Taught by Berkeley Center for Law & Technology Executive Director Wayne Stacy — a former Big Law litigator and U.S. Patent Office leader — AI and the Practice of Law: Public Interest & Private Practice broadens legal skills without lowering the threshold for human judgment and input.

“This is the fundamental question: How are you going to do higher quality legal work with AI than you’re going to do by yourself?” Stacy asks. “It’s not just being faster and cheaper. The jump in the quality of work, in the creativity for your client, is the difference. That’s what I want my students to learn.”

Like any good patent lawyer, Stacy started teaching himself the technology and saw that the law is full of complexities an AI model might miss. He realized that while such models are continuously improving, the platforms set up for lawyers to use them will change the legal industry. Once someone understands the right way to use those platforms, future innovations are built in.

“We needed a class to show what the foundations of an AI-based legal platform are and how you use it,” he says.

To develop the three-credit course, open to 2L and 3L students, Stacy talked to over 20 Big Law lawyers about how their firms use AI, what’s working, and what’s causing problems. He also worked closely with Berkeley Law Librarian Kristie Chamorro, who has been studying these tools for years and assists with the course.

After learning what the law firms were struggling with, Stacy started digging into why. Decoding the issues, he found optimal schemes to train his students.

Stacy settled on Anthropic’s Claude for the course because it’s transparent and easy to understand, but the class is designed to be “platform agnostic” — likening the skill-switching abilities to that of an iPhone user picking up an Android phone.

“We’re teaching something that’s way ahead of what firms are doing,” he says. “I can tell students, ‘The law firm you go to may not have this yet, but you’ll know how to handle it when they catch up.’”

Noting that critical literacy around AI is now part of being practice-ready, Chamorro says students must “develop an understanding of what these tools can do, where they fall short, and how to participate confidently in conversations about their use.”

The course’s 11 assignments teach versatile skills, starting with basic prompting and ascending to tools that use Claude’s features in concert to do research, draft contracts, and reach toward creative client solutions.

The need for students to build a foundational understanding of the law before they start trying to enhance those skills with AI is why the course isn’t open to 1Ls. While Berkeley Law’s faculty recently adopted an AI policy that defaults to not allowing students to use it, instructors may allow elements as they see fit.

“AI can be a real add-on if you’ve got the right kind of work and you use it correctly,” Stacy says. “We’re trying to place lawyers into the top of the profession — to be change agents and real thought leaders. People don’t come here to be average, and that’s the best AI is going to get you to if you use it incorrectly.” — Gwyneth K. Shaw

• The school offers a Certificate of Specialization in AI Law and Regulation to LL.M. executive track students, the first at an American law school. Designed in consultation with an advisory group of industry leaders, the certificate curriculum builds core skills in data privacy, intellectual property, licensing, and risk.
• Librarian Kristie Chamorro gave three “Gen AI & Law Practice” workshops over the summer. Leading participants through real-world case studies and examples, they examined Gen AI tools and why it’s vital for lawyers to understand them, how they’re used in legal practice, ethical considerations, and potential risks.

At Berkeley Law, growing student interest in them intersects with burgeoning possibilities.

“Labor and employment law at Berkeley is really special due to its scope and accessibility,” says Katie Chin ’26, recent co-editor-in-chief of the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law. “There are lots of opportunities to take classes on specialized topics and do research on specific areas of interest in collaboration with the Center for Law and Work (CLAW).”

Chin points to Professors and center Co-Faculty Directors Catherine Fisk ’86, Diana S. Reddy Ph.D. ’23, and Catherine Albiston ’93, Ph.D. ’01, and Executive Director Christina Chung as leading voices in the field and welcoming beacons for students. Other faculty experts include Professor David B. Oppenheimer, Professor Christopher Tomlins, and numerous lecturers with leadership experience as practitioners.

Last semester, Fisk and Reddy co-taught a new Work Law Colloquium class where each week students read a paper about a contemporary labor and employment law issue, then were visited by the author to discuss it. Chin calls the course “a really exciting curriculum development” that lets students “be part of broader conversations in the work law space.”

Launched in 2020, CLAW quickly emerged as a hub for timely cross-disciplinary scholarship, student engagement, and community involvement to address vital issues faced by vulnerable working populations. The center develops and proposes law and reforms focused on workers with jobs that do not pay enough for food, housing, and other basic necessities — often exacerbated by wage violations, poor labor protections, and a lack of access to government programs meant to support workers in times of need.

Last spring, the journal’s 50th anniversary symposium focused on immigrant workers, highlighted the school’s expanding employment law opportunities, and urged centering worker needs and partnering with other advocacy groups.

