Every Step of the Way

seem Mulji ‘19 encountered many steps between pondering law school to now working as senior legal counsel with the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C. At each one, he saw UC Berkeley Law lifting him up.

Capitalizing: Aseem Mulji ’19 has parlayed vital training and support from UC Berkeley Law into a gratifying career working on voting rights issues.

Mulji jumped into pro bono work as a 1L, got an Edley Grant to work at the Campaign Legal Center that summer, and used bar study grants for public-interest students through the California Law Review, where he served as the journal’s technology and communications editor.

These days, LRAP enables him to do rewarding work litigating voting rights and redistricting cases and supporting advocacy efforts to improve democracy at the federal, state, and local levels.

“Public service is in Berkeley’s DNA as a law school and institution,” he says. “By offering so many resources, the school is able to attract students, professors, and staff who share a dedication to using the law for good, no matter their field or speciality. Being surrounded by students, faculty, and staff who put public service at the heart of their work is what makes Berkeley special among law schools.”

Mulji’s work involves advancing democracy reforms to address voter suppression and gerrymandering. He has also represented Black, Latine, and Native American voters in cases filed under the Voting Rights Act, secured fairly drawn legislative districts and polling locations on tribal reservations, and helped voters with disabilities challenge policies that made mail voting harder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also prods state legislatures to enact their own voting rights acts “to enshrine important protections into state law that the Supreme Court has been slowly whittling away for decades.”

In the last five years, he says, “We’ve helped enact state-level voting rights acts in Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, and Virginia. For me, building an inclusive, functioning, multiracial democracy in the United States is the defining struggle of our time.”

For four years between college and law school, Mulji was an organizer and civic technologist, working with local governments across the country to develop processes that engage traditionally underrepresented communities in public budgets and policymaking.

“I encountered a host of legal barriers to institutionalizing these democracy-deepening reforms,” he says. “I was also doing this work when the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 based on a fiction that the U.S. has moved beyond racial politics and subjugation. I remember reading the decision and thinking, ‘This can’t be law.’”

Mulji decided to go to law school “to help fight back against democratic degradation and create space for reforms that can create a deeper, more equitable and durable democracy in the U.S.”

At UC Berkeley Law, Mulji participated in the Post-Conviction Advocacy Project as a 1L and co-led the group — in which teams of two or three students help a prisoner prepare for their parole hearing — as a 2L. During that time, he helped his client receive parole.

Mulji also co-directed an election law student group and served as website editor for the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law & Justice.

Outside the law school, he did a part-time externship at the ACLU of Northern California, and was later a full-time extern at the Los Angeles Center for Community Law & Action, where he litigated eviction defense and slum housing claims. After his 2L year, he gained private sector experience as a law firm summer associate in Washington.

These days, he finds great satisfaction in supporting the Campaign Legal Center’s actions to challenge gerrymandered voting districts at the state and local level, and in working to advance various democracy reforms. These include state-level voting rights acts, ranked-choice voting, public financing, and measures to ensure ballot access for justice-involved voters.

“The great thing about Berkeley’s public interest offerings is that they are virtually endless, which I think is rare among elite law schools,” Mulji says. “The difficulty was never that opportunities were scarce, but that there were too many to choose from. It was especially meaningful and enriching to be able to jump right into public interest legal practice, including direct client representation, as a 1L.

“The SLPS and externship programs were really key to getting a sense for what kinds of public interest lawyering jobs exist — there are many — and what they’re like in the day to day. I could not have asked for better legal training for a career in voting rights litigation and advocacy.”

or law firm attorneys, success often hinges on being a productive rainmaker. For Bonnie Kwon ’09, it comes from being an effective grantmaker.

Connecting: Bonnie Kwon ’09 says UC Berkeley Law helped reveal the many intersections of social justice issues, which has guided her professional path.

As a policy officer at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Kwon supports race-conscious policies and equitable public investments that serve the communities with the most needs. In doing so, she leverages her experience in organizing, policy advocacy, and strategic communications.

Fifteen years into a thriving public interest career, Kwon points to several key springboards from her time at UC Berkeley Law — beyond the foundational role that LRAP played in her career.

“The school’s commitment to addressing a wide range of social justice issues allowed me to see how interconnected our struggles for equity and justice truly are,” she says. “This lens has become an integral part of my approach to advocacy and policymaking, helping me recognize and address the multifaceted nature of social inequities.”

Kwon enjoys nurturing leadership in others, especially within the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander civil rights space. She has served those communities in many roles, including program manager and director of network innovation at the Asian & Pacific Islander Health Forum and deputy regional director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

In that time, Kwon deftly supported outreach, education, and enrollment of over a million Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders during the first two years implementing the Affordable Care Act. Working with community leaders, she also helped propel a successful campaign to restore Medicaid eligibility for Pacific Islanders from the Marshall Islands, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia living in the United States.

