Academics (Overview)

Structured Study Groups guided by ASP Mentors and ASP & Bar Prep professors provide help in studying core 1L courses during students’ second semester. Structured Study Groups use cooperative learning techniques monitored by trained ASP Mentors, who are successful upper-level students. Students who participate in the Structured Study Groups learn to demonstrate subject mastery to peers, learn test-taking skills, and practice exam writing. Structured Study Groups offer the advantages of frequent peer workshops and feedback to help students determine how well they are doing and where they need help.

While most law schools leave it largely up to the student to determine how his or her studies are proceeding, Thomas Jefferson helps encourage ongoing assessment and provides support with our Learning Assistants. Learning Assistants are upper level law students who have excelled in their first year courses and who serve as Learning Assistants and receive training to do so. Learning Assistants are familiar with the course content, and they usually are familiar with the professor teaching the course in which they are assisting. They provide frequent study materials for all students in the course, and they are available for regular office hours to help students determine how well they are doing and where they need help. Learning Assistants to not replace the expertise or guidance of course professors, who are available to meet with students regularly regarding questions or concerns about the courses. Instead, Learning Assistants are an additional resource that helps make up the larger Thomas Jefferson learning community.

Learning Assistants:

• Help students to facilitate the learning process.
• Listen and communicate respectfully as experienced peers.
• Provide tools and strategies to students, understanding that there are many options and multiple ways to brief a case and to understand and practice legal analysis.
• Focus on encouraging students to see the big picture – how rules interact – not just the parts.
• Help students to improve their classroom participation and remain engaged in class.
• Help students to strengthen their skills of organization, including organizing first year materials like class notes, briefs, outlines and study strategies.
• Identify whether students are under an undue amount of stress and make appropriate referrals to professionals.
• Encourage students to consider whether their competitiveness is harmful or motivating.
• Continue to refresh and refine their own skills and develop expertise in particular subject matters.

The Week One orientation experience continues through the first semester with our Learning Skills course, which is required for all first semester students. Learning Skills helps prepare students for success throughout their legal careers by focusing on how to study and learn the law. Through weekly class meetings, students have the opportunity to practice new strategies and approaches for reading and writing for law school and for preparing and studying for law school exams. Learning Skills also gives students the opportunity to reflect on their studies and to receive regular feedback on study materials and simulated exams.

Pre-Orientation Assessment and Support

Your legal education begins before the Week One orientation program with an initial course in grammar for use in the legal context. This online program is geared toward preparing students for legal writing, and it helps students assess their strengths and areas for improvement. For students who discover that they need additional support, we offer grammar instruction and workshops throughout the academic year, which focus on specific areas of writing and grammar usage to strengthen students’ skills.

Week One (Orientation)

Starting before regular law school classes, our innovative Week One orientation program helps prepare students for the demands of law school by introducing basic law school skills. The mandatory Week One program helps bridge the gap between undergraduate studies and the demanding reading, analysis and writing required in law school.

During Week One, students participate in small group and large group sessions to learn strategies for approaching their doctrinal coursework. These sessions are led by Thomas Jefferson professors who are knowledgeable about what it takes to succeed in law school. Students learn how to read case law and write case briefs and how to prepare for law school exams. Students also participate in a doctrinal class session to become familiar with the Socratic method, and they take and grade a simulated law school exam. Because of this intensive introduction to law school, students begin the academic year with confidence in their ability to succeed and with an understanding of the basic skills necessary to do so.

Our robust Academic Success Program (“ASP”) provides guidance and support for all students, from before the first day of classes through the bar exam. There is something for everyone.

One of the key strengths of our Academic Success Program is the instructional methodology we have developed to improve the learning process by providing students with learning strategies on how best to study legal concepts while simultaneously learning legal theory. Our unique program empowers students to develop important study, research, and self-assessment skills that they will use in law school and throughout their professional careers. Through a combination of Lawyering Skills courses, the use of Learning Assistants, and the support of our ASP staff, Thomas Jefferson offers you a legal education that is both innovative and comprehensive—here at Thomas Jefferson, ASP teaches you not only what to study but how to study.

The Trademark Clinic is limited to providing services to individuals in San Diego County.

