Dear Law Students:

Welcome back. If you are hoping/planning to do a Spring 2009 Field Placement or Judicial Externship for academic credit, you are required to complete an Application Form as soon as possible. The Application Form is available from Stephanie Dorton, field placement assistant, sdorton@law.berkeley.edu.

Students are required to attend the mandatory orientations on Wednesday, January 14 at the following times/rooms:
Field Placement Orientation: 4:20 - 6:10 in room 170 - this includes General, Criminal, and Environmental Field Placement Seminar students
Judicial Externship Orientation: 6:20 - 8:10 in room 124

If you have any questions, please contact Sue Schechter, Field Placement Director, at sschechter@law.berkeley.edu or 510-643-7387.

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The American Bar Association’s Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund application is available now for the 2009-2010 academic year.
The Scholarship Fund is intended to encourage racial and ethnic minority students to apply to law school and to provide financial assistance to the scholarship recipients.
The Scholarship Fund will award $5,000 of financial assistance annually to each scholarship recipient attending and ABA-accredited law school. An award made to an entering first-year student may be renewable to two additional years, resulting in financial assistance totaling $15,000 during his or her time in law school.
Recipients will be selected based on their qualifications for the scholarship and not on the law school they plan to attend.

Applications are available at www.abanet.org/fje
The deadline to apply is March 2, 2009.
If you have questions, please contact the ABA Committee at 312-988-5137.

Holiday Hours:

We will be open Monday, December 22nd and Tuesday, December 23rd.

We will be closed starting Wednesday, December 24th through Friday, January 2nd.

We will resume regular office hours on Monday, January 5th.

If you have an urgent matter, please send an email to financial-aid@law.berkeley.edu or leave a message at (510) 642-1563. We will respond to you as soon as possible when we return on January 5th.

Professor Ian Haney López is seeking a Research Assistant for the Spring semester for assistance with a project on the origins of contemporary colorblindness in Constitutional antidiscrimination law. The work will involve researching Court papers as well as other original sources, so strong research skills and the ability to work independently are required. Prior coursework in Constitutional Law is a plus, but not a prerequisite. The position requires a commitment of approximately fifteen hours a week, to be compensated at the standard GSR rate. If you are interested, please submit a resume and informal transcript along with a cover note to Professor Haney López’s assistant, Edwin Bish (ebish@law.berkeley.edu), no later than January 17.

The CDO wishes you good luck on your final exams and a happy and safe winter break (if we don’t see you before then)!

WINTER BREAK HOURS

Our office will be open during much of the break to assist you with career planning.  The office itself will be closed from December 24th- January 2. However, a few of us are planning to be around on December 29th and 30th, if you need help on those days.  It is always a good idea to call or email ahead during the winter break to confirm hours when counselors will be available.Please check your email during the break for announcements of events that may be happening during break or at the very beginning of the spring semester.You can schedule appointments online (click on the Appointments link on the CDO homepage, call 642-4567, or come by our office).

PIPS DAY (Feb. 7th, 2009)

Sponsored by the eight Northern California law schools and administered by a San Francisco non-profit organization, the Public Interest Clearinghouse, this is an incredible opportunity to meet and apply for interviews with over 100 public interest and government organizations.  For a list of the employers who participated in this program last February, please visit: http://pic.org/programs/pilp/pipsday.html.

On December 15th, you will be receiving an email from pipsday@pic.org with information about how to register, including a username and password, instructions for accessing the online system, and deadlines.  Be sure your email settings and spam blockers permit email from this address/domain to get through to your inboxes. 

Students who want to interview with employers participating in PI/PS Day will be required to submit their requests and their resumes, cover letters, and other requested materials online to the Clearinghouse by noon on January 16th, 2009.  (NOTE:  The Clearinghouse will not begin accepting online requests and resumes until January 5th, 2008.) 

SPRING OCIP

The CDO is expecting 25-30 employers (both public and private sector) to participate in our Spring OCIP, which will take place at the Hotel Durant during from February 9th to the 25th.  You apply for interviews via the OCI section of the b-Line.  The application deadline is January 20th, 2009. 

Unlike our lottery-based fall OCIP, employers participating in Spring OCIP are permitted to prescreen applicants and invite only those students they are interested in interviewing.

Employers have just started to register and will continue to do so until January 8^th.  Beginning on December 19th, you can login and be able to see who has registered so far, but you should continue checking back regularly to view the most current list of participating employers.  You will be able to begin applying for interviews on January 9^th but you will need to complete your applications by the end of the day Tuesday, January 20^th. 

In order to participate in Spring OCIP, you will need to upload your resume — before you apply or sign up — into the Documents section of b-Line.  Instructions for doing so are posted on the b-Line homepage (in the Announcements section).

Have you had your resume reviewed by a CDO attorney-counselor?  If not, send it to career@law.berkeley.edu.  Please review the online Resume and Cover Letter Writing Guides and the accompanying samples before you draft your materials and send them to us.

Professor Oona Hathaway is seeking a Research Assistant for the Spring semester to assist her with a variety of academic projects relating to international law. She is seeking a commitment of 10, 15, or 20 hours per week. Tuition remission is available through the GSR program. If you are interested, please submit a resume and informal transcript along with a cover note to Professor Hathaway’s assistant, Jeff Kent (jkent@law.berkeley.edu), no later than December 17.

The East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC)- a clinic of Berkeley Law School - would like to hire a law student to compile a legal resource manual for EBCLC’s general self-help clinic. Known as the Community Legal Access Service Site (CLASS), the Law Center’s self-help center offers low-income Alameda County residents brief legal assistance and referrals. At CLASS, staff attorneys, community volunteers, pro bono attorneys and law students assist people in finding legal resources and advocating for themselves.

