Forefront
Leadership in Research, Service & Education

Fast Forward
Student Initiative in Motion

Study Hall
Faculty Honors & Scholarship

Advancement
Updates from Development & Alumni Relations

Class Notes
All in the Alumni Family

This issue of Transcript focuses especially on two groups of alumni who are making a real difference. One of the feature spreads describes many of the determined efforts by our graduates and those at Berkeley Law to protect and advance the rule of law. The last year has seen an unprecedented challenge to our constitutional democracy. I am so proud of the many ways in which our faculty, students, staff, and alumni are working diligently to uphold the guardrails of democracy, and I think you will take pride in reading about them.

For example, Clinical Professor Claudia Polsky ’96 initiated a lawsuit to challenge the cutoff of federal funds to University of California faculty and researchers. She assembled a litigation team led by Elizabeth Cabraser ’78 and including many Berkeley Law graduates at the law firms of Lieff Cabraser and Farella Braun + Martel. I am honored to be part of this effort. The pro bono work of these lawyers has been successful, helping to restore approximately $1 billion in federal grants. And this is just one of many endeavors by our faculty and alumni to enforce the Constitution and laws at this difficult time.

All four worked on migrant rights: Correa and Castañeda at Centro de los Derechos del Migrantes, Alvarez at Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, and Rios at Sin Frontreras before funding cuts closed the clinic (she stayed in Mexico City, working remotely for a Los Angeles nonprofit).

Many worked while feeling ill for fear of losing their job or wages. A program meant to ensure that those who harvest grapes, tend livestock, and irrigate fields can still work during wildfire evacuations seems to be forcing many of them to choose between their health or paying for core needs such as housing and groceries.

“With health care and housing costs already high, and fires presenting recurring challenges for communities across the state, we hope to inform policy around agricultural workers and improve efforts to protect them during disasters,” says Human Rights Center climate researcher and study co-author Linda Gordon ’24.

Launched in August 2024, the LL.M. Certificate in AI Law and Regulation is the first of its kind at an American law school and has attracted students from more than 40 countries, including lawyers working in the United States looking to broaden their expertise. The first crop of graduates is already making an impact, advising tech firms, governments, and nongovernmental organizations on responsible AI policy.

“I often tell young lawyers to never stop learning, so I took my own advice,” says Jones Walker New Orleans office partner Graham H. Ryan LL.M. ’25, describing the experience as “a deep dive into how AI is transforming business, law, and society” which “has already strengthened how I approach complex problems at the intersection of law and technology.”

A driving force behind the landmark 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) — and called the brains behind it by author Lennard J. Davis — she has spent the past 35 years propelling more pathbreaking advocacy. The winner of numerous awards for her leading disability rights work, Mayerson and her efforts were recently highlighted in an episode of the PBS show “American Experience.”

A Berkeley Law lecturer since 1988, she continues to partner on policy efforts with leaders in the field.

In the land use and carbon removal arena, AB 130 lets developers mitigate transportation impacts by funding transit-oriented affordable housing projects through a mitigation “bank” that helps facilitate vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reductions when they cannot occur at a project site.

The concept builds on work CLEE has developed since a 2013 bill that first instituted VMT as an environmental impact metric. The center is providing initial technical guidance to the governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation for AB 130’s bank program, which aims to direct all funds for mitigating those impacts into location-efficient affordable housing in walkable areas less reliant on cars and more reliant on transit.

“We recognized a need to allow 1Ls to meet with employers sooner in their law school journey,” says Assistant Dean for Career Development Eric Stern.

This year, the CDO moved many of its flagship student and employer networking programs from spring to fall and launched a new program — the Coffee Chat Series — allowing 1Ls to meet with employers sooner, creating earlier opportunities for exploration and in-person research.