thought I’d stay there. But my scholarship led to me to spend more and more time here, and I eventually moved to NYU in 2011. And as I took on different administrative roles, I found them very challenging and rewarding.
You’ve described your new post as “the opportunity of a lifetime.” Can you elaborate on that?
There are many good law schools, and Boalt is one of the best. But what’s distinctive about Boalt is its culture. It’s got hustle and drive and innovative people willing to experiment and try new things, which seems very much rooted in Berkeley’s identity as a public university. There’s a sense of mission—that Boalt and the university are here for a purpose. The state created us for a reason and we have to deliver on that. That’s a huge part of what attracted me to the school. It has a unique combination of equality of opportunity and uncompromising academic excellence at one of the world’s great research universities.
You seem to have great appreciation for California as well as UC Berkeley.
California has this entrepreneurial, striving, innovative quality that is very inspiring. It’s the most diverse state in the nation, and there’s no other place like it. California is large, outward-looking, and sees itself as part of the broader world. For someone with my background, that’s an immensely attractive place to work and raise our kids.
You’ve said you have a deep understanding of the issues facing public law schools like Boalt. Talk a little about that.
I’ve spent almost my entire life in public universities, and I’ve been engaged with their special mission and responsibility for most of my career. My father taught at the University of Toronto, Canada’s leading and largest public university. I grew up on campus and attended public universities. I spent my first 12 years as an academic at the University of Toronto, and served in roles that let me be a key participant in discussions about the challenges facing many public law schools. I served on the Academic Board, the equivalent to Berkeley’s Academic Senate. I was an associate dean, and served on committees that defined the law school’s institutional strategy. Many of the same challenges Boalt has wrestled with also took center stage during my time at Toronto.
What did you take away from those experiences?
That it takes imagination, generosity, and creativity to provide education of an incredibly high quality that’s also based on equality of opportunity. Top public law schools, over the last decade in particular, have had to confront a resource issue. In the face of frozen or declining levels of public support, clearly an issue in Berkeley recently, the question is how do we remain true to our public mission while developing a different economic model? This is one of most challenging issues to face higher education in the last 20 years, 22
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especially because public universities are publicly accountable. Discussions about what this model will look like have to involve alumni, the state, and the broader public.
Opportunity and Diversity Legal education is facing new pressures to evolve—to be more affordable, more engaged with the world at large. How will the law school of the near future look different than what we see today?
The job market for our graduates is much more volatile than ever. The new normal is that there is no normal. Our students will enter careers where they’ll be constantly reinventing themselves. They’ll move within practice environments, within or across public and private sectors. They’ll work not just inside law, but outside law. So how do law schools prepare students for this new reality? Our curriculum must be up to date but not chase after fads. A curriculum strictly driven by the perceived needs of today will have no lasting value. There’s a way to equip students for a life of ongoing change in their careers while also emphasizing fundamentals they can adapt for different practice areas.
How should that manifest in the classroom and beyond?
I have a colleague at NYU who teaches Information Law. That type of course didn’t exist when I was in law school, but she has 100 students in a class that’s an amalgam of IP, contracts, privacy, and other areas. Boalt has many similar courses. We can’t anticipate the future, but to prepare students for that reality of constant change we need a cutting-edge curriculum that prepares students for lifelong learning. Law schools must also do more than just excel in the classroom. There’s so much more that goes into being a successful lawyer, like networking, and we have a duty to our students to develop those skills while they’re in our building. That’s especially vital at Boalt, where many students are the first in their families to have attended college or graduate school.
How does this connect to Boalt’s public mission?
We won’t succeed in our public mission unless we have diverse classes and admissions fundamentally based on merit, and unless those students can come here irrespective of background. I think alumni have to be key partners here. I see Boalt as an intergenerational community, and alumni are as much a part of that community as students. We have to collectively take responsibility for mentoring our students and ensuring their success. And we have to be absolutely uncompromising in the quality of education we provide. Employers are highly demanding, and we’ll continue to keep a razor-like gaze on quality.
What is Boalt’s biggest challenge?
To ensure that we have sufficient resources to meet our twin