January 14, 2021
Dear Berkeley Law alumni,
Happy New Year! I wish each of you and your loved ones all the best for a happy, healthy (!) new year.
Since my last quarterly message, we have completed a semester of entirely remote instruction. I know that this has been a difficult time for everyone and that many in our community have suffered great hardships. We all feel the frustration of being apart and of the prolonged restrictions imposed by COVID-19, and some have had to deal with serious illness and the severe economic consequences of the pandemic. Yet despite all of the obstacles, we continued to provide excellent instruction, produce outstanding scholarship, and engage in prodigious pro bono work to benefit our community. This is the result of the extraordinary efforts of our students, our staff, our administrators, our faculty, and our alumni. We did this in the face of the biggest public health crisis of our lifetimes, not to mention a long overdue racial reckoning, terrifying wildfires, and a polarizing election. No words can express my gratitude and admiration for all in our community who made it possible for us to succeed in these difficult circumstances.
There is much to report. To begin with good news:
Congratulations to our graduates of 2020 who passed the bar exam! We do not yet have overall statistics, but every indication is that Berkeley Law graduates passed in record-high numbers. There is so much for this class to be proud of, especially their having completed their degrees in the midst of the pandemic and enduring the chaos of this year’s bar examination process. The Alumni Office is hosting a virtual California Bar Swearing-In-Ceremony on January 27 at 4 pm. Graduates can register for this event here.
Public interest fellowships: Every year, as part of what is an extended and arduous job search process, our committed public interest/public sector students and graduates put a tremendous amount of work into applying for independently funded project-based fellowships. One of the most prestigious programs, the Skadden Fellowship, recently announced its awardees and I am so very pleased to let you know that a record number of our students and graduates were among them.
This year, five members of the Berkeley Law community were among 29 exceptional recent graduates from law schools across the country who received Skadden Fellowships. These fellowships fund two years of public interest work. Only three law schools had multiple awardees, and only one of them, Harvard (with nine), garnered more than Berkeley. You can read about our fellows and their projects on the Berkeley Law News webpage.
As the spring semester unfolds, we are expecting more good news on the fellowship front as other programs make their decisions. I have such admiration for our 3Ls and graduates for putting in all of the hard work required to succeed in these competitive programs. And, enormous thanks to the Career Development Office staff who work with the students to assist them in receiving these very competitive fellowships.
Faculty excellence: Our faculty continue to be extraordinarily prolific, with many having recently completed new books and countless law review articles. Our Faculty Scholarship Brochure gives you a description of these recent publications.
Even more important, my colleagues are terrific teachers. I just read all of the student evaluations from the fall semester and they are stellar, with students overall expressing great admiration for how the faculty have adapted their teaching to a new form of instruction.
Racial Justice at Berkeley Law website: I want to bring to your attention a new Racial Justice “hub” page on the Berkeley Law website: law.berkeley.edu/racial-justice. The page can also be accessed through a prominent link on the law school’s website’s primary navigation menu.
The goal of this page is to bring together and raise visibility for the many efforts being undertaken throughout the law school. You will find videos from recent talks and dozens of links to work by students, affinity group sites, recent event spotlights, upcoming events, fellowships, faculty and curricular highlights, faculty scholarship and writings, featured stories, media coverage, ideas for getting involved with centers, clinics, and pro bono, a look at some of our trailblazing faculty and alumni, and resources at UC Berkeley beyond the law school.
The intent here is not to imply that Berkeley Law is a perfect place or that what we are doing is enough. As I say in my statement on the website, “We must confront and recognize the long history of racism in the United States, which permeates the law and legal institutions,” and I conclude with “there is so much more to do, and that must be our goal in the months and years ahead.”
This page, by design, is a work in progress, and will be updated on a regular basis as the work continues. My enormous thanks to Alex Shapiro, our director of communications, for his terrific work on this.
Clinics and centers: The Law School’s outstanding clinics and centers continue to do superb work. The Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, the Center for Law Energy & the Environment (CLEE), and the Human Rights Center recently issued major reports.
