social justice faculty, this seminar complements the public interest/social justice discussions in those core courses that include such analyses and fills the gap for those core course faculty members who do not incorporate such focus in their teaching.
For more details please visit the Henderson Center website at: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/HendersonCenter.htm
Public Interest Centers
The Honorable Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice produces and fosters creative scholarship that examines the law through a lens of social justice, and works in partnership with communities to provide education to the general public. Through multi-method, interdisciplinary and participatory approaches, the Henderson Center engages in research that is accessible, relevant, and responsive to the needs of diverse communities in California and throughout the nation. By providing bridges between academia and the real world and between theory and practice, it teaches students to work collaboratively across disciplines and perspectives and to locate the common ground among people.
The Center's mission is threefold:- Provide and facilitate rigorous theoretical and practical training and support to law students in social justice advocacy and scholarship.
- Foster creative scholarship that views the law in a larger social context and is both accessible to the public and responsive to the needs of under-represented communities.
- Promote collaborative efforts among academics, practitioners, advocacy organizations, policy makers, and community groups to realize a more just and equitable society.
- ground-breaking conferences and symposia that bring together experts from around the country to discuss strategies for social change;
- the Practitioner-in-Residence and Scholar-in-Residence programs, which offer pre-eminent social justice lawyers and academics the opportunity to share their insights and expertise with the Berkeley Law community;
- Ruth Chance Mondays, a speakers series that gives students the opportunity to talk with public-interest practitioners on a bi-weekly basis;
- a reading group for first-year students led by Berkeley Law faculty members that examines basic areas of the law through a social justice lens;
- a range of theoretical and clinical courses that explore how the law treats social justice issues including how poor and disadvantaged communities are represented;
- a Practitioner-Student Mentoring Program, presented in collaboration with the Office of Career Services, which pairs students with social justice lawyers; and
- a student advisory board that allows the center to develop a community of students and groups interested in social justice issues.
For more details please visit the Henderson Center website at http://www.law.berkeley.edu/HendersonCenter.htm or contact Mary Louise Frampton, Faculty Director of the Henderson Center, at 510/642-4474 or mlframpton@law.berkeley.edu
Berkeley has a number of additional Centers that address important issues in the public interest:- The Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice
- Berkeley CHEFS, the Center on Health, Economic & Family Security
- The Center for Law, Energy & the Environment
- Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity
- The Center for the Study of Law and Society
- The Kadish Center for Morality, Law & Public Affairs
- The Honorable G. William and Ariadna Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law
- The Institute for Legal Research
- The Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy
- The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
- The Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance
For more information about these Centers, please visit http://www.law.berkeley.edu/centers.htm
Public Interest Clinics
Berkeley Law Offers several faculty-supervised clinics and projects.
- The Death Penalty Clinic has a three-fold mission: offer law students a rich opportunity for hands-on training; seek justice for individual clients by providing them with the highest quality representation on appeal and in post-conviction proceedings; and expose and tackle problems endemic to the administration of the death penalty.
- The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC)is the community-based component of Berkeley Law's Clinical Program. EBCLC was founded by Berkeley Law students in 1988 to provide legal services to low-income and underrepresented members of the community near the law school.
- The International Human Rights Law Clinicallows students to design and implement creative solutions to advance the global struggle for the protection of human rights.
- The Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic offers law students the opportunity to learn about lawyering, government institutions and the complexities involved in technology-related law, while also providing representation to individuals, nonprofits, and consumer groups that could not otherwise obtain counsel. Students participating in the Clinic play an integral role in defining how civil liberties and other public values will be protected in an increasingly high-tech world.
Links to clinical websites can be found at: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/clinics.htm
- Through the Domestic Violence Law Practicum, students work in one of several civil or criminal domestic violence legal agencies in the Bay Area, or with the instructor on state legislation. Students may also work on post-conviction issues faced by battered women in state prisons and employment issues affecting victims of domestic violence. For more information on the DV Practicum, please visit http://www.law.berkeley.edu/4145.htm
- In the New Business Counseling Practicum, students learn and apply a broad range of knowledge in law and business related to the development of new businesses, through classroom learning, field trips, participating in simulations, and through providing hands-on assistance with real business start-ups (non-profit and for-profit).
Externships/Internships
There are three components to the field placement program, both of which are supervised by the field placement coordinator.
The first is the practitioner-supervised clinics, in which students receive academic credit (up to six units) for working in public interest organizations or governmental agencies under the supervision of a practicing attorney. There are presently 50 Bay Area clinical placements on the Law School's approved list, primarily in the areas of criminal law, environmental law, governmental service and service to disadvantaged groups.