Lamenting the recent “massive loss of career staff at federal labor agencies,” one panelist urged the law students in attendance to help fill that void.

“We’ve got to get the next generation of fighters up here,” she said. “We need activist attorneys to get out here and fight these fights. We’ve got to have people who are brave, dedicated, and willing to stand up and stand out.”

For recent Co-Editor-in-Chief Henry Van Bemmel ’26, working at the journal immersed him in pathbreaking scholarship, forged meaningful relationships, and cemented his interest in employment law.

“It’s where I feel like I found my community,” he says. “In fields like this, it can often feel like you’re constantly fighting losing battles. Being in community helps us all stay positive.” — Andrew Cohen

• Envisioning and shaping model laws and policies in California for low-wage and immigrant workers by framing their rights and working to deter wage and hour abuses, establish corporate responsibility for labor law violations, and provide government labor agencies with powerful enforcement tools.
• Raising workers’ voices and the low-wage work floor by exploring and assessing promising models, such as worker cooperatives and wage boards, that promote worker agency and participation in improving labor standards. It also identifies and analyzes opportunities to empower workers in the face of regressive policies and efforts that threaten to erode their rights.

Iman Eslami ’26 says the experience “deepened my understanding of our system of government” and showed “how many different avenues there are to influence policy and institutional change.”

A collaborative externship program for law students from Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and UC Law San Francisco, UCDC combines a full-time field work placement with a weekly seminar. This gives students an immersive opportunity to understand how federal statutes, regulations, and policies are made, interpreted, and applied.

Gaining exposure to all three branches of the federal government, independent regulatory agencies, and advocacy nonprofits, the students also learn in the seminar from guest lecturers with firsthand experience in Congress, executive branch agencies, the courts, and nonprofits.

“The students come to D.C. with some idea of what government or public interest work looks like,” program Director Nicole Lehtman says. “But then they sit in a seminar with a former White House counsel or solicitor general, or work on projects that directly shape public policy, and their full understanding of what is possible in a legal career expands. They gain a real appreciation for public service and for what it means to be a public servant.”

Participants also attend Supreme Court arguments, networking programs, social events, and trivia nights — building strong relationships and a foothold in the UCDC alumni cohort.

Eslami externed for Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — at the center of many cases that raise nationally significant questions of public law, administrative law, and separation of powers.

Pursuing environmental law, Hannah Tadros ’26 externed for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division — and saw how UCDC students are quickly given substantive work.

“I attended client meetings and even wrote sections of a filed brief,” she says. “The willingness to include me and answer my many questions allowed me to learn so much.”

3L Michael John externed with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, calling it “a masterclass in frontline advocacy.” Reporting to Antonio Ingram II ’14, John helped file a federal suit against the University of Alabama regarding its suspension of two student-led publications, alleging that it amounted to viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.

For Lehtman, the students’ enthusiasm and acumen provide hope. “Our government needs mission-driven, talented lawyers, and this program gives students a real taste of what building a career here could look like,” she says. “When they leave with not just experience but genuine excitement about the possibilities in D.C., that’s incredibly rewarding.” — Andrew Cohen

“I can’t speak highly enough of the program,” Atasoy says. “I was lucky enough to join the Department of Justice through the Attorney General’s Honors Program in 2024 with advice from the mentors I gained through the program, and last year I attended a UCDC friend’s wedding. The program was critical to my development as a lawyer and provided friends I’m still in touch with.”

Since graduating, 49 Class of 2025 members have obtained federal and state court clerkships — over 17% of the class according to the school’s Career Development Office (CDO), which supports clerkship applicants before and after graduation. During this past term, 88 alums served as term clerks or permanent staff attorneys for state or federal courts in 22 states and Washington, D.C.

The state court numbers are a point of pride for Assistant Dean of Career Development Eric Stern, who has consistently promoted state-level positions to students interested in clerking.

“We have seen how impactful these state court clerkship experiences have been in providing our graduates with public service opportunities with incredible members of the bench while also helping them accelerate their career goals,” he says.

Stern and recent Director of Judicial Clerkships Anna Han helped create a two-pronged pipeline: Judges, including alumni, who’ve hired Berkeley Law graduates come back for more, and students who see their predecessors thrive in state clerkships are inspired to apply themselves.

In Alaska, where 34 alums have clerked in state courts since the 2020 term, alums Daniel Winfree ’81 and Walter “Bud” Carpeneti ’70 made a practice of hiring Berkeley Law grads while on the state supreme court, and it’s accelerated in recent years. Current Justice Jennifer Henderson has hired seven alums over the last four terms and visited the school in April for an event to demystify the clerkship process.

