Q&A with Dean Berg

By Carla Meyer 

Jessica Berg became dean of UC Davis School of Law in fall 2024 after spending much of her career at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University, including more than a decade as dean. 

Berg held several roles at CWRU, including associate director for the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy and associate director for the Law-Medicine Center. She has taught many courses in law schools, medical schools and graduate programs, including: Health Management & Policy, Food & Drug Regulation, Public Health Law & Ethics, Bioethics & Law, and Research Regulation. 

Berg is first author on Informed Consent: Legal Theory and Clinical Practice (Oxford University Press) and has over 50 publications, spanning a wide variety of areas including professionalism, public health, mental health, e-medicine, medical decision-making, organizational ethics, research with human subjects, confidentiality, reproductive law and ethics, genetic enhancement, and end-of-life care. 

Berg received both her B.A. and J.D., with honors, from Cornell University. She received her MPH from Case Western Reserve University. 

In this Q&A, Berg reflects on her first year leading UC Davis Law. 

What drew you to UC Davis Law? 

As a longtime law school dean and professor, I was of course aware of the UC Davis Law faculty’s outstanding national reputation. As I learned more about King Hall, I was eager to join a law school community dedicated to ensuring equal access to justice. I also admired the commitment of the law school and UC Davis as a whole to serving first-generation students and surrounding communities. 

How does the law school serve surrounding communities? 

You mean, apart from educating some of the best attorneys in the Sacramento region and beyond? (laughs). On a practical basis, UC Davis Law’s clinics have spent decades assisting indigent clients while also giving students vital experience. 

Over the past year, we have sought to further strengthen our clinics by seeking support for paid student summer positions. We have had wonderful early success from generous alums and others who believe in the importance of this work. 

I know it is early in your deanship here, but can you point to other initial successes? 

We have enhanced our academic centers. They are directed by King Hall faculty members who are leaders in environmental law, innovation and intellectual property, international law, labor law, and critical race and nation studies. These centers bring in top experts, many of them King Hall alumni, to deliver exceptionally informed, topical presentations. In some instances, a student organization focused on that area of law will co-sponsor an event. Our new Center for Business Law and Society will cultivate the same levels of synergy among faculty, students, alumni and the larger profession. 

I encourage our alumni, and members of the public, to sample a variety of our centers’ talks. The sheer breadth and interdisciplinary nature of topics covered help illuminate what we offer as a law school. 

Although King Hall is known, for very good reason, for public service, our faculty and alumni experience is vast. To give more context, we are one of the few U.S. News & World Report top 10 law schools for public service to also place high in graduates working in Big Law. 

What are some of your current goals for students? 

To further the experiential learning initiatives that are so key to their readiness for the legal profession. I talked before about our clinics, but we also place more than 120 students per year in externships in a variety of practice areas.  

And I want to make sure we think carefully about the tools and training our students need to succeed in our pluralistic and complex society. Law school can provide a unique and important set of skills that are fundamentally designed to help explore and resolve difficult and potentially polarizing issues and disagreements. After all, many people who make laws in our country—and almost all the judiciary—came out of law schools.   

We need people with these skills actively engaged in our region, nation and world. 

What is your biggest challenge as dean? 

I would say educating and training ethical, conscientious and highly adaptable lawyers within this continually shifting landscape. On a micro level, we have to acknowledge the impact that AI and other rapidly evolving technologies are having on legal education and the practice of law. 

On a larger scale, we have entered unprecedented times for both higher education and U.S. law. 

How is the law school navigating these times? 

We always remind students of how a law school education distinctly qualifies them to create the change they want to see. Our students do not just hear this from us; they meet alums who now occupy the halls of power. 

We are fortunate that so many alumni at the top of their fields are willing to take the time for their alma mater. I am thinking, for example, of California Supreme Court Justice Kelli Evans (Class of 1994), who delivered an inspiring commencement speech to our Class of 2025 last spring. Our alums and community members serve on advisory boards, teach classes part-time, attend panels and student events, or contribute financially. All add to an environment where students feel empowered and engaged, and I am so appreciative of their time and support. 

What has been your biggest takeaway from your first year as dean? 

That this law school benefits from a uniquely warm sense of community. Students, faculty, staff and alumni all contribute to a respectful, positive atmosphere. It’s a fantastic foundation from which our students can build success. It also makes me feel incredibly welcome as the new dean. I am really grateful for that.