Sara J. Berman is a professor of lawyering skills and the director of the Academic Success Program. Before joining the USC Gould School of Law, Berman served as the founding director of academic and Bar success at the AccessLex Center for Legal Education Excellence, a national nonprofit in Washington, D.C. She also served on the faculty and senior administration of law schools in California, New York and Florida.

An early adopter of distance learning in legal education, Berman taught at the first fully online law school for 15 years. Her publications and scholarship focus on student success, bar exams, professional licensing, distance learning and self-represented litigants.

Berman earned her JD from the UCLA School of Law. She also graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a BA from UC Santa Barbara, majoring in both political science (with an emphasis in international relations) and French literature.