CATEGORY - SCHOOL: BERKELEY / BOALT

March 2, 2010

Trivia Tuesday: Certificate Programs and Specialization at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and UC Berkeley School of Law

Welcome back to Trivia Tuesday, Clear Admit’s weekly peek into programs offered by leading J.D. programs in the U.S.  Today, we’re considering opportunities that 2Ls and 3Ls have at Penn Law School and Berkeley Law to earn a certificate in an area of specialization.

While the primary goal of legal education at these and all other leading law schools is to teach the analytical skills and foundational doctrinal disciplines necessary to be a competent lawyer in any practice area or industry, schools recognize that lawyers are called increasingly called upon to be knowledgeable about the issues and methodologies of their clients’ businesses.  To meet this need, many leading law schools have created opportunities for students to tailor their education to acquire depth and breadth of knowledge in a broad content area through the study of related law and non-law topics.  At Penn Law and Berkeley Law, these opportunities include certificate programs that reward students who take a unified program of study at the law school and least one other school housed at the home university.  The certificates are appended to students’ transcripts after all requirements have been completed.

Penn Law’s Certificates of Study generally require students to take between three and four courses outside the law school in a single subject area, along with another one or two related courses from Penn Law itself.  In addition, some Certificates require students to write a paper tying together the student’s cross-disciplinary study in the Certificate topic.  The most popular is the Certificate in Business and Public Policy, offered jointly with the Wharton School, which requires students to take three courses from Wharton’s MBA elective curriculum along with one Penn Law course that deals with a regulatory topic.  Other Certificates of Study include Environmental Science, Cross Sector Innovation, and Middle East and Islamic Studies.

At Berkeley Law, students interested in specializing are encouraged to follow one of six Curricular Programs, which are suggestions for courses, workshops and extracurricular activities offered within the law school and elsewhere at UC Berkeley in a well-defined practice or academic area.  Within the Curricular Programs structure, Berkeley Law offers only a couple of certificates – most of the Programs are suggested paths to take, and students are free to follow them to any extent they choose – and participation in them is competitive.  The certificates are in two areas for which Berkeley Law and UC Berkeley as a whole are particularly well known: Law and Technology, and Environmental Law.  Each requires students to take core courses at Berkeley Law and allows some flexibility to choose among several electives offered at the law school and with an associated UC Berkeley school, such as Haas School of Business (in the case of the Law and Technology Curricular Program) and the Goldman School of Public Policy (in the case of the Environmental Law concentration).  In addition, students are expected to fulfill a writing requirement, participate in relevant clinics and internships, as well as get involved with extracurricular activities on campus that are related to their certificate’s focus.  For example, students pursuing the Law and Technology certificate are required to work on a journal, such as the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, or participate in a student organization, such as Boalt.org, for at least two terms.

For more information about specialization programs offered by leading U.S. law schools, be sure to read the Clear Admit Law School Guides!

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# posted by admin @ 8:00 am in School: Berkeley / Boalt, School: University of Pennsylvania, Trivia Tuesday

February 22, 2010

Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice Has New Leader

David Onek, who founded the Barkeley Center for Criminal Justice (BCCJ) in 2006, is stepping down as executive director and will be replaced by current associate director Andrea Russi.  Prior to joining the BCCJ in 2006, Russi worked as an assistant attorney in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Criminal Division, taught at the USC Gould School of Law, and clerked for the Central District of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The BCCJ promotes collaboration among legal scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, with the mission to develop new criminal and juvenile justice law and policy approaches.  Berkeley students have the chance to attend BCCJ conferences and roundtable events, as well as work with the program, such as the summer intern position.  For the past two years Onek and Russi have worked on expanding the BCCJ’s partnerships with local communities and lawmakers as well as hosting a greater number of organized events.

Onek plans to continue at Berkeley to host a new joint venture of the BCCJ and the Berkeley School of Journalism, the Criminal Justice Conversations Podcast.  These podcasts will feature interviews with criminal justice leaders, including members of law enforcement, policymakers, advocates, service providers, and legal academics.  Onek will also remain as the San Francisco police commissioner, while simultaneously lecturing at the law school and serving as a senior fellow at the BCCJ.

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# posted by admin @ 12:00 pm in General, Law School News, School: Berkeley / Boalt

December 21, 2009

Berkeley Students Host Auction To Fund Fellowships

The annual Berkeley Law Foundation (BLF) auction was hosted earlier this month, with five hundred students, faculty, and local attorneys in attendance.  This yearly auction is aimed at raising funds for two Phoenix Fellowships, scholarships for exemplary students of color who are interested in Berkeley Law and a subsequent career in public interest.

