University of California, Berkeley School of Law | |
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Motto | Fiat lux (Latin) Let there be light (English) |
Parent school | University of California, Berkeley |
Established | November 12, 1912[1]: 65–66 |
School type | Public law school |
Parent endowment | $7.4 billion (2023)[2] |
Dean | Erwin Chemerinsky |
Location | Berkeley, California, U.S. |
Enrollment | 916[3] |
Faculty | 119 (full- and part-time)[3] |
USNWR ranking | 12th (2024)[3] |
Bar pass rate | 95.5% (2021)[4] |
Website | law.berkeley.edu |
ABA profile | Standard 509 Report |
The University of California, Berkeley School of Law[5] (Berkeley Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. The school was commonly referred to as "Boalt Hall" for many years, although it was never the official name.[6] This came from its initial building, the Boalt Memorial Hall of Law, named for John Henry Boalt. This name was transferred to an entirely new law school building in 1951 but was removed in 2020.[7]
In 2019, 98 percent of graduates obtained full-time employment within nine months, with a median salary of $190,000.[8] Of all the law schools in California, Berkeley had the highest bar passage rates in 2021 (95.5%) and 2022 (92.2%).[4][9] The school offers J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and Ph.D. degrees, and enrolls approximately 320 to 330 J.D. students in each entering class, annually, with each class being further broken down into smaller groups that take courses together.
Berkeley Law alumni include notable federal judges, politicians, Fortune 500 executives, noted legal academics and civil rights experts. Prominent alumni include Chief Justice of the United States Earl Warren, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and Chair of the Federal Reserve G. William Miller, President of the International Court of Justice Joan Donoghue, Mayor of San Francisco Ed Lee, Dallas Mavericks CEO Terdema Ussery, and Nuremberg Trials prosecutor Whitney Robson Harris.