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When legal issues are making news – think Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Our faculty members are experienced media commentators and great resources for stories on legal issues in the news.

Tucked into the southwest corner of the United States along the Pacific Ocean, the City of San Diego is one of the 10 largest cities in the country, and the second largest in California, with approximately 1.35 million people. More than 3 million people live in the County of San Diego, which stretches from the Pacific Ocean on the west, to the desert in the east, to city of San Clemente in the north, and borders Mexico to the South.

Because of its geography, the region is a hub for recreation and outdoor activities. Restaurants, museums and attractions are open all year long due to the region’s mild weather.

San Diego also is known for its innovative and entrepreneurial companies, its scientific development and research, its manufacturing and industrial business, and its stunning hospitality sector that welcomes the world to its doors through the Port of San Diego.

The international border with Mexico is the busiest in the world and the cooperative relationship between the cities of Tijuana and San Diego is at the heart of many businesses in the region.

Downtown San Diego is the center for San Diego city and county governments and is also home to one of the busiest U.S. District Courts in the country in terms of cases. Most business headquarters are located downtown or in the communities of Rancho Bernardo, Sorrento Valley and Kearny Mesa, just miles north of downtown.

The blue jewel of downtown San Diego is San Diego Bay, which is within walking distance of Thomas Jefferson School of Law. The law school is also just two blocks from the Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres in a thriving, vibrant area known as East Village. It is home to modern office buildings and new residential spaces, creating a dynamic urban community close to historic Balboa Park, the trendy Gaslamp Quarter, the haven of Little Italy, and the scenic waterfront shops and restaurants of Seaport Village and The Headquarters. San Diego is a city full of diverse neighborhoods, including an array of beach communities, urban centers and suburban areas to match every taste and stage of life.

It’s the ocean that is the main attraction in San Diego. With some 70 miles of coastline, San Diego features lots of sandy beaches and good waves for all types of surfing. To the east are the Laguna Mountains, where snow falls during the winter. Beyond the mountains is the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, the largest state park in California.

Within the city limits is Mission Bay Park, which features acres of lagoons, picnic grounds, beaches, running and biking paths and playgrounds.

When not studying, you could visit one of the many museums in Balboa Park, go windsurfing on Mission Bay, hike the ocean-view trails at Torrey Pines State Park or Mission Trails Regional Park, or visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. Concerts, professional sporting events, fine dining, and great Mexican food at hundreds of local taco shops, are just some of the things that make San Diego special.

San Diego is the epitome of the Southern California lifestyle, with friendly people and the personal and professional opportunities of a major metropolitan area. Thomas Jefferson School of Law is in the ideal location for you to earn your law degree.

You may purchase your books online at http://www.legalbooksdistributing.com. The law school does not have an on-site bookstore.

As detailed in the Student Handbook, Thomas Jefferson School of Law is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities. Individuals with a disability will not be denied access to or participation in law school services, programs and activities because of their disability.

Appropriate documentation of disabilities supplied by a licensed professional or health care provider is required.  The cost of obtaining a professional evaluation and documentation will be borne by the student.  All approved accommodations are prospective and no retroactive accommodations are provided.

Students with disabilities who would like to be accommodated must contact the Director of Student Affairs as soon as possible. It is the responsibility of the student to request accommodations by completing all required forms and submitting supporting documentation and evaluations from a physician, psychologist, or other licensed professional. 

To request a packet or to find out more about disability services on campus, please contact Director of Student Affairs Ben Chamberlain at bchamberlain@tjsl.edu or at (619) 961-4202.

Our student organizations are the lifeblood of your experience here at Thomas Jefferson. The nearly 20 organizations can offer you professional workshops in your areas of interest, amazing networking opportunities, community service projects and lots of social activities.

You also will have the opportunity to join one of our extraordinarily successful competition teams, the Alternative Dispute Resolution, the Mock Trial Team and the Moot Court Team. All three teams have an outstanding track-record of success against teams from the nation’s top-ranked law schools.