The second component is the judicial externship, in which students work as externs for local, federal or state judges. Students apply directly to the judges for an extern position, and those who enroll in a full-time externship must also enroll in the companion Judicial Extern Seminar.
The third component is the away placement option, allowing students, with prior approval, to receive academic credit for field placement work outside the SF/Bay Area. Students have completed a wide-array of placements, both domestically and internationally. In addition, the UCDC Law Program allows students to spend a semester in Washington D.C., combining a weekly seminar with a full-time field placement. This Program offers law students a unique opportunity to learn how federal statutes, regulations, and policies are made, changed and understood in the nation's Capitol.
For more information, please visit the Field Placement Program website at: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/179.htm
Classes with a Public Service Component
Community Law Practice requires a clinical component at East Bay Community Law Center. All in-house and faculty supervised clinical programs include both intensive public service work and a class-room based seminar component. The Domestic Violence Practicum and the Small Business Practicum combine hands-on public service with coursework. Social Justice Practice includes a practical legal case-study component.
Public Interest Journals
- The Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law is at the core of Berkeley's vibrant criminal law community, which includes the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice and an intellectual student body that is ideologically diverse but uniformly dedicated to excellence in criminal law.
- The Ecology Law Quarterly (ELQ) is the school's environmental law journal. Since its founding in 1970, ELQ has consistently reflected the journal members' broad conception of environmental law and policy. Recent issues have included articles on court cases involving the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, environmental liability standards and the Endangered Species Act. In 1990 ELQ was awarded the United Nations Environmental Programme's Global 500 Award, recognizing the journal as one of the top 500 environmental organizations in the world.
- The Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law (BJELL) focuses exclusively on current developments in labor and employment law.
- The Berkeley Journal of International Law (BJIL) publishes articles, case notes and book reviews that address current issues of international law.
- The mandate of the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice (BGLJ) is to publish pieces that address the lives and struggles of underrepresented women. BGLJ believes that excellence in feminist legal scholarship requires critical examiniation of the intersection of gender with one or more other axes of subordination including, but not limited to, race, class, sexual orientation, and disability.
- The Asian American Law Journal (AALJ) provides a comprehensive forum for legal scholars, practitioners and students to discuss the legal, policy, and social implications of issues concerning Asian Americans.
- The Berkeley Journal of African American Law & Policy (BJALP) is dedicated to addressing legal and policy issues that affect the African-American community and people of color, in general. The journal deals with such matters as constitutional law, criminal justice, civil rights, African-American participation in the political process, the death penalty, fair housing, economic development in the African-American community, African immigration to the United States, and health issues that affect African Americans.
- The Berkeley La Raza Law Journal (BLRLJ) focuses on legal issues affecting the Latina/o community. Past articles have covered a range of topics, including bilingual education, affirmative action, immigration law, labor law and policy, voting rights, and Latina/o critical theory. BLRLJ also hosts an annual symposium.
- The Berkeley Journal of Middle Eastern & Islamic Law (JMEIL) is dedicated to Middle Eastern, Islamic, and comparative law scholarship. JMEIL publishes academic articles and student comments analyzing the laws of Middle Eastern countries and the Islamic world, the study and application of Islamic jurisprudence, and the impact of law on Muslim and Middle Eastern communities globally.
- IMPACT is a multidisciplinary journal fusing research, practice and policy to advance the success of urban youth. The journal is dedicated to critically evaluating the reasons why urban youth are disproportionately enduring the brunt of failing social policies. Its goal is to bring the insights of scholar and practitioners together in one journal, so that their work may collectively inspire legislators and policymakers to achieve viable solutions to this growing problem.
- The mission of Issues in Legal Scholarship is to present cutting-edge legal and policy research on pressing topics quickly and in a format that encourages discussion and interaction. Online peer-reviewed symposia systematically address emerging issues of great significance and offer ongoing scholarship of interest to policy and legal researchers alike. Each symposium is a living forum with ongoing publications and commentaries. Symposium topics include Single-Sex Marriage, Immigration Policy, and Catastrophic Risks. On-line publication makes it possible for other researchers to find the best and latest quickly, as well as to join in further discussion.
Links to journal websites can be found at: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/228.htm
Public Interest Career Support Center
Berkeley Law’s Career Development Office has a dedicated full-time public interest career advisor. In addition, the Career Development Office sponsors events that bring public interest and government employers to the law school, coordinates a public interest mentorship program, hosts career panels exposing students to a wide range or public interest practice areas and settings, puts on workshops that increase the comfort level and skills that students bring to public interest and permanent jobs, hosts a student-to-student career fair that allows students to learn about specific public interest placements from their classmates, and maintains public interest/sector listservs for students and alums.