The child of immigrants, Kwon served as an interpreter for her mother — an experience that evolved into advocacy. When it came time to think about law school, she found a natural fit with UC Berkeley Law’s “rich legacy of civil rights activism, particularly within Asian American communities.”

Kwon adds that her time at Berkeley was one of significant personal and intellectual growth. “There are lessons that I picked up in classes that I use every day,” she says. “Berkeley’s culture of solidarity and its emphasis on public service were formative for me. This ethos extended beyond local concerns to encompass global issues, including the injustice in Palestine.”

It also heightened awareness of economic injustice and structural racism in her adopted hometown of Oakland, she notes, pointing to patterns of racist disinvestment and destruction she found impossible to ignore.

“Seeing the highways that cut off West Oakland from the rest of the city, and seeing the legacy of redlining and urban renewal in concentrated poverty and food deserts, fueled my interest in advocating for low-wage restaurant workers,” Kwon says.

Her first job out of law school was setting up the Washington, D.C., affiliate of the nonprofit Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Kwon worked alongside restaurant workers to develop a workers’ rights policy agenda.

“I was able to apply the lessons I learned at Berkeley Law in a practical setting,” she recalls. “My goal was to create good jobs in the food industry. This experience broadened my perspective on economic justice and highlighted the importance of contesting for power.”

With growing attacks on race-conscious policies and threats to constitutionally protected activities and speech that may conflict with certain political views, Kwon anticipates some uphill climbs ahead. Still, she remains steadfast in her principles: “I’m accountable to my people, ensuring that my work reflects my community’s needs, amplifies marginalized voices like my mother’s, and fights for justice with integrity and compassion.”

After all, she began learning that as a child.

“My early memories of navigating life at my mother’s side animates me,” Kwon says. “I’m curious how people are impacted, asking myself what are the distribution of benefits and burdens, and are there people like my mom who are missing from the table?”

rendan Layde ’19 never imagined living more than 5,000 miles from the continental U.S. in an island region with fewer than 50,000 people. But working in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) quickly became a labor of love.

Adventuring: Brendan Layde ’19 greatly enjoys getting to shape law in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the newest U.S. jurisdiction.

“As the youngest jurisdiction in the United States, there are a lot of cases of first impression in the CNMI and a lot of opportunities to really shape the jurisdiction’s case law,” he says. “It’s also nearly unique in the U.S. in the extent to which Indigenous, customary, and traditional law are incorporated into the statutory framework.”

UC Berkeley Law, Layde explains, built both the confidence and financial framework to pursue such a big leap. He took part in several public interest endeavors during law school, including the Environmental Law Clinic, wage claims work, immigration work on the Special Immigrant Visa program, and summer internships at an immigration nonprofit and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission office in San Francisco.

“The culture of public interest and public service work at Berkeley Law is fantastic, in terms of both government policy work and nonprofit work,” Layde says. “People are really passionate and supportive, and a lot of students really take charge of their legal education with a self-directed sense of moral purpose.”

Reviewing opportunities through the school’s career portal while studying for the bar exam, Layde saw a judicial clerkship listed with the CNMI Supreme Court. A few months later, he began his new life on Saipan, the region’s largest island.

He has since worked as legal counsel for the CNMI House of Representatives — which happened in the midst of a legislative investigation into corruption allegations regarding the former governor — and clerked for the Hawaiʻi Intermediate Court of Appeals before moving into his current position in October 2023.

His work has included drafting legislation and executive orders, accompanying Palacios in discussions with the federal government, and defending him in litigation brought by a defunct casino that was once by far the jurisdiction’s largest private sector employer.

“I wound up being able to do a lot of substantive work on the impeachment of a governor and litigation of the legislature’s subpoena power in my first job practicing,” Layde says. “I enjoy working in government, working closely with clients, and being able to do a variety of litigation, transactional, and policy work, so I’d like to continue working in positions that provide that kind of opportunity.”

He credits UC Berkeley Law for much of his career arc, and for giving him a welcome sense of purpose. After earning a master’s degree in history, working in quality assurance for a healthcare software company, and waiting tables, Layde says that he applied to law school “in large part just to give my life a sense of direction.”

During law school Layde took undergrad Arabic classes — partly to help with his immigration work for Iraqi clients — and also participated on the university’s fencing team. That ethos of leaning into new opportunities helped pave his way to the Pacific islands.