Alternative Dispute Resolution Team: Competes in negotiation and mediation competitions, and students develop dispute resolution skills applicable to virtually any area of practice.

Mock Trial Team: Competes in trial advocacy competitions, and students develop courtroom skills of particular value to a trial lawyer, such as a criminal prosecutor or defense attorney, a personal injury or medical malpractice plaintiffs’ lawyer, or an insurance defense lawyer.

Moot Court Team: Competes in appellate advocacy competitions, and students develop persuasive writing and oral argument skills relevant to practice areas in which legal writing is a critical component, such as a criminal law attorney focusing on appellate practice, a death penalty litigator, a business law litigator, or an intellectual property law litigator.

Visit the Student Bar Association (SBA).

Need a transcript?

The staff in the Registrar’s Office is happy to help you not only with registration, but they will also provide information and forms to receive transcripts and applications for some of the law school’s special programs.

Legal Reasoning, Research, & Writing

Recognizing that language is a lawyer's most important tool, the first year of the legal writing curriculum helps students begin to become experts in working with the language of law. Recognizing that lawyers rank skills in oral and written communication, legal analysis, and legal reasoning as the most important components in the successful practice of the law, the first-year curriculum helps students acquire and develop those skills. Students learn to research, read, analyze, and apply the law. They practice with the methods needed to effectively communicate and persuade: how to create and test arguments, how to organize a legal document, how to draft and revise for an audience.

Students are assigned to small sections of about 25 students each for the two legal writing courses in the first-year curriculum. Professors who teach the curriculum work closely with students throughout the writing process, providing individual feedback on drafts and outlines through written comments and writing conferences.

The required legal writing curriculum at Thomas Jefferson totals seven units in the first year plus completion of an upper-level writing requirement. The core writing course, Legal Writing I, is taught by tenured and tenure-track professors augmented as needed by highly qualified visting professors or TJSL Faculty Fellows. The first-year advocacy course, Legal Writing II, is taught by a combination of full-time faculty and experienced practitioners. After the first year, students continue to develop lawyering skills and methods through advanced work in specific areas of the students' interest.

Legal Writing I

In Legal Writing I, students are introduced to the basic lawyering skills used by practicing attorneys. All first-year students take Legal Writing I, a four-unit course, in their first semester. Students are assigned to small sections of about 25 students each. In this course, students learn to read, brief, and analyze different sources of the rules of law, particularly case law made by judges and statutory law made by legislatures. Students learn how to research in primary and secondary sources, both through print and online sources. Students learn how to effectively organize a typical written document, most often an interoffice memo, and how to develop and evaluate the arguments that could be made about the application of a particular rule to a client's legal problem. They learn to draft and revise an interoffice memo predicting the outcome or answering a supervisor's questions.

Second- or third-year teaching assistants are available to first-year students through Legal Writing I. The teaching assistants are available to help guide students through their early assignments, particularly in research, but they also can provide advice and assistance with other challenges of the first year.

Legal Writing II

The second required course in the legal writing curriculum is Legal Writing II, usually taken in the second semester. In Legal Writing II, a three-unit course, students deepen their understanding and practice their use of the basic lawyering skills acquired in the first semester. They apply those skills to the task of persuasive written and oral advocacy, following a client's lawsuit from the trial court to the appellate court. In this course, students work with experienced faculty, including active practitioners, to conduct research, craft thoughtful arguments, draft and revise trial court and appellate briefs, and prepare to present a case in oral argument before a panel of moot court judges. Following a client's legal problem from trial to appellate court helps students grasp procedural as well as substantive issues, learn to research more broadly and more thoroughly, and experiment with different persuasive methods as the lawsuit progresses.

Legal Research

In the first year, legal research is incorporated within the curriculum of both Legal Writing I and Legal Writing II. Students learn to use legal research sources, both print and online. Emphasis is placed on learning efficient techniques and effective strategies for legal research within the context of a particular assignment.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Legal Writing?

