By Gwyneth K. Shaw
Berkeley Law’s stellar Clinical Program continues to grow, with 13 new hires and two staff members recently moving into new roles — and more options for students on the horizon.
The newest team members at the school’s six in-house clinics and eight community-based clinics at the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC) bring a broad range of backgrounds and expertise. They share a deep commitment to and enthusiasm for experiential work that trains students to advance critical social justice issues while helping clients around the East Bay, California, and far beyond.
“We are so excited to have such a talented group of clinicians join the program,” says Laura Riley, the Clinical Program’s director. “Their professional backgrounds, life experiences, and commitment to both education and advocacy will enrich clinic work and the student experience.”
Over the next few years, the program plans to add three more in-house clinics and additional clinical faculty, further enriching the experiential educational slate.
Death Penalty Clinic
Mridula Raman, deputy director
Raman became a clinical supervising attorney in 2019 after five years as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Office of the Federal Public Defender for Arizona. She was recently promoted to deputy director and relishes working with clinic Co-Directors Elisabeth Semel and Ty Alper, whom she calls “brilliant lawyers and caring teachers.”
“I’ve had a wonderful experience working with our clients, the current and former students, my colleagues in the clinic, and my colleagues more broadly,” Raman says, adding that working alongside students has changed how she thinks about the world. “The clinic students are so bright and passionate and relentless — in the best of ways. They force me to continually interrogate my assumptions and beliefs about our work and about our world, and they inspire me daily with their courage.”
Looking ahead, Raman hopes to explore interests beyond capital defense. For example, she’s teaching a course on pregnancy criminalization in the spring semester and is working on scholarly research in the area.
“I’m excited to have these opportunities to expand the scope of my work while continuing to work with students on capital cases,” she says.
Human Rights Clinic
Radhika Kapoor, supervising attorney
Kapoor came to Berkeley Law after a multi-year fellowship-in-residence at the Harvard Law School Program on International Law and Armed Conflict, where she focused on a range of public international law matters, including the negative human rights impacts of national-security measures and the wide-ranging impacts of domestic and international conflicts on civilians. She was also an assistant counsel at the Public International Law and Policy Group, where she managed the implementation of international legal projects and advised civil society groups, States, and opposition coalitions on transitional justice, humanitarian aid, and peace negotiation.
Kapoor was interested in joining the clinic to have a closer pedagogical relationship with students and because the docket of Director Roxanna Altholz ’99 included both domestic and international projects.
“Clinical teaching sits between practice and doctrinal teaching, so you have a lot of client interaction and you’re constantly collaborating with your partners. But also, as a teacher, you’re working really closely with students, which I find very rewarding,” she says. “I was particularly impressed with the Berkeley student community when I came down here for my campus interview — I thought they were so astute. And now that I’ve gotten to know some of my students really well, they’re such an inspiring bunch, and I’m learning so much from them.”
Helen Kerwin, supervising attorney
Before coming to Berkeley Law, Kerwin was staff attorney at the Center for Justice and International Law, where she specialized in strategic litigation before the Inter-American Human Rights System — particularly on the rights of Indigenous communities, migrants and asylum-seekers, and human rights defenders.
Since joining the clinic, she’s focused on developing projects in partnership with Latin America-based organizations on topics like documenting the impacts of climate change on migration and defending the rights of asylum-seekers at airports.
“I am enjoying working with and teaching law students, and developing independent human rights projects,” she says. “I hope students will leave the clinic having sharpened practice skills important for any future legal practice, and with an appreciation of human rights law as a substantive body of law that can support struggles for social justice.”
Policy Advocacy Clinic (PAC)
TJ Grayson, clinical supervisor
Grayson’s passion for activism, especially in the criminal legal realm, was nurtured during his undergraduate days at UC Berkeley. Returning to the campus has made him both happy and inspired, he says.
Grayson was previously a Civil Rights Fellow at the Social Justice Legal Foundation, receiving intensive training in civil rights litigation from experienced trial lawyers while pursuing Section 1983 cases against law enforcement and a class action against a private U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility. He was also a Justice Catalyst Fellow at the Advancement Project, where he supported abolitionist campaigns to end police violence.
Calling PAC “one of the best clinics in the country,” he says, “What excites me most about this role is working with students who are committed to or curious about supporting community groups on the ground. Many people assume there’s only one path for law graduates, regardless of whether or not you work in public interest. But there are so many tools we gain in law school that can greatly enhance social justice and movement work.
“I’m thrilled to be in a position where I can help students identify, develop, and apply these skills to contribute meaningfully to the causes they care about.”
Asher Waite-Jones ’16, clinical supervisor
The Clinical Program is a familiar place for Waite-Jones, who worked with EBCLC as a student and as a staff attorney in its Clean Slate Clinic. Returning to the law school has brought a series of déjà vu moments, including reunions with former professors and reacclimating to navigating the labyrinthine halls.
