Tara Berta has been the Supervising Attorney at the Cooperative Restraining Order Clinic (CROC) in San Francisco providing direct legal services to domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking survivors since 1999. 

 CROC empowers survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking to understand their legal rights and options and provides free legal services to help enforce and protect those rights, with a particular focus on restraining orders, family law, Title IX, and Marsy’s Rights.

 In addition to the thousands of survivors who have worked directly with Tara to secure their personal safety, their children’s personal safety, and financial support, Tara’s former and current colleagues have immensely benefited from her thoughtful guidance and deep insight into gender-based violence. Her guidance has enabled other attorneys and advocates to work more effectively with survivors to correct the injustices they face.

 Tara is relentlessly dedicated to making sure every single survivor is seen, heard, and gets the support they deserve. She brings her commitment to listening to and amplifying the voices of survivors both to her legal work with clients every day, as well as to crucial policy work creating systems changes that directly impact domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking survivors and their children.  She served on the Board of Directors of Bay Area Women Against Rape from 1999 to 2018.  She co-chaired San Francisco’s Domestic Violence Death Review Team from 2000 to 2015, reviewing domestic violence-related homicides, strengthening system policies and procedures, and identifying prevention strategies to reduce future incidents of domestic violence-related injuries and deaths.  She served as a Steering Committee Member of the San Francisco Greenbook Initiative from 2000 to 2006, a collaborative of child welfare agencies, domestic violence service providers, batterer intervention programs, and San Francisco’s Unified Family Court, to improve policies and procedures within and across systems to better achieve safety and prevent further abuse of domestic violence survivors and their children.  From 2001 to 2004, she was a member of the Full Faith and Credit Steering Committee, an advisory committee to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, a multi-disciplinary national effort to develop a practical guide for the effective issuance and enforcement of civil protection orders.

 Tara is a 1994 graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law and received her B.A. from the University of California San Diego. 

Past Alexander Prize winners

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Katharine & George Alexander

The late Katharine Alexander practiced law for 25 years as a public defender for Santa Clara County and taught law courses for several years at San Jose State University.

The late George Alexander served as professor of law at Santa Clara University for 34 years and as dean of its School of Law for 15 years.

Both Katharine and George dedicated their lives to instilling in students and lawyers a commitment to justice. Their service to humanity serves as a model for other lawyers.