Alex AG Shapiro

YouTube video by Edley Center on Law & Democracy at UC Berkeley Law A Discussion on Campus Speech and Academic Freedom: A Guide for Difficult Times

Academic freedom is under threat from all sides today.. Where does the First Amendment enter in? Erwin Chemerinsky and I analyzed the issues in this event, with Erwin taking the lead.
youtu.be/eYp2xRNB8wo

Position description The UC Berkeley School of Law is searching for a researcher to work with faculty doing empirical legal research. Researchers will work for 1-2 years with multiple UC Berkeley Law faculty members. Work involves potentially the full scope of activities involved in quantitative empirical scholarship: creating and cleaning datasets, writing and executing code to generate results, creating tables and figures of results, writing and presenting research papers, and generally working to assist descriptive analysis as well as the study of the effects of law and policy. Applicants will receive mentoring from faculty within a tight-knit research community at UC Berkeley Law and will have access to a broad range of activities at UC Berkeley. This is a good opportunity for candidates interested in spending 1-2 years developing research skills in anticipation of attending law school and/or PhD programs in the social sciences. As such, in addition to providing research mentorship, faculty will help researchers to engage in additional education and training, such as auditing courses, attending research seminars, etc.

Key responsibilities include: Collect data through policy research and web scraping (typically in Python) Clean and manage large datasets Conduct statistical analyses of data using Stata, R, and/or Python Prepare literature reviews, background research, and other content for grant proposals and academic papers Draft project reports, research protocols, and other project documents

Basic qualifications (required at time of application) - Bachelor's degree (or equivalent international degree) or current enrollment in a bachelor's degree (or equivalent international degree) program - Additional qualifications (required at time of start) - Bachelor's degree or equivalent international degree. Preferred qualifications - Bachelor’s or master’s degree in economics, Finance, Political Science, Public Policy, Accounting, Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics or similar field requiring substantial quantitative coursework. Proficiency programming in more than one of Python, R, Stata, and SQL - Experience writing in Markdown and LaTeX - Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite (Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) - Prior experience as a research assistant or fellow in the fields of economics or political science is a plus.

Come work as an empirical researcher at Berkeley Law!

We are taking applications now, with a deadline of 11:59pm on March 1.

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05264

Opinion | A Grand Jury Will Indict a Ham Sandwich? Not in the Trump Era.

“A Grand Jury Will Indict a Ham Sandwich? Not in the Trump Era.” www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o... Criminal Law and Justice Center Executive Director Chesa Boudin & @ucdavislaw.bsky.social Prof. Eric S. Fish via @nytimes.com

Top law schools for international law International law is no longer confined to treaties and courtrooms abroad. Across law schools in the United States, the field is becoming more practical, more interdisciplinary and more directly tied ...

A+ in International Law

nationaljurist.com/top-law-scho...

How a Berkeley Law team helped uncover the truth about the assassination of Berta Cáceres Human Rights Clinic Director Roxanna Altholz ’99 relied on support from the law school on an explosive probe of the 2016 murder.

“Getting to the bottom of the murder is of global significance because Berta’s leadership was part of the global effort to protect land, water & biodiversity in a climate emergency.”
—Clinical Professor & Human Rights Clinic Director Roxanna Altholz ’99: https://bit.ly/4aNdjxp

Thousands Of Law Students Demand Congress Allow The Constitution To Apply To ICE - Above the Law Congress could solve the immunity problem... they just don't want to.

"The effort grew out of a late-night idea by Berkeley Law students — including Amelia Dal Pra, Zadie Adams, Isaiah Paik, Shree Mehrotra, and Kaylana Mueller-Hsia — inspired by Times opinion piece from Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky & Prof. Burt Neuborne." https://bit.ly/4aoT3BT @abovethelaw.com

How Do Judges Cope With Mounting Caseloads and Political Pressures? | Law.com A conversation with Michele Statz, who recently signed on to be the inaugural Director of Judicial Wellbeing at the Berkeley Judicial Institute.

"I think we can see that across the judiciary in the U.S.—the increasing quantification of decision-making. Everything has to be done within a certain amount of time. Dockets are really exploding," says Michele Statz, PhD, Director of Judicial Wellbeing at @bji.bsky.social: https://bit.ly/3ZuCAXK

ICE Officers Should Be Held Accountable. These Law School Students Know How. Over 2,600 students and legal academics have signed a letter calling on Congress to close a loophole to allow individuals to sue federal officers for violating the Constitution.

