UC Berkeley Law has once again had a banner hiring year, adding seven new professors across a wide range of fields and disciplines to an already stellar faculty.
The seven new hires include four senior scholars — Professors Brian Galle, Joy Milligan Ph.D. ’18, Bertrall Ross, and Kevin Washburn — and Associate Professor Ryan Sakoda, Assistant Professor Jason Ferguson, and Clinical Professor Alina Ball. They’re the latest in a transformative wave of hiring since Dean Erwin Chemerinsky arrived in 2017.
“We had a spectacular year in faculty hiring. We’ve added terrific faculty in many different fields who will be great classroom teachers as well as influential scholars,” Chemerinsky says. “We are tremendously fortunate to have them join us.”
It’s a homecoming for several: Ross and Milligan are returning after four years at the University of Virginia School of Law, Ball is an East Bay native, Ferguson got his Ph.D. in UC Berkeley’s Department of Sociology, and Sakoda was an undergraduate at the university.
“My time away helped me remember and appreciate the unique qualities associated with Berkeley Law,” Ross says. “I was drawn back because I love the people there: those who were there when I left and the many new additions I’ve had the fortunate opportunity to spend time with since I left.
“Berkeley Law tends to draw a type of person who is intellectually curious beyond the bounds of ordinary legal discussion, who is serious yet does not take themselves too seriously, who cares about the world beyond the institution, and who is generally just fun to be around.”
Others were eager to join the faculty because of the school’s storied history as a leader in many areas of legal academia and its commitment to serving the public.
“I’ve always had a warm spot in my heart for Berkeley. It’s a wonderful public law school,” says Washburn, a specialist in Indian law who counts the late Professor Philip Frickey as a mentor. After a distinguished career — including stints as law school dean at the University of Iowa and the University of New Mexico, and service as the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs at the U.S. Department of the Interior under President Barack Obama — the school’s public mission focus was alluring.
“I have always been a public servant in one way or the other, with my entire career in the federal government or in public law schools, and that really appealed to me,” Washburn adds. “Berkeley’s just such a strong law school.”
Here’s a look at each of these outstanding new additions.
See at link
https://www.law.berkeley.edu/article/seven-new-faculty-hires-2025-scholarship-research/
