Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s extensive array of electives allows students to design a course of legal studies tailored to their own interests.
Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s extensive array of electives allows students to design a course of legal studies tailored to their own interests.
Adjudicatory Criminal Procedure follows the adjudicative process for criminal prosecutions from charging to post-conviction review. It starts when the criminal case moves from the police station to the courthouse and covers the constitutional rules that govern a criminal prosecution as it proceeds through the courts. Topics include the prosecutor's power to file charges, bail, preliminary hearings, grand juries, speedy trial, discovery, plea bargaining, guilty pleas, jury trials (from jury composition to closing argument), sentencing, and post-conviction review. The course is essential to preparation for criminal practice and covers material tested on the California Bar examination.
This course prepares students to administratively appeal government findings of financial liability for clients. The case study involves a state unemployment tax liability finding, but course principles are generalizable. Student will be assessed by a combination of written motion and oral argument components.
Government agencies influence virtually every aspect of our social lives. Agencies regulate the food supply, workplace, environment, immigration, and money - to name only a few of the areas where agencies wield power. As regulators, federal agencies principally act in three ways - rulemaking, adjudication, and enforcement. In some courses (e.g. securities law, employment law, etc.) students study the regulations produced by a particular agency. In this course, however, students study the law that governs agencies - i.e. how agencies are constrained in their regulatory activities. The course will consider constitutional law (such as separation of powers and procedural due process) and federal statutory law (i.e. the Administrative Procedure Act). Since many of the cases deal with constitutional law issues, the material is often abstract, theoretical and challenging. Students who plan a career in government, with a public interest group or working in a highly regulated industry will likely benefit from taking a course in administrative law. Administrative law is a bar-tested subject in some states.
This course surveys various dispute resolution techniques, including negotiation, arbitration and mediation.
Students requesting ADR units, please email Registrar, Carrie Kayzaka at ckayzaka@tjsl.edu and state the number of units you are requesting. Upon approval, students will be enrolled in ADR units by the Registrar's Office.
This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass or No Credit.
This course might be better described as "selected topics in ADR in the criminal context" because it will largely concern three specific topics: 1) Traditional Retributive versus Alternative (Restorative) responses to gross human rights abuses committed by insurgents or rogue states; 2) victim-offender mediation as an alternative response to "ordinary" crime; and 3) the growth and development of problem-solving courts. As students move through each of these areas, students will explore how these alternative approaches to criminal behavior differ, philosophically, from classic retributive strategies. Students will assess the opportunities and challenges presented by these alternative approaches and work to determine the conditions in which they are most likely to prove successful. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for one unit.
Students will learn the various discovery methods available in California state and federal civil proceedings. Students will learn to formulate demands, responses, and objections, understand and develop strategies in discovery practice, and participate in discovery motion practice. The course will also provide the student with an understanding of the California 2009 E-Discovery Act, and provide an opportunity to participate in a mock deposition. The course is designed to provide the student with practical skills necessary to practice discovery in California, and to develop and advance the student's lawyering skills.
This course builds upon basic legal research skills with a focus on effective and efficient legal research strategies. In this practical, hands-on course, students will learn how to appropriately use both print and electronic information sources for Federal and California administrative, case and statutory law, court rules, legislative history, and secondary sources such as legal encyclopedias, treatises and form books. Cost efficient research and the integration of print and electronic resources are stressed throughout the course.
Advanced Mediation offers students the opportunity to apply and improve the skills they have learned in the Introduction to Mediation course, and to consider legal and practice issues that can arise in mediation. Students will earn valuable experience by mediating disputes in small claims court. Class sessions will cover enhanced skills training, legal issues, practice issues, and theoretical inquiry. Some areas to be covered include: managing disputant emotion, confidentiality, identifying interests, enforceability of mediation agreements, mediating personal injury claims, and strategically using mediation to meet your client's interests. Students will be expected to explore and give an oral presentation on a research topic.
This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
Students will represent a player, a coach, management or a university and will negotiate and draft an employment contract in the sports context. Students will be expected to submit an extensive journal, negotiation evaluations of all participants (negotiations will occur during class and will be evaluated by the professor and other students), a completed contract with discussion regarding why it was drafted in the form it is, and an essay outlining what was learned in the course. Priority in registration goes to Sports Law Fellows in their third year.
This seminar explores the background of a number of property cases, some that are widely recognized as breakthrough cases, which continue to resonate today with the larger themes of property, and some that provide excellent vehicles to address key areas of property law. The course emphasizes the importance of the great stories of the interaction of people and the law that are at the root of all the doctrine, rules, and concepts that become relevant in a dispute about the allocation of rights and responsibilities of ownership between private parties or between individuals and the collective. It is out of these conflicts involving real human emotions and desires that our regime of property law emerges and evolves. The course invokes a complex mix of ideas, including liberty, responsibility, economic efficiency, redistribution, coercion, reliability, and predictability, among others, through analysis of major cases and secondary sources on a wide range of substantive topics in property.
Seminar sessions will require student participation, with the instructor guiding the discussion. Students must come to class willing and able to discuss the assigned material each week. In addition to class discussions, students are required to write a 15-page research paper, which will qualify for upper-level writing requirement credit; write several short essays; and do an oral presentation for part of one class. Grades will be based upon class participation, class preparedness, the short essays, the oral presentation, and the research paper.
This course takes trial advocacy from a science to an art with all phases of persuasion in the courtroom studied while addressing tactics, witness control and examination of theory and theme. For students that have decided that their future is in the courtroom, passion and imagination become more important than form without substance. Each student will work through two full jury cases while expanding upon his or her knowledge of direct, cross, voir dire, opening and closing. Each student will perform weekly and attempt to try new techniques. This course is graded Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit. Honors designation will be noted as a 4.0 on the student's transcript.
This course surveys federal statutory, treaty, and case law relating to American Indians, including such issues as Native American sovereignty and self-determination, criminal and civil jurisdictional conflicts, treaty rights, Native economic development and gambling, the Indian Child Welfare Act, and Native religious rights. The course uses a historical perspective to illuminate current issues and controversies. Students may choose to write a paper to satisfy the upper level writing requirement, or take the full 3-hour final exam. All students, including paper writers, take the multiple-choice section (one hour or less) of the final exam; non-paper-writers take the remaining essay sections of the exam.
This course surveys how political, economic, social, cultural, religious, scientific and philosophical ideas and events have influenced the development of American legal thought and doctrine from colonial times to the recent past. Examples drawn from the law of contracts, torts, property, civil procedure, crimes and the U.S. Constitution will be considered.
This course combines the study of antitrust law - public law controlling of the exercise of private economic power by dominant firms or groups of conspiring firms - with practical instruction in litigation skills. Students will study the substantive law embodied in the Sherman, Clayton, and Federal Trade Commission Acts, including the Per se Rule and the Rule of Reason, the types of antitrust analysis applied to the conduct of cartels and dominant firms. The law applicable to mergers and acquisitions will also be covered. Examples of the appropriate analysis will be particularly drawn from the intersection of intellectual property rights to antitrust law. In addition, students will work in teams to learn and practice litigation skills, including client interviewing, drafting (pleadings, discovery requests and responses), and deposition-taking skills.
The Small Business Law Center (SBLC) Art and Entertainment Law Project (AELP) at Thomas Jefferson School of Law provides legal assistance and representation to artists, actors, dancers, writers, musicians, filmmakers and related non-profit organizations that do not have the means to hire an attorney to advise them. Students who participate in the SBLC will have the opportunity to assist clients by forming their entities, drafting, negotiating and reviewing contracts, and helping clients through the regulatory process. Students will be guided during representation by a licensed California attorney but students will have primary responsibility for their cases.
Students who participate in AELP fieldwork are eligible for 3 or 4 units of live client work. Each unit is equivalent to 5 hours per week. (The required SBLC seminar is an additional 2 units.) A minimum commitment of 15 hours per week for client representation is required. The fieldwork component is graded Honors/Credit/Low Pass/No Credit.
Bankruptcy law is one of the hottest areas of practice today. This survey course will introduce students to consumer and business liquidations under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code, consumer debt adjustments under Chapter 13, and business reorganization under Chapter 11. Students also will learn basic concepts of debtor-creditor law outside bankruptcy.
This course will introduce the student to certain fundamental decisions that must be made by lawyers organizing a new firm, focusing on the principal tradeoffs that must be considered with each decision. The objective is to familiarize the student with the state law business entities through which the firm can operate, the options for accessing the earnings of the firm, and the principal federal rules for taxing the firm's earnings. There will be seven class meetings, each 100 minutes in duration. Students will be evaluated based on their performance on daily written assignments. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for one unit.