The student intern will work with CLASS staff attorneys to develop a substantive legal training manual for use by pro bono attorneys and other advocates. CLASS is a general legal clinic, therefore, the manual would include basic legal information in a number of areas, including consumer law, criminal law, estates and trusts, bankruptcy, small claims litigation, and family law. The manual is intended as a basic primer, and the intern will cull and compile information from many sources.

Applicants should have completed at least one year of law school, be available for 10-20 hours of work each week, and have the ability to do self-motivated and independent work. Compensation is at the standard Graduate Student Rate. Anyone interested should send a cover letter and a resume via mail or email to:

Subject: poverty law resource manual

Jen Neuber
jneuber@ebclc.org
CLASS Coordinator
East Bay Community Law Center
3130 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94703

Please cc Tirien Steinbach, Executive Director tsteinbach@ebclc.org

The Japanese American Bar Association Educational Foundation (JEF), located in Los Angeles, is pleased to offer four scholarships of $2,000 each. Please note that if you are a 1L applying for this scholarship and do not have a law school transcript at the application deadline, you may forward the transcript afterward upon receipt.

View details and download the application at www.law.berkeley.edu/553.htm or www.jabaonline.org/scholarships.html.

The deadline to apply has been extended to January 5, 2009.

Contact:

James Toma
JEF Scholarship Committee Co-Chair
(213) 897-2128
tomajm@hotmail.com

The Rosenthal Bar Exam Scholarship Program recognizes outstanding graduating California law students with financial need who are embarking on careers in public service law by providing financial support for costs related to taking the California Bar Exam. Winners will receive California Bar/Bri Law Review Bar Exam review courses and/or $2,000 in cash to help defray fees and related expenses of taking the California Bar Exam.The Rosenthal Bar Exam Scholarship is awarded in the Spring 2009. Please refer to the application’s Criteria, Instructions and Conditions.

The application must be submitted to Berkeley Law’s Financial Aid Office, 2000 Center Street, Suite 400, Berkeley, CA 94704-7220, by 5:00 PM, January 29, 2009. The law school will submit it’s nominations to the California Bar Foundation by the application deadline, Thursday, February 12, 2009.

Visit the California Bar Foundation’s website to download the application.

Students:

If you are looking for a summer or permanent work outside of the Bay area – and are planning on traveling to that area over the winter break – you might want to consider taking advantage of the career services facilities at other law schools located there.  Berkeley Law has reciprocity agreements with schools across the country. Contact us (career@law.berkeley.edu)  for details. Visits need to be arranged by us in advance and we need to give adequate notice to the other school, so please let us know right away if you are interested. 

Keep in mind that many law schools may be on semester break and their business hours during this period may be limited. Call ahead to the career services office at the chosen school before using their services. Find out what services are available to reciprocity students, as not all career services may be available to reciprocity students.

Please note: Berkeley Law has a special reciprocity policy with UCLA and no prior request is required. Students need only show their current Berkeley Law ID to the UCLA staff for access to their career office resources.

As a memorial to the late Presiding Justice Hollis G. Best, his friends have established a Scholarship to encourage and support outstanding academic achievement and commitment to service by law students.
The Best Scholarship is an annual award presented this year in the amount of $1,000 during th Spring 2009 semester.
Each candidate must be a law student who has successfully completed at least one year of law school.  Strong preference will be given to current residents of Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Stanislaus, Tulare or Tuolumne Counties.
Primary considerations are academic achievement and the breadth and depth of the applicant’s extracurricular and community activities.
Financial need and demonstrated leadership capabilities are also taken into consideration.

The application can be downloaded at the Financial Aid website.

Completed applications must be received by the Best Scholarship Committee by December 31, 2008.

The Roy A. Gustafson Memorial Scholarship Fund awards of about $2,500 are made each year to law school students who have graduated from a public or private high school in Ventura County, have successfully completed the first year of law school at an accredited college or university in the state of California, and will continue at such a college or university, and who demonstrate financial need. Please refer to the application at the Financial Aid website for full eligibility criteria.

The application must be received at VCCF before 5:00p.m. on January 16, 2009.

Contact: Virginia Weber, Program Officer at (805) 988-0196, Ext. 119 or e-mail to vweber@vccf.org.

Applicants must be presently enrolled in the first, second, third or fourth year of legal study.
Depending on the number of scholarships awarded, the scholarships can vary in amount. Most recently the amounts have varied from $1,000 to $3,000.

Applications must be received on or before January 15, 2009 and mailed to:
Amy Guerra
c/o 2014 Tulare Street
Fresno, CA 93721

Email inquiries to amy.k.guerra@earthlink.net.
Applications and more information available at the Financial Aid Website or larazalaw.com.

The Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF) is pleased to announce the 2009-2010 Puerto Rican Bar Association (PRBA) Scholarship Program for Latino law students. The PRBA, founded in New York in 1957 is one of the oldest Latino bar associations in the United States. Today, the PRBA continues its tradition of breaking down barriers to the legal profession with active members throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rican Bar Association (PRBA) Scholarship Award is for $2,000 (may vary).
All Latino students attending law school in the United States (including Puerto Rico) are eligible to apply. PRBA selects applicants based on financial need and academic promise. Scholarship recipients will be contacted directly by the PRBA.

All applicants must be first or second year students in a JD program at an American Bar Association (ABA) approved law school. Students working toward their LL.M. are not eligible for this award.

Postmark deadline to file the PRBA Scholarship application: Saturday, February 28, 2009.

All Scholarship candidates must submit a complete and accurate application along with the required supplemental materials to be considered.

Applications available at the Financial Aid website or PRLDEF’s website.