It’s Official: UC Berkeley to Drop “Boalt Hall” from Law School’s Name

[From the San Francisco Chronicle]

As previously reported here, Boalt Hall School of Law 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.

Now the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the branding process is over. The new name: "UC Berkeley School of Law."

Marshall Strategy Inc. was reportedly paid $25,000 to come up with the new name.

Dean Christopher Edley Jr. said the money was well-spent because people will now understand that that the law school is tied to UC Berkeley.

He said he routinely has to clarify what and where "Boalt" is. When he gave a lecture recently at Howard University, the person introducing him turned to him and said, "I am sorry, but I am confused. Are there two law schools in Berkeley?"

"We are looking for ways to more clearly identify the law school with Berkeley so that outside audiences will have a clearer sense of what we are," Edley said. "I view this not as a new name but as a way to remedy the confusion about the relationship between Berkeley, Boalt and UC Berkeley."

The school will still be called Boalt "within the family," he said.

But by January, the school's official name will be "UC Berkeley School of Law," or, informally, "Berkeley Law School."

He said that most top law schools, such as Stanford Law School and Harvard Law School, are also named for their host campuses and have name recognition from that.

He said the consulting firm, Marshall Strategy Inc. of San Francisco, was hired mainly to design the school's magazine, Web site and brochures for fundraising and student recruiting.

Less than $25,000 of the approximately $200,000 total contract was spent on the name, which was chosen after the consultants interviewed alumni, students, donors and others in the community, Edley said.

"They talked to a lot of people about this issue and whether it was a problem, and trying to get a sense of what would be the best way to identify the law school with UC Berkeley," Edley said.

The school hired the consultants because staff members could not take the time away from other duties to do the work, he said.

The consultants came up with a handful of new names, but Edley said he could not recall what they were. Ultimately, he chose the traditional "UC Berkeley School of Law."

The name change comes at a time when Edley has been trying to raise Boalt's national profile. He supports hefty fee increases so the public law school can better compete with private schools in attracting faculty.

And the school kicked off a $125 million fundraising campaign in January 2006 to hire new professors, improve and expand facilities, increase scholarships and add programs. Edley stressed name recognition is important for the fundraising effort.

But not everyone agrees that all students will benefit from a higher profile for the school.

The effort, including the name change, "comes at the detriment of retaining the public mission of Boalt Hall," said Erin Darling, a third-year Boalt law student. She said low-income students and those planning to go into public service law will find it harder to afford the school.

The official school Web site formerly referred to the "School of Law - Boalt Hall, University of California Berkeley."

But the name Boalt does not appear on diplomas, presumably making the name change less burdensome.

Third-year Boalt law student Dan Occhipinti, 24, told the Chronicle that the name Boalt definitely is confusing. He said that most student-run organizations and publications have already moved away from "Boalt," and instead refer to "Berkeley Law School" or "UC Berkeley School of Law."

Whether the name change will give "Boalt" (forgive me, it's still "Boalt" to most of us) the wished for boost in national recognition remains to be seen.—Blogonaut