By Andrew Cohen
Professor Amanda Tyler was thrilled—though hardly surprised—to see Berkeley Law’s strong presence among newly elected members of the American Law Institute (ALI).
“It’s indicative of the impact this law school is having on the legal profession and in particular how we see Berkeley Law graduates as leaders throughout the profession,” says Tyler, who joins five alumni among the 34 selections. “It’s yet another reason why I feel tremendously privileged to teach here.”
ALI was created 95 years ago to help clarify and simplify the law and how it’s administrated. The institute does this by publishing Restatements of the Law, Model Codes, and Principles of Law that carry powerful influence in courts, legislatures, legal scholarship, and legal education.
Participants include prominent judges, lawyers, and professors who contribute to law’s development in existing and emerging areas.
There are now 26 Berkeley Law faculty members in ALI. Joining Tyler among the new inductions are the following alumni:
- Mario Barnes ’95, dean at the University of Washington School of Law and a renowned scholar for his research on the legal and social implications of race and gender;
- Maxine Burkett ’02, law professor at the University of Hawaii, global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and an expert in ocean and climate change law;
- Steven Mayer ’74, senior counsel of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer, constitutional litigation authority, and past president of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers;
- Christopher Schroeder ’74, professor of law and public policy studies at Duke University School of Law and former assistant attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy;
- Neil Siegel ’01, professor of law and political science at Duke University School of Law and director of the school’s DC Summer Institute on Law and Policy.
“ALI’s work has been and will continue to be hugely influential on how the law develops over time,” Tyler says. “It’s a tremendous honor to be elected and to join several exceptional colleagues and a number of Berkeley Law’s most prominent alumni.”
Tyler focuses her research and teaching on the Supreme Court, federal courts, constitutional law, civil procedure, and statutory interpretation. Her latest book, Habeas Corpus in Wartime: From the Tower of London to Guantanamo Bay, was the subject of a California Law Review symposium in April. A former clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and associate at Sidley & Austin, she is also a past chair of the American Association of Law Schools’ Federal Courts Section.