Both Berkeley and Hastings are easy to get to, so you don't have to live right near the school. Hastings is on the plaza that City Hall is on . The BART station is only a block away, across the UN Plaza. Just a lot of bums sleeping on the grass on nice days. On rainy days, they are in the City library across the plaza (which requires you to mouth breathe if you have to go there). Bus routes all over the place. They say that in SF the farthest you have to walk is 3 blocks to get a transit route.
In Berkeley, the BART station is also a block away. The Law School is across the street from a main entrance to the school. The Berkeley campus extends up to the top of the ridge behind it.