Boalt Hall
The School of Law, commonly referred to as Boalt Hall, is one of 14 schools and colleges at the University of California, Berkeley. The School features specialized curricular programs in Business, Law and Economics, Comparitive Legal Studies, Environmental Law, International Legal Studies, Law and Technology, and Social Justice. The School has approximately 850 J.D. students, 30 students the LL.M. and J.S.D. programs, and 10 students in the Ph.D. program in Jurisprudence and Social Policy. Admission is highly competitive, with an average of 7,500 applicants for an entering class of about 270 students. The average age of admitted students is 24 years old, over a range of ages from 20 to 48 years old. Approximately 88% of students receive financial aid. After graduation, 92% of students find full employment, with a median salary of $125,000 and an average salary of $104,154. There are 57 faculty.
History
The Department of Jurisprudence was founded at Berkeley in 1894. In 1912, this department was elevated to the School of Jurisprudence, which was then renamed the School of Law in 1950.
The School was originally located in Boalt Memorial Hall of Law, built in 1911 with funds largely from Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt donated in memory of her late husband, John Henry Boalt. In 1951, the School moved to its current location in the new Boalt Hall, at the southeast corner of the central campus, and the old Boalt Hall was renamed Durant Hall.
Centers at Boalt Hall
- Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (est. 1995)
- Center for Clinical Education (est. 1998)
- Center for Social Justice (est. 1999)
- Center for the Study of Law and Society (est. 1961)
- Death Penalty Clinic (est. 2001)
- Earl Warren Legal Institute (est. 1963)
- International Human Rights Law Clinic (est. 1998)
- Kadish Center for Morality, Law and Public Affairs (est. 2000)
- Robert D. Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance (est. 1994)
- Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic (est. 2000)
Law journals at Boalt Hall
- African-American Law and Policy Report
- Asian 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
- California Criminal Law Review
- California Law Review
- Ecology Law Quarterly
List of noted alumni
- Earl Warren, 1914 - Governor of California, Chief Justice of the United States
- Walter Gordon, 1922 - Governor of the Virgin Islands, judge, member of National Football Foundation Hall of Fame
- Melvin Belli, 1929 - attorney
- G. William Miller, 1952 - U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
- Edwin Meese III, 1958 - U.S. Attorney General
- Pete Wilson, 1962 - U.S. Senator, Governor of California
- Theodore Olson, 1965 - U.S. Solicitor General
- Neil Goldschmidt, 1967 - U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Governor of Oregon
- Leigh Steinberg, 1973 - sports agent
- Lance Ito, 1975 - judge, presided over O. J. Simpson criminal trial
List of noted faculty
- Christopher Edley, Jr - Dean of the School of Law (2004-), co-founder of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard
- Michael Heyman - Chancellor of the Berkeley campus (1980 to 1990), Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1994 to 1999)
- John Yoo - Co-Author of the USA PATRIOT Act