The Trademark Clinic at Thomas Jefferson School of Law provides free legal services for low-income individuals and organizations desiring to obtain Federal trademarks or service marks from the USPTO. Our students, under the supervision of California licensed attorneys, are able to provide legal assistance to people and organizations that can afford the administrative filing fees, but do not have the means to hire an attorney to advise them.

Thomas Jefferson School of Law was the first law school in California with both a Patent and Trademark clinic affiliated with the USPTO's Law School Clinic Certification Program.

The Trademark Clinic is now accepting requests for services from potential clients. The ideal client will have an existing business, one or more goods or services in the stream of commerce, and a willingness to work with law students.

The Trademark Clinic provides legal assistance in the following areas:

• Client counseling
• Trademark clearance searches
• Trademark application
• Trademark prosecution
• Trademark licensing

The Trademark Clinic provides a wide variety of IP-related legal assistance; however, the Trademark Clinic does not represent clients in court or before administrative boards, such as the TTAB. Additionally, the Trademark Clinic cannot file international applications, such as under the Madrid protocol. Finally, the Trademark Clinic is not able to accommodate walk-in requests at this time, so please follow the guidelines below.

In order to qualify for representation, a potential client will be required to make financial disclosures for the Trademark Clinic to determine eligibility. To find out if you are eligible for our services, please complete the Request for Services Form. For more information about our services, please call the phone number listed below.

NOTE: Submission of a completed Request for Services Form does not guarantee that we can or will represent you and does not start our representation of you. You are not yet our client. You become our client only after we satisfactorily determine your eligibility and you sign a formal engagement letter that we provide to you.

Students who participate in the Trademark Clinic will have the opportunity to directly assist clients desiring to obtain federal trademark or service mark registrations from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The clinical experience will provide students with practical opportunities to develop skills in problem solving, client development, drafting and critical thinking. Go to Trademark Clinic Student Eligibility and Requirements for more information on the student application process.

Trademark Clinic

Small Business Law Center

Thomas Jefferson School of Law

701 B St. Suite 110 San Diego, CA 92101

Phone: 619.961.4382 Fax: 619.961.1382

Email: TrademarkClinic@tjsl.edu

Web: http://www.tjsl.edu/clinics/sblc

Directions to TJSL

Parking Information

Solo inventors and businesses or non-profits with a patentable idea can receive assistance in prosecuting a patent application with the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law Patent Clinic. Thomas Jefferson School of Law was the first law school in California with both a Patent and Trademark clinic affiliated with the USPTO's Law School Clinic Certification Program.

Thomas Jefferson School of Law students, under the supervision of California licensed patent attorneys, work with lower-income inventors and businesses with a developed idea but without the means to hire a patent attorney to advise them. Patent protection is essential to establishing a thriving business and getting recognition for a successful invention. Students who participate in the Patent Clinic will work directly with clients and gain practical experience in problem solving, client development, drafting and critical thinking skills. For students who wish to apply to work in the Patent Clinic, go to the Patent Clinic Student Eligibility and Requirements webpage.

The Patent Clinic provides patent legal assistance in the following areas:

• Client counseling
• Invention disclosure interview
• Patentability search and opinion
• Patent application preparation
• Patent application filing (administrative fees paid by client)
• Patent application prosecution to issuance (administrative fees paid by client)
• Patent application appeals (limited)
• Patent licensing

Thomas Jefferson School of Law students who work in the Patent Clinic do not represent clients in court. They cannot file international patent applications and cannot manage or administer maintenance fees for issued patents. Although the clinic provides free legal services, clients must pay all applicable USPTO fees.

Potential clients are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the USPTO administrative fee structure for patents. http://www.uspto.gov/learning-and-resources/fees-and-payment/uspto-fee-s...

Interested inventors can apply for clinic services by completing the Request for Services Form. Walk-in services are not available. For more information about our services, please call the phone number listed below.

Students who participate in the Patent Clinic will have the opportunity to directly assist clients desiring to obtain patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The clinical experience will provide students with practical opportunities to develop skills in problem solving, client development, drafting and critical thinking. Go to Patent Clinic Student Eligibility and Requirements for more information on the student application process.