After graduating, Waite-Jones was a legal aid attorney at several nonprofit law firms in California and Indiana, primarily representing people who faced the collateral consequences of criminal legal system involvement. Most recently, at Indiana Legal Services, he represented people in expungements and motions to vacate court debt all across the state.
“Work like what we do at the Policy Advocacy Clinic has the opportunity to make sweeping changes in systems that harm racially, economically, and other marginalized communities,” he says. “I was interested in PAC’s abolitionist framework for pushing system change, in the ability to effectuate change for communities who lack access to legal and social services, and, of course, I wanted to work with Berkeley Law’s amazing students.”
Samuelson Technology, Law & Public Policy Clinic
Julie DeVries ’17, clinical staff attorney
DeVries was previously a clinical teaching fellow at the clinic, where as a Berkeley Law student she worked on a body camera project with the ACLU of Massachusetts. She has her own criminal appeals practice and was previously an associate in Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Supreme Court & Appellate Group and an assistant federal public defender in San Francisco, and spent several years as a journalist and criminal defense paralegal.
Her experience in the criminal system makes the clinic’s docket in that arena a particularly good fit, she says, particularly for the civil liberties issues that arise around technology use.
“This position gives me a chance to do impactful work in this area with kind, dedicated people,” DeVries says. “And because I was a Samuelson Clinic student myself, I remember what it was like and try to carry that perspective with me as I interact with current students.”
She’s also continuing to build on a project she started as a fellow about the reliability of technologies used in parole and probation supervision.
“My hope is to make a meaningful contribution to this area of the law that affects so many people,” she says. “It’s exciting to see the Samuelson Clinic continue the great work it has done in criminal justice and to get more involved in conversations around post-conviction surveillance law and policy.”
East Bay Community Law Center
Rebecca Oyama, Clinical Program director
In her new role, Oyama oversees the operation of EBCLC’s academic year clinical program at Berkeley Law and its summer clinical program while also providing training and ongoing mentorship to approximately 35 clinical supervising attorneys in the center’s eight legal clinics. She joined EBCLC in 2019 and was a senior staff attorney and clinical supervisor in the Clean Slate program.
She spent the first six years of her legal career at the Bronx Defenders’ Family Defense Practice, defending parents entangled in the family regulation system and training junior attorneys in a holistic defense model. Prior to joining EBCLC, she worked at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, enforcing local anti-discrimination ordinances and training city departments on advancing racial equity.
Oyama will also teach a seminar on the family policing system in the spring semester.
“It is such an honor to support our eight clinical programs in the collective fight for our clients’ rights,” she says. “At a time when our democratic institutions are threatened, the value of an EBCLC education — fighting to achieve racial and economic justice for communities that have been systematically harmed — seems almost impossible to overstate. The beauty of teaching our students is seeing how they, in turn, inform and intensify our commitment to create meaningful change.”
Azizah Ahmad, supervising attorney, EBCLC Health and Welfare Clinic
Ahmad previously worked in immigration law, helping Bay Area residents obtain immigration relief, and at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with asylum seekers and stateless persons. Her other previous jobs include advancing legislative and policy measures addressing the health of underserved communities at national health advocacy and civil rights organizations as well as government agencies.
“As a law student, my clinic experience was a critical part of my legal education and my training as a public interest attorney,” she says. “I’m excited at the opportunity to offer students the same valuable experience, especially at an organization like EBCLC that centers the voices of women of color. With my background in health law and policy, I hope to bring unique perspectives on advocacy to the students and communities we serve in the Health and Welfare practice.”
KellyLou Densmore, deputy director, EBCLC Health and Welfare Clinic
A dedicated community organizer, Densmore has been working at the intersections of racial and economic justice, health equity, and queer liberation since her teens. Before joining EBCLC, she was the director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission’s Office of Sexual Harassment Assault Response and Prevention.
Prior to government work, she served as legal director for Transgender, Gender Variant and Intersex Justice Project, advocating for the human rights and dignity of currently and formerly incarcerated transgender people. Densmore was also a Legal Advocacy Fellow at Justice Now, where she represented people in California women’s prisons on compassionate release cases, and advocated for incarcerated people around medical care and health needs.
“I am very excited to be bringing my passion for community lawyering into clinical work,” she says. “The next generation of lawyers is inspiring, and I look forward to mentoring and learning from students as we face unjust institutions to bring more rights, empowerment, and hopefully joy to our loved ones and greater communities.”
Stefanie Gonzales, supervising attorney, EBCLC Immigration Clinic
Before joining EBCLC last year, Gonzales was an attorney with Centro Legal de la Raza’s Immigrant Rights Team, working primarily with adults and families in removal proceedings. She’s passionate about providing high quality, free direct legal services to community members who need it the most.
