Spotlights

Textbook Fundamentals

Fundamentals of U.S. Law is a new textbook by Appellate Program Director and Lecturer in Residence William Fernholz ’93 and LL.M. Legal Writing Director and Legal Writing Professor Jodi Collova. Capping a decade of teaching the introductory substantive course for Berkeley Law LL.M. students, the book explains the common law method of case analysis through […]

Social Justice Trailblazer

Seema Patel ’06 was named the Trailblazer/Alumni Honoree at the Dale Minami Berkeley Law Alumni Fellowship Event in San Francisco Feb. 25. The clinical director of the school’s East Bay Community Law Center, Patel is the first recipient of South Asian descent in the event’s 15-year history. She has made continued contributions to public interest and […]

Consumer Law Callout

Professor Jonathan Glater conceived, gathered, and on Feb. 17 submitted expert briefing papers by 15 renowned consumer law professors to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Distilled into a set of memoranda available here, the papers identify emerging issues in the field, areas for more research, and policy solutions. Many also ask the Bureau to assess […]

The Peak Peek at Privacy

Our Berkeley Center for Law & Technology’s 10th annual Privacy Law Forum has become the field’s seminal event. Over 800 privacy law specialists have already registered for this year’s virtual conference on Feb. 24. Berkeley Law faculty will share their latest research and analysis, and top experts from law firms, companies, and government agencies will […]

Inspirational Presence

Osha Neumann, who has helped train scores of Berkeley Law students at the school’s East Bay Community Law Center, is retiring. A fierce advocate for decriminalizing poverty, he led the center’s Homelessness Practice for 18 years and many of its legal victories. He is also a talented artist who has painted several murals in Berkeley. […]

Getting Back on Track

A new report from our Center on Law, Energy & the Environment assesses California’s push to improve its public rail transit capacity and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Probing five state case studies, the report examines the root causes of project cost overruns and delays that reduce the value of transit investment and erode public trust, […]

Up to the Federal Bench

Trina Thompson ’86 has been nominated to a U.S. District Court judgeship in the Northern District of California. The first African-American woman elected to the Alameda County Superior Court, in 2002, she was the presiding judge of the county’s juvenile court. A former public defender who later ran her own criminal defense practice, she is […]

Fueling Debt-Free Justice

Our Policy Advocacy Clinic was awarded a three-year, $3 million grant from the Ballmer Group to expand its national Debt-Free Justice campaign (with the Juvenile Law Center and the National Center for Youth Law) to abolish fees and fines imposed on juvenile legal system youth and their families. The clinic’s research, which helped end such […]

A Berkeley Law Treasure

Stephen Sugarman, a beloved professor at Berkeley Law since 1972, died Dec. 26 after a four-year battle with kidney cancer. A prolific scholar and influential figure in education, tort, and insurance law, he twice served as Berkeley Law’s associate dean and played a major role in litigating the case that equalized public education funding among […]

Vital Help at Vital Time

Alameda County’s largest free legal services provider, our East Bay Community Law Center served over 4,000 people last year. Its new annual report notes how the center helped 98% of housing clients not get evicted and 95% of Clean Slate Clinic clients clear their criminal record, had 78 people gain more safety via the Name and […]