The auction was organized and hosted by several students, including current Phoenix Fellows, and supported by donations from faculty, students, and local businesses.  The winners of these scholarships receive $9,000 for their first year of law school as well as funding for a summer internship in the public sector.

Both students and faculty are members of the BLF, which was founded in 1976 as the first national organization to fund summer internships in public interest for current Berkeley students.  The BLF also provides financial support for recent Berkeley graduates to start their own legal initiatives that promote diversity in the field.  Established projects began by Berkeley graduates and funded by the BLF include Center for Constitutional Rights, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, California Rural Legal Assistance, New Orleans Legal Assistance, and Homeless Action Center.

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# posted by admin @ 12:00 pm in Law School News, School: Berkeley / Boalt

November 17, 2009

Federal Law Allows Georgetown to Increase Loan Repayment Assistance for Public Interest Graduates

As outlined in a school press release last week, Georgetown University Law Center announced immediate reform of its Loan Assistance Repayment Program (LRAP) to ease the financial burden for graduates in public interest legal positions.

With tuition costs rising and economic conditions curtailing private law opportunities, Georgetown’s LRAP changes work in conjunction with the federal government’s newly-established Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.

Specifically, for graduates employed by government agencies or non-profits, these two programs allow those working for ten years and for incomes of up to $75,000 to borrow the total cost of tuition and subsequently have those loans forgiven.  For public interest graduates with salaries above $75,000, Georgetown’s LRAP benefits exist on a diminishing basis.

“Our new loan forgiveness program, together with the federal plan, will enable [our graduates] to pursue long-term careers in these [public interest] fields without becoming burdened by student loan repayment,” said Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff.

This is not the first story of its kind coming out of top-tier law schools: Earlier this admissions season in this space, we passed along a development from UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, as the administration there was similarly able to “piggyback” on federal loan modifications to offer enhanced loan repayment help to public interest graduates.  Boalt’s program now allows for up to ten years of unlimited assistance for alums making less than $65,000.

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# posted by admin @ 12:00 pm in Law School News, Public Interest Career Resources, School: Berkeley / Boalt, School: Georgetown

November 9, 2009

Berkeley’s Boalt Hall Hosts California Supreme Court

Last week, Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law became the first law school to host California Supreme Court hearings when the Court traveled to Berkeley for its ninth annual outreach session.  Boalt Hall students and faculty had the chance to observe hearings for five different cases regarding DNA evidence, medical marijuana, and sex offender laws.

Bill Fernholz, the director of appellate programs for Boalt Hall, stated that in coming to Berkeley, the Court aimed to educate the public on its role in the legal system and make the process more transparent.  Fernholz said that this visit also allowed students to see a court in action, an invaluable step in their legal educations.

Boalt Hall students also had a chance to directly interact with the Supreme Court justices.  Before the hearings began, the justices participated in a question and answer session with Berkeley students and faculty, providing insight into how the court functions.  Students will have a chance to further learn from the California State Court during the expected annual visit in the spring semester by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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# posted by admin @ 8:00 am in Law School News, School: Berkeley / Boalt

October 28, 2009

Admissions Tip: Off-Campus Recruiting and Information Sessions

For all those applicants who have recently opened a calendar to plot out the next few months only to realize they can’t possibly fit in campus visits on top of jobs, school, and personal statements, never fear!  It’s true that traveling to a school’s campus is an ideal way to learn about their law program, but visiting is often not a viable option for applicants who are located remotely or unsure of their level of interest in a given school.  The good news is that law schools might very well come to them.  Many law schools hit the road and embark on worldwide tours to dispense information and recruit qualified applicants.  Such events offer a great opportunity for interested students to meet with admissions staff (and sometimes with current students and/or alumni), learn about the program and ask specific questions.

Most of the top schools are already on the road and ready to wrap up in mid-November, so we recommend looking into the travel schedules for programs of interest and planning accordingly. Keeping in mind that these schedules are updated and amended throughout the fall, here are some of the top programs’ itineraries for the remaining weeks ahead:

Berkeley / Boalt:
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/199.htm

Boston College:
http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/meta-elements/pdf/recruiting_calendar_20093.pdf

Chicago:
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/events/admissions

Columbia:
http://www.law.columbia.edu/jd_Intro/visiting/ontheroad

Duke:
http://www.law.duke.edu/admis/travel/

George Washington University:
http://www.law.gwu.edu/Admissions/JD/Pages/Recruitment_Schedule.aspx