This course provides students with practical experience in drafting the documents required for business transactions. The course will focus on documents prepared by lawyers representing a variety of business entities including corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, limited partnerships and sole proprietorships. It will also focus on documents drafted by in-house counsel. The documents will relate to issues that arise during the formation, operation and dissolution of a business entity.
This course is an overview of the lawyer's role in litigation before trial in California civil court. Classes will focus on the Code of Civil Procedure applicable to pleading, discovery, case management conferences, discovery motions, summary judgment, with review of pretrial strategy and planning, including ADR and ethics. Classes will expose students to client interviewing, developing a theory of the case, developing a discovery plan, and preparation of the case for trial. The course also includes several writing assignments, including the complaint, discovery demands, case management statement, and motion for summary judgment. The course is designed to prepare the student to take the case from the time a client walks in the door through the trial readiness conference.
TJSL students enrolled in one approved course at California Western School of Law. Only courses with grades of at least a 2.0 transfer with a grade of credit.
This course examines practical aspects of civil litigation in California, including tactical considerations influencing an attorney's decision to choose state or federal court. Students taking this course will no longer graduate with the unwarranted assumption that state civil procedure operates in lockstep with the model presented in their introductory Fed Civ Pro course. That is an especially precarious assumption.
Both state and federal civil procedure are tested on the California Bar Examination-given in the common law jurisdiction that varies the most from federal procedure. This course presents a number of fresh concepts, not covered in the federal course, that are unique to California practice. Cal Civ Pro thus reinforces the perspective of the student who wants to review key FRCP basics, while entering practice with a vastly improved foundation-not only for learning critical practice concepts, but also for choosing knowledgeably between California's state and federal courts. This class features a mini-review, every week, to promote student long-term memory. Students who prefer not to review until semester's end should not take this course.
Cal Civ Pro's doctrinal component is rooted in the casebook method. But students who prefer a rehash of their 1L experience should not take this skills version of Cal Civ Pro. It is designed to prepare nascent lawyers for the practice of law, far more so than Professor Slomanson's federal civil procedure course. Students taking this course will glean additional practice perspectives regarding professionalism, oral advocacy, collaborative learning, and legal skills development.
Its skills component features the following assessment tools: (1) moot court format-providing each student with the opportunity to argue assigned cases or problems during the semester-which is the basis for graded oral argument [10 points]; (2) practical midterm-such as drafting a demurrer or motion to strike, which has fulfilled the need for a job application writing sample for a number of students [10 points]; and (3) Performance Test final examination [approximately 50 points]. Students who would prefer to encounter the Performance Test format in bar review (two months before the bar exam) should not take this skills version of the course. These course components provide students with an ideal opportunity to practice like it's real, so that when it's real, it will be like they practiced.
A survey of California evidence with particular emphasis on the important differences between state and federal evidentiary rules. The materials will focus on all aspects of evidence and will, in addition, be a review of important evidentiary principles.
This course provides an overview of methods and sources for researching California law. Through lectures, in-class exercises, and take-home assignments, the course introduces students to primary and secondary materials, cost-effective research strategies, print and online resources, and real-world research issues. Topics include California-focused treatises and practice guides such as CEB and Rutter Group, California statutes and regulations, court rules, case law, citators, and legislative history. Grading is based on in-class exercise(s) and take-home assignment(s). By the end of the intersession, students should possess the skills to complete a California legal research assignment in a competent and efficient manner. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for one unit.
This is an introduction to the Chinese legal system taught within the framework of the twenty-eight year economic reform that has brought dramatic change to the Chinese economy and to the lives of the Chinese people. Students will learn about recent legal reforms in intellectual property legislation and in several other areas of the law. This course is team-taught in English by three distinguished Chinese professors of law from Zhejiang University Guanghua School of Law.
This course provides students a roadmap to civil rights litigation.
The instructors are practicing civil rights lawyers and are the co-directors of the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties clinic. Students will learn how to bring a civil suit under the federal Civil Rights Act against state or local agencies for violation of individual civil rights
This course will focus on relevant substantive law and lawyering skills, including interviewing witnesses, fact gathering and analysis, and trial advocacy presented by civil rights practitioners. We will examine the expansion and subsequent erosion of the rights as guaranteed by the 1st, 4th, 8th, and 14th Amendments.
There will be a take home exam or paper, and this course may be used to satisfy the upper-level writing requirement.
This is a skill-building practicum covering the issues of effective client interviewing and counseling. This class will include simulation exercises to enhance students' abilities to interview and counsel clients. This course is graded non-anonymously Honors/Credit/Low Pass/No Credit.
This course provides an overview of the many areas of law affecting comics - that is, sequential art usually accompanied by text. Copyright law is an important element of the course. Areas of copyright addressed include copyright in graphic representations of characters, copyright in characters and story elements as textual creations, copyright in works of fiction, derivative works, copyright infringement and defenses (including parody and fair use), and international copyright issues. Other areas addressed include trademark, including trademark infringement and, for famous marks (like Superman's red S logo), trademark dilution, as well as defenses to trademark actions and international issues. Contract law will also be addressed, including the ways in which unequal bargaining power has often led to the oppression of artists and authors by media companies. The course will also take a look at de facto and de jure censorship of comics, both historical and current. Grading will be based on an evaluative exercise on the last day of class. This course will NOT satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement.
The Small Business Law Center (SBLC) Community Economic Development Clinic (CEDC) at Thomas Jefferson School of Law provides legal assistance and representation to entrepreneurs, small businesses, and non-profits that do not have the means to hire an attorney to advise them. Students who participate in the SBLC will have the opportunity to assist clients by forming their entities, drafting, negotiating and reviewing contracts, and helping clients through the regulatory process. Students will be guided during representation by a licensed California attorney but students will have primary responsibility for their cases.
Students who participate in CEDC fieldwork are eligible for 3 or 4 units of live client work. Each unit is equivalent to 5 hours per week. (The required SBLC seminar is an additional 2 units.) A minimum commitment of 15 hours per week for client representation is required. The fieldwork component is graded Honors/Credit/Low Pass/No Credit.
This course explores the classification of separate and community property, management and control of the community, liability for debts and problems arising from the dissolution of the community or death of a spouse.
Comparative Constitutional Law
Recent decisions from the United States Supreme Court have discussed legal precedent in other countries, sparking a debate about the relevance of foreign judicial decisions to the interpretation of the United States constitution. This seminar will focus on what we can learn about constitutional values and choices by comparing the United States with western European civil law countries such as France and Germany and other common law countries, such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. Using the United States constitution as a touchstone for comparing the other constitutional models, the course will examine elements of universality and difference and discuss the relative merits of the approaches. No previous study of constitutional law is necessary. Subjects covered may include the concept of constitutionalism, issues of comparative constitutional structure (including variations in the institutions and practices of judicial review), limits on constitutional rights (including political limits), judicial appointment, and various substantive constitutional rights, including freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, privacy rights, and differing conceptions of equality. The class will also examine how judges handle issues differently, based on the political context and their contrasting worldviews.
The ultimate goal of studying foreign legal systems is to gain greater insight into one's own legal system. Films enable you to see foreign legal systems in action. The goal of this course is therefore to enable you to "read" a foreign law film and gain greater insight into U.S. criminal procedure by (1) recognizing the distinguishing features of the world's legal traditions, with a focus on criminal procedure (2) describing the legal narrative of a film and the legal tradition that is reflected in the film, and (3) evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the country's criminal procedure, from the filmmaker's point of view and from your point of view. The final grade is based on a 15-page paper (60%); mid-term exam (20%); and participation (20%)."
This course examines and compares regulatory approaches adopted by the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) to address major global environmental issues of our times. The course starts with a comparison of environmental law frameworks, comparing and contrasting basic legal institutions and structures of the US and EU. Students will then examine specific global environmental problems and study the different national regulatory approaches to address them. Environmental topics covered will include some or all of the following: global climate change, endangered species and habitat protection (e.g., species trafficking, deforestation), solid waste disposal regimes (e.g., packaging, e-waste, plastics), toxics regulation (dangerous chemicals), and food systems and security (e.g., genetically modified organisms). If possible, a field trip to a local facility will be arranged.
This course offers a comparative view of the laws and regulations that pertain to small businesses in the U.S. and China. We will learn about the history and current practices of micro-enterprise formation, operation and succession in both countries. Students will have an opportunity to delve into legal principles of business regulation, contracts, and the culture of entrepreneurship. It will explore the role of family-owned businesses and transactional business lawyers. The course will conclude with a look at the development of Chinese business districts throughout the United States as models of community economic development.
