Lecturer - Criminal Law - School of Law
Position overview
Application Window
Open date: July 11, 2025
Next review date: Friday, Jul 25, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.
Final date: Saturday, Jul 11, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)
Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.
Position description
Berkeley Law is generating an applicant pool of qualified instructors should openings arise.
Berkeley Law is one of the premier law schools in the United States. Our programs are demanding, engaging, hands-on, and selective. As with all our faculty, we expect our lecturers to demonstrate a strong commitment to academic rigor and intellectual diversity.
Berkeley Law strives to educate responsible, effective, and forward-thinking advocates who serve the public through legal practice, public policy, academic scholarship, and related fields. In doing so, the school addresses some of society’s most pressing challenges by leveraging its strengths in teaching and research to improve law, policy, and public institutions. At the heart of Berkeley Law’s public mission is a commitment to access, affordability, and empowering students from all backgrounds to pursue impactful careers across a wide range of professional paths.
The J.D. and LL.M. programs host a diverse and constantly evolving curriculum. Hundreds of courses are offered, including dozens in our top-ranked Law and Technology, Business Law, International Law, Environmental Law, and Social Justice programs.
This pool encompasses courses on criminal law, criminal procedure investigations and adjudication, white-collar crime, the nexus of criminal and immigration law enforcement (“crimmigration”), youth justice, post-conviction remedies, capital punishment, prisons and parole, sentencing, criminal justice theory and policy, and other courses on major and emerging criminal law practice and policy areas.
Instructors for lecture courses are appointed in the Lecturer title; instructors for experiential center courses are appointed to the Field Work Supervisor title. The applicant selected will have important teaching responsibilities, including preparing course materials (such as the syllabus) and maintaining a course website, and will also be expected to hold office hours, assess and offer feedback on student work, assign grades, and advise students.
UC Lecturers and Field Work Supervisors are academic appointees in an organized bargaining unit and are exclusively represented by the American Federation of Teachers - Unit 18.
School: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/
Curricular Details: https://law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/courses/courseSearch.php
Public Mission: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/public-mission/
Qualifications
• Bachelor's degree, or equivalent international degree, is required at the time of application.
• J.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., LL.M. or Master’s degree, or equivalent international degree, and a minimum of three years of professional experience in either legal practice, judicial clerkship, or law school teaching, in the United States, or
• Bachelor's degree and a minimum of six years professional experience in either legal practice, judicial clerkship, or law school teaching, in the United States.
• Availability to teach in-person during required law school class times.
• Experience teaching courses in a United States law school, with outstanding student valuations; and/or
• Five or more years of legal practice experience in the United States or another jurisdiction, in the area of criminal law.
Application Requirements
Teaching evaluations and/or other materials or information may be requested of top candidates.
Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.
Statement of Teaching - Please address the following questions related to your potential teaching at Berkeley Law. Please limit your response to 300 words.
-- Please discuss your competencies and experiences relevant to successful instruction for law school courses, including your prior law teaching experiences, teaching approach, and future teaching interests. This can include, for example, specific efforts, accomplishments, and future plans to support the success of all students through inclusive curriculum, classroom environment, and pedagogy. We also welcome information about other aspects of your professional experience as it is specifically relevant to teaching at Berkeley Law.
- 2 required (contact information only)
Help contact: academicpositions@law.berkeley.edu
About UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in our public mission of research, teaching, and service, consistent with UC Regents Policy 4400 and University of California Academic Personnel policy (APM 210 1-d). These values are embedded in our Principles of Community, which reflect our passion for critical inquiry, debate, discovery and innovation, and our deep commitment to contributing to a better world. Every member of the UC Berkeley community has a role in sustaining a safe, caring and humane environment in which these values can thrive.
The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status.
For more information, please refer to the University of California’s Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment Policy and the University of California’s Anti-Discrimination Policy.
In searches when letters of reference are required all letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality prior to submitting their letter.
As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.
As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct.
- “Misconduct” means any violation of the policies or laws governing conduct at the applicant’s previous place of employment, including, but not limited to, violations of policies or laws prohibiting sexual harassment, sexual assault, or other forms of harassment or discrimination, as defined by the employer.
- UC Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment Policy
- UC Anti-Discrimination Policy
- APM - 035: Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination in Employment