"A coalition of law students is demanding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials be held to account for their violence across our nation." — 3L Amelia Dal Pra via @thenation.com: https://bit.ly/462x4iJ

Trump’s OCR resolved no K-12 sexual harassment, assault complaints in 2025, data shows The Education Department contends "it has restored commonsense safeguards against sexual violence by returning sex-based separation in intimate facilities."

“The Trump administration has chosen a small handful of issues that it is interested in enforcing through civil rights, and it’s noisy about those and noisy about its disdain for everything else,” says Catherine E. Lhamon @catherinelhamon.bsky.social to K-12 Dive: https://bit.ly/3Ojd998 #BerkeleyLaw

How I Made Practice Group Chair: 'Leadership Is Fundamentally About People,' Says Nadira Clarke of Hogan Lovells | Law.com "The role requires skills across several areas, which is part of what makes it challenging. Having a co-leader helps because we balance one another’s strengths and weaknesses. But above everything, yo...

"But above everything, you must be able to communicate, engage with people, and support them. Leadership is fundamentally about people—the rest can be learned." Hogan Lovells Partner Nadira Clarke '92, practice area leader for the environment & natural resources practice. www.law.com/2026/02/06/h...

Federal Officer Liability - Berkeley Law Executive Education Join a discussion of how judges are responding to the threats on the judiciary and rule of law, and more in this free webinar.

interesting

executive.law.berkeley.edu/boosts/feder...

YouTube video by UC Berkeley School of Law "Endless Fuel to the Flame" | Grace Reinhardt-Perez at Berkeley Law

“If you really believe in your why, you can’t fail.” — 2L Grace Reinhardt-Perez reflects on endurance and how her faith helps her stay focused through the demands of the U.S. Army, Division I athletics, and law school: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkEbL03nHEM
#BerkeleyLaw
📹: Michaela Vatcheva

Intimidating the Press The arrests of Don Lemon and Gail Fort are part of the authoritarian playbook.

“Every authoritarian, or wannabe authoritarian, tries to intimidate the press. A free press that informs people of abuses of power is a threat to the control the authoritarian wants to exercise.” — Dean Erwin Chemerinsky open.substack.com/pub/contrari...

Holding ICE agents accountable for excessive force is imperative | Opinion “No one is above the law,” writes UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

"Holding ICE agents accountable for excessive force is imperative, and it will hopefully deter similar wrongful conduct in the future. But it is also a crucial way of reaffirming the most basic tenet of the rule of law: No one is above the law."
– Chemerinsky @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social @sacbee.com

Berkeley Law Offers Training Program On Privacy And AI - Law360 Pulse The University of California, Berkeley School of Law announced this week the launch of the Chief Privacy Officer Program, a new advanced online training program for senior leaders on privacy law and a...

"The Chief Privacy Officer Program [offers] rigorous, practice-informed training for the people responsible for privacy and AI governance at the highest levels of decision-making," Eric Askins, Assistant Dean for Initiatives and Innovation to @law360.bsky.social: https://bit.ly/3LYbIfK #BerkeleyLaw

Pillsbury Partner to Lead Berkeley Law's New Chief Privacy Officer Program | Law.com The program is designed to cover all of the exam topics necessary to achieve the State Bar of California's Privacy Law Specialist certification. Pillsbury's Jeewon Lee Serrato also chaired the consult...

The new @ucberklawexeced.bsky.social Chief Privacy Officer Program is designed to cover all of the exam topics necessary to achieve the State Bar of California's Privacy Law Specialist certification: https://bit.ly/4qVZrri #BerkeleyLaw

YouTube video by UC Berkeley School of Law Can cities create protest free no go zones around government buildings?

Can cities create protest-free, no-go zones around government buildings?
https://youtube.com/shorts/5wKcy8QKuE8?feature=share

#ItstheLaw #BerkeleyLaw

Democrats’ demands to reform ICE, briefly explained They’re focused on three areas: ending warrantless patrols, curtailing aggressive tactics, and increasing accountability.

