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October 18, 2023
Dear Berkeley Law Alumni,
I write this quarterly message at a difficult time for many of our students, staff, faculty, and alumni. Many have loved ones and family in Israel and Gaza. I know we all wish for their safety and for peace. I sent the following message to the Berkeley Law Community on Tuesday, October 10, our first day of classes after the terrorist attack on Israel:
Dear Berkeley Law Community,
I have been horrified to watch the terrorist attack on Israel that has claimed so many lives and put so many in danger. I am heartbroken to see the carnage and to think of those taken as hostages. Many in our community have family, friends, and loved ones in the Middle East. I hope I speak for our entire community in wishing them safety and in hoping for peace. I express my deepest sympathy for those who have lost loved ones.
As dean, I, of course, am also concerned for what this will mean for our community. As I wrote last year, we obviously are not going to resolve the issues of the Middle East at Berkeley Law or on this campus. But what we can control is how we act and speak with one another. My plea is that we take care at this difficult time to treat each other with respect, kindness, and compassion. I hope as we choose to speak we keep in mind that some in our community have lost loved ones or feel great anxiety for their safety.
If you find it would be helpful to talk to someone, there are resources for students, staff, and faculty. Students can contact Linda Zaruba (call 510-326-1267) or a counselor at the Tang Center. Staff and faculty can find support through the Employee Assistance Program. I know that instructors will be supportive of students who are struggling in these difficult times. If you are a student who needs assistance, please reach out to Chelsea Yuan (cdyuan@berkeley.edu) as she can answer your questions about classroom accommodations.
With best wishes,
Erwin
We will continue to do all we can to provide support for members of our community.
I write these quarterly messages to update you on what is happening in the law school. Although this is my first letter of the school year, our students have been engaged in classes, clinics, pro bono work, journals, advocacy competitions, and myriad other activities for two months. My sense is that this is our first semester truly back from the pandemic. Every day, there are as many as a dozen events in the Law School and they are drawing overflow crowds. I often have remarked that Berkeley Law is the most intellectually exciting law school that I have seen and it definitely is so this year. Already this year, we have had talks at the Law School by luminaries such as California Attorney General Rob Bonta, Netflix Vice President of Legal Chia-Chi Li ’08, New York Times Deputy General Counsel David McCraw, California Labor Federation Chief Officer Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, International Criminal Court President Piotr Hofmański, U.S. Senator from Vermont Peter Welch ‘73, and Lord Justice Singh, British Court of Appeal judge and president of the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.
Our students are engaged in such important work. We have a student who is rewriting her tribe’s constitution, another who was recently appointed to the Berkeley Police Accountability Board, and others who helped our Environmental Law Clinic achieve a meaningful victory requiring stricter guidelines to control Bay Area air pollution. Our students are blazing trails for equitable energy solutions, helping Afghan refugees gain asylum, leading efforts to achieve greater accountability within corporate governance, and so much more. Learning from our world-class faculty, our students are a constant source of optimism amid the world’s growing challenges.
As I wrote in my last quarterly update, eight wonderful new faculty joined the Law School on July 1. Five were tenured professors at other law schools (Tel Aviv University, University of Chicago, Duke University, University of Michigan, and University of Toronto). Three are beginning their academic careers at Berkeley Law. All are superb and greatly enrich our law school.
And to learn more about what is happening here, the Fall 2023 issue of our biannual magazine, Transcript, has been mailed to alumni and friends and distributed internally. I invite you to read the digital version with accessible interactive features or the magazine PDF, and to share it with anyone you think may enjoy it outside the law school community.
Our Entering Students
Berkeley Law’s new first-year class is truly extraordinary. They arrived on campus with some impressive credentials: A 170 median LSAT score and a 3.87 median GPA, which is the best we have ever had. Our 340 new 1Ls come from 129 undergraduate schools, 42 states, and eight countries. It is an impressively diverse class: 62% are women, 57% are students of color, a quarter identify as LGBTQIA+, and 14% are the first in their family to get a college degree. Please read more about our new class and meet some of its remarkable members. And our 280 LL.M. students are equally impressive. They represent 49 countries, from Iceland to Taiwan, and bring a rich variety of experiences to the class: One served as a judge in Afghanistan before seeking asylum in the U.S. after the Taliban returned to power, for example, while another had two of their articles adapted for film.
Alumni Reunion
On September 22 & 23, we celebrated our amazing alumni community at Alumni Reunion. This year we honored graduates in reunion milestone years for classes ending with 3 or 8. The program included class dinners, engaging CLE programming, the Golden Circle Brunch, and an All-Alumni Celebration. I was delighted to speak with you and to hear about your experiences as law students and your lives since attending Berkeley Law. Thank you for being such an important part of our vibrant law school community! Please enjoy photos from the weekend.
California State Bar Swearing-In Ceremony
We will host our annual California State Bar Swearing-In Ceremony at the International House on Monday, December 11, at 4:30 pm. Registration information will be sent to all Class of 2023 graduates in the coming weeks, and will also be available on our alumni webpage in November.
Alumni Chapters
Berkeley Law’s regional alumni chapters continue to build community and create meaningful opportunities for connection and camaraderie. We have chapters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C., all of which organized a variety of activities for alumni this past summer. Their events included happy hours, trivia nights, hikes, picnics, webinars, and networking events. Look for more enjoyable events from these chapters in the coming months, and from our new alumni chapter regions of New York and Chicago.
Mourning an Enormous Loss
Professor Emerita Eleanor Swift, a pathbreaking Evidence scholar, trailblazer for women in legal academia, and beloved mentor, died Sept. 20. Berkeley Law’s fifth woman faculty member, she taught here for 35 years and served as associate dean under Herma Hill Kay, playing a vital role in the development of every aspect of the school’s clinical, skills, and legal writing programs. Her many honors included the school’s Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction, UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and Association of American Law Schools Evidence Section’s lifetime achievement award. You can read more about Eleanor’s amazing career and leave or read tributes on her In Memoriam page. We will announce details on a memorial service soon, and extend our deepest condolences to Professor Emeritus Bob Cole and their entire family.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me directly with any questions or suggestions at echemerinsky@law.berkeley.edu and 510-642-6483.
I wish you all the best at this difficult time.
Warmly,
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