“The Pacific territories, Guam, the CNMI, and American Samoa are all without a law school of their own,” Layde says. “It’s a part of the world where legal, medical, engineering, and other professional services are sorely needed, and where the difference your work makes in the community is palpable.

“It’s also a region where students don’t always have the resources and guidance to find pathways to professional education in the States, which they can then bring back to their communities. I really try to take any opportunity I can to encourage mainland professionals to consider working in the Western Pacific and to encourage students in the Pacific to consider legal and other professional education stateside, because those skills are needed here.”

• Three-year scholarship launched in 2021 that covers full tuition and fees for exceptional students who are dedicated to public interest work
• Scholars can also obtain program funds to attend conferences, plan events, or join bar associations
• Recipients gain access to networking events, social gatherings, and programs with like-minded students, staff, faculty, alumni, and local attorneys
• There are 30 current student scholars, 11 in the first-year cohort

alentina Restrepo-Montoya ‘14 sometimes views patience as more of a pain than a virtue. Like when it came time to apply to law school, the chance to do meaningful work with clients — ASAP — felt paramount.

Strategizing: Valentina Restrepo-Montoya ’14 is the executive director of Arizona Legal Women and Youth Services.

Now executive director of Arizona Legal Women and Youth Services (ALWAYS), Restrepo-Montoya leans on those experiences while overseeing an organization that provides free legal services to vulnerable young people.

Helping clients clear legal barriers that deter opportunity, stability, and self-sufficiency, ALWAYS serves survivors of sex and labor trafficking; eligible youth who are seeking employment, education, or housing but are denied opportunities due to legal issues; people escaping abusive relationships; and individuals who are eligible for legal immigration status but lack the resources to apply.

“I would not have been able to do the work I’ve done over the last 10 years if it weren’t for LRAP, Edley Grants, and other Berkeley Law public interest programming,” Restrepo-Montoya says. “The Financial Aid Office is and has always been so supportive, which I find forever astonishing given the number of external changes they’ve had to keep up with over the years.”

Summer Edley Grants enabled Restrepo-Montoya to work at the Contra Costa County Public Defender’s Office after her first year, and at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta after her second year.

“I don’t know that I would have necessarily been selected for those opportunities, or my position at the Southern Poverty Law Center after graduating, had I not been able to point to the experience I gained through SLPS and clinics at Berkeley Law,” Restrepo-Montoya says. “It felt like I had an edge over other non-Berkeley applicants who might not yet have spent time in front of the populations they would ultimately serve.”

The daughter of Colombian immigrants, Restrepo-Montoya helped a Guatemalan woman obtain an asylum grant through the California Asylum Representation Clinic, and spent many Thursdays at Centro Legal De La Raza assisting its alternating Tenants’ Rights and Workers’ Rights clinics.

She was also part of UC Berkeley Law’s Women of Color Collective and its Berkeley Journal of International Law, and the East Bay Community Law Center’s immigration program — where she helped people with DACA and related applications — and now credits the experience for guiding how she structured ALWAYS.

“Berkeley Law delivered on the community I was hoping to join,” she says. “I was proud to be a part of an extensive legacy of people who decided to do something grueling because they felt it would make the world a marginally better place.”

At ALWAYS, Restrepo-Montoya works with the managing attorney, collaborates with the board of directors on strategic planning and governance, interacts with an accountant and treasurer to keep finances in order, spearheads development efforts, handles communications, and represents the organization in the community.

Previously an assistant public defender and immigration attorney, in the latter role Restrepo-Montoya advocated on behalf of people with serious mental illnesses in deportation proceedings.

“If nothing else, there are people in the United States today who would not be were it not for my advocacy, and that feeling can’t be bought,” she says.

In three years at ALWAYS, Restrepo-Montoya has tripled both the operating budget and full-time staff, and developed a program that hosts law students interested in pursuing public interest careers. The result: serving more clients.

“I’ve known what I wanted to do with my life for a long time, but I’m grateful to Berkeley Law for playing such a crucial role in making it possible, keeping me on the right track, and helping me open the doors that needed opening,” she says.

Any J.D. graduate working in law-related public interest employment can use LRAP funding for up to 10 years if they enter the program for the first time within 3½ years of graduating. Those earning $80,000 or less can receive 100% LRAP support with no out-of-pocket contributions toward their loans, and those earning over $80,000 up to $120,000 can receive partial support.

Pairing LRAP with the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, alums in certain public interest jobs can also apply to have their loan balance entirely forgiven, tax free, after 10 years of qualifying employment and income-driven monthly payments.

Current top practice areas among participants include public defense, legal aid, immigration, and civil rights, and top locations include California, New York, Washington, D.C., and Colorado.