In 2016, Berkeley Law’s Policy Advocacy Clinic (PAC) released its first report on the harms of fines and fees in the juvenile court system — a narrow snapshot looking just at Alameda County. A decade later, the sweep of the clinic’s influence, in partnership with a spectrum of partner groups, local clients, and legislators, is national. Eighteen states no longer charge any youth fees or fines, and reforms are on the table in several others. According to data the clinic gathered from reform states, juvenile courts no longer charge youth and families more than $61 million in fees each year, and they have discharged a staggering $783 million in debt. Read more about how a number of PAC students have continued to work on the issue since graduation — either with nonprofit advocacy groups or back in the clinic itself in the full article. Link in bio. #BerkeleyLaw

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Ruth Bell ’67 and her husband Joseph Bell have committed $500,000 over five years to fuel the mission of Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (@cleeberkeley) and broaden its impact. The renowned lawyers’ gift establishes the Joseph and Ruth Greenspan Bell Climate Action Fund, which serves as the foundation for the Bell Core Incentive Challenge. The Bells hope to inspire another $500,000 in support of CLEE’s efforts and to share their excitement about the center’s essential leadership that provides depth, analytic reflection, and objective guidance to accelerate the work of policymakers to address some of today’s most important issues. Ruth says CLEE is led by people “who combine both the analytic chops and deep experience in government, giving them a unique perspective on how nonpartisan, outside support can advance policy initiatives” in climate and energy, water, sustainable land use, and oceans. Tap the link in bio for the full article. #BerkeleyLaw

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Lakshita Bhargava LL.M. ’26 traveled nearly 8,000 miles from her AI-focused work in India to Berkeley Law, but quickly felt right at home. Working at the nexus of mathematics, technology, and law, she watched AI rapidly transform how knowledge is produced, decisions are made, and institutions function — creating complex challenges that extend beyond traditional notions of “legal injury” and require a deeper engagement with context and multidimensional analysis. Meeting classmate and European law expert Anže Erbežnik during her first couple weeks at Berkeley Law extended her focus to developing innovative strategies for legal workflows. The study Bhargava and Erbežnik developed outlines a blueprint for a rule-based, retrieval-augmented AI tool designed to support Croatian–Slovenian judicial cooperation by making assessments timely and consistent. Tap the link in bio for the full article. #BerkeleyLaw #AI #LLM 📸: @anastasiia_v_s

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