“I was drawn to clinical legal education because of my experience in my law school’s Immigrant Justice Clinic and Domestic Violence clinic. It was there that I saw firsthand how powerful experiential learning can be, both for the students and for the communities we serve,” she says. “In my role at EBCLC I strive to combine advocacy with education, empowering law students to not only develop their skills but also understand the real-world impact of their work.”
Maria Gabriela Guerra ’19, supervising attorney, EBCLC Housing Clinic
Guerra worked at PAC during her time at Berkeley Law, investigating encampment evictions in Oakland and San Francisco. After law school, she completed a fellowship with the Youth Law Center, focusing on policy advocacy at the intersection of housing, foster care, and the juvenile justice system, and was a criminal defense attorney for two years.
Before law school, Guerra worked as a grant writer for the Downtown Women’s Center in Los Angeles, an organization providing permanent supportive housing for unaccompanied women on Skid Row.
“I love working at EBCLC because our client-centered work makes a tangible difference to our community. It’s so satisfying when students learn through clinic how fulfilling this work is, and how much power there is in choosing public interest lawyering,” she says. “EBCLC is a place where law students grow as legal professionals in ways that are not universally available in legal education. It’s great to be a part of that journey.”
Courtney McCausland, co-director, EBCLC Immigration Clinic
Before coming to EBCLC, McCausland was the managing attorney of the Immigration Litigation Division at Catholic Charities East Bay. She also volunteers with the AIDS Legal Referral Panel and as an advisor to the board of the Choral Project, a choir and arts nonprofit.
“I was drawn to clinical work as a forum to help shape the landscape of legal practice for future generations of attorneys,” she says. “I have seen firsthand the power that advocates have to transform people’s lives by helping them to navigate systems that are designed to exclude and punish them. I have also seen the toll that this kind of work can take on people who are committed to serving the most vulnerable members of our communities.
“In my current role as the immigration unit co-director and a clinical supervisor, I hope to work with my team and students to provide and model sustainable and compassionate direct legal services.”
Kaya McRuer ’23, supervising attorney, EBCLC Education Justice and Youth Defender Clinic
McRuer is a Brian Lewinstein Youth Justice Fellow at EBCLC, a two-year position funded by the foundation named for Lewinstein, a Berkeley Law student who died in a tragic accident the summer before his 2L year. She’s starting her career as a clinical supervisor in the same clinic where she worked for two years as a student.
She says she was drawn to return by the high need for school discipline defense and youth justice advocacy in Alameda County and the chance to help youth voices be heard in spaces which have historically disempowered young people and their communities — many of whom are youth and communities of color.
“I am grateful to have an opportunity to do that work in a space that allows me to share the impactful experience clinic was for me with current students,” she says. “Law school often felt frustratingly abstract to me, whereas my clinical work provided opportunities to both build hard skills and also to confront the impact and limits of legal work for real people and communities.
“My goal is to help students develop a sense of how to practice law in a community and client-centered way before they step into their own careers.”
Angelo Isaac Sandoval, supervising attorney, EBCLC Clean Slate Clinic
Sandoval, who joined EBCLC last year, arrived with a deep portfolio in government and nonprofit service. A former legislative aide to state Sen. Denise Ducheny, he also worked at the Greenlining Institute and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, both in the Bay Area.
“I do this work because the people that I love are at the mercy of inherently unjust systems,” he says. “The economic, immigration, healthcare, housing, education, and criminal justice systems are deeply corrupted by white supremacy and capitalism and inflict substantial ongoing harm on Black, brown, and Indigenous communities. In my work, I remove criminal record barriers and work to end the criminalization of the impoverished. Through clinical work, I am committed to building up the next generation of champions to push this work forward.”
Eric Singerman, supervising attorney, EBCLC Education Justice and Youth Defender Clinic
A former high school English teacher, Singerman joined EBCLC to be an advocate for students.
“When I was a law student, clinics gave me the chance to see how law played out in practice and to explore the kind of lawyer I wanted to be,” he says. “I hope to create a similar space for law students, where they can witness the opportunities and limits of the legal system while finding their place within it. As an attorney, I aim to represent youth holistically, not just arguing for their legal positions, but also amplifying their voices and helping tell their stories.”
Raman, who’s watched the Clinical Program expand significantly during her tenure, says it’s been satisfying to see the group discuss values and move toward democratizing internal decision-making as its numbers and reach increase.
“We’re continuing to grow, and I’m thrilled that our program will be able to offer students a wider array of opportunities and to support more individual and organizational clients and partners,” she says. “We also have many new opportunities and challenges on the horizon — the rise of AI in legal practice, the increasing emotional toll of lawyering, and more — and I’m excited to see the creative ways in which we work together and with students to tackle these changes.”