 

Hollie Kucera, '16

Electrical Engineer

“The Patent Program at Thomas Jefferson School of Law provided me with invaluable experience working with clients, drafting patent applications, and handling filings on EFS Web. This experience set me apart from other young professionals in the field of Intellectual Property law and allowed me hit the ground running at my first job without having to go through the typical learning curve that most new hires face.”

Patent Clinic
Small Business Law Center
Thomas Jefferson School of Law

701 B St. Suite 110
San Diego, CA 92101

Phone: 619.961.4382
Fax: 619.961.1382

Email: PatentClinic@tjsl.edu

Who We Are

The Bar Secrets^® TJSL California Bar Program offers a personal, cutting-edge approach to mastering law school and ultimately the bar exam. And because the school subsidizes it, it’s available to you at less than half the cost of the corporate conglomerates. With all the personal attention and individualized feedback you receive, you basically get double the service, at less than half the price.

Who We Are NOT

Bar Secrets^® is not a large, corporate-backed bar prep course with high name recognition that offers a cookie-cutter approach to law school and the bar exam. “Cookie cutters” boost the bottom line (and they work well in baking), but they ignore the top priority — you, the individual student and bar candidate. Because Bar Secrets^® is not paid per student, the program focuses on people — not profits.

What You Get

• Great Results
  • (Feb. 2012 CA Bar Exam TJSL Pass Rate: Bar Secrets^® — 64 % vs. “Other” — 57 %)
  • (Feb. 2011 CA Bar Exam TJSL Pass Rate: Bar Secrets^® — 60 % vs. “Other” — 34.5 %)
• Multiple Structured Essay and PT Writing Sessions
• Minimum of 5 Full Mock Bar Essay Exam Days
• 3 Full Mock MBE Days
• Access to Multistate Edge^®
• Access to Bar Secrets^® Video Lecture Series Online Dashboard
• Structured Final Study and Memorization Plan
• Voice-Annotated, Multi-Media Feedback on Essays and PTs
• Access to Sit-Down Meetings with the Instructors Who Teach the Subjects
• Unlimited Email Inquiries
• Free Face-to-Face Consultations in Person, iChat, or FaceTime
• Accurate Bar Essay Subject Predictions
• Stress Management
• Emotional Support

What You Don’t Get

• A Tiered Pricing Structure with Different Classes of Service
• Consultation Charges
• Nickeled-and-Dimed with Hidden Costs
• Limits on Essay and PT Feedback
• Limits on Free Email Questions or Face-to-Face Consultations
• Minimal and Generalized “Canned” Feedback on Essays and PTs
• Hard Sales from Reps Who Work on Commission
• “Celebrity” Lecturers Who You Don’t Ever Get to Talk To

What You Will Receive

1L Student

• The 1L Book (Covering all first year subjects)
• A video program – A subscription to online videos for your computer, smartphone, and tablet for the entire 1L academic year

2L Student

• The 2L Book (Covering all second year subjects)
• A video program – A subscription to online videos for your computer, smartphone, and tablet for the entire 2L academic year

3L Student

• The Multistate Subjects Book (Includes all subjects covered in Legal Synthesis I)
• Single subject books for all subjects covered in Legal Synthesis II when you enroll in LS II
• A video program – A subscription to online videos for your computer, smartphone, and tablet for all subjects covered in Legal Synthesis I & II and more

The Bar Secrets^® TJSL Program provides you with the tools you need to pass the bar exam. What’s even better is that federal rules allow TJSL to extend your student budget loan limit in your graduating semester to finance in-house programs like the Bar Secrets TJSL program. Federal rules do not, however, permit this extension to finance outside programs like BarBri or Kaplan PMBR.

The category of family law has come to encounter a wide array of legal services, including divorce, custody disputes, adoption, domestic violence, and surrogacy. Many family lawyers also include transactional work in their practice, particularly in the area of estate planning. Thomas Jefferson School of Law provides a thorough curriculum and a wealth of advanced practice opportunities, enabling graduates to develop thriving family and estate planning law practices.

Courses

Community Property

Comparative Family Law

Family Law

Field Placement

Mediation

Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic

Wills & Trusts

Our family law and estate planning faculty members have an open-door policy and are willing to provide guidance to any student who wants to pursue an intellectual property specialty.