Although "legal writing" sounds as if it concerns only writing, the course is an introduction to a range of basic lawyering skills that are essential to producing legal documents. The legal writing classes cover research, analysis, organization, reasoning, and oral presentation skills as well as the process of drafting and redrafting documents. In addition, they include discussion about ethical and other issues that come up in the practice of law.

2. How does the legal writing curriculum prepare me for law practice?

The legal writing courses focus on the kinds of documents you will be expected to produce as a practicing lawyer. The first year curriculum includes writing objective interoffice memos and persuasive trial and appellate court briefs and delivering appellate oral arguments.

3. Is Legal Writing a required course?

You are required to take seven units of legal writing in your first year -- four units in the first-semester and three units in the second semester. After that, you are required to complete an upper-level writing requirement, which may be satisfied in a course or in a variety of other settings.

4. How is Legal Writing graded?

Legal Writing is graded the same as all your other classes at Thomas Jefferson -- anonymously and using the same grading curve.

5. What should I look for in a legal writing curriculum?

A good legal writing program should be taught primarily by professors with a long-term commitment to teaching the class as well as extensive practice and teaching experience. Legal writing sections should have low student to professor ratios to allow for the kinds of one-on-one conferences, small group collaboration, and practical hands-on learning that should occur when you learn a new skill. A comprehensive legal writing curriculum fits together well and allows students to advance in their own interest areas.

6. How does Legal Writing fit in with the rest of my law school courses?

The first-year legal writing courses at Thomas Jefferson focus on the same analysis, reasoning, organization and writing skills that are needed in your other classes. Legal writing gives you many opportunities to practice and get feedback on those skills during your first year.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program is operated each spring by the law school’s Tax Law Society, a student organization. The TJSL VITA program is an IRS program that provides a valuable community service in the form of free income tax return preparation.

Clients who come to the Thomas Jefferson VITA clinic include students, low-income families, senior citizens and others who can’t afford professional tax services or are unable to complete their own tax forms.

The students who volunteer for this clinic receive training to become IRS-certified, learn how to operate the TaxWise software, how to interview clients effectively and how to assemble a proper tax return.

Items you need to bring to the VITA/TCE Sites to have your tax returns prepared

• Proof of identification

• Social Security Cards for you, your spouse and dependents and/or a Social Security Number verification letter issued by the Social Security Administration

• Birth dates for you, your spouse and dependents on the tax return

• Wage and earning statement(s) Form W-2, W-2G, 1099-R, from all employers

• Interest and dividend statements from banks (Forms 1099)

• A copy of last year's Federal and State returns if available

• Bank Routing Numbers and Account Numbers for Direct Deposit

• Total paid for day care provider and the day care provider's tax identifying number (the provider's Social Security Number or the provider's business Employer Identification Number) 
• To file taxes electronically on a married filing joint tax return, both spouses must be present to sign the required forms. 
• If you rented your home, the name and address of your landlord or property management company and their phone number. 

The Thomas Jefferson School of Law Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic provides limited legal assistance, as well as full service legal representation, to the residents and alumni of Veterans Village of San Diego. Veterans Village is a highly successful, residential program that provides housing, substance abuse, mental health, and job training services to formerly homeless veterans who are struggling to regain full participation in society. Areas of concentration include family, consumer and administrative law. Clinic students have primary responsibility for the cases they handle and the clients they represent.

Students are guided in such representation by a faculty member. In addition to their casework, students participate in a weekly class meeting. These classes focus on the substantive law relevant to the students’ cases, the lawyering skills necessary to represent their clients effectively, and the ethical and professional issues that confront lawyers engaged in this type of practice.

View the Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic Brochure

For more information, contact Professor Nicole Heffel, Director of the Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic, at ndambrogi@tjsl.edu.