Lawyers negotiate in international business transactions all the time but they rarely have the opportunity to practice these skills before they begin using them at the negotiating table. In this course, American and Chinese law students will have the opportunity to improve upon their negotiating skills and approaches and, perhaps more importantly, learn to use different skills and approaches that may be more suitable for international business transactions between the U.S. and China. This class will consist of brief lectures, large and small group discussions, demonstrations/observations, and simulations and exercises. Students will examine how to manage conflicts, evaluate opposing interests, develop options for agreement, and appreciate the differences between Western and Eastern negotiating styles.
This course serves as both an introduction to European tort law and as a comparative inquiry into especially thorny areas of U.S. tort law. First, we will gain a basic understanding of the nature of the tort law systems in three European countries (France, Germany, and England), focusing especially on standards for intent, negligence, strict liability, and liability for defective products. Then, we will examine more deeply, and from a comparative perspective, how these three European legal systems have sought to resolve a number of specific issues that remain especially contentious in U.S. tort law. Examples of the types of specific questions covered in the course include: whether liability should attach for not providing assistance in emergency situations (the no duty to rescue rule); the extent of the privilege of self-defense (the no duty to retreat rule); liability for stand-alone emotional distress; liability for wrongful conception (birth); liability for children; and liability for the mentally incapacitated.
This course will provide a deeper understanding of U.S. Constitutional Law by comparing the structure and content of the U.S. Constitution with the structure and content of the constitutions of other countries. A particular emphasis will be placed on understanding a constitution as a reflection of the history and ideologies of the society that produced it. Among the aspects of the U.S. Constitution that will be examined in this way are federalism, separation of powers, and the bill of rights.
The course applies concepts learned in the first year Contracts course to real world situations that students are likely to encounter in a business law practice. Students will learn how to translate business concepts into language that is legally enforceable. The course studies how to draft preambles, recitals, covenants, conditions, representations and warranties, termination provisions and the other elements of most standard business contracts. Through a series of individual and team-based exercises, students will learn how drafting a provision can affect the business deal and allocate risk. To build skills, the course focuses on two types of contracts -asset purchase agreements and employment contracts. However, the drafting skills covered are applicable to nearly any type of agreement. Students will be given an opportunity to work in groups and research a particular type of agreement of their choosing.
Controlled Substances: Crime, Regulation and Policy - This course explores the law of substance abuse and addiction. The course begins by examining the arguments for and against drug prohibition, along with possible alternatives to prohibition. With a basic understanding of the relevant policy arguments in place, attention is turned to drug crimes examining drug trafficking, manufacture, and possession offenses, as well as related sentencing laws. From there, the regulatory provisions of the federal Controlled Substances Act, which govern the classification of both legal and illegal drugs, is examined. Constitutional challenges that have been made against various drug laws are reviewed along with how drug laws have impacted the Constitution. Finally the course compares the model for dealing with drugs and drug addiction with some of the different approaches that other countries have taken. Policy questions that open the course will be discussed throughout the semester. While the course will focus primarily on illegal recreational drugs, the regulation of alcohol, tobacco and of prescription drugs will be addressed. Prerequisite: Criminal Law. Recommended: One or more of the following courses: Criminal Procedure, Administrative Law, Constitutional Law I and Constitutional Law II.
This course focuses on the legal issues arising from the creation, ownership, production, marketing, and distribution of literary, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, musical, digital, and related works. This will include examination of copyrightable subject matter, the idea/expression dichotomy, compilations and derivative works, duration and renewal, fair use and remedies. The course examines the current federal Copyright Act in depth and considers the impact of past laws, related state laws, and international copyright law.
This one-week class focuses on the lawyering skills necessary to effectively represent sports clients. In addition to discussing client interviewing and counseling techniques, students will also focus on substantive areas of law that are relevant to sports law. Specifically, the course will touch upon athlete representation, agent registration, business formation, retainer agreements and terms, and the ethical and professional responsibility rules guiding attorneys and agents. On Saturday, there will be final assessment client interviewing exercises (make yourself available for the entire day as final interview times, approximately 30 minute long, are to be determined). This class satisfies the Professional Skills graduation requirement for 1 unit.
This course will address the issues that arise when an attorney must interview and counsel persons from other cultures. We will draw from traditional interviewing and counseling principles, psychology, communication theory, ethics and other relevant disciplines. We will use scenarios from immigration law to illustrate these principles, but the knowledge is applicable to any other areas of the law where your client may not share your language, history, ethnicity, religion, world view or other relevant cultural attribute. A prior knowledge of immigration law is not necessary. The final grade is based upon attendance, participation and successful completion of a final counseling exercise. This course is graded Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
This class will take students through the process of licensing rights from a movie studio, a sports team, or the most popular cartoon to create merchandise. These partnerships are vital in the success of properties in the current market. As a general counsel managing the relationship between the license, potential talent/athlete participation, and production team within the company, many issues will arise that should be addressed in the initial licensing process. This class will prepare students to understand the roles of the parties involved, how the rights are managed, how to prepare a client/company to facilitate the licensing and development process from product start to finish, and how to incorporate talent/athlete participation in your client's product. The course will be evaluated based on a final project. During the final project, students will act as attorney for Studio/League or for Merchandising Company, and work through a discussion of what a standard license would need to include in order to make a successful product. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for one unit.
In Criminal Appeals, students will work through a simulated appeal based on an actual California criminal case. In the process students will learn about criminal appellate practice in California, hone their writing and oral advocacy skills, and engage in a substantive issue of criminal law. The first week of the course will focus on the defense case. We will review the record, brainstorm defense arguments, and draft the defense brief. In the second week of the course, students will switch perspectives and tackle the case from the other side, working on the government's brief. In the third and final week, we will hold oral arguments for the case.
The crime of rape is among the most important and difficult topics in the criminal law. First-year criminal law courses normally cannot explore this body of law in the depth it deserves. This course looks at the law of rape in more depth. Students will study contemporary doctrine, learning and critically evaluating the diverse and competing ways in which rape is defined in the law today. Students will also study defenses important to rape litigation (including mistake and intoxication) and seek to understand their application to realistic factual scenarios. In addition, the course will consider evidentiary doctrines and investigatory strategies that influence how rape cases proceed through the criminal justice system. As students study these aspects of the law of rape, students will also seek to understand how social and cultural attitudes about gender, sex, and sexuality have influenced the development of the law of rape, and to think about how the law of rape might be refined or reformed. Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, possibly including in-class quizzes, and completion of a take-home examination. This course will focus on difficult and sensitive subject matter, and students will be expected to discuss the material and issues in a manner that respects the diverse experiences, perspectives, and feelings of their classmates. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for one unit.
In this course students will learn advanced persuasive legal writing skills in the context of criminal motion practice. This section of the class will focus on Federal Habeas Corpus and the Fourth Amendment. Assignments will consist of a research log, a defendant's opening brief, a prosecution response brief, a defendant's reply brief, and oral argument plan.
This course examines the interconnections between race and law, and particularly the ways in which race and law can be mutually reinforcing. Critical Race Theory (CRT), suggest that racial subordination is not a deviation from a liberal legal ideal, but rather has been central to and complicit in upholding racial hierarchy (as well hierarchies of gender, class, and sexual orientation, among others). The course examines origins of this critique, as well as contrasts between the CRT approach and liberal and conservative analytical frameworks on race and American law and society. It also examines some of the questions and criticisms raised about CRT, from both inside and outside of the genre, as well as the impact of the work on legal and political discourse. Students will explore various approaches to questions about race as well as the role that law plays in constructing racial identities.
Internet and global networking are changing the way we think about law. Users from all over the world are communicating in real time using emails, Twitter, Facebook. People use Internet to access their bank accounts, to plan their holidays, to buy goods and to check their medical conditions. All of this creates challenges for practitioners and scholars, who are forced to consider Internet as a lens through which existing legal concepts should be considered.? This course will expose students to cases involving trespass to chattel in cyberspace, consumer protection and privacy issues online, problems connected to jurisdiction and judgment recognition, regulation of free speech and many other extremely interesting topics. A technical background is not required.
Deposition Practice is an intensive five-day intersession course providing instruction on (1) preparing for depositions (both prepping witnesses & planning to take and defend); (2) dealing with the mechanics of noticing a deposition, issuing a subpoena, and securing a court reporter; (3) taking and defending depositions of both fact witnesses and experts; and (4) using deposition transcripts to support motions or at trial. Students will be provided opportunities to practice deposition taking techniques and opportunities will be provided to review video of the student's performance for interested students. A panel of practicing lawyers will meet with the class to explain their tips, tricks, and techniques. This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit. This course is open to non-TJSL students, alumni, practicing lawyers, and paralegals.
