Over 20 years ago, we created our Diversity Scholarship Program to assist Bay Area students in their first year of law school who meet our eligibility requirements to defray some part of their legal education expenses. Farella has awarded $680,000 in scholarships to 95 Bay Area first-year law students.

For the 2025 Diversity Scholarship Program, Farella Braun + Martel LLP will award a total of $45,000 in scholarship grants to be divided equally among three first-year law student recipients.

Eligibility Requirements:

  • Applicants must be current full-time law students who are about to complete or just completed their first-year classes in good standing, pursuing a J.D. at one of the following law schools: University of California Berkeley School of Law; University of California Davis School of Law (King Hall); UC College of the Law, San Francisco; Santa Clara University School of Law; Stanford Law School; or University of San Francisco School of Law.
  • Applicants must be students whose academic achievement, employment and community service indicate strong potential to excel in the legal profession and be a future leader in taking actions towards making the legal profession more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. This means actions towards ensuring or working to ensure equal access, opportunity and participation for everyone in the legal community.

A group of our attorneys and legal professionals make up the panel of judges who will review the applications. The panel may also include client representatives who co-sponsor the scholarship program. Scholarship applications and materials will be reviewed by all panelists. The panel will select no more than five (5) finalists for the three scholarships who will be interviewed. After the interviews have been conducted, the panel will make the final selection of the three law student recipients. All recipients will be offered the opportunity to participate in a formal mentoring program by our Firm’s attorneys throughout their second year of law school.

Scholarship recipients will be chosen based upon a combination of merit and financial need. Preference will be given to applicants demonstrating a commitment to working and living in the Bay Area after the completion of their legal studies. For more additional details, please read the application instructions here.

2025 Diversity Scholarship Application.pdf

2025 Diversity Scholarship Application.dox

The application period is now open and will close on May 27, 2025. If you are interested in applying, please complete the application form and send it to [email protected] by May 27. Please contact Kayla Nieskes at [email protected] with any questions.