A similar path exists in Hawaiʻi, where Chief Justice Vladimir Devens ’87 and Intermediate Court of Appeals Judge Keith Hiraoka ’83 sit. Three 2026 grads are clerking for them and Devens will participate in Berkeley Law’s Judges-in-Residence Program this fall.

Devens calls the school’s clerks “exceptional — intelligent, inquisitive, hardworking, and well-rounded, with a keen appreciation for how our work impacts the lives of everyday people.”

State supreme courts hear wide-ranging cases, exposing clerks to many areas of law and a high volume of cases. “That experience will be very marketable in their future job searches,” Han says.

Clerking at the California Supreme Court, Alice Choi ’26 encounters how the state’s courts have handled issues around juvenile justice, capital punishment, bail, and the new Racial Justice Act.

Lia Foster ’26, who grew up in Hawaiʻi, is clerking at the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court — gaining a unique look at what her community cares about most and getting to serve it “in a profound way that will impact both my grandparents and grandkids.”

Stern and Han credit alumni for major contributions to help students get interested in and apply for clerkships, part of the CDO’s broader effort to help them build fulfilling careers.

“So many of our students want to serve their communities, and clerkships are a vital public service,” Han says. “In these roles, they help to decide what justice means for a significant number of people.” — Gwyneth K. Shaw

• In addition to offering intensive research and writing practice, exposing students to a spectrum of types of advocacy, and often opening up a lifetime mentoring relationship, state court clerkships are more numerous than federal clerkships, increasing the odds of success.
• As the U.S. Supreme Court shifts authority to state legislatures and judiciaries, state supreme courts offer a unique chance to work at a court of last resort. For example, the Missouri Supreme Court recently struck down a law that would have made it more difficult for advocacy groups to engage in voter registration drives.

They quickly bonded while pursuing law school and both enrolled at Berkeley Law, where they saw ample outlets for housing work on the tenant and environmental side — but a galvanizing gap in production-side advocacy.

“We created Housers at Berkeley to build an intersectional perspective with all the law students who are passionate about tenants’ rights, economic and environmental justice, and consumer protection,” Grimes says.

Housers works to forge community for Berkeley Law’s housing advocates and broaden its connections with outside partners; amplify litigation and policy strategies that connect housing access with other key rights; and fuel housing creation through timely information sessions on regulatory issues, proposed statutory reforms, promising impact litigation, and ballot measures.

Meanwhile, the California Housing Initiative — a new Student-Initiated Legal Services Project within Berkeley Law’s Pro Bono Program — works with the California Housing Defense Fund to expand access to more affordable housing statewide. It launched as a pilot program last year run by 2L Manasa Kumarappan.

“In the Bay Area, where the consequences of housing scarcity are especially stark, many law students will likely go on to practice here, become increasingly invested as community members, and eventually play a role in shaping the region’s housing policy,” Riddlespurger says.

To maximize impact, group leaders have aligned with several campus partners, including the College of Environmental Design, Goldman School of Public Policy, Haas School of Business, and Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

Grimes recalls the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis dramatically changing her neighborhood over just a few months, and she endured “an extremely stressful stretch of housing insecurity in college, which really crystallized my interest in housing.”

She has helped public law and urban planning scholar Moira O’Neill produce a massive, first-of-its-kind audit of San Francisco’s housing entitlement practices, worked at various housing policy nonprofits, and helped the Oakland City Attorney’s Office develop internal guidance for SB 79. Enacted last year, the bill seeks to increase housing density near major transit stops throughout California by requiring cities and counties to allow mid-rise, multi-family housing as a permitted use.

Helping cities figure out how best to implement SB 79, the California Housing Initiative sent an enforcement letter to the San Jose City Council highlighting sites where SB 79’s upzoning requirements must continue. Students scoured statutory text, read background reports about the new law, and virtually attended San Jose planning and city commission meetings.

“By contributing to pro-housing zoning reform, our work can one day result in new homes for Californians who otherwise would not have been able to live there,” says Kumarappan, who worked for an affordable housing investment firm in Austin, Texas, before law school.

Noting that “where you live determines how you live — your access to good schools, safe streets, economic opportunity, and healthcare,” she says that “housing is less a single right than a gateway to all others.” — Andrew Cohen

• During its first year, Housers at Berkeley’s educational and social programming included a panel discussing the link between housing and climate change, an event on innovations in modular and prefabricated housing, and a gathering where attorneys across sectors spoke with students about careers in housing and land-use law.
• Berkeley Law Professor Eric Biber, whose expertise includes land use, property, environmental, natural resources, and energy law, serves as the faculty adviser for Housers at Berkeley and was a panelist at the group’s first event.