Directed Study is a method by which Thomas Jefferson students may obtain credit toward their law degrees by performing legal research and writing in areas of their own choosing. Eligibility for Directed Study is limited to students who have earned at least 30 units and are in good academic standing. A student wishing to obtain credit for Directed Study must first procure the written agreement of a faculty member to supervise that student's project during the school session in which such credits are to be earned. Adjunct faculty members may serve in this role only with the approval of the Associate Dean on a case by case basis. Before registering, the student, with the guidance of his/her intended faculty supervisor, shall select a topic for the student's project, adopt a written plan for its completion, and determine the number of units of credit to be earned through the project. Students may not earn more than 3 Directed Study units per semester. For each Directed Study unit for which a student registers, the student shall perform a minimum of 50 hours of research and writing. A 10-15 page paper is usually required for each unit of Directed Study credit. Honors/Credit/Low Pass/No Credit is the only grading option available. Students requesting enrollment in Directed Study units must submit the Professor signed approved petition to the Registrar's Office. Upon approval, the Registrar's Office will enroll the student in the Directed Study units.
This course provides an introduction to employment discrimination law, one of the most important areas of legal regulation of the workplace. Course coverage includes consideration of discrimination based upon race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, and disability. Statutes bearing upon these issues include: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Civil Rights Act of 1866; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act; the Americans with Disabilities Act; and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Integral to the discussion of the rights and responsibilities under these statutes are the broader societal debates about how the workplace should be structured. What behavior should constitute racial or sexual harassment? How are primary caretakers of children to reconcile the demands of work and family responsibility? What sort of accommodations should employers be compelled to make for the disabled? These are some of the timely and important questions the course will address.
This class provides an introduction to federal and state law protections for individual workers. This course surveys basic topics of the law of work, including common law and statutory regulation of employment termination, employee free speech and privacy, and wages and working conditions. The overarching theme in the course concerns how the law should mediate the conflict between employer and employee rights.
From Pamela Lee's alleged breach of a film contract to music copyright infringement by New Kids on the Block, this multimedia-powered course provides a basic introduction to the legal, business and policy issues applicable to the entertainment industry. The course focuses on the motion picture, music, book publishing and television industries, and the emerging field of "infotainment", i.e., the convergence of the Internet and new technologies in the entertainment world. Legal regimes explored will include copyright, trademark, idea submission, and right of publicity, as well as contract and First Amendment issues.
This course deals with the role of the entertainment lawyer. Emphasis will be placed on the representation of and dealings with various parties involved in the entertainment world including, representation of actors, movie studios and other production entities. The goal of this course is to prepare the student to understand the fundamental principles of law in dealing with "real world" transactional practice issues as well as entertainment law litigation.
This course provides an overview of federal environmental law and regulation. The various legal tools used for environmental protection will be considered, including common law, statutory, judicial and administrative mechanisms. Students will examine the major federal statutes regulating air, water and hazardous waste. In addition, students will be asked to consider current legal and policy questions implicated by these laws, their implementation, and their enforcement.
This seminar is intended for students with an externship outside of San Diego during a summer term.
Information about registering for externship units is noted on the Docket under Clinical Education.
Information about registering for externship units is noted on the Docket under Clinical Education.
Course description currently unavailable.
This course examines the law relating to the formation, regulation, and termination of family relationships. Topics covered include family privacy, marriage, alternative families, domestic violence, divorce, child custody and child support. In addition to examining theoretical and inter-disciplinary perspectives, this course will also focus on issues relating to the practice of family law by attorneys.
This course offers advanced treatment of civil procedure and constitutional issues of great importance to any lawyer planning to practice in federal court, and of general interest to almost all lawyers. Many issues covered are strongly relevant to state-court practice as well. It is very strongly recommended for any student contemplating a judicial clerkship. Topics include: federal question and diversity jurisdiction; U.S. Supreme Court jurisdiction; habeas corpus; abstention and other limitations on federal-court jurisdiction; relationships between federal, state, and Indian tribal courts; and governmental immunities. Students may choose to write a paper to satisfy the upper level writing requirement, or take the full 3 hour final exam. Paper writers will be required to take a one hour portion of the final exam. The paper would be the length expected for a 2 unit course.
This elective will focus on federal criminal practice with an emphasis on both substantive federal criminal law and procedure and the development of oral advocacy skills. The curriculum will revolve around taking the students through one criminal case in federal court from start to finish, with opportunities for hands-on training at numerous points during the semester. While the course will focus on federal law and practice, many of the concepts will apply equally to students who end up working on criminal cases in state court.
This course introduces the student to the policies underlying the taxation of wealth transfers by gift and bequest. The course also offers the student an in-depth analysis of the structure of the current federal wealth transfer tax system. Although the course primarily emphasizes how the current tax rules do or should work, some attention will be paid to basic estate planning techniques (that is, how tax advisors may use particular rules to their clients' advantage). Recommended: Wills and Trusts.
This course provides an overview of the fundamentals of federal income taxation, including income, exclusions, deductions, basis, depreciation, and capital gains.
The principal purpose of this course is to provide students with the basic knowledge and skills necessary to conduct effective legal research on federal law. It will train students in legal tools that answer more complex legal research problems, including federal legislative histories, sources of administrative law, and specialized subject research. It also has the secondary, but important, goal of expanding on and reinforcing the basic legal research skills that students had earlier gained from Legal Research and Writing. Although the course is only one credit, you will become reasonably knowledgeable about sources of federal law and skilled in researching various federal and general legal sources. This course will be evaluated based on five research graded research papers, one each day the class meets.
In this course, students will learn how to use free and lower-cost electronic research tools. As new attorneys, a great portion of time is spent on research. Students will learn about the various options for free and lower-cost alternatives to the large legal resource vendors, leading to greater fiscal efficiency in practice. The course will also reinforce and expand the basic legal research skills that students gained in Legal Writing. This course will be evaluated on participation, CALI Lessons, five graded research problem sets, and a final project. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for one unit. Prerequisite: Legal Writing I.
This seminar will explore how the ideals of equality, freedom, and self-determination survive a time when predatory global finance, militarism, and racism are ascendant. The seminar will create an opportunity to explore theories, histories, and futures of global justice; the relationship between universality and difference; comparative conceptions of equality and justice. Seminar participants will explore what global progressive alliances are possible to resist global cartels of reaction and repression and the legal mechanisms that both empower and imperil self determination with case study examination of social demands for justice throughout western, middle eastern and other non-western societies.
Globalization has transformed the way we think about the workplace, creating opportunities that have helped millions while presenting worldwide challenges that require coordinated and creative solutions. Globalization also makes it increasingly likely that US labor and employment lawyers will encounter issues involving the laws of other countries. With the forces of globalization as a backdrop, and international human rights and trade law as possible correctives, this course examines international and comparative workplace law, the cutting edge of labor and employment law practice. The course highlights international labor standards promulgated by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and considers the effects on national regulation of supranational structures like the European Union (EU) and regional trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). A number of workplace trends are considered including increasing income inequality, the decline of labor unions, the problems of migrant workers, the dramatic rise in the number of women in the paid labor force, and efforts to eliminate forced and child labor. Using international standards as an analytical lens, the course also compares workplace law in several countries important to the global economy, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and China. The course concludes by assessing the potential for achieving global labor standards through corporate self-regulation, such as the Codes of Conduct adopted by many American transnational corporations (TNCs), and cutting edge legal efforts to enforce international labor rights in American courts.
Course description currently unavailable.
This course will cover the following topics: Access to and Regulation of Abortion; Minors' Rights; Fetal Rights; and time permitting, Funding, or Coerced Sterilization and Contraception, or Sex Education. All course materials, which include cases and articles, will be posted online. Evaluation of student performance will be based on the following factors: evidence of having read and briefed the assigned material, willingness to participate meaningfully in both class discussion and analysis, and quality of analysis and understanding of the material as demonstrated by written assignments. Students will also do a short presentation on a topic provided by the professor concerning recent state legislation, or a topic chosen by the student that relates directly to the material covered in the class. This course does not satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement.
This course explores the fundamental and practical aspects of current U.S. immigration law, policy and procedures relating to visas, asylum, employment authorization, adjustment of status, naturalization, citizenship, detention and removal.
This course introduces students to the practice of immigration removal defense with a focus on asylum as a form of relief. Students will learn immigration court procedure, client interviewing and counseling skills, trial advocacy skills, legal research and writing in the civil, administrative context, and the fundamentals of asylum as a basis for relief in removal proceedings. Under the instructor's supervision and guidance, students will work in teams of two to provide direct representation for an individual seeking asylum while detained in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Students will become familiar with essential asylum case law and will advocate for their clients before a U.S. Immigration Judge. This is the fieldwork component to the Immigration Removal Defense Seminar.
