Each year, the Clinical Legal Education Association invites law schools to nominate students as their Outstanding Clinic Student or Team and Outstanding Externship student. This series includes submissions from law schools celebrating their outstanding students.
From UC Berkely Law:
CLEA Outstanding Clinic Student: Belén de Leon
Belén de Leon ‘25 is the awardee of this year’s Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Outstanding Clinic Student Award at UC Berkeley Law. Over four semesters in the Human Rights Clinic, Belén emerged as a principled, strategic, and deeply compassionate advocate. She took on some of the most complex legal challenges of our time—from corporate accountability to counter-terrorism and crimes against humanity—consistently producing work marked by her intellectual rigor and moral clarity. A quiet leader, she uplifts her peers and earns the trust of survivors and partners through empathy and resolve. Belén meets uncertainty with courage, and hardship with grace. The CLEA Award is not just an honor—they are powerful affirmations of her brilliance, resilience, and unwavering belief in human dignity.
CLEA Outstanding Externship Student: Justin Kaley
Justin Kaley ’25 is the awardee of the CLEA Outstanding Externship Student Award from the UC Berkeley School Field Placement Program. I started meeting with Justin when a professor directed him to me as he was pursuing a non-traditional legal path. He was a first-year student trying to find his way. Watching him develop from a student into a proud member of the legal profession pursuing his passion has been an honor and a privilege. He came in with a clear commitment to serving underrepresented communities in a novel way. He has explored field placements that enabled him to see the legal system and how it could work for all. He has done three externships – one with the California Department of Justice Public Rights Division: Charitable Trusts Section, a judicial externship with the California Office of Tax Appeals, and his final semester a civil field placement with Legal Assistance for Seniors. He has taken three of the field placement class components. His lecturers have remarked – he is always engaged in discussions and a pleasure to have in class. At his placements, his supervisors have been impressed with his persistence and his insistence of providing the best legal service he can, his interest in learning and taking on more. In addition, he takes responsibility for his actions and learns from them. In addition, his interactions with the Field Placement Office staff have always been kind and professional, and that says a lot to all of us. We are excited and honored to nominate Justin for this award.
