China Program

The highest priority outside of the classroom at Thomas Jefferson School of Law is serving the many diverse communities around us. Public service is part of our mission and volunteering benefits the under-represented and often invisible members of our society. We established on-site volunteer opportunities for our students and our alumni to practice what law school preaches every day.

We encourage our students to participate in our Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic and the Small Business Law Center, which encompasses clinics focusing on patents, trademark, non-profit business law. We also offer a lawyer incubator for alums interested in becoming solo practitioners. All of the programs provide valuable legal training and career contacts.

Students volunteer in our pro bono honors program, working with a variety of underserved communities. Dozens of student organizations are involved in a myriad of public service projects. Becoming a member of a student organization is a good way to develop career relationships that last a lifetime.

Public service is also a core value for our world-class faculty who frequently serve on boards of various community organizations. They volunteer throughout the year for speaking engagements locally, nationally and internationally. Our faculty is involved in stimulating and informative programming on campus every semester and invites the public to learn about the latest legal topics and trends from them and other experts in the professional and academic worlds.

LIVE CLIENT CLINICS

The Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic is operated by students under the guidance of licensed practicing attorney and provides limited legal assistance and full-service legal representation, to the residents and alumni of Veterans Village of San Diego, a program that provides housing, substance abuse, mental health, and job training services to formerly homeless veterans.

The Small Business Law Center (SBLC) supports small businesses and non-profits while providing skills development for law students. Thomas Jefferson School of Law students, under the direct supervision of California licensed attorneys, provide legal assistance to micro-entrepreneurs, small businesses and non-profits that do not have the means to hire an attorney to advise them. The SBLC live-client clinics are:

• The Non-Profit and Business Law Clinic provides legal assistance to eligible nonprofit organizations and small businesses that stimulate economic growth in communities of need.

• The Patent Clinic provides free legal services for lower-income individuals and organizations who want to protect a patentable idea with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

• The Trademark Clinic provides free legal services for low-income individuals and organizations who want trademarks from the USPTO.

SELF-HELP LEGAL CLINICS

The Small Claims Workshop provides limited legal assistance for low to moderate income individuals and businesses with small claim issues. Thomas Jefferson School of Law alumni attorneys and law students provide half-hour consultations to litigants who need assistance when being sued, suing another party, or help recovering money for a small claims judgment.

VOLUNTEER INCOME TAX ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is operated each spring by the law school’s Tax Law Society, a student organization, under the supervision of a faculty tax expert. The VITA program is an IRS program that provides a valuable community service in the form of free income tax return preparation. Student volunteers receive IRS training and certification.  

THE MEDIATION PROGRAM

Our Mediation Program is a great opportunity for students to work with clients in a courtroom setting. Mediation is a growing industry within the legal community and our law school is a community leader in using this clinical program to immerse students in the art of conflict resolution. Our students represent real clients to resolve disputes for San Diego's Small Claims Courts. Alumni often participate in our Probate Court Program, which provides free mediator services for individuals, typically in connection with a Conservatorship or Guardianship before the Probate Court.

STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS

A number of TJSL’s student organizations are deeply committed to community service and are often at the forefront volunteering at underserved community assistance programs, running food, clothing or blood drives, or in raising funds for natural disasters in the United States and around the world. Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s Diversity Committee has established the CLIMB (Crawford Legal Institute & Mentorship Bond) program, a student-run mentoring program for local high school students interested in the law. Our students often come from underserved communities and know the value of giving back.

THE EXTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s highly ranked Externship Program offers great opportunities for hands-on legal experience in public interest, government and private sector law. Placement opportunities range from the United States Attorney’s Office to local biotech corporations to law firms to nonprofit organizations. Students who participate in the Judicial Externship Program have a unique opportunity to work for a Federal or California State Judge in their chambers. Students gain experience in the field and earn academic credit.

THE PRO BONO HONORS PROGRAM

Through the Pro Bono Honors Program, our students can volunteer to work with underserved populations in traditional and non-traditional legal settings. Working with national, regional and community-based projects enables our law students to gain valuable legal experience, build practical legal skills and serve a vital function in that community sector. Students can earn certificates and special honor cords to be worn at graduation.

CONFERENCES, PANELS, & SPEAKERS

At Thomas Jefferson School of Law, we offer a rich intellectual environment throughout the academic year. The faculty, the school’s Centers for Academic Excellence, Alumni Association and various student organizations host an impressive slate of conferences, panels and individual speaker presentations that address a wide spectrum of legal interests and issues while featuring highly-regarded experts, practitioners and jurists. Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit is frequently available for California attorneys who attend these events.

For a look at some of these events, please visit:

• Conferences
• Colloquia & Speakers
• Faculty Presentations

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.

Inaugurated in 2001, the Women and the Law Conference was the first lecture series in the western United States focusing exclusively on issues related to gender and the law.

Created by Thomas Jefferson Professors Julie Greenberg, Susan Tiefenbrun, and Susan Bisom-Rapp, and fostered by a committed group of faculty, staff and students, the first conference earned rave reviews from its attendees, including practitioners and legal academics. Professor Deborah Rhode of Stanford Law School, a widely acknowledged expert on the status of women in the legal profession, and then-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Legal Profession, delivered the first keynote address.

After her 2003 visit to Thomas Jefferson School of Law, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg generously created the Thomas Jefferson School of Law Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecture Series, at the time one of only two lecture series in the world bearing her name. Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecturers Joan Williams, Martha Albertson Fineman, Kathryn Abrams, Vicki Schultz, Rochelle Dreyfuss, Barbara Palmer, Cheryl Hanna, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Stacy Leeds, Sarah Weddington and Susan Williams have delivered presentations on a wide range of topics that have a profound effect on women.

The Women and the Law Project’s conference series is unique in its early interdisciplinary approach and its commitment to bridging the gap between the teaching academy and the practicing bar.

1. Advancing the legal rights of women
2. Promoting gender-related scholarly work
3. Facilitating an interdisciplinary dialogue among academics in a variety of disciplines
4. Enhancing communication about gender issues among jurists, practitioners, legal academics and other specialists working on issues of sex and gender
5. Sharing the expertise of Thomas Jefferson law faculty with the wider community  

View the WLC History

To register, download the China Program Application and view the China Brochure. Mail completed application, non-refundable registration fee of $250 by March 23, 2019 to:

China Study Abroad Program
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Attention: Anna Carrillo
701 B St. Suite 110
San Diego, CA 92101

Checks should be made out to Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Please write 2019 China Program on the check Memorandum.

Pay Online

Deadlines
March 23, 2019 - Application/Deposit Deadline
April 12, 2019 - Tuition Deadline/Letter of Good Standing

Visit the TJSL Study Abroad Program.

The Zhejiang University Guanghua College of Law is located in the heart of Hangzhou at 51 Zhijiang Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310008 People’s Republic of China. Classrooms are located in the Zhejiang University Guanghua College of Law school building. The office of the director of the Thomas Jefferson School of Law China Program will be located in the law school building as well as in the Lakeview Hotel Hangzhou.

A fax machine and other administrative services are located near the office of the dean of Zhejiang University Guanghua College of Law. To reach the director of the China Program after May 14 at the Zhejiang University Guanghua College of Law, please contact the secretary at 612666662@qq.com or at quiqing@zju.edu.cn. or dial the secretary of the law school at 011 86 571 86710239. To send a fax to the law school dial 011 86 571 865 92726. Professor Yongxin Song can be reached by telephone and fax at 011 86 571 87972390. After May 14, send your fax to the attention of Professor Susan Tiefenbrun at the Lakeview Hotel fax at 011 86 571 870 71350.