This seminar course introduces students to the practice of immigration removal defense with a focus on asylum as a form of relief. Students will learn immigration court procedure, client interviewing and counseling skills, trial advocacy skills, legal research and writing in the civil, administrative context, and the fundamentals of asylum as a basis for relief in removal proceedings. Under the instructor's supervision and guidance, students will work in teams of two to provide direct representation for an individual seeking asylum while detained in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Students will become familiar with essential asylum case law and will advocate for their clients before a U.S. Immigration Judge.
This course explores both international and comparative issues in drug control. International drug conventions are among the oldest widely adopted international agreements. These treaties aim to facilitate control of the international market in illegal drugs, yet today the drug trade is as lucrative as ever. Drug control treaties also guide and constrain countries in their choices about domestic drug policies. Within the constraints of international agreements, however, countries have developed a range of approaches to the problem of drug abuse within their borders. The U.S., for example, has maintained a strict prohibitionist regime, while Portugal has adopted a decriminalization policy that removes criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of drugs.
This course will cover all these topics and more. It begins with an overview of the international market for illegal drugs. The course then moves from the drug market to drug laws with an examination of drug control treaties and implementing organizations. Next, we will focus on the role of the United States in international drug control, covering issues including the extraterritorial application of United States drug laws, United States-led crop eradication campaigns, and methods the United States employs to encourage cooperation by so-called drug producer countries in its drug war strategy. This course concludes by comparing some of the different approaches countries have taken to domestic drug control, including the marijuana coffee shop policies of the Netherlands, Portugal's drug decriminalization law, and Sweden's strict approach to drug control.
The Center for Law and Intellectual Property will be offering a 3-week IP Representation Practicum beginning on Monday, May 19 and ending on Friday, June 6. Students will learn basic IP practice skills by working at Thomas & Jefferson, a mock law firm. Rather than traditional classes taught by professors, the students will receive assignments and feedback from partners on a series of client-centered projects. Students must log their time as they would working in a law firm, meeting certain minimum criteria to receive credit for the class. A one-half day orientation program will begin at 9AM on May 19, and lectures resembling continuing legal education programs will be held over the lunch hour each weekday, often tracking assignments on which the students are working. The course will be three credits, graded based on performance on various written assignments and participation. Eligible students must have completed Legal Writing 2 by the end of the spring 2014 semester. Priority in registration goes to IP Fellows.
Intellectual Property Law Research Project provides a small group of students (5 to 10) with an intensive research, writing, and networking experience with respect to a hot issue in intellectual property law. The 2014-2015 topic will be "Challenging Patent Validity at the USPTO: Does it reduce or expand litigation?" As part of this project, the research team will (1) will conduct research and writing projects as a team around this issue including a law journal article, (2) conduct a survey of important governmental, USPTO, law school and private intellectual property and legal practitioners under the leadership of experts in this area and (3) conduct a symposium at the law school around this topic. This course has been offered three times previously and when it was first offered, the resulting journal article was selected as one of the ten best IP articles of the year by Thompson Reuters and the 2013-2014 class's article is being published in a law journal. The 2014-2015 class is working towards publishing their results in a law journal also. In addition, the course has held three very successful symposiums on (a) the Use of Alternate Dispute Resolution in Patent Litigation Matters, (b) Determining Where Life Sciences Companies Should File Patent Applications Worldwide and (c) Expanding the Bayh-Dole Act to Include the Mandatory Use of Law School IP Law Students and IP Clinics in the Commercialization of Federally Funded Research. This course is designed as a two-semester experience in which students will be encouraged to continue with the project in the spring semester.
This Workshop is designed to immerse students in an introduction to the art and science of effective lawyer negotiation. The Workshop begins with an interactive class discussion of the fundamental concepts, theories, tactics, and techniques of effective transactional and dispute resolution negotiation. The format employs lecture, video exemplars, problem exercises, and a PowerPoint presentation. At the conclusion of the exploration of the critical elements of lawyer negotiation, students participate in a one on one negotiation using a simulation that has been negotiated by thousands of lawyers in the US, Europe, South America, the Middle East, and China. The student negotiation results are compared with the outcomes those attorneys recorded. The Workshop concludes with an open book (i.e., all Workshop materials) multiple choice/true-false examination. Students enrolled in this course should plan on a working lunch on Saturday, January 9. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for two units.
The course is designed to build upon the research and writing fundamentals learned in previous Legal Writing courses, and specifically, to reinforce persuasive writing skills through brief or motion writing assignments at the trial or appellate level. In addition to the main brief or motion assignment, students will be given additional related research and writing tasks that they are likely to encounter during a typical legal job.
This course is an introduction to the law of international trade and finance. Students consider the problems of conducting business in the global community. The approach is primarily transactional and combines the legal theory and practice of doing international business. Topics include the formation of agreements required for the international trading of goods, such as the documentary sale, the letter of credit, the contract of sale and the consequences of wars and other frustrations of contract, and the bill of lading or sale without a letter of credit. Students will study the regulation of international business by import and export controls, tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and customs classification and valuation. The transfer of technology by means of franchising and licensing agreements leads to a discussion of the pirating of intellectual property. Students will study the legal framework for establishing a foreign direct investment abroad or a joint venture. Other topics include the resolution of international disputes by trial or international arbitration, the role of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the WTO, TRIPS, NAFTA, China, and the European Union in regulating international business. This course focuses on the cultural differences that influence the establishment of international business ventures.
This course is an introduction to the laws of international trade and finance. Students consider the problems of conducting business in the global community. The approach is primarily transactional and combines the legal theory and practice of doing international business. Topics include the formation of agreements required for the international trading of goods, such as the documentary sale, the letter of credit, the contract of sale and the consequences of wars and other frustrations of contract, the bill of lading and a sale without a letter of credit. Students will study the regulation of international business by import and export controls, tariffs, and non-tariff barriers, and customs classification and valuation. The transfer of technology by means of franchising and licensing agreements leads to a discussion of the pirating of intellectual property. Students will study the legal framework for establishing a foreign direct investment abroad or a joint venture. Other topics include the resolution of international disputes by trial or international arbitration, the role of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the WTO, TRIPS, NAFTA and the European Union in regulating international business. This course focuses on the cultural differences that influence the establishment of international business ventures.
This course examines the legal framework of international business transactions. Topics include international sales of goods, bills of lading, letters of credit, import and export control, transfers of technology and protection of intellectual property, forms and regulation of foreign investments and issues of transnational litigation, including service of process abroad, choice of law and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards. This course will prepare future attorney to deal with clients in a globalized world.
This course provides a basic overview of international aspects of the global entertainment industry and legal regimes governing intellectual property such as copyright, trademark and publicity rights on a global scale. The course will also explore international contract transactions and the pervasive problem of piracy in the international context.
This course examines the global human rights movement that grew out of World War II and how international human rights laws, instruments and institutions respond to human rights violations. International human rights include civil and political rights, economic rights, social and cultural rights, women's rights and children's rights. These rights are reflected in legal norms, political contexts, moral ideas, international relations and foreign policy. This course uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine the laws and policy of international human rights as applied to all individuals in general and to women in particular. The course reviews applicable international human rights laws, instruments, U.N. treaty organs, regional and international tribunals, and the role of NGOs in the human rights movement. The course analyzes state and international policies, practices, and attitudes in order to understand the causes and consequences of discrimination and abuse perpetrated on individuals. Gender justice and the empowerment of women to facilitate full enjoyment of their human rights, accountability and enforcement is a central theme of the course. Special attention is paid to the universal crime of sex slavery, human trafficking, and rape as a weapon of war in the development of massive human rights violations. Students analyze the rules and standards of contemporary human rights as expressed in states' constitutions, laws, practices, international treaties, customs, court decisions, investigative reports and recommendations of international institutions, and governmental and non-governmental actors in order to understand the ongoing development of international human rights laws.
This course is designed to introduce students to the law that deals with the protection of individuals, peoples and cultures against violations of certain internationally-guaranteed human rights. The course will examine the foundations of 21st Century international human rights law, namely, the Nuremberg principles, the United Nations Charter and decisions of the International Court of Justice. The provisions of the UN Charter dealing with the protection and promotion of human rights will be studied, as well as other instruments adopted by UN organs, such as the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights, and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the Conventions on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and Discrimination Against Women. We will contrast the procedures developed by the UN to supervise the implementation of human rights treaties with procedures in the United States governmental system. The institutions that have been created to protect human rights in the European Union, the African Charter, and the Organization of American States will be examined. Finally, the interrelationship between international human rights law and relations between states, groups and individuals will be analyzed, including the recent events in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yugoslavia.
This course explores the relationship of women's rights to the international human rights movement that grew out of the Second World War. International human rights are reflected in legal norms, political contexts, moral ideals, international relations and foreign policy. This course uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine the laws and policy of international human rights as applied generally and to women in particular. Special attention will be paid to the universal crime of sex slavery and human trafficking of women and children. Students will analyze the rules and standards of contemporary human rights as expressed in states' constitutions, laws, practices, international treaties, custom, court decisions, investigative reports, and recommendations of international institutions, governmental and non-governmental actors in order to understand the ongoing development of international human rights laws and their application to the protection of women's rights.