California has enacted ambitious climate goals, including a statewide carbon neutrality target by 2045. CLEE convened a group of state energy and environmental regulators, carbon removal project experts and developers, and advocates to discuss state priorities for engineered carbon removal deployment and the policy needs to advance those priorities. You can read CLEE’s report here: Capturing Opportunity.
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Now, the more difficult news:
Campus and law school finances: It is a very tough year financially for the campus and the Law School. Chancellor Carol Christ has announced the campus has a $240 million deficit because of COVID-19. In December, the campus announced a pay cut for all faculty and staff (it is in the form of a mandatory furlough for staff). Additionally, the campus has significantly further cut its funding to the Law School. At the same time, the Law School has lost almost $10 million in revenue because of the dramatic decrease in international students. We are thus running a sizable deficit this year.
My commitment is to get through this difficult time without in any way compromising our educational program and without laying off any staff. But I will be candid, this is, by far, the most daunting financial challenge the Law School and the campus have faced.
Now, more than ever, we need help from our alumni. Your financial support will make an enormous difference. If you are in a position to help, please make a gift here today.
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We continue to see ever-growing alumni engagement. Our virtual enrichment programs are well attended, and many alumni have stepped up since the start of the school year to welcome our new students and prepare our 2Ls for the Winter Interview Program. I am very grateful for your service to the Law School. Your participation makes our community all the better.
Alumni admissions recruiters: We are now back to that point in the calendar when we need alumni to help us with J.D. student recruitment so that we continue to enroll the most qualified and diverse class of 1Ls. Graduates interested in volunteering for this effort should contact Erin Dineen, Director of Alumni Engagement, at edineen@law.berkeley.edu.
Alumni Events: Numerous enrichment programs will be offered over the next few months. Please check the alumni calendar of events here: Alumni Events.
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I would be remiss if I did not comment on events in Washington, DC.
In recent days and weeks, we have seen an unprecedented challenge to the rule of law, but we also witnessed its triumph. I, like many Americans, watched with shock and horror as the United States Capitol was attacked by a violent mob apparently intent on intimidating members of Congress. I was deeply disturbed that this was incited by the President of the United States, and at no point did he condemn the violence. It is the sad culmination of two months of an assault on the democratic process unlike any in American history.
But ultimately, the rule of law triumphed. A presidential election was held in the midst of a pandemic, with record voter turnout and no identifiable fraud or foreign interference. Election officials, both Republican and Democrat, impartially and accurately counted the votes, even in the face of enormous political pressure to alter the results. Judges – state and federal, Republican and Democrat – rejected spurious challenges based on the lack of evidence of fraud and the absence of any viable legal claim. Senators and Representatives in Congress – Republican and Democrat – accepted the results of the Electoral College, following the process prescribed by the Constitution and federal law.
The guardrails of democracy held. It happened because courageous men and women – including especially lawyers and judges – stood up to efforts at intimidation and followed the law.
Many flaws in our electoral system were exposed and need to be addressed. We all saw that democracy is fragile and cannot be taken for granted. But to me, above all, these events demonstrate why the law and what we do as lawyers and as a law school matter so much.
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Despite the challenges ahead for all of us, I remain optimistic. The inauguration of a new administration in Washington presents an opportunity for reflection and renewal. 2020 ended with the approval of COVID-19 vaccines and the promise that the plague will soon be over. I realize, of course, that it will take time to manufacture and distribute the vaccines and that we face another semester online.
Now, more than ever, we must continue to come together as a community and help one another. We will continue to support all the members of our community, mindful that some are suffering more than others. We will continue to offer virtual programs that present opportunities to learn and to expand our perspectives. We will get through our shared challenges together, and I am confident we will be even stronger and better for having dealt with these adversities as a community.
I thank you for all of the kindness you have shown me during this difficult year. I feel so incredibly fortunate to be a part of this very special community that is Berkeley Law.
Warm regards,
Erwin