Harvard:
http://www.law.harvard.edu/prospective/jd/visit/recruiting.html

Michigan:
http://www.law.umich.edu/prospectivestudents/admissions/Pages/meetus.aspx

Minnesota:
http://www.law.umn.edu/prospective/recruiting.html

New York University:
http://www.law.nyu.edu/admissions/jdadmissions/visitingnyu/offcampusvisitsandlsacforums/index.htm

Notre Dame:
http://law.nd.edu/admissions-and-financial-aid/recruitment-schedule

UCLA:
http://www.law.ucla.edu/home/index.asp?page=887

University of Pennsylvania:
http://www.law.upenn.edu/prospective/recschedule.html

University of Washington:
http://www.law.washington.edu/Admissions/Recruit.aspx

USC / Gould:
http://lawweb.usc.edu/how/jd/recruitingSchedule.cfm

Vanderbilt:
http://law.vanderbilt.edu/prospective-students/admissions/campus-visit-calendar/index.aspx

Yale:
http://www.law.yale.edu/admissions/recruiting.htm

Need more law school information?  Make sure to check in with the Law Blog next week for further details.

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# posted by admin @ 8:00 am in Admissions Tip, Events, School: Berkeley / Boalt, School: Boston College, School: Chicago, School: Columbia, School: Duke, School: George Washington University, School: Harvard, School: Michigan, School: Minnesota, School: New York University, School: Notre Dame, School: UCLA, School: USC / Gould, School: University of Pennsylvania, School: University of Washington, School: Vanderbilt, School: Yale

October 12, 2009

Berkeley’s Law School Announces New Graduate Fellowship

Berkeley Law School has announced a new graduate fellowship for students in the Berkeley Empirical Legal Studies (BELS) program.  Funded by the Center for the Study of Law and Society (CSLS), 10 BELS students will become BELS Fellows each semester, starting in Spring 2010.  BELS is comprised of 12 multidisciplinary research centers led by faculty and student researchers from various doctoral, JD, and JSD programs at Berkeley.

BELS students who are at minimum in their third year will be given preference in fellowship selection.  Selected students will receive a research fund of up to $1,000 to pursue a project that uses theoretically-informed and empirical research to explore the foundations, changes, or impact of the law and legal institutions.  In addition, BELS Fellowship recipients will receive workspace, as well as the opportunity to discuss their ideas with other Fellows during monthly BELS Fellows Workshops led by CSLS Director Calvin Morrill.  BELS fellows will also have the opportunity to discuss their research with Berkeley Law faculty members and scholars visiting CSLS.

The Center for the Study of Law and Society at Berkeley was established in 1961 and aims to facilitate interdisciplinary discussion and research for legal scholars from around the world.  Interested students must apply by October 16, 2009 and will receive their decision from CSLS by November 30, 2009.

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# posted by admin @ 2:42 pm in Law School News, School: Berkeley / Boalt

September 7, 2009

Berkeley Improves Public Interest Loan Forgiveness Program

Buoyed by federal modifications, the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law announced Thursday that it will lessen the financial burden of alumni participating in the school’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP).

After passage of the College Cost Reduction and Access Act in July, LRAP was able to “piggyback” its program onto the government bill to provide assistance to more graduates at a lower cost.

Beginning in 2010, the reformed LRAP will offer up to ten years of unlimited assistance for Boalt alumni making less than $65,000 a year at non-profit public interest or government positions.  This assistance applies to law school debt and some undergraduate debt.  Currently, LRAP is capped at $100,000 of assistance and applies to alumni making less than $58,000.

In a press release Thursday, the School of Law’s Dean, Christopher Edley Jr., spoke highly of LRAP’s expanded resources.

“This latest improvement further enables our public-minded graduates to pursue their career passions unburdened by debt,” said Edley.  ”It’s imperative that we give them the financial freedom to help the disadvantaged and to contribute to the advancement of the broader community.”

LRAP’s expansion also provides participants with up to six months of support for family leave.  In addition to graduates toward the bottom of the pay scale, alumni making between $65,000 and $100,000 will continue to be eligible for proportional repayment.

While LRAP can be applied to a wide swath of positions, including public defenders, legislative staff and multi-year clerkships, Berkeley also added one-year clerkships to the list of jobs that qualify for repayment, provided that graduates work in qualifying employment for three years afterward.

