Graphics and Textures by Jordi Ferrándiz
Painting a
New Picture of
Leadership
he phrase “Leaders in the Law” evokes some well-grooved images. A gray-haired managing partner in his tailored suit, arms crossed. A star litigator holding court before a rapt jury. A glib sports agent smiling at the press conference for a client’s lucrative NFL contract.
But in crafting its ambitious new leadership program, Berkeley Law wants to paint a much different picture — one that recognizes how leadership skills permeate all sectors and all levels of legal work. Third-year law firm attorneys frequently oversee a first-year associate, paralegal, and secretary on cases. Young nonprofit lawyers are often asked to enlist support from outside organizations. Judicial clerks regularly take the reins on drafting opinions.
“We designed this program to ensure that our students aren’t just effective lawyers, but effective leaders,” says Adam Sterling ’13, the school’s assistant dean for executive education. “Berkeley Law graduates should be capable of guiding teams, making strategic decisions, and driving organizational growth. Moreover, they must be able to tackle societal issues with innovative solutions.”
Sterling worked closely with Berkeley Law senior administrators and outside practitioners to develop the initiative’s core components. They include a leadership academy with an inaugural cohort of 11 students selected from the incoming 1L class (see “First Class”), a leadership certificate available to all students, a growing slate of relevant courses, and a new Certificate of Specialization in AI Law and Regulation for LL.M. students.
Establishing a leadership program has long been a priority for Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who asked Sterling to oversee its launch in September 2023. The head of Berkeley Law’s prolific executive education program and former executive director of the school’s Berkeley Center for Law and Business, Sterling is steering toward two objectives.
The first, he explains, is to empower students and alumni who are interested in leadership opportunities that go beyond traditional legal roles. The second is to provide all students with the leadership training needed to become successful attorneys — regardless of where they start or finish their careers.
“This program will support our existing leadership offerings, including work from our research centers, clinics, practicums, executive education, field placements, Pro Bono Program, journals, and student groups,” Chemerinsky said. “I’m very excited about it and how it will enhance the learning experience for our students.
“I long have believed that law schools need to do a better job of training the next generation of leaders. This new initiative will help Berkeley Law students develop the skills to become effective leaders in every area of law, and it will provide a model for other law schools as well.”
Curriculum push
Students identify public or private sector challenges with a nexus to the law, interview key stakeholders connected to the given challenge, and work in teams to develop real-world solutions. Each class includes a mix of lectures and exercises related to leadership as well as opportunities to work on group projects.
In the spring semester, lecturer Rebecca Portnoy will teach Leading People. A required course at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, it leverages behavioral and social science to provide a framework for leadership and management. Portnoy currently teaches the Haas course and will adapt it for law students.
Also in the spring semester, The Business of the Legal Profession will be taught by Orrick Chair and CEO Mitch Zuklie ’96 and former HP Chief Legal Officer Harvey Anderson. The course will illuminate the fundamentals, disruptors, tools, and attributes needed to become a high-impact professional.
“With more than 60 years of combined experience, Mitch and I want to augment traditional ‘legal’ learning with some of the skills common among the most successful practitioners that derive from behavioral rather than legal mechanics,” Anderson says. “In short, ‘how to not think like a lawyer.’”
By expanding course offerings focused on various aspects of leadership needed across the legal profession, Berkeley Law seeks to cultivate skills that give graduates a beneficial advantage early in their wide-ranging professions.
“Our alums so often end up in leadership positions because they have the skills and the determination to seek out those roles, and people around them recognize those attributes,” says Professor Jonathan D. Glater, the associate dean of J.D. curriculum and teaching. “With this program explicitly focused on preparing students for such opportunities in and adjacent to law, they will be even better prepared to seize them.”
Leadership academy
With around 10 first-year students each year, chosen in collaboration with the admissions department, the academy will provide scholarship support, special programming, coaching, and mentorship. Last June, the inaugural cohort had a memorable kickoff Zoom meeting with Sterling and Texas Congressman Colin Allred — a 2014 Berkeley Law graduate and former NFL player now running for the U.S. Senate.
Allred described how pivotal Berkeley Law was in his career arc, the importance of meaningful relationships he built there, and how leadership skills are vital throughout all aspects of one’s professional path.
Reflecting the wide-ranging interests of the school’s overall student body, the first academy cohort includes an accomplished documentary filmmaker, a counter-disinformation startup researcher, a nonprofit program manager who helped build micro-libraries in prisons across the U.S., and the founder of a mentorship program for young women in technology.
Many cohort members cite Berkeley Law’s leadership within legal education and across the legal marketplace as a major draw for applying and enrolling.
“I chose Berkeley Law because I want my perspective as a future legal professional to be shaped by a forward-thinking and innovative academic environment,” says Lauren Weiss. “I’m thrilled to pursue opportunities that complement my entrepreneurial background and studies, and I’m excited to join a community of like-minded peers equally passionate about leveraging technology and innovation to address complex legal challenges.”
Academy members also point to the school’s public mission and concerted effort to develop leaders from all backgrounds — across all areas of legal work — as incentives to choose Berkeley Law.
“I found the culture of collaboration and commitment to public service deeply compatible with what I want from a law education,” says Peter Clune. “It’s an elite institution with a gravity of opportunity and access that doesn’t always pair with that sort of culture.”
From the Fields to the Federal Bench
After earning scholarships to UC Berkeley and then Berkeley Law, de Alba returned to California’s Central Valley. She represented low-wage and immigrant workers, persuaded her firm to expand its pro bono work, and became the first Latina partner in its 63-year history.