Professor Julie Greenberg (Sexuality, Gender & the Law, Women & the Law, Comparative Family Law) is an internationally recognized expert on the legal issues relating to gender, sex, sexual identity and sexual orientation. Her path-breaking work on gender identity has been cited by a number of state and federal courts, as well as courts in other countries. Her most recent work, Intersexuality & the Law: Sex Matters, was  published in 2011 by the New York University Press.

Professor Ellen Waldman (Mediation) founded and supervises the school's mediation program, which affords students an opportunity to mediate disputes in small claims court. Prior to joining TJSL she clerked for the Honorable Myron Bright of the Eighth Circuit in Fargo, North Dakota, and practiced law in Washington, D.C., where she received mediation training. She was subsequently awarded a scholarship in 1990 to pursue an LL.M. in mediation and served as a fellow at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry, and Public Policy in Charlottesville, Virginia and at the medical ethics department at the University of Virginia Medical School. Professor Waldman speaks, trains and publishes in the areas of mediation and medical ethics.

Professor Steven Berenson (Family Law, Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic) has taught family law at TJSL for a decade and is the founder and supervisor of TJSL's Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic, which provides a range of legal services, including a variety of family law matters, to veterans living in San Diego communities. Following graduation from law school (where he served as Trial Operations Director of the Harvard Defenders), Professor Berenson clerked for Justice Edith W. Fine of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. He then spent more than five years as an Assistant Massachusetts Attorney General, where he focused on civil litigation in the areas of administrative, constitutional and consumer protection law. During that time, Professor Berenson also served as a Supreme Court Fellow with the National Association of Attorneys General. He regularly publishes work dealing with the role of lawyers in protecting individuals civil and constitutional rights.

Associate Professor Kaimipono David Wenger (Wills & Trusts) a graduate of Columbia Law School and an active blogger on the popular law site Concurring Opinions clerked for Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York.  Before coming to TJSL to teach business associations, practiced corporate securities law with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP, in New York City.

Associate Professor Luz Herrera (Wills & Trusts) has worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on empowerment zones and at the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. Before coming to Thomas Jefferson, she opened her own practice serving the under-privileged community in Compton, California.

Director JudyBeth Tropp (Field Placements) received her law degree from Fordham University School of Law and her bachelors degree from Smith College (cum laude). She is a former assistant district attorney with the Appeals Bureau in Brooklyn, New York and former deputy public defender, with the County of Los Angeles.

Adjunct Professor Zuzana Colaprete (Accounting for Lawyers, Federal Income Taxation, Estate Planning & Taxation, Estate & Gift Tax, Accounting for Lawyers, and Trusts) received her Masters in Law Degree in Taxation from the University of San Diego School of Law; her MSBA in Accounting, San Diego State University and her B.A. from Hofstra University. She is a Certified Public Accountant and a former tax attorney with the District Counsel Office of the Internal Revenue Service. Previously employed with PricewaterhouseCoopers, she is currently in private practice with an emphasis in all levels of I.R.S. representation, tax planning and estate planning.

TJSL Students

The summer session is a great way to catch-up or get ahead on your classes, in beautiful San Diego.

Summer classes begin on Monday, June 11 and end on Monday, August 6, 2012. The 2012 summer tuition rate per unit is $1425.

Download the Registration Bulletin  (More forms below)

Visiting Students

We welcome visiting students from other law schools to attend our summer sessions.

If you wish to visit TJSL for a summer session, you must apply for visitor status by submitting an application.

Please contact our Admissions Office for application and registration instructions at 800.936.7529 or by email at admissions@tjsl.edu.

This summer we will offer:

Biotechnology Law

Business Associations

California Evidence

California Pre-Trial Preparation

Client Interviewing & Counseling

Community Property

Contracts Drafting (distance learning)

Criminal Procedure

Entertainment Law Transactions (distance learning)

Estate & Gift Tax Law

European Union Law

Evidence

International Law

International Sports Law

Internet & Social Media Law

Introduction to Civil Practice & Professional Development

Jurisprudence

Juvenile Dependency Law

Law of Amateur Sports

Negotiation Theory & Skills

Pre-Trial Preparation & Skills

Professional Responsibility

Professional Sports Law

Remedies

Small Business Law Center

Sports Law Externship

Tax Litigation

Trial Practice

Summer 2012 Schedule Request

Payment Plan Form

Information about the Small Business Law Clinic