The Internet is a medium for the transmission of information, and Internet law is the law of control of information. This control can take forms as varied as censorship and copyright. While the First Amendment and the Patent & Copyright Clause of the U.S. constitution define the limits of this control in the United States, other limits apply beyond U.S. borders. The situation is complicated by the international nature of the Internet; content forbidden by U.S. law may be legal elsewhere, and content legal in the U.S. may expose U.S. web content publishers to civil or criminal penalties in other countries. This course will provide an overview of some of the areas in which the domestic and international legal system has been placed under the greatest stress by changes in information technology, including the regulation of obscenity and other offensive speech, defamation, anonymity, trademarks, copyrights, privacy, and territorial jurisdiction.
This course comprises three components. First, we will examine the phenomenon of the multinational enterprise, that is, a corporation that establishes subsidiaries and affiliates in foreign countries. In effect, we will discuss the causes and effects of economic globalization. Second, we will analyze the rules of international law that apply to this phenomenon, from the perspective of the multinational enterprise, the home state of that enterprise, and the host state where the enterprise establishes a subsidiary or affiliate. We will explore the relationship between these rules and the social, economic and political policies of the home and host states as well as the strategic business decisions of the enterprise. Finally, we will survey the process of international arbitration through which these rules are enforced. This course would be of special interest to those who wish to represent and advise businesses that have operations in more than one country, those who wish to work in an international litigation or arbitration practice, and those interested in concerns related to economic globalization, such as the loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs, the growing U.S. trade deficit, the implications of U.S. budget deficits, maintaining U.S. economic competitiveness, and preserving environmental and labor standards.
This course is an introduction to the law among nations. First, it will examine the principal actors in the international legal system, the processes by which international law is created, interpreted, adjudicated and enforced and the relationship between international law and domestic law. Next, it will survey a range of substantive international legal rules, including the law on the use of force, laws regulating state jurisdiction over land, sea and air, international economic law, international human rights law and international environmental law. Finally, it will consider selected aspects of U.S. law that affect U.S. participation in the international legal system. The course is designed for the student who is seeking a basic understanding of international law as part of a balanced and comprehensive legal education and for the student who is seeking a solid foundation for a more intensive study of international law.
Violations of international law, laws of war, and human rights laws are the plague of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mass violence and the flagrant violation of human rights laws have a dramatic effect that inspires writers, film makers, artists, philosophers, historians and legal scholars to represent these horrors in their work. This course explores the human rights laws and international laws embedded in selected artistic representations. By adopting an interdisciplinary analytical approach based on semiotics or the science of signs, this course will unlock the coded language of literary and cinematographic works in order to unravel the complexities of many of the most controversial issues of our time such as terrorism, civil disobedience, women's human rights abuses, sex trafficking, the denial of the right to wear a headscarf to manifest the Islamic religion, child soldiering, the killing of girl babies due to traditional male child preference, the piracy of intellectual property, and the impact of culture on the interpretation of international laws.Students will discuss books, films and music that shed light on international law, international human rights laws, and international laws of war. Texts include Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, two well-known films Hotel Rwanda and The Pianist, Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail, Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran; two Iranian films about family law and women; Uzodinma Iweala's award winning book, Beasts of No Nation (about child soldiers and human trafficking of children); and Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan about women's rights in China), and many more. This course is designed to be an introduction into international law, international human rights laws, and international laws of war through the study of works in the humanities.
The first part of this course will cover the different concepts of the rule of law around the world, the historical and psychological origins of these concepts, and various tests of governments' compliance with the rule of law utilized by governments, international organizations, and private entities. Given the positive relationship between economic development and the rule of law, numerous governments and international organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Bank, are investing heavily in rule of law projects, and the course will include a review of such projects. When Chinese President Xi Jinping was Governor (2002) and Communist Party Secretary (2002-2007) of Zhejiang Province, he helped launch several innovative rule of law projects in Zhejiang Province, and students will have the opportunity to study these projects in some depth. Finally, the course will review the specific judicial transparency projects in Zhejiang Province on which Professor Qian Hongdao and I have worked.
Environmental problems are international, often global, in scope. Oceans, aquifers, watercourses, and, of course, the atmosphere are not restricted by political boundaries; pollution crosses easily from one state to another. Resource depletion may harm the interests of all states, as in the case of fisheries. Loss of biodiversity and wildlife habitat, even when it occurs entirely within the boundaries of a single state, affects the interests of all of the world's peoples. This course serves as an introduction to international environmental law. The course will give an overview of several areas of conventional and customary law affecting the international environment, including international environmental agreements and "soft law" documents, the role of international organizations, the practice of states, and, where appropriate, U.S. law. Particular attention will be paid to the interaction between domestic and international environmental laws, and to the ways in which the legal process has solved (or failed to solve) international environmental problems.
Global intellectual property law is one of the core issues for international business attorneys. This course studies the international systems for establishing trademark, copyright and patent rights. Within that context, the course will consider the roles of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as the various multilateral and bilateral agreements that exist, including but not limited to the TRIPS Agreement. The patchwork of intersecting treaties that relate to intellectual property rights has led to an increase in litigation in recent years over international patents, trademarks and copyrights. This course examines recent cases with an emphasis of preparing students for the practice of law.
Global intellectual property law is one of the core issues for international business attorneys. This course studies the international systems for establishing trademark, copyright and patent rights. Within that context, the course will consider the roles of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as the various multilateral and bilateral agreements that exist, including but not limited to the TRIPS Agreement. The patchwork of intersecting treaties that relate to intellectual property rights has led to an increase in litigation in recent years over international patents, trademarks and copyrights. This course examines recent cases with an emphasis of preparing students for the practice of law.
International aspects of the sports law of the U.S., EU and other countries, including regulation of the Olympics, disputes between athletes and sports governing bodies, the jurisdiction and operation of the Court of Arbitration for Sport and its developing body of sports law, and current matters such as doping, labor, competition, and other issues.
Students will compete on teams of two, writing a twenty-page brief (two drafts) and arguing both sides of the case as part of an intra-school moot court competition. Everyone will argue at least four times with the top scoring teams advancing toward a final round and the crowning of a school champion. This class will serve as the try-out for Moot Court Society selection. It will consist of two special writing lectures on Saturday, January 17 and Saturday, February 28 (9AM to noon), and two individual conferences. This course is graded Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
This one-unit course is a component of the Criminal Law Fellowship Program, taught by the Coordinators of the Fellowship Program in conjunction with a team of experienced criminal law practitioners including judges, defense attorneys, and prosecutors. Working with a realistic mock case and case materials, students study several fundamental aspects of criminal trial practice, including client interviewing, fact investigation, jury selection, opening statement, direct examination, cross-examination, and closing argument. Participants observe demonstrations of important trial skills, practice these skills through role-playing exercises, and complete a substantial written exercise building on the material studied.
This course will provide an intensive introduction to Native American rights, focusing on the sovereign and largely self-governing status of Indian Nations (tribes); their government-to-government relationships with federal, state, and local governments; issues such as casino gaming, labor and employment, child welfare, religious and cultural rights, criminal and civil jurisdictional conflicts, and environmental protection; and hunting, fishing, and other treaty rights. The course will consist mostly of lectures and discussion, with some class time devoted to skills exercises (such as oral advocacy, oral reports on assigned readings, or a negotiation exercise). Students must complete some significant readings (provided free of charge) and two or three written take-home exercises. There is no exam; assessment will be based on overall preparedness and class participation, at least one in-class oral presentation, and the written homework. While it will involve some skills exercises as noted, this course will NOT satisfy the Professional Skills requirement.
Note: A student who has previously taken any regular, summer, or intersession law school course in American Indian Law (or equivalent), at TJSL or another law school, is not eligible to take this intersession course; however, taking this intersession course will not preclude a student from later taking the full elective course in American Indian Law taught by Professor Wildenthal at TJSL (though some additional work may be required to earn all 3 units of the latter).
This one-credit pass-fail course will provide 1Ls with an introduction to patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and their intersection with different relevant areas. The course will be taught by various faculty members and will include guest lecturers. Students may have reading assignments, and a short paper will be required to receive credit.
