Photo Essay

Law School Life Through the Lens
Kaela Allen looking to the left in front of a red orange wall while wearing a black shirt, grey cardigan, and gold piercings and jewelry
Photo by Corduroy Media

A Sense of Humanity

Kaela Allen ’26 immediately immersed herself in activities far beyond her first-year coursework when she came to UC Berkeley Law, particularly through the Pro Bono Program. She got involved with the student-led Foster Education Project, joined the Berkeley Journal of Black Law & Policy, and traveled to Atlanta over spring break for one of the Berkeley Law Alternative Service Trips. This year, she has taken on a leadership role in all three groups, including co-editor-in-chief of the journal.

Allen was a legislative extern at the Pacific Juvenile Defender Center through the school’s Call for Necessary Engagement in Community & Timely Response initiative, interned at the East Bay Community Law Center as an Equal Justice America fellow, and will do movement lawyering and immigration work this summer at Just Futures Law.

“How can we make new laws to make sure that our youth are actually being set up to succeed in the world they’re going to inherit? I would love to see leadership repainted as those who think collaboratively and are truly thinking about what is the best outcome we could have for those that we’re serving.”
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Painting a New Picture of Leadership. #BerkeleyLawLeads
Marcos A. Romero and Cecilia Almaraz with hands raised during UC Berkeley Law’s annual Swearing-In Ceremony
Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small
Marcos A. Romero ‘24 (right) and Cecilia Almaraz ‘24 officially become attorneys during UC Berkeley Law’s annual Swearing-In Ceremony for alumni who passed the most recent California Bar Exam.

Bright Futures

Daniel Warner ’26 (right), a student in the UCDC Law Program, is externing this semester in the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Cyber Section, part of the agency’s National Security Division, after interning with the U.S. Department of Defense last summer.

Eager to gain “a better understanding of the tools the government uses to disrupt and respond to malicious activity by hostile nation-state adversaries,” he quickly got to conduct legal research, lead meetings, and review indictments and warrants.

A full-semester externship program in Washington, D.C., the UCDC Law Program combines a weekly seminar-style course with a full-time placement for law students from UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and UC Law San Francisco. They learn how federal statutes, regulations, and policies are made, changed, and understood, and get contact with all three government branches, independent regulatory agencies, and advocacy nonprofits.

Daniel Warner in U.S. Department of Justice building

Community Building

Current LL.M. students celebrated Cal’s dramatic 24-21 football victory over Stanford, in which the Bears rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to clinch a bowl bid and beat their rival for the fourth straight year.

Members of UC Berkeley Law’s traditional track LL.M. class and some friends rushed the field after the game. Gabriela Sabogal LL.M. ’25 says she and her classmates “felt grateful to be in one of the best universities in the world surrounded by incredible human beings, and we took this picture to immortalize what an amazing experience it is to attend UC Berkeley School of Law.”

Sabogal relished “the incredible opportunity to dive deeper into business law as an editor for the Berkeley Business Law Journal and work on pro bono projects with the Queer Justice Project that are especially important to me. Above all, I am grateful for the friendships I’ve made this semester and I look forward to continuing to learn and grow alongside such talented and inspiring individuals.”

students in Berkeley gear smiling for group photo on the field of school stadium
Photo courtesy of Gabriela Sabogal LL.M. ’25
three students from various school organizations coming together in front of mural to make a light bulb with their hands
Photo by Jim Block
Our Law Students of African Descent chapter teamed with several other student organizations and the Career Development Office to hold the school’s largest Diversity Placement Night ever.

This powerful collaboration for many first-generation UC Berkeley Law students and those from underrepresented backgrounds brought together over 120 1Ls — including (from left) Noel George, Michael John, and Nailah Edmead — and more than 30 leading firms for networking and one-on-one mock interviews, providing invaluable experience and connections.

LSAD is committed to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed, and to building a more inclusive legal future for everyone.

Hersh Gupta speaking at podium during finals
Heather DeMocker and Hersh Gupta holding trophy in front of Berkeley Law Competitions banner
Photos by Philip Pacheco

All-Star Advocates

Heather DeMocker ‘25 and Hersh Gupta ‘26 reached the finals of this year’s prestigious James Patterson McBaine Honors Moot Court Competition, UC Berkeley Law’s advanced-level appellate competition now in its seventh decade.

Designed to both test and hone students’ written and oral advocacy skills as they independently prepare an appellate brief and deliver at least two oral arguments, the competition is modeled after U.S. Supreme Court practice with students given a problem selected from real appellate decisions involving topical issues of great public importance. During the final round, a panel of esteemed judges from the state and federal bench preside over the arguments before a spirited audience.

Heather DeMocker and Hersh Gupta standing during oral arguments
Photo by Philip Pacheco
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