Jeffrey Selbin co-directs the Policy Advocacy Clinic, which he founded in 2012 as an interdisciplinary clinic for law and public policy students to represent organization engaged in community-led racial and economic justice campaigns.
Selbin is active in local and national clinical legal education, anti-poverty, and criminal justice reform efforts. At Berkeley, he served as co-faculty director of the Henderson Center for Social Justice and faculty director of the East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), Berkeley’s community-based clinic. Selbin founded EBCLC’s HIV/AIDS Law Project as a Skadden Fellow and served as EBCLC’s Executive Director.
Nationally, Selbin has served as an elected member of the Clinical Law Review Editorial Board and two terms as an elected member of the board of directors of the Clinical Legal Education Association. He chaired the Poverty Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) and was a founding board member of the Fines and Fees Justice Center. Selbin was a visiting clinical professor at Yale Law School and a visiting scholar at NYU School of Law.
Selbin’s scholarship uses empirical tools to explore the theory and practice of clinical education and anti-poverty lawyering. In 2018, Selbin received the Society of American Law Teachers Great Teacher Award and the U.C. Berkeley Chancellor’s Award for Community Engaged Teaching. He has been recognized multiple times as a Northern California Super Lawyer; was named a Wasserstein Fellow by Harvard Law School for distinguished public interest lawyers; and was selected as a Bellow Scholar by the AALS Clinical Section for his anti-poverty and access-to-justice efforts.
Education
B.A., University of Michigan (1983, high distinction and high honors)
C.E.P., L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques (1986, mention assez bien)
J.D., Harvard University (1989, cum laude)
Jeffrey Selbin is teaching the following courses in Fall 2025:
• 290A sec. 001 - Policy Advocacy Clinic Seminar
• 295.5P sec. 001 - Policy Advocacy Clinic
• 295.5X sec. 001 - Advanced Policy Advocacy Clinic
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Spring 2025 | 290C sec. 001 | Policy Advocacy Clinic Seminar for 1Ls | View Teaching Evaluation | 295.5K sec. 001 | Policy Advocacy Clinic for 1Ls | View Teaching Evaluation | 295.5X sec. 001 | Advanced Policy Advocacy Clinic | View Teaching Evaluation | Fall 2024 | 290A sec. 001 | Policy Advocacy Clinic Seminar | View Teaching Evaluation |
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‘It Feels Empowering’: On the Road to Academia, Ph.D. Student Rachel Wallace Takes on Systemic Injustice
The former Policy Advocacy Clinic student and supervisor is continuing to make an impact while enrolled in the Jurisprudence & Social Policy Program and will start law school in 2026.
Truly Transformative: Center for Youth Development through Law Marks 25 Years of Changing Lives
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.
Professors, community members weigh in on Supreme Court homelessness ruling
Professor Jeffrey Selbin weighs in on the Supreme Court ruling on City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson
More sweeps, less housing are the consequences of a disastrous SCOTUS decision
“The Supreme Court just ripped away the biggest incentive that cities had to build more shelters and supportive housing for the homeless,” write Berkeley Law Professor Jeffrey Selbin and Jamie Suki Chang, associate professor of Social Welfare at UC Berkeley.
Supreme Court has ‘greenlighted the criminalization of homelessness,’ Berkeley experts say
Professor Jeffrey Selbin and Laura Riley, director of the Clinical Program at Berkeley Law, comment on the Grants Pass decision.
Commentary: Whatever the Supreme Court decides, California can’t keep criminalizing homelessness
Professor Jeffrey Selbin writes a commentary piece about the U.S. Supreme Court agreeing to hear a case that determines how and when cities can clear homeless camps.
With homelessness case, SCOTUS could make broader changes to ‘cruel and unusual’ standard
“While the Supreme Court could decide to upend more than half a decade of its own Eighth Amendment jurisprudence in deciding this case, it doesn’t need to touch earlier cases in order to strike down the lower-court holdings at issue here that extend constitutional protections to homeless people on the basis of their status,” Professor Jeffrey Selbin told the Chronicle.
Supreme Court will hear case about homeless encampments, with huge implications for California
Professor Jeffrey Selbin said the existing cases neither fully tie cities’ hands, as some politicians say, nor provide a broad right to sleep outside, as some advocates say. He defended the status quo in which cities sometimes must seek guidance from federal judges to know whether their local rules are constitutional under the Boise decision.
OpEd: San Francisco’s homeless sweeps are unlawful — and the city will pay for it
“Affordable housing, not handcuffs, is the only humane, effective and lawful solution to homelessness,” writes Jeffrey Selbin the Chancellor’s Clinical Professor of Law and co-director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic at the UC Berkeley School of Law.
California Will Soon Have the Nation’s Most Expansive Record-Clearing Law
Jeff Selbin, the director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic at the U.C. Berkeley School of Law discusses California’s new law that will automatically seal most criminal records for those who complete their sentences.
Stephanie Campos-Bui ’14 Wins UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Award for Community-Engaged Teaching
Deputy director of Berkeley Law’s Policy Advocacy Clinic, Campos-Bui is honored for her impactful work on the effects of criminal legal system fees and fines.
Justice Education Project’s New Book Explains the Basics on U.S. Criminal Justice
Former Policy Advocacy Clinic teaching fellow Ahmed Lavalais discusses the clinic’s campaign to eliminate debt imposed on youth and families by the juvenile justice system
‘Terrific Teachers, Superb Scholars, and Wonderful Colleagues’: Six Professors Awarded Faculty Chairs
Professors Katerina Linos, Steven Davidoff Solomon, Abbye Atkinson, Elisabeth Semel, Laurel E. Fletcher, and Jeffrey Selbin are honored for their contributions to scholarship and legal education.
Clinic’s Winning Playbook for Abolishing Harmful Juvenile Fees Gains Momentum Nationwide
Berkeley Law’s Policy Advocacy Clinic leads the way in abolishing harmful juvenile fees nationwide, with five states eliminating fees this year alone.
Idaho Supreme Court issues ‘significant’ ruling for those who can’t afford court fees
Professor Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, says an unanimous Idaho Supreme Court decision on court fees sends a clear message that courts should not be in the business of making money off the poor
She Tried to Steal $15 Pants as a Teen. The Fines Devastated Her Family.
Professor Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, explains the damage juvenile fines and fees do to families and says families can be responsible for fees from the probation department, the state court system, and even “child support” if their child ends up in the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority
Oregon lawmakers discuss elimination of juvenile court fees
Data published by the Policy Advocacy Clinic showing the high cost of collecting juvenile fees is cited as Oregon considers a bill to end juvenile fines and fees
Change-Making at the Capitol: Governor Signs Seven Bills Driven by Berkeley Law Clinics and Centers
Governor Newsom signs a whopping seven bills that focus on protecting residents’ civil, financial, and environmental rights — all driven by Berkeley Law clinics and centers.
Trapped
Professor Jeffrey Selbin, director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, discusses the impact juvenile fees have on families and communities
Op-Ed: Moratorium on Juvenile Court Fees and Fines Can Ease Family Burdens During COVID-19
Professor Jeffrey Selbin, Director of the Policy Advocacy Clinic, with Jessica Feierman, explains why now is the time to impose an immediate moratorium on all juvenile fees and fines