With growing attacks on the rule of law worldwide and here in the United States, lawyers and judges have never been more important. Law schools have a vital role to play, including working to protect our constitutional democracy. Your support of UC Berkeley Law — its remarkable students, exceptional faculty, and vital programs — is essential to all of our efforts.
This Giving Impact Report highlights just some of the many ways your contributions enable us to train future leaders, produce outstanding scholarship, deliver needed legal assistance in underserved communities, and provide access to students from all financial backgrounds.
I cannot thank you enough for your generosity, which is paramount to sustaining our excellence amid notable budget challenges. With only about 6% of our revenue coming from the state, the importance of philanthropic engagement from alumni and friends — and the impact it makes — cannot be stressed enough.
Your giving helps our students, empowers our faculty, fuels our clinics, buoys our research centers, drives our pro bono work, and so much more. Thank you for partnering with us as we strive to uphold our mission and protect the rule of law. Your support means everything.
With enormous gratitude, Erwin Chemerinsky
Dean and Jesse
H.
Choper Distinguished Professor of Law
“As an immigrant whose family’s American journey began when my father came to Berkeley as a graduate student, I’m deeply grateful for the role the university has played across generations — from my own education at Berkeley Law to my son’s degrees in engineering. I give annually to support today’s law students, who face much higher tuition due to the steep decline in government funding since I graduated.ˮ
Rashmi
Garde J.D. ’95, Chief Legal Officer, Informatica
From left: Students DeShawn Carter, J.D. '27, Malia Rahsan Thornton, J.D. '27, Ali Rafie, J.D. '27
$63,196
Academic-year 2024-2025 tuition for J.D. candidates (CA residents). With fees, books, health insurance, and estimated living expenses, the full cost of attendance for J.D. candidates is $106,880
$160,414
Average total debt load for Class of 2025 graduates
$30,284,806
School’s investment in student support: scholarships, loan repayment assistance, and summer public interest fellowships in fiscal year 2025
From left: Class of 2027 Public Interest Scholars Meghan Riddlespurger, Ben Regas, and Andrew Boardman.
Meghan Riddlespurger J.D. '27
Finding the Right Home
Without philanthropic support, students like housing justice advocate Meghan Riddlespurger J.D. ’27 could not afford to attend UC Berkeley Law. Riddlespurger figured her belief that everyone should have access to safe and affordable housing was more logical than radical. But as a city planner in the Dallas area, she often witnessed “heated opposition and exclusionary zoning practices.ˮ
After initiating major policy reforms, Riddlespurger moved to the Bay Area (San Carlos) in 2020 but saw “similar ideals drive land use decisions there even more.ˮ She became a State of California housing analyst, applied to law school, and faced daunting financial hurdles — until learning about UC Berkeley Law’s Public Interest Scholars Program.
Launched in 2021, the program provides a full three-year scholarship for J.D. students dedicated to public interest work. About 10 recipients selected each year also attend networking events, gain job search resources, and get funding to attend conferences, plan events, or join bar associations.
“The program is critical for me to attend Berkeley Law, and fellow scholars across all the cohorts quickly became a support system,ˮ says Riddlespurger, who co-leads the school’s Reproductive Justice Project — and remains committed to fair housing.
“Without access to housing in places that offer safety, services, jobs, and community, those offerings only reach a lucky few,ˮ she says. “I’m pursuing a law degree because I view these rights as gravely at stake.ˮ
FACULTY
by
Photo
Brittany Hosea-Small
Fueling Excellence for Decades
The question isn’t what Professor Daniel Farber does at UC Berkeley Law, but rather what doesn’t he do? With myriad courses under his teaching belt and expertise spanning constitutional law, environmental policy, administrative law, and torts, Farber won the school's Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award this year.
Contributing to the law school helps recruit and retain faculty like Farber. He recalls thinking that while some other top law schools he had offers from “felt kind of stuffy and set in their ways,ˮ Berkeley felt more accessible, collegial, and engaging: “It’s a decision I’ve never questioned for a moment.ˮ
Farber is the Sho Sato Professor of Law and longtime faculty director of the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, now among the largest of UC Berkeley Law’s 29 research centers and institutes, and a catalyst behind it becoming a leader in providing vital research that guides policy reform.
The author of over 20 books and 200 law review articles, Farber is also faculty director of the school’s Edley Center on Law & Democracy, created last year to defend and strengthen democratic institutions in the United States through actionable research and public leadership.
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says his career reflects “a deep belief in the power of law to promote justice and sound governanceˮ and that Farber “has left an indelible mark on the legal academy through his scholarship, his teaching, and his public service.ˮ
CLINICS
Our Clinical Program is a core curricular offering that gives students the opportunity to learn through practice while making an impact — both near and far — with clients and on issues in the East Bay, across the country, and around the world while supervised and mentored by faculty experts. Throughout a wide range of practice areas, from human rights and immigration to criminal justice policy and environmental law, clinics expand access to legal representation and give the next generation of lawyers the tools to advance social justice and serve the public interest.
216 Students participated in clinics last school year
3,500+
Hours of collective student clinic work each week (16-22 per student)
60 Clinical professors
15 Clinics
In-House Clinics
Death Penalty Clinic
Environmental Law Clinic
Global Rights Innovation Lab Clinic (launched in spring 2025)
Human Rights Clinic
Policy Advocacy Clinic
Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic
Social Enterprise Clinic (launched in fall 2025)
Photo by Darius Riley
Giving Students Valuable Training
Last year over 200 students participated in UC Berkeley Law’s 15 clinics. Here are just three examples of their meaningful impact:
In the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic, students contributed to a report documenting the harmful effects of algorithmic wage discrimination on gig workers and the disproportionate effect on low-income workers and workers of color.
