Charting New Paths to Protection

For students in Berkeley Law’s Survivor Advocacy Project (SAP), the legal complexity and emotional weight of their work can be highly demanding. But co-leaders Sarah Zweig, Rachel Gaines, and Sarah O’Farrell also describe it as extraordinarily rewarding.

“It’s been the most significant and valuable part of my law school journey thus far,” Gaines says.

Like all 40 Student-Initiated Legal Services Projects under Berkeley Law’s Pro Bono Program, students can join starting in their first semester. That enabled SAP’s co-leaders to gain meaningful experience right away, and to now guide the group as 2Ls.

Striving to prevent and combat sexual harassment and violence, SAP provides legal support to empower and support survivors. Its two current projects reflect the broad scope of that advocacy.

Working with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and supervising attorney Dave Rini, 2L Sydni Green and 1Ls Rebecca Goren, Joseph Kyburz, and Natalie Wright are drafting a memorandum of understanding for use by Massachusetts victim service agencies that work with state correctional agencies to satisfy their obligations under the Prison Rape Eliminaton Act.

The act requires correctional agencies to partner with outside emotional support organizations that provide resources to prisoners such as crisis intervention hotline support, advocacy during sexual assault evidence collection, and advocates for investigational interviews. But the law provides no additional guidance about these agreements, or what obligations they should address.

SAP’s second initiative is with Equal Rights Advocates, founded by Berkeley Law students in 1974. Supervised by attorney Maha Ibrahim, LL.M. student Mengruo Huang ’24 and 1Ls Julia Cofiño, Karina Sanchez, Parmis Ghafelehbashi, Skylar Falcon, and Taylor Thomas are pursuing new ways to defend the right to bodily autonomy and expand access to care through a detailed memorandum exploring the intersection between Title IX, Title VII, and reproductive rights.

Their research will help build a foundation for potential novel litigation and legislation for abortion access, both for students within Title IX’s school-based anti-discrimination protections and workers within Title VII’s employment-based protections.

“These issues may not be exactly what comes to mind when we think about supporting survivors of sexual harassment and violence, but they are important considerations that have the potential for substantial impact,” Zweig says. “Legal support to survivors comes in many shapes and sizes.”

SAP’s co-leaders implement regular checkpoints on research progress and hold weekly meetings with the group’s supervising attorneys to ensure that students remain on track.

“It’s incredibly important when working with survivors of sexual violence to be an active listener and aim to empower survivors rather than speak for those affected by sexual violence or sexual assault,” O’Farrell says.

For Gaines, empowering people who are often silenced and forgotten is a privilege.

“Our attorney supervisors are incredible resources and mentors, and I truly believe the tools they’ve shared with us will be invaluable throughout our legal careers,” she says. — Andrew Cohen