For more information, please contact the Berkeley Law Career Development Office at 510/642-4567 or career@law.berkeley.edu.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
The Berkeley Law Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) is designed to aid Berkeley Law graduates who earned the Juris Doctor (JD) degree and are employed by either nonprofit public interest organizations or government agencies. Under this program, the School of Law provides participants with assistance for law school loan payments made during six-month periods for up to 10 years for student loans borrowed while attending Berkeley Law. For members of the graduating classes of 2006 and beyond, the overall cap on principal and capitalized interest for all loans covered by LRAP shall be $100,000 for law school loans, no more than $10,000 of which can be for bar study loans. The amount of program assistance will be prorated for participants with annualized incomes greater than $58,000.
Back to top Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
The Berkeley Law Foundation, Berkeley Law's student-run public interest law foundation, sponsors 1-3 post-graduation fellowships each year. For more details, visit: http://blf.boalt.org/
Other Funding Sources:
Each year Berkeley Law students typically receive national public interest fellowships, including Skadden, Equal Justice Works, Soros, and organization-based fellowships.
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
The School of Law awards numerous scholarships. For more information, please visit: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/191.htm
Graduate Student Funded:
The Berkeley Law Foundation offers the Phoenix Fellowships for diversity and public interest law.
Other Funding Sources:
There are a number of supplemental scholarships, beyond the need-based awards, available to help Berkeley Law students pay for their legal education. These financial aid options are provided by a number of sources, including the law school itself, the University of California, the U.S. government, and private organizations and agencies. For more information, visit the Financial Aid Office website: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/58.htm
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
As part of our mission as a great public law school, Berkeley Law is eager for a large number of our students to experience public interest/public service lawyering. This includes making it financially feasible for every student pursuing a JD degree at Berkeley to do summer public interest/public service legal work.
The Berkeley Law Public Interest/Public Service Summer Fellowship Program offers summer Fellowships to every continuing JD students who applies. First-time (typically 1L) recipients of Berkeley Law summer funding are eligible to receive up to $4,000. Such recipients may choose to receive only a portion of the $4000 for this summer and save the remainder to support their public interest/public sector work in the summer following their second year. Second-time recipients of Berkeley Law summer funding are eligible to receive an award of $2,000, in addition to any saved funds remaining from their first summer, up to a total of $6,000. Second-time recipients may also request supplemental, competitive funding from the law school.
Recipients can use Berkeley Law Summer Fellowship funding in combination with other summer funding sources as long as they do not exceed a designated funding cap.
The main requirement for obtaining a Fellowship is to show a commitment to public interest/public service by completing at least 25 hours of law-related pro bono work during the school year.
Graduate Student Funded:
A number of law student groups also offer public interest summer fellowships. These groups include: the Berkeley Law Foundation; the Boalt Hall Queer Caucus; the Boalt Hall Women's Association; the Boalt Hall Committee on Human Rights; boalt.org; the Ecology Law Quarterly; and the OC at Boalt.
For links to these organizations, visit: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/227.htm
Other Funding Sources:
Each summer, Berkeley Law students usually are recipients of summer fellowship & stipends such as Equal Justice America, Equal Justice Works Summer Corps, Peggy Browning, Haywood Burns, and many others.
The Berkeley Law Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley also awards a number of summer fellowships to law students (and other graduate students) doing summer human rights work.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Student Public Interest Groups
- Advocates for Youth Justice
- American Constitution Society
- Asian Pacific American Law Students Association
- Berkeley Law Foundation
- Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative
- Boalt Environmental Law Society
- Berkeley Law Student Animal Legal Defense Fund
- Boalt Hall Committee for Human Rights
- Boalt Disability Law Society
- Boalt Hall Democrats
- Boalt Hall Federalist Society
- Boalt Hall Labor Coalition
- Boalt Hall Women's Association
- California Asylum Representation Clinic (CARC)
- Coalition for Diversity
- Community Legal Outreach
- Critical Race Scholars Society
- East Bay Community Law Center Steering Committee
- East Bay Workers' Rights Clinic
- Expulsion Representation Clinic
- Juvenile Hall Outreach
- La Raza Law Students Association
- Law Students for Justice in Palestine
- Law Students for Reproductive Justice
- Law Students of African Descent
- Middle Eastern Law Students Association
- National Lawyers Guild, Berkeley Law Chapter
- Native American Law Students Association
- Pilipino American Law Society
- Queer Caucus
- San Quentin Restorative Justice Program
- South Asian Law Students Association
- Social Justice Student Network
- STudents OPposed to Domestic Violence (STOP DV)
- Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice Student Advisory Board
- Women of Color Collective
