UC Berkeley Consumer Law Center Created With Gift From Elizabeth Cabraser
The new center aims to advise lawmakers on how to protect low-income consumers and will bring consumer law clinics from across the country together for a conference.
February 14, 2018 at 01:40 PM
3 minute read
The University of California, Berkeley School of Law is launching a new center on consumer law with a $3.5 million donation from high-profile plaintiffs attorney Elizabeth Cabraser, a 1978 graduate of the school.
The Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice will be the first consumer law center housed at a top-tier law school, according to Berkeley officials.
“I believe that we can create a pre-eminent university-based center on consumer law and that it will make a huge difference in people's lives,” said law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky in an announcement of the new center. “I am deeply grateful to Elizabeth Cabraser for making this possible.”
The center will focus on research and analysis, with the goal of furthering policy changes in consumer law. It will file amicus briefs in consumer law cases, produce white papers, and advise lawmakers and regulatory agencies on ways to benefit low-income consumers. The center will also create more opportunities for Berkeley law students to gain experience in consumer law. Additionally, it will co-host a first-ever conference of consumer law clinics from across the country and convene consumer law scholars.
Cabraser, a partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, is one of the biggest names in the plaintiff's bar. She has secured billions in cases against tobacco, pharmaceutical and oil industry defendants.
“Consumer law is at work all around us, every day,” she said in an article about the new center on the law school's website. “But it's almost invisible in law schools. This center will actively help protect people in the modern marketplace.”
Cabraser has also taught consumer law at Berkeley, as has Ted Mermin, the co-founder of the Public Good Law Center who will become the interim director of the new center in April.
“While modern consumer law has been around for more than a century, there's never been an academic hub at a leading school with the mission of figuring out what it encompasses and what it can accomplish,” Mermin said. “That's a real void we're eager to fill.”
Berkeley has been building up its consumer law programming over the past decade. It began offering a course in consumer law in 2008, and now has five such classes. Students in the school's Consumer Justice Clinic defend clients in debt-collection lawsuits and bring litigation against entities that prey on immigrants who don't speak English.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllMorgan Lewis Shutters Shenzhen Office Less Than Two Years After Launch
Texas-Based Ferguson Braswell Expands in California With 6-Lawyer Team From Orange County Law Firm
2 minute readJustin Baldoni Sues Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds for $400M in New Step in 'It Ends With Us' Fight
6 minute readTrending Stories
- 1'A Death Sentence for TikTok'?: Litigators and Experts Weigh Impact of Potential Ban on Creators and Data Privacy
- 2Bribery Case Against Former Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin Is Dropped
- 3‘Extremely Disturbing’: AI Firms Face Class Action by ‘Taskers’ Exposed to Traumatic Content
- 4State Appeals Court Revives BraunHagey Lawsuit Alleging $4.2M Unlawful Wire to China
- 5Invoking Trump, AG Bonta Reminds Lawyers of Duties to Noncitizens in Plea Dealing
Who Got The Work
J. Brugh Lower of Gibbons has entered an appearance for industrial equipment supplier Devco Corporation in a pending trademark infringement lawsuit. The suit, accusing the defendant of selling knock-off Graco products, was filed Dec. 18 in New Jersey District Court by Rivkin Radler on behalf of Graco Inc. and Graco Minnesota. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi, is 3:24-cv-11294, Graco Inc. et al v. Devco Corporation.
Who Got The Work
Rebecca Maller-Stein and Kent A. Yalowitz of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer have entered their appearances for Hanaco Venture Capital and its executives, Lior Prosor and David Frankel, in a pending securities lawsuit. The action, filed on Dec. 24 in New York Southern District Court by Zell, Aron & Co. on behalf of Goldeneye Advisors, accuses the defendants of negligently and fraudulently managing the plaintiff's $1 million investment. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick, is 1:24-cv-09918, Goldeneye Advisors, LLC v. Hanaco Venture Capital, Ltd. et al.
Who Got The Work
Attorneys from A&O Shearman has stepped in as defense counsel for Toronto-Dominion Bank and other defendants in a pending securities class action. The suit, filed Dec. 11 in New York Southern District Court by Bleichmar Fonti & Auld, accuses the defendants of concealing the bank's 'pervasive' deficiencies in regards to its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and the quality of its anti-money laundering controls. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, is 1:24-cv-09445, Gonzalez v. The Toronto-Dominion Bank et al.
Who Got The Work
Crown Castle International, a Pennsylvania company providing shared communications infrastructure, has turned to Luke D. Wolf of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani to fend off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 25 in Michigan Eastern District Court by Hooper Hathaway PC on behalf of The Town Residences LLC, accuses Crown Castle of failing to transfer approximately $30,000 in utility payments from T-Mobile in breach of a roof-top lease and assignment agreement. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Susan K. Declercq, is 2:24-cv-13131, The Town Residences LLC v. T-Mobile US, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Wilfred P. Coronato and Daniel M. Schwartz of McCarter & English have stepped in as defense counsel to Electrolux Home Products Inc. in a pending product liability lawsuit. The court action, filed Nov. 26 in New York Eastern District Court by Poulos Lopiccolo PC and Nagel Rice LLP on behalf of David Stern, alleges that the defendant's refrigerators’ drawers and shelving repeatedly break and fall apart within months after purchase. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Joan M. Azrack, is 2:24-cv-08204, Stern v. Electrolux Home Products, Inc.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250