Policy Advocacy Clinic students launched new work representing clients seeking to repeal monetary sanctions in the adult criminal system — supporting broad legislative and policy efforts to end the regressive and racially discriminatory impacts of criminal system fees in several states across the country.
For years, Human Rights Clinic students helped litigate a case in partnership with Alliance San Diego at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights after the killing of Anastasio Hernández Rojas by U.S. border agents. This past year the Commission issued a historic ruling finding that agents tortured Rojas, used excessive force while he was restrained, discriminated against him, and then blocked a proper investigation.
Alliance San Diego Executive Director Andrea Guerrero ’99 says the clinic deftly used international human rights mechanisms to challenge the nation’s largest law enforcement agency and win a landmark decision that “will reverberate for generations to comeˮ — and that the clinic’s work “is already illuminating the path for other advocates.ˮ
From left: Design strategist Ariel Sim with Global Rights Innovation Lab Clinic students Mirella Piestun LL.M ‘25 and 3L Laurel E. McGrane.
CENTERS
AtUCBerkeley Law,researchis partofourDNA. The school hosts 29 research centers and initiatives where faculty and researchers seek solutions to wideranging challenges, from developing sound corporate governance strategies to combating climate change to safeguarding intellectual property in the global economy. Unrestricted gifts to the Berkeley Law Fund enable the school to support our centers, many of which also receive direct support from donors.
•Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice
•Berkeley Center for Law & Business
•Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
•Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory
•Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law
•Berkeley Judicial Institute
•Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy & Public Finance
•California Constitution Center
•Center for Indigenous Law & Justice
•Center for Law, Energy & the Environment
•Center for Law & Work
•Center on Race, Sexuality & Culture
•Center on Reproductive Rights & Justice
•Center for the Study of Law & Society
•Civil Justice Research Initiative
•Criminal Law & Justice Center
•Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law & Israel Studies
•Christopher Edley Jr. Center on Law & Democracy
•Election Administration Research Center
•Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice
•Human Rights Center
•Institute for Legal Research
•Kadish Center for Morality, Law & Public Affairs
•Korea Law Center
•Law, Economics & Politics Center
•Honorable G. William & Ariadna
Miller Institute for Global Challenges & the Law
•Public Law & Policy Program
•Robbins Collection & Research Center
•Statewide Database
Angeli Patel J.D. ’20, Executive Director, Berkeley Center for Law and Business
Taking Care of Business
The Berkeley Center for Law and Business pursues solutions to problems within corporate governance, sustainability, financial fraud, venture capital, and other key policy areas. Philanthropic support helps sustain its vital role in making UC Berkeley Law home to one of the nation's top-ranked business law programs.
Driving the center's work is a conviction that law students are not merely future legal advisors, but corporate leaders capable of steering companies, nonprofits, and government agencies with an ethical, strategic, and innovation-forward approach. Students learn from industry leaders, assist startups, build vital negotiation skills, and more.
The center helps companies account for stakeholders and the environment through its Business in Society Institute, addresses gender equity and diversity issues through its Women in Business Law Initiative, and dissects global business law issues through its webinar series The Buzz. Its Executive Education platform also offers legal practitioners, investors, executives, and nonprofit leaders valuable professional development training programs.
Executive Director Angeli Patel ’20 says the complexity and interconnectedness of today’s global challenges require a concerted effort from all sectors of society to address them.
“A focused business community can make a real difference,ˮ she says.
“The Berkeley Center for Law and Business is committed to providing direction and dialogue to leverage the power of business to create a more sustainable and equitable world.ˮ
Thank you to our Alumni Workplace Challenge Volunteers!
UC Berkeley Law’s annual workplace giving program owes its success to the 73 Alumni Workplace Challenge captains — at 51 law firms and companies — who ran a successful 2025 campaign that yielded over $760,000 from 430 donors.
We are delighted to recognize the organizations that placed at the top of their mod in the fiscal year 2025 campaign as well as the captains who led the charge.
Mod A | 41+ alumni
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP: Ken King ’87, Lydia Austin ’22 & Ian Kelly ’22
Volunteers are one of UC Berkeley Law’s great assets. Their reach is far and wide, from student recruitment to alumni networking events around the globe. Thanks to all of our graduates and friends who devoted time and energy to UC Berkeley Law during this last year.
• Admitted students recruitment
• Advisory boards for many of the law school’s research centers
From left: Students Ali Rafie, J.D. '27, DeShawn Carter, J.D. '27 Malia Rahsan Thornton, J.D. '27, Mollie Parkinson, J.D. '27, Jazmin Gudino Mendoza, J.D. '27, and Dawson Eli Wilcox, J.D. '27
HowPhilanthropyPowersOurPublicMission
With state funding at a historic low, capped tuition, and a smaller endowment than our peers, our traditional revenue streams are constrained. Philanthropy is the one area we can expand to meet rising needs and uphold our public mission. We are deeply grateful for the vital support of our donors, which makes our continued excellence possible.
Fiscal Year 2025: July 1, 2024 - June 30, 2025
1,889 Alumni & friends donor households ($4.1M)
13.5% J.D. alumni participation rate
$4M Amount contributed to endowment funds
The law school spends the majority of its budget on financial aid, instruction & clinics
