Berkeley Law - Lifetime Achievement Award 2026

Peter S. Menell, the Koret Professor of Law, is a pioneering scholar whose vision and institutional innovation and leadership have made enduring contributions to Berkeley Law, bridging academia, the judiciary, Congress, the legal profession, and technology and content industries.

Soon after arriving at Berkeley Law in 1990, Professor Menell floated the idea of establishing the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology (BCLT) as a hub for interdisciplinary research, policy dialogue, and engagement with courts, policymakers, industry, and students on the challenges posed by technological change. Even though his proposal was met with skepticism, he forged ahead, co-founding BCLT in 1994 and serving as its executive director during its formative years. Through his outreach, fundraising, faculty recruiting, event planning, conference organizing, student job placement, support for student organizations, and scholarship, BCLT quickly emerged as the nation's foremost IP and technology law center.

To bring students into BCLT's scholarly mission, Professor Menell developed the Law & Technology Writing Workshop in conjunction with the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He led the workshop for over two decades, supporting publication of over 500 student articles. He also established the Environmental & Natural Resources Writing Workshop, leading its first several Ecology Law Quarterly issues.

Furthering BCLT's mission, Professor Menell has led the Federal Judicial Center's (FJC) intellectual property education programs since 1998. He has organized more than 60 programs, including an annual intensive four-day program in Berkeley that has educated more than 1,000 federal judges. This project inspired him to develop pathbreaking intellectual property case management treatises in conjunction with leading practitioners. This judicially-focused work also opened a pipeline for dozens of Berkeley Law students seeking clerkships.

Professor Menell's work with the FJC motivated him to co-found the Berkeley Judicial Institute in 2019, where he pursued research on judiciary reform.

Professor Menell has co-authored more than a dozen leading casebooks, research handbooks, and case management treatises. These volumes and his many monographs, articles, amicus briefs, commentaries, and work with international, federal, and state organizations have influenced jurisprudence, legislation, and scholarship about intellectual property, environmental law, law and economics, and the judiciary.