Boalt Hall School of Law Will Change Name by January; Administrators, Key Alums Feel Name Too Regional

[From Cal Law]

Boalt Hall School of Law has hired San Francisco brand consulting firm Marshall Strategy Inc. to poll students, faculty, alumni and others in aid of devising a “single brand” name for the school, a Boalt spokeswoman said.

San Francisco Bay Area locals call the school Boalt Hall. But outside of California, that colloquialism often draws blank looks. Thus, what has been dubbed the “identity project”—to come up with a more readily identifiable name for the prestigious law school.

The school officially goes by University of California, Berkeley School of Law, according to spokesperson Susan Gluss. But in its its newsletters, Web pages, and other places, there are "about a dozen different names and iterations."

Boalt Hall plans to announce a new name in January.

Folger Levin & Kahn partner Adam Sachs, past president of the Boalt Hall Alumni Association, said that under a single new name the school will likely have an easier time raising its visibility. He said clients of lawyers who went to Boalt may not know that their counsel went to UC-Berkeley.

"When I talk to clients, I tell them I went to Berkeley," Sachs said. "The truth is, the name Boalt is much more of an insider thing."

Shartsis Friese partner Arthur Shartsis agrees that a name change would be a good thing. Shartsis, a member of the Boalt Hall Alumni Association, said that to him personally, the school's association with UC-Berkeley is what's key.

"Boalt is an affectionate name and we all know it that way, but it's not sacrosanct," Shartsis said. "If you disassociated us from UC-Berkeley, that would be a problem, in my view."

Berkeley's law school dates back to 1894. The Boalt Memorial Hall of Law was built in 1911 with a gift from Elizabeth J. Boalt, in memory of her husband, John Henry Boalt, an attorney and judge. The department of jurisprudence gained autonomy in 1912 and was renamed the School of Jurisprudence. It wasn't until 1950 that the school of jurisprudence became the School of Law, with "Boalt Hall" becoming its popular name.