Named a Fresno County Superior Court judge in 2018, de Alba reached the federal bench in 2022 as the Eastern District of California’s first Latina judge. Last year, she joined the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
At a professional lunch event early in her career, uncertain of the table setting protocol, de Alba took another person’s bread and felt humiliated by her mistake and the woman’s curt reaction. A decade later, she returned to the same event — as its keynote speaker.
Here, de Alba shares her views on leadership in the law:
Not surprisingly, they also share access — to information, to spaces not always available to everyone, to educational opportunities, and to themselves and others as mentors.
Stepping into a leadership role happens quite early in the practice of law. Whether you work in private practice, for the government, or in the public interest, you’re often tasked with supervising paralegals, secretaries, community outreach coordinators, or more junior associates. They all look to you for guidance, and the way you interact with them will directly impact their futures.
As a young lawyer, I gained faith in my skills and instincts from senior partners who gave me constructive feedback, supported my ideas, and engaged in open dialogue. They also helped me understand a new world and navigate its, at times, treacherous waters.
My parents didn’t go past elementary school. Their employment was field and cannery work, along with some house-cleaning gigs. Luckily, my firm had senior partners who saw my “ganas” (desire) to succeed and opened space for me to grow. I had a child, became an equity shareholder, and started a pro bono and plaintiff-side employment practice.
When I left to become a judge, I wanted to pay it forward.
As a judge on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the impact a federal clerkship can have on a young attorney’s career isn’t lost on me. And as a first-generation professional Latina with poor immigrant parents, I know how hard it can be to succeed in these spaces. So my approach to hiring law clerks is a bit unconventional as I don’t limit my pool to top law schools or students who graduated atop their law school class.
Once they’re hired, I keep an open-door policy and expect the clerks to interact with everyone in chambers daily. This builds confidence in their abilities, improves their communication skills, and fosters a good working environment.
They also help me host local school field trips to the courthouse. Being in California’s Central Valley lets me connect with people who may not otherwise interact with the legal system — and may not think about it as a possible career.
Most of the kids and I share similar traits, and I enjoy telling my story, showing a photo of my childhood house, and reminding them that where they start in life doesn’t need to dictate where they end up. I get wonderful feedback from the schools, and many now make it an annual field trip.
By creating these kinds of opportunities for clerks and rural children, I hope to help pave the way for an entirely new generation of attorneys who will bring a different perspective to the practice of law.
Timely AI certificate
Those looking to pivot their career focus to artificial intelligence, or enhance their existing practice, will be able to learn from an industry-endorsed AI foundation focused on building core skills and knowledge in areas including data privacy, intellectual property (IP), licensing, and risk.
Regularly hailed for having the nation’s top IP program, Berkeley Law’s proximity to Silicon Valley helped fuel the new certificate offering as it helps bring in practitioners who are grappling in real time with legal issues introduced by AI and other emerging technologies.
“This is the first-ever law degree with a focus in artificial intelligence,” Sterling says. “Students will learn from faculty, practitioner-lecturers, and guest speakers on key topics such as AI ethics, the history and technology of AI, its public interest implications, and the worldwide efforts to regulate it, such as the 2024 EU AI Act.”
The certificate course list features Law and Governance of Artificial Intelligence, taught by Professor Colleen V. Chien ‘02 — one of the 20 most cited IP and cyberlaw scholars in the United States. One focus of her new class will be how AI is transforming the practice of law, and the opportunities AI and automation technologies offer to ameliorate or exacerbate existing inequalities in the practice of law, including the access to justice gap.
“All around us, we see how AI is being used to make crucial decisions in virtually every aspect of our lives,” Chien says. “We use it to determine who gets bail, who gets hired, who gets what medical treatments, and the list goes on. It’s important that our students become fluent with AI technologies not only to learn how law and policy are being developed around them, but also how they’re being applied, regulated, and governed to help mitigate AI’s harms and maximize its benefits.”
Other anticipated courses for the certificate include AI Ethics, AI Licensing, Pro-Innovation Risk Analysis for Lawyers, AI for the People, and Global Regulation of AI.
“This program will equip participants with in-depth knowledge of the ethical, regulatory, and policy challenges posed by AI,” Sterling says. “It will focus on building practice skills to help them strategically advise and capably represent leading law firms and AI companies.”
New initiatives
them to receive recognition for successful completion of a rigorous course of study and extracurricular activities around leadership.
In order to earn the certificate, students must take either Leadership Laboratory or Leading People and complete two other elective courses related to leadership or participate in a clinic, practicum, or field placement, and submit a memo summarizing their leadership journey.
Having developed several leadership-focused courses for practitioners through its executive education program, Berkeley Law is eager to ramp up its pragmatic offerings for students. While legal acumen is vital for professional growth, it’s not the only piece of the puzzle.
“Developing strong managerial and interpersonal skills is an important part of succeeding in the practice of law, and not just later in one’s career,” Chemerinsky says.
To propel its new initiative, Berkeley Law aims to raise $1 million over five years for a student leadership support fund that spurs curriculum development and programming. The funding will also support scholarships for students who express interest in and demonstrate capacity for transformational leadership.
“Over the past century, many of the most important and impactful political, social, and business leaders have been lawyers, and that continues today in government, foreign affairs, philanthropy, corporations, and law firms,” says American Airlines Chief Strategy Officer Stephen Johnson ‘83, who donated to the campaign. “However, that has mostly been fortuitous with brilliant lawyers stepping into the breach and deftly addressing society’s most challenging problems.
“Adam’s initiative seeks to make that process considerably more deliberate by selecting young lawyers who want to serve society, helping them recognize, foster, and develop their leadership acumen skills, and jump-starting their careers as our next generation’s lawyer leaders.”