This two-unit course introduces the student to the practice of intellectual property law. It is highly recommended for all IP Fellows. Each class will introduce some basic substantive law that students will then use to complete an IP Lab project. Lab projects will include trademark applications, copyright registrations, office actions, non-disclosure agreements, trade secret law, cease and desist letters, IP licenses, and valuing intellectual property. In lieu of three regularly scheduled class times, students will attend class sessions on several saturdays the exact dates of the saturday classes will be announced in the registration materials. In addition, two additional optional directed study units are available for interested students. One unit will involve patent practice and a second optional unit will focus on trademark. Both will build on the materials taught in the basic course. Students interested in registering for one or two optional directed study units should contact Professor Semeraro before the first class session. Individual assignments will be graded Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
Mediation is currently in great demand as an adjunct to the court system, as a mechanism for managing in-house corporate fissures, in labor-management discussions and in international disputes. Although usage varies dramatically depending on context, mediation at its essence is a process in which a neutral third party works to help disputing parties craft a resolution that meets their needs. This course will introduce students to one model of mediation that has attained currency within the community mediation movement. Students will learn the various stages of the process and practice the techniques used in each stage. Class will be interactive, requiring participation in in-class mock mediations and communications exercises. In addition to in-class instruction and simulations, students will attend small claims court, observe trials and mediation sessions, write short reaction papers, and, where appropriate, co-mediate with experienced mediators. Students will also conduct two online mediations, typically one in the role of the a disputant and one in the role as a mediator. Students will be assessed on in-class participation, the online mediations, and any other assignments announced in class. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for two units.
This survey course provides an overview of the history, technology, and general legal considerations surrounding open source software and documentation.
This course is the general introduction to sports law. Topics of discussion range from fans and owners to players and agents. The course covers law in the areas of contract, constitutional, tort and criminal - all in the context of sports. In class discussions include representation of professional athletes, enforcement of sports contracts, league decision making, and sports broadcasting.
Intellectual Property Law Research Project provides a small group of students with an intensive research, writing, and networking experience with respect to a hot issue in intellectual property law. The 2013-2014 topic will be "Determining In Which Countries and Regions to File Life Science Patents" and the research team will conduct a national survey of life science patent law practitioners under the leadership of biotechnology legal and scientific experts. Students will conduct research and writing projects as part of a team, together planning, researching, and writing a law journal article and organizing a seminar with experts in the field. When this course was last offered, the resulting journal article was selected as one of the ten best IP articles of the year. This is the second semester of this course.
This seminar is intended for students with an judicial externship outside of San Diego during a summer term.
Information about registering for externship units is noted on the Docket under Clinical Education.
Information about registering for externship units is noted on the Docket under Clinical Education.
This course is designed to introduce students to the economic analysis of law. Students will learn how to apply economic reasoning to torts, contracts, property, criminal law, and other areas of the law. The course will examine and compare how different legal rules affect the behavior of individuals and entities. It will also consider how the economic approach fits in with other concerns of the legal system. An introductory microeconomics course at the undergraduate level is recommended as a prerequisite to taking this course.
This seminar explores what lawyers can learn from literature. Primarily, we will address how literature can enrich our understanding of the complicated and powerful role law and lawyers play in our society. It will also examine how lawyers can benefit from literary critical techniques and understanding of narrative conventions, and whether thinking of lawyers, judges and clients as story tellers helps us to be better lawyers. The primary texts will be short stories, plays, and novels. Students may also read some judicial opinions and some theoretical writings on the connection between law and literature. Students will write a series of short papers on the assigned readings, give an oral presentation on one of the assigned readings, and prepare a final research paper. The final research paper will satisfy the Upper Level Writing Requirement. This course is graded non-anonymously.
This course studies a number of different areas of the law with the common theme of examining how psychological theory and research can enlighten us as to how individuals process information and learn, make decisions, and behave within the legal system. Sometimes statutes, case law, and legal policies make assumptions about human behavior that are at odds with psychological research and theories. This course explores selected issues relating to the decision-making process. Topics include the validity of confessions and eyewitness identification, implicit bias, predicting dangerousness, the adolescent brain, and the effect of the developing field of neuroscience on the law. Also included are discussions of cognitive biases and their effect on the law, including framing, anchoring, and the confirmation bias. The goal of this course is to provide a more realistic understanding of how people actually make decisions within the legal system.
This distance learning course covers the free exercise of religion and the prohibition on establishment of religion, guaranteed in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Reading and writing assignments focus on United States Supreme Court cases, which interpret these First Amendment provisions. Students will discuss law and religion topics on an internet message board and chat room established on the Westlaw TWEN service. Students will receive substantial research and writing experience. Each student will complete a memo and a brief. Attendance is required for the twice weekly Law & Religion chat room. The chat room meets on Monday and Wednesday evenings from 8:00 - 9:15 p.m. A student cannot be absent from more than two meetings of the chat room. This course is graded non-anonymously and may satisfy the upper level writing requirement.
This course provides an overview of various intersections between sociology and law in the United States, from the origins of the country through current debates. Substantive topics include how race, gender, class, or sexual orientation may affect immigration and citizenship, education, housing and residence, or criminal justice. We will examine these issues through social science articles, case law, the U.S. Constitution and other laws, as well as media output (film and newsprint). In addition to these resources, student experiences and perspectives will inform class discussions.
This course covers various amateur sports law issues, with a focus on legal regulations of interscholastic and intercollegiate sports. Topics to be covered will include gender and racial discrimination, the relationship between the university and its student-athletes, the role of the NCAA and other regulatory associations, contract law, tort law, and constitutional law issues. Students will be expected to prepare and present a paper regarding an amateur sports law issue.
This course is designed to give students familiarity with the various types of law office structures and their functional differences. How to start a law office and the various issues to be considered in managing an office will be discussed. Employee management, client interaction, technology, marketing, finances and billings, and legal work product will be the focus of several written assignments. Course work will include small group analyses of real situations and practical applications. Selected guest speakers will provide additional practical insight into specific issues that are present in today's law firm environment. Emphasis throughout the course will be on start-up and management of small firm practice. Having completed Business Associations or taking it concurrently is recommended.
Students requesting a Law Review unit, please email Registrar, Carrie Kazyaka at ckazyaka@tjsl.edu. Upon approval, students will be enrolled in one unit of Law Review by the Registrar's Office. This is graded Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
This seminar critically examines how education law and policy affect the allocation of equal educational opportunity primarily within the U.S. K-12 public education context as it relates to race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability and language minority status. Topics include desegregation and single-sex education; No Child Left Behind Act accountability and high-stakes testing (for tracking, promotion, and graduation); charter schools, vouchers and school choice initiatives, bilingual education and services for immigrant children; sex discrimination; harassment based on race, sex, and sexual orientation; school-finance reform; IDEA and special education; HIV/AIDS students; and affirmative action. Readings will include legal materials, social-science research, essays and other sources from an interdisciplinary perspective drawing on critical race theory, civil rights literature, sociology and other various disciplines. Seminar assessment is based upon class participation, class presentation project and a final paper submission.
Second Semester of Lawyering Skills.
A student required to follow the Intensive Curriculum must take and pass, with a
grade of at least 1.7, the Legal Principles course. Legal Principles is a four-unit
course, graded on the first-year curve, designed to develop skills in writing,
reasoning, and analysis, focusing on the fundamental skills and concepts essential
to legal analysis. Students must take Legal Principles in the spring or summer
semester, whichever immediately follows the semester in which the student first
attempted 25 units of law study on the first-year curve. Students taking Legal
Principles in the summer may take no more than one other summer semester
course. That other summer semester course must be either Professional
Responsibility or Criminal Procedure. In the event that there is insufficient space
in either of those courses, an alternative course can be selected with the approval
of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. A student required to follow the
Intensive Curriculum who does not take and pass the Legal Principles course will
not be eligible to graduate.
Legal Synthesis II - This credit/no credit 2-unit course includes lectures on non-MBE subjects tested on the CA bar exam. The subjects covered are: Federal Civil Procedure, Agency, Partnership, Corporations, Community Property, and Trusts. Legal Synthesis II concentrates on teaching the law in each of these subjects as it is actually tested on the CA bar. It provides essay exams using the grading standards employed by the California Bar examiners.
This course will focus on the intersection among legal philosophy/ theory, lawyering strategies/ skills, and literature/ stories. It will address several critical schools of legal thought (Natural Law, Positivism, and Legal Realism) with short readings (excerpted from a variety of sources) and discussion about how an understanding of legal theory can enhance the ability to develop effective strategies in addressing legal cases and client concerns. Outside assignments will consist of short reading assignments in legal philosophy, several case-story combinations, and one short story. In-class assignments will include short written essays and small group discussions addressing specific questions resulting in a report by each group to the full class for further analysis and critique. Evaluation of student performance will be based on the following factors: evidence of having read the assigned material, willingness to participate in both small group and class discussion and analysis, and quality of analysis and understanding of the material as demonstrated by written assignments. This course does not satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement.
