David B. Oppenheimer is a Clinical Professor of Law.
He serves as the Faculty Co-Director of the Pro Bono Program, and the Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-discrimination Law. The center brings together over 800 scholars, activists, NGO workers, government anti-discrimination agency lawyers and officials, PhD candidates and other graduate students, and legal practitioners from six continents, to address the problems of systemic inequality and discrimination. Its principal mission is to expand our understanding of inequality and discrimination through the tools of comparative legal studies, and to transfer that knowledge from those who study inequality to those who enforce anti-discrimination law.
Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, Professor Oppenheimer clerked for California Chief Justice Rose Bird. He then worked as a staff attorney for the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, prosecuting discrimination cases, and was the founding director of the Berkeley Law Employment Discrimination Clinic. In addition to Berkeley Law, he has taught at the University of San Francisco, Golden Gate University (where he served as Associate Dean), the University of Paris (Sorbonne-Pantheon), the University of Bologna, LUMSA University Roma, and the Paris Institute of Political Science (“Sciences Po”).
Professor Oppenheimer has presented scholarly papers on discrimination law at many universities, including Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Duke, Oxford, the Paris Institute of Political Science, the University of Heidelberg, Humboldt University Berlin, the Sorbonne, the University of Stockholm, the University of Melbourne, Trinity College Dublin, the University of New South Wales, the University of Buenos Aires, and Hong Kong University, and at the annual meetings of the Association of American Law Schools, the American Political Science Association and the International Academy of Comparative Law. He has published articles on discrimination law in the Pennsylvania Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Columbia Journal of Human Rights Law, the Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, the Harvard Latinx Law Review, the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Droit et Cultures, and many others.
Professor Oppenheimer is the author of The Ubiquity of Positive Measures for Addressing Systemic Discrimination and Inequality: A Comparative Global Perspective (Brill 2019), a co-author of the casebook Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law (3d ed. Edward Elgar 2020), a co-editor of Comparative Perspectives on the Enforcement and Effectiveness of Antidiscrimination Law: Challenges and Innovative Tools (Springer 2018), and the co-author of several sets of teaching materials, including Patt v. Donner: A Simulated Casefile for Learning Civil Procedure (2d ed. Foundation Press 2019) and the trial advocacy case file Rowe v. Pacific Quad (6th ed. 2019 NITA). He was a contributor to MacKinnon and Siegel’s Directions in Sexual Harassment Law (Yale University Press 2003), Guiomard and Robin-Olivier’s Diversite et discriminations raciales: une perspective transatlantique (Dalloz 2009), and Friedman’s Employment Discrimination Stories (Foundation Press 2006). His co-authored book, Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society (with M. Brown, M. Carnoy, E. Currie, T. Duster, M. Schultz and D. Wellman) (University of California Press 2003) won the 2004 Benjamin L. Hooks outstanding book award.
He teaches Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law.
Education
B.A., University without Walls (Berkeley) (1972)
J.D., Harvard Law School (1978)
David B Oppenheimer is teaching the following courses in Fall 2024:
• 200F sec. 004 - Civil Procedure
• 264.53 sec. 001 - Comparative Equality 1
• 264.54 sec. 001 - Comparative Equality 2
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Spring 2025 | 241 sec. 002 | Evidence | Spring 2024 | 241 sec. 001 | Evidence | View Teaching Evaluation | 264.51 sec. 001 | Comparative Equality Practicum Seminar | View Teaching Evaluation | 264.52 sec. 001 | Comparative Equality Practicum | View Teaching Evaluation | Fall 2023 | 200F sec. 005 | Civil Procedure | 264.51 sec. 001 | Comparative Equality Practicum Seminar | View Teaching Evaluation | 264.52 sec. 001 | Comparative Equality Practicum | View Teaching Evaluation |
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The program has inspired and prepared nearly 800 East Bay public high school students from first-generation and marginalized backgrounds for higher education, fulfilling careers, community engagement, and leadership.
New Resentencing Practicum Among a Slate of Fascinating, Varied Fall Course Offerings
The lineup is “a remarkable mix of classes covering topics relevant to practice areas old and new,” Professor and Associate Dean for J.D. Curriculum and Teaching Jonathan D. Glater says.
Digging In: Alumni Experts Pursue Enduring Solutions for Gender-Related Mistreatment
Panelists from four continents discuss new developments and persistent challenges at an eye-opening conference presented by the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law.
Faculty, Students Help Bring U.S. Law Enforcement Killing to International Stage for First Time
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recently considered the 2010 fatal beating of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, thanks to years of work from the International Human Rights Law Clinic.
OpEd: Harvard president Abbott Lowell is laughing at us again
“Lowell claimed 1920s Jewish quota was intended to increase diversity by avoiding concentrations of Northeastern city dwellers,” writes David B. Oppenheimer, law professor at Berkeley Law and James N. Bierman, a former assistant dean of admissions at Harvard Law School and a lawyer in the District of Columbia. “As the Supreme Court plans to take up affirmative action, his policies are being cited in an effort to keep Black and Latino students out of Harvard.”
Former Tesla Worker Rejects $15 Million Payout
Professor David Oppenheimer, faculty director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law, says the lawsuit was the “largest verdict in an individual race discrimination in employment case.”
The Power of Pro Bono: A Berkeley Law Photo Essay
Students logged more than 28,000 collective pro bono hours last year, and about 95% of 1Ls have done pro bono work this year.
Tesla racism case award cut to $15 million from $137 million
Professor David Oppenheimer discusses the Tesla racial discrimination case and says the judge wrote a very careful opinion that will make it hard for Tesla to appeal
Activision, Monster Face Gender-Diversity Deadline as Court Weighs In
Professor David Oppenheimer, Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, comments on the Activision Blizzard Inc. and Monster Beverage Corp. case and says California courts will likely uphold the gender mandate since these laws have become commonplace in much of the world
Tesla Ordered to Pay $137 Million Over Racism in Rare Verdict
Professor David Oppenheimer, Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, says he believes the decision in Diaz v. Tesla case is the largest verdict in an individual race discrimination in employment case
Rare Tesla Bias Trial Caps Years of Racism Complaints at Plant
Professor David Oppenheimer, Director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, explains why racial-discrimination suits like the one Owen Diaz is bringing to trial against Tesla, usually don’t make it to trial
Can Affirmative Action Survive?
Professor David Oppenheimer discusses affirmative action and his work on the origins of the diversity justification for it
Will Rush Of Suits Opposing Race-Based Virus Aid Bear Fruit?
Professor David Oppenheimer, director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, says bigotry, unconscious bias and systemic racism have long manifested themselves in the relationships minority farmers have with banks, seed companies and equipment wholesalers
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Fifteen books published in 2019 and 2020 were highlighted at a recent event, including work by Ian Haney López, Franklin Zimring, and Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.
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Monitoring #MeToo: Unique Event Tracks Sexual Harassment Worldwide
At a recent Berkeley Law conference, managers, lawyers, scholars, and HR professionals discuss the movement’s global progress and challenges.
Renowned Judge Thelton Henderson ’62 Returns to Berkeley to Work with Students
After 37 years on the federal bench, Henderson takes on a new role as a distinguished visitor.
A Real Eye-opening Experience
While educators by trade, the faculty who serve on Berkeley Law’s Admissions Committee spend a lot of time learning.