University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)

University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall)

5 Boalt Hall

Berkeley, CA 94720-7200 Phone: 510.642.2274

E-mail: admissions@law.berkeley.edu; Website: www.law.berkeley.edu

Introduction

Learning law at Boalt Hall means joining a stimulating intellectual community that is part of a tradition of academic excellence, professional leadership, and public service. Boalt’s location in the San Francisco Bay Area, with influences from Silicon Valley and the Pacific Rim, provides an unparalleled opportunity to study at one of the world’s leading institutions of legal education and research. Boalt’s academic program includes specialized study in business, law, and economics; environmental law; law and technology; international legal studies; comparative legal studies; and social justice. The curriculum is complemented by research centers and clinical programs that provide real client work. Boalt offers a broad three-year curriculum leading to the JD degree and postgraduate programs leading to LLM and JSD degrees. The interdisciplinary Jurisprudence and Social Policy (JSP) program leads to MA and PhD degrees. Boalt is a member of AALS and is ABA approved.

Location

UC Berkeley is a beautiful 1,232-acre campus bordered by wooded rolling hills. Berkeley is known for its intellectual, social, and political engagement. With its global population, rich diversity of arts, and sense of political adventure, Berkeley reflects and affects the rest of the country. Yet, it is an intimate city of friendly neighborhoods, renowned restaurants, coffeehouses, bookstores, parks, and open spaces. Across the bay lies San Francisco, home to internationally recognized museums, the opera, ballet, symphony, and restaurants. The mild climate makes outdoor activities possible year-round.

Students

Boalt seeks a student body with a broad set of interests, backgrounds, life experiences, and perspectives. The intellectual excellence, varied interests, and backgrounds of the students are among Boalt’s great strengths. Students received undergraduate degrees from more than 100 universities, about half at schools outside California.

Faculty

Boalt’s faculty members are internationally recognized experts in the law, from law and technology to youth violence and juvenile justice to environmental law. They include recipients of Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships and a MacArthur “genius” grant, as well as authors of casebooks used worldwide. Lecturers are drawn from prominent law firms and institutions.

Library and Physical Facilities

The law library contains more than 700,000 volumes and is one of the finest law collections in the world. Its holdings include the Robbins Religious and Civil Law Collection of approximately 360,000 titles in ecclesiastical, civil, comparative, and international law, and extensive collections of foreign, comparative, human rights, and environmental law. It is also a US government depository and is linked to the UC system’s holdings of more than seven million volumes. The law library provides online databases, three computer labs with Internet access, four spacious reading rooms, and a photocopying service. Multimedia capabilities are available. Wireless networks are accessible in some reading rooms and at the café.

Boalt is composed of three adjoining buildings (and two courtyards) with classrooms, seminar rooms, auditoriums, the law library, a lounge, a reception room, a café, dining and study areas, and offices.

Housing

The campus Housing Office offers apartments, rental listings, residence halls, and student family apartments. International House accommodates students from the United States and abroad.

Admission

Requirements: Bachelor’s degree, LSAT, and LSDAS; application fee: $75; deadline: February 1 (early application strongly preferred).

Applicants’ LSAT scores and undergraduate grade-point averages (GPAs) are important criteria to evaluate academic ability. Applicants may use the mean LSAT percentile and undergraduate GPAs of the previous year’s admitted applicant pool as a guide for assessing their chances of admission. Because Boalt takes other factors into account in making admission decisions, higher or lower scores and grades neither ensure nor preclude admission.

Student Activities

Students edit and publish 11 legal periodicals: African-American Law and Policy Report, Asian Law Journal, Berkeley Business Law Journal, Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, Berkeley Journal of International Law, Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, Boalt Journal of Criminal Law, California Law Review, and Ecology Law Quarterly.

More than 50 student groups focus on a variety of interests.

JD Curriculum

Boalt’s broad and innovative curriculum is one of the most dynamic among law schools. Opportunities for study in specific areas of the law connect you to Boalt’s renowned faculty members. The first-year curriculum includes Civil Procedure, Contracts, Criminal Law, Legal Research and Writing, Property, Torts, Written and Oral Advocacy, and two elective courses. The flexible second- and third-year curriculum offers a variety of legal topics and course styles, including seminars, individual and group research projects, clinical work, and judicial externships. Students may work on clinical projects providing direct legal services to clients or work with lawyers on large cases or legal matters. The Center for Clinical Education, Boalt’s in-house clinical facility, offers the Death Penalty Clinic, the International Human Rights Law Clinic, and the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic. The East Bay Community Law Center is the community-based component of the program. Other clinical opportunities include the Domestic Violence Clinic and field placements.

Centers and Institutes

Boalt Hall’s centers and institutes act as incubators for cutting edge legal research, where students collaborate with leading scholars and practitioners working on complex issues. Projects are often centered on specific cases or legislation, and can have broad influence on law and policy in such areas as business, philosophy, public policy, sociology, and technology. The centers also sponsor conferences, roundtables, and other presentations on pertinent issues. Boalt’s centers push the frontiers of legal scholarship and make Boalt one of the most exciting places in the world to study law.

Berkeley Center for Law, Business, and the Economy Berkeley Center for Law and Technology California Center for Environmental Law and Policy Center for Social Justice Center for the Study of Law and Society Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Institute for Legal Research Kadish Center for Morality, Law, and Public Affairs Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance

Financial Aid

Requirements: Boalt Hall Financial Aid Application (optional); FAFSA need analysis form; deadline for priority consideration: March 2.

The law school seeks to provide need-based financial aid sufficient to permit any admitted student to attend. A majority of the students at Boalt Hall receive some form of financial aid.

The financial aid awarded by UC Berkeley’s Financial Aid Office is need-based and includes mostly federal student loans. The financial aid awarded by Boalt Hall includes federal student loans and other campus-based awards such as work study. Additionally the law school administers a variety of grants and scholarships based on financial need and/or need and academic merit.

Career Development

The Office of Career Development is a resource for students, alumni, and prospective employers. It operates one of the largest on-campus recruitment programs in the country, provides opportunities for legal employment, and maintains an online job database of positions available throughout the nation. The staff conducts career counseling, résumé workshops, and programs on traditional and nontraditional law careers in the private and public sectors.

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