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# posted by admin @ 7:59 am in Law School News, Public Interest Career Resources, School: Berkeley / Boalt

July 6, 2009

Recent Faculty Lateral Movement: Harvard and NYU

In the past few years, law schools have started devoting significant resources, such as endowed professorships, research center leadership positions and other perks, to wooing top faculty members away from their tenured posts at peer schools.  As a result, leading scholars who have been closely associated with one school for the bulk of their career are taking jobs at other schools more frequently than before.  Today we’ll take a look at some notable faculty shifts that will go into effect for the upcoming academic year.

The most widely discussed has been longtime Stanford scholar Lawrence Lessig’s decision to join Harvard Law School as the faculty director of the Edmund J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics.  Professor Lessig, who joined the Stanford faculty in 2000, is an expert in constitutional law and has become one of the world’s foremost cyberlaw scholars.  Jesse Fried, an expert in corporate law who taught at Boalt Hall since 2003 and served as co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy, is also slated to join the HLS permanent faculty in the fall.

At New York University School of Law, six established scholars will be joining the faculty.  Richard Epstein, who has taught at the University of Chicago Law School since 1972, joins the NYU faculty, though he intends to split his time between NYU and Chicago, teaching at the former during fall semesters and at the latter during the spring.  Another leading legal scholar who will soon join NYU’s faculty is Jose Alvarez, the Hamilton Fish Professor of International Law and Diplomacy and executive director of the Center on Global Legal Problems at Columbia Law School, who was a visiting professor at NYU most recently as Fall 2008.  Harvard’s Ryan Goodman, De Paul’s Katherine Strandburg, Georgetown’s John Stephens and Yeshiva Cardozo’s Barton Beebe have also joined NYU’s permanent faculty.

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# posted by admin @ 10:41 am in Law School News, School: Berkeley / Boalt, School: Chicago, School: Columbia, School: De Paul, School: Georgetown, School: Harvard, School: New York University, School: Stanford, School: Yeshiva Cardozo

July 2, 2009

College Cost Reduction & Access Act Now in Effect

In today’s economy, paying back students loans is on the forefront of many recent law school graduates’ minds. The graduating class of 2009 is certainly feeling the effects of the economic downturn. Many of the nation’s large law firms have either decided against hiring new attorneys or have asked their recent hires to defer their start date until fall 2010 or later. Gone are the days of several thousand-dollar signing bonuses. For many graduates, paying back students loans during these economics conditions may seem like an insurmountable task.

In an effort to not only aid recent graduates encumbered with debt, but also to promote public interest law careers, Congress has recently passed the College Cost Reduction & Access Act. The federal program, which went into effect yesterday, Wednesday, July 1, will help public interest lawyers structure their repayments and eventually receive debt forgiveness. The Act will benefit law students in two ways, as summarized in a recent article in The National Law Journal. The most notable aspect of the Act is the loan forgiveness granted to public interest lawyers. According to the program, graduates will make payments for 10 years on government-back student loans. After 10 years, the government will forgive the remaining balance for those qualified. This loan forgiveness program benefits not only public interest lawyers, but also teachers, law enforcement officers and certain health care professionals.

The second aspect of the Act is income-based repayment. Under this system, monthly loan payments are determined according to the borrower’s annual income. Although public interest lawyers are included under this repayment option, other attorneys and law professionals may also discover that they qualify. According to this element of the Act, borrows cannot be required to put more than 15% of their discretionary income towards annual loan payments. After 25 years, the remaining loan balance will be forgiven.

The enactment of the College Cost Reduction & Access Act will make it possible for more law students to pursue careers related to public interest following graduation. With law school debts often surpassing $100,000, many law graduates have been tempted in the past to immediately join firms willing to pay upwards of $120,000 for a first year’s salary. This act will not only encourage more people to pursue lower-paying public interest careers, but will also put at ease the minds of law graduates who have not been able to secure the high-paying firm jobs they presumed they would have immediately following their time at law school.

Although the enactment of this bill is certainly a momentous event, several law schools have already established similar loan repayment systems. Stanford, for instance, founded the Miles and Nancy Rubin Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) in 1987, making it the first law school to launch such a program. Like the College Cost Reduction & Access Act, the program aids graduates who pursue careers in either public interest or government service. Both Berkeley Boalt and Harvard Law Schools also offer similar loan repayment systems for their graduates. These programs, in conjunction with the new College Cost Reduction & Access Act, are helping to shape the decisions of today’s law school graduates. Under these systems, salaries will not necessary drive career decisions, and more individuals will find that they have the freedom to pursue public interest opportunities.

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# posted by admin @ 1:53 pm in Law School News, School: Berkeley / Boalt, School: Harvard, School: Stanford

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