"What are Democrats demanding of ICE — and what are they leaving off the table?" Perspective from @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social Prof. David Hausman, faculty director of the Deportation Data Project, www.vox.com/today-explai... via @vox.com

Second Amendment jurisprudence is a mess The Supreme Court has made a mess of the law concerning the Second Amendment. Two years ago, in the last Supreme Court decision about the Second Amendment, United States v. Rahimi, […]

"The Supreme Court has made a mess of the law concerning the Second Amendment."
— Opinion by Dean Erwin Chemerinsky in his recurring series, Courtly Observations, on @scotusblog.com: https://bit.ly/4rEIXUD

Academic Freedom in the Crosshairs Political meddling at Texas A&M and the University of Arkansas demonstrates why professors need it.

"Is there is any doubt that academic freedom is under serious threat?"
—Opinion by Dean Chemerinsky via @wsj.com: https://on.wsj.com/4sUqGUy

Berkeley Law faculty face off on criminalization of houselessness Held in Booth Auditorium, the event was hosted by the Federalist Society at Berkeley Law, a conservative and libertarian legal organization focused on promoting discourse around legal and constitution...

“You cannot lock your way out of homelessness or poverty. There’s no amount of jail or criminal convictions that will magically make people get off the street and find housing,” Chesa Boudin, executive director of the Criminal Law & Justice Center, told @dailycal.bsky.social https://bit.ly/3LX9dKu

Will the Supreme Court allow Trump to use the Insurrection Act? | Opinion “The requirements for invoking the Insurrection Act have not been met,” writes UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

"Police — and not soldiers — are trained to respect constitutional rights in policing and to use deadly force only if necessary."
—Opinion by Dean Chemerinsky via @sacbee.com: https://bit.ly/3NH37hO

Judges keep siding with S.F. over Trump. But SCOTUS could wipe out the city’s wins In many of the cases San Francisco has filed challenging Trump policies, federal judges have accused the administration of ignoring or defying the law.

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky and Professor Daniel Farber spoke to @sfchronicle.com about cases San Francisco has filed challenging Trump policies: https://bit.ly/4r8x60E #BerkeleyLaw

Vital City | Trump’s Unconstitutional Coercion The president cannot constitutionally threaten to withhold funds from so-called sanctuary cities.

Does President Trump have the right to withhold federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities? @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social dean Erwin Chemerinsky says the legal and constitutional answer is clear.

www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/tru...

Academic Freedom in the Crosshairs Political meddling at Texas A&M and the University of Arkansas demonstrates why professors need it.

"This will be to society’s detriment. The pursuit of knowledge isn’t served by politically imposed orthodoxy. Academic freedom, like freedom of speech more generally, is neither liberal nor conservative." @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social Dean Erwin Chemerinsky via @wsj.com

Berkeley Law Institute Offers Students Abundant Options in International Law Our Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law provides many valuable opportunities for students interested in international law. They include fellowships that connect students with Berkeley L...

Our Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law provides many valuable opportunities for students interested in international law: https://bit.ly/3Yzy3mu #BerkeleyLaw

California Officials, Experts Consider Link Between Science and Democracy Amid Federal Funding Cuts

“I think all of these provide an opportunity for us to rethink, as we are rebuilding democratic institutions, how do we build a scientific enterprise alongside them that can help us take action,” said Louise Bedsworth, executive director of @cleeberkeley.bsky.social: https://bit.ly/4qZ0ZAC

Opinion | Renee Good’s Family Should Be Able to Sue the Officer Who Killed Her

"The death of Renee Good can be the impetus for finally closing a gaping hole in our constitutional protections."

— Opinion by Dean Chemerinsky & Burt Neuborne, professor emeritus at New York University Law School via @nytimes.com: https://nyti.ms/3NdVEXw

How social media lures migrants into undertaking treacherous journeys Many people use social media to document the things we enjoy most in our lives, like vacations, meals or the latest TikTok dance. But it can also be used to influence people to seek better lives, ofte...

"The information that smugglers provide is not necessarily accurate, but it is far more comprehensible than the information international organizations and governments provide," Professor Katerina Linos appeared on @pbsnews.org: https://to.pbs.org/49PP2XT #BerkeleyLaw

YouTube video by UC Berkeley School of Law What rights do immigrants have under the Constitution?

What rights do immigrants have under the Constitution? https://youtube.com/shorts/Ib3EpiEyPLI?feature=share

#ItstheLaw #BerkeleyLaw