Advancement

William Hoffman ’69 made his first donation to Berkeley Law in the spring of 1970, while stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Having served in the Reserve Officers Training Corps as a UC Berkeley undergraduate, he was granted an educational delay from service in Vietnam to attend law school and then called to active duty right after passing the California Bar Exam.

“I realized that I’d had a world class education at the finest public institution on the face of the Earth, and I had no debt whatsoever,” Hoffman says.

Times have changed, but the Berkeley Law experience remains, he says. So year after year, he gives.

“It was incumbent on me to return the favor by supporting UC Berkeley for all it had done for me,” Hoffman says. “I owe everything I am to Cal, and I intend to give as much as I can, as long as I am able — and, after I’m gone, through my estate.”

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, recently appointed to a second five-year term, has made fundraising and stepping up outreach to alumni key priorities since he arrived in 2017. The school raised just under $31 million last fiscal year, a record, with a significant increase in new donors.

The reality is that tuition, and a small amount from the state, don’t begin to cover the school’s costs, Chemerinsky explains.

“Everything we do — training the next generation of lawyers, producing excellent scholarship, fulfilling our public mission, being a top law school — depends on the support of our alumni,” he says. “Every dollar matters enormously and I am tremendously grateful to those who support our wonderful law school.”

It’s not just older alumni who make giving to Berkeley Law an annual tradition.

“Whatever your Berkeley education cost, the value of what you got out is greater than what you invested. And it’s something that has benefited you for your entire life,” he says. “Therefore, Berkeley Law should be a primary source of your own philanthropy, so that others can have the same benefits you have had.”

— Gwyneth K. Shaw

The Henderson Center trains students to become effective, lifelong social justice advocates by connecting them to professors, lawyers, activists, and others to unravel issues of law, power, equity, subordination, and privilege.

“A gift like the Bells’ allows us to deepen and widen our reach — to more students, and in more ways, for years to come,” says Executive Director Savala Nolan ’11.

A leading voice on environmental issues and a public policy expert at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Ruth previously directed the World Resources Institute’s U.S. Climate Policy Objective.

“Much of my work challenges conventional wisdom in the climate policy and governance world,” Ruth says. “CLEE and the Henderson Center are Berkeley Law’s vehicles for addressing those issues and training a new generation, so supporting them makes perfect sense.”

Joseph, who spent his 2L year at Berkeley Law, is pro bono senior counsel at Hogan Lovells and co-chairs the Natural Resources Governance Institute advisory board. For years, he and Ruth hosted Berkeley Law’s annual reception for admitted students from the Washington, D.C. area — and saw the school competing for top applicants who needed financial aid against peer schools with larger endowments.

“Although its resources are limited and Berkeley grads are only beginning to recognize their philanthropic need to step up and support the school, the law school has increased its diversity and the related financial commitment,” Joseph says. “We admired and wanted to be part of that.”

— Andrew Cohen

Richard Sherman ’74 always credited Berkeley Law as a driving force behind his successful career as a litigator and, later, an executive who made quite an impact on friends and clients.

“My father’s legacy is broad, and the law school connection was profound,” says his daughter, Carol Zaist ’99.

He was particularly touched by the Richard M. Sherman Distinguished Professorship of Law endowed chair in 2005, a gift for his 50th birthday and held ever since by Professor Pamela Samuelson. Sherman, who died in July, made one last bequest after decades of financial largesse: another generous gift for the chair.

Zaist says many of Sherman’s closest friends were fellow alumni, and his gratitude toward the school sparked decades of supporting it — in ways that went far beyond donations. Sherman diligently recruited alumni to Irell & Manella, which he joined shortly after passing the bar exam, and delighted in helping bright students apply to law school and to UC Berkeley.

He stayed with Irell & Manella for decades, rising to managing partner of its Newport Beach office and a stint on its executive committee. Sherman was also executive vice president and general counsel of The William Lyon Company and its related companies for five years, as well as general counsel and senior vice president of AirCal, a regional airline acquired by American Airlines.

Zaist says the chair is the perfect legacy of his dedication to Berkeley Law.

“He loved meeting the people that the professorship brought into our lives,” she says, noting Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, many in the Southern California legal community, and even prominent figures who visited, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “It was another way for him to show his gratitude to the law school.”

Lasting support from a legal trailblazer

E. Patricia Herron ’64 had a pathbreaking career and kept a strong connection to Berkeley Law throughout her life. In 2011, the school’s alumni association granted her its highest honor, the Citation Award.

Over half a century of giving, Herron created the E. Patricia Herron Scholarship, which gives up to $10,000 to a student committed to women’s issues. Herron, who died last year, also made a final bequest: more than $500,000 to support Berkeley Law’s Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice.

Herron began her career as an educator, working as a teacher and administrator at Catholic University (where she earned a master’s degree), Wells College, and Contra Costa College.

After graduating from Berkeley Law, she joined Knox & Kretzmer as an associate, and rose to partner as the firm eventually morphed into Knox, Herron and Masterson. In 1977, she became the first woman judge on the Contra Costa County Superior Court, and served for a decade.

When Herron left the bench, she spent many of her later years as a private judge — and pursued interests outside the courtroom, including founding and running a Sonoma Valley vineyard, Barricia.

Henderson Center Executive Director Savala Nolan ’11 says it’s fitting that Herron made a bequest to the hub of the school’s active, diverse, and ever-growing social justice community.

“We’re thrilled to receive this generous support from Patricia Herron,” she says. “It’s inspiring to know that people like her see the value in building students’ capacity to be effective social justice advocates for the long haul.”

— Gwyneth K. Shaw