After 26 years leading critical work at the Human Rights Clinic (formerly the International Human Rights Law Clinic), Professor Laurel Fletcher is leaving — and staying — to start a new Berkeley Law enterprise, the Global Rights Innovation Lab Clinic.
Specifically designed for 1Ls, the clinic will launch in January and operate at the crossroads of human rights and digital technology, creating data-driven tools to support legal advocacy, policy, and social change at home and abroad.
As a supervising attorney, Fletcher spearheaded the Human Rights Clinic’s first case in 1998 in support of children of Haitian descent who were denied fundamental rights of nationality and citizenship in the Dominican Republic, then rose to director. She departs after serving as co-director with former student Roxanna Altholz ’99.
The new clinic will delve further into using digital technology to defend human rights activists worldwide.
“Human rights defenders struggle in an increasingly hostile legal and political environment, stigmatized by governments as threats to national security. At risk of arrest or worse, activists are in a reactive posture. I want to help activists use new tools to generate popular support for human rights values and causes. The movement has to advance justice and protect advocates,” Fletcher says. “If we don’t have human rights activists, we don’t have a human rights movement.”
Colleagues praise her dedication to the clinic, human rights, and her students.
“It was obvious Laurel was a star and she proved me right every day,” says Clinical Professor of Law Emerita and clinic founder Patty Blum. “She’ll bring her innovation and creativity to the table while bringing out the best in students and working seamlessly with partners.”
Altholz agrees: “Under Laurel’s stewardship, the clinic wasn’t just a place of learning; it became a place of transformation. She shaped minds, nurtured talents, and inspired hundreds of students — including myself — to believe in the power of justice and the importance of human rights. I know she’ll continue to make a difference for our students and the human rights defenders the new clinic supports.”
Clinic alums still reference her approach to defending human rights and value her mentorship.
“It was eye-opening to see the kind of rigor, razor-sharp analysis, and thoughtfulness that one could bring to legal advocacy. To this day, I benefit from having worked with Laurel’s supervision,” says Elise Keppler ’01, who leads the Global Justice Center after 20 years at Human Rights Watch.
Mary Dahdouh Ghandour ’18, now with the International Refugee Assistance Project, calls Fletcher “a transformative mentor” and says “the way she taught was very accessible for those of us who were first-gen and new to law.”
As for protecting human rights, Fletcher is far from finished.
“I want to see how we can reinvent the human rights report to reach new audiences. What are ways we can use data visualization, artificial intelligence, and digital storytelling?” she says. “I’ve worked on how technologies have been weaponized against activists. But there’s a tremendous opportunity for human rights groups to harness these technologies in ways that protect human rights. That’s the kind of experiment and innovation I’m trying to move into and Berkeley is the natural place for that.” — Sarah Weld