This course focuses on the Mandarin Chinese language skills that are necessary to represent Chinese speakers in a variety of common legal settings. The course reviews client intake forms, initial client interviews, follow-up interviews, witness interviews for personal injury, workers' compensation, bankruptcy, family law, immigration law, estate planning and probate scenarios.
This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
Mastering the Performance Test is a two-unit course designed to enhance students' critical thinking and writing skills. Students will analyze case and library files just like those on the California Bar Exam's performance tests. Although the legal topics will not be the focus of the course, students will encounter issues not usually covered in law school, but often encountered on the bar exam and in law practice. In addition, students will learn about the various kinds of documents they will be expected to write for the performance test and in law practice as well. This course satisfies the Professional Skills requirement.
Class sessions will focus on techniques for efficiently reading and analyzing case and library files, organizing file material, and drafting documents for a specific audience. Students will be introduced to various audiences including the supervisor; the court; opposing counsel; the client; and other audiences such as boards, committees, juries, etc. Students should expect to practice these techniques in class and under time pressure. The course will be especially helpful for students who have not had an opportunity to clerk or to participate in an externship while in law school.
Mediation Immersion offers students an intensive clinical experience, mediating with small claims disputants in the downtown small claims court. After a seven hour training offered on Saturday, June 13th, students will mediate at small claims court for one 4 hour blocks each week for the remaining 6 weeks of the summer session. Additionally, students will attend a 75 minute seminar each week devoted to debriefing and reflecting upon their experiences at court and discussing the narratives contained in the text "Stories Mediators Tell."
This survey course gives students an overview of military culture, law, and
procedure. Students will learn the basics ofabout concepts of military justice,
including an understanding of military courts, jurisdiction, due process, the
Rules for Courts-Martial, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the Military
Rules of Evidence. Students will learn about typical non-punitive disciplinary
measures such as Non-Judicial Punishment and administrative discharge
proceedings. This course covers the courts-martial process, from
investigation, filing of charges, through trial and/or guilty pleas and
sentencing, Students will also have the opportunity to attend
military hearings/proceedings (situation permitting), negotiate a plea deal
and discuss the fascinating as sweeping new changes regarding sexual assault.
Students requesting Mock Trial units, please email Registrar, Carrie Kazayaka at ckazayaka@tjsl.edu and state the number of units you are requesting. Upon approval, students will be enrolled in Mock Trial units by the Registrar's Office. This is graded Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
This course pursues a new approach to examining labor law by covering union organizing and collective bargaining in both the private and public sectors. Modern trends, such as the decline in private sector union density and the increase in union density among government workers, are considered. Other trends, such as the labor law protections non-union workers can invoke regarding their use of social media, the efforts of college athletes and teaching assistants to organize, and union organizing without a union election are examined. The role of the law in allocating power between unions and employers is one theme of the course. Another course theme is the peculiar role of history in shaping modern labor law.
Students requesting Moot Court units, please email Registrar, Carrie Kayzaka at ckayzaka@tjsl.edu and state the number of units you are requesting. Upon approval, students will be enrolled in Moot Court units by the Registrar's Office. This is graded Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
This course covers basic copyright issues, clearance and permission problems and involve a practical negotiation. The goal of the course is to teach the students how to obtain optimum value for a music property.
This course involves a practical study of the theory and skills used by lawyers in negotiations. The course will use readings, practical hands-on exercises, written planning documents, and written self critiques as the basis for developing each student's understanding of the negotiation process and his or her individual negotiating style. We will explore both competitive and cooperative approaches to negotiation, as well as ethical, strategic and tactical issues.
This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
This course provides an intensive study of oral advocacy skills used in arguing criminal motions. The key skill taught in the course is being able to distill the essence of your argument and to articulate why your side should win from the outset. We will take the motion papers from actual cases and then work on how to make an effective argument for your side. During the five days of the workshop, we will spend the bulk of the time having students make oral arguments and provide critiques. Each session will focus on one or two motions. As preparation, students will read motion papers, read the cases and whatever additional authority is necessary to understand the issues, and prepare an oral argument. Then, during the workshop every student will argue the motion(s) of the day; each argument will be followed by a critique and a discussion of how to make the argument better. This course will satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement for one unit.
This course provides an overview of United States patent laws and the institutions responsible for their administration, interpretation and enforcement. Topics covered include the statutory requirements for obtaining a patent, the process of applying for a patent, the rules for interpreting patent claims, and the nature of patent infringement. Students will critically examine the United States patent system from a variety of perspectives, including historical, economic, linguistic, and comparative law.
The TJSL Patent Clinic provides patent-specific legal assistance and representation to those in the community without sufficient means to hire a patent attorney to advise them. While under the supervision of a California licensed, U.S. patent attorney, participating students have the opportunity to assist clients in all aspects of transactional patent law practice. In additional to legal prerequisites, Patent Clinic students must also have a qualifying scientific or technical undergraduate degree. The Patent Clinic has two components, a classroom seminar portion and a client fieldwork portion. The seminar is a weekly, two-hour class that teaches the lawyering skills necessary to effectively represent the patent clinic clients. In addition to discussing general client interviewing and counseling techniques, the weekly class will focus on substantive and administrative areas of patent law that are relevant to the students' cases, including issues of professional responsibility.
The TJSL Patent Clinic provides patent-specific legal assistance and representation to those in the community without sufficient means to hire a patent attorney to advise them. While under the supervision of a California licensed, U.S. patent attorney, participating students have the opportunity to assist clients in all aspects of transactional patent law practice. In additional to legal prerequisites, Patent Clinic students must also have a qualifying scientific or technical undergraduate degree. The Patent Clinic has two components, a classroom seminar portion and a client fieldwork portion. The fieldwork provides students with the opportunity to perform the practical legal and administrative aspects of patent practice. Participating students are required to spend up to 20 hours per week with patent clinic clients, working on the patent matters. Each five hours per week of fieldwork completed equates to one school credit hour (for a total of up to four credits per semester for the fieldwork portion of the Patent Clinic).
This course offers students the opportunity to apply and improve the skills they have learned in the Introduction to Mediation course. This course emphasizes the understanding and application of mediation in a secondary/high-school environment. Students will be asked to assume the role of teacher and trainer. They will receive instruction on making complex concepts accessible to teenagers and running communication exercises and mock mediations so that their essential pedagogical purposes are clear. After receiving this training, participating law students will instruct and supervise high-school students as they conduct peer mediation in their school community. To further the learning experience, participating students are expected to read all course materials and complete all assignments, including weekly journal entries detailing their work at the high school and two writing assignments (3-5 pages/8-10 pages) on assigned topics. This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
Pre-Bar Fundamentals is designed to re-introduce students to the doctrinal subjects tested on the multi-state bar exam (MBE) prior to students commencing bar review with their selected provider. The course reviews key topics within each MBE bar subject, introduces students to multiple-choice test-taking strategies and skills, highlights approaches needed to answer bar essay questions in each of the subjects, and provides students with opportunities to develop their multiple-choice and essay-writing skills in order to prepare effectively for the bar exam. This pre- bar review course is graded on a competency-based scale set forth by the instructor at the start of the course and is not subject to the upper level curve. Students are eligible to take this course in their last semester of law school. Students may not take both Pre-Bar Fundamentals and Legal Synthesis I.
An overview of the lawyer's role in litigation before trial in federal court. Classes will review the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure applicable to pleading, discovery, discovery motions, summary judgment and pretrial conferences and then discuss pretrial strategy and planning and the role of alternative dispute resolution. The class will examine interviewing and client counseling, developing a theory of the case, developing an integrated method of using discovery and factual investigation to prepare a case. Ethical and policy issues in the pretrial process will also be discussed. The course will include several writing assignments: an interoffice memo outlining your theory of the case; a complaint; discovery requests; and a motion for summary judgment. This will allow students to take a case (from the plaintiff's perspective) from the time a client walks in the door through the pretrial conference.
This course examines legal issues in the world of professional sports, including contracts, collective bargaining, antitrust, and employment law. It will also examine the ramifications of decisions made by personnel working in the professional sports industry. Specific topics include coaches, agents and labor.
Today's professional sports law attorney practices in an atmosphere that joins legal principles with corporate analytics. The course provides a primer for the future practitioner and examines strategic planning by professonal sports teams, sports franchise valuation, use of economists as expert witnesses, establishment of market definitions in antitrust cases, and labor market effects of league rules. Initial digital texbook may be purchased on-line: Gennaro, DIAMOND DOLLARS: THE ECONOMICS OF WINNING IN BASEBALL (2007).
This seminar is meant to provide a foundation for students: 1) working in the self-help program; or 2) for students interested in public interest law; or 3) students interested in access to justice issues. This course will provide a better understanding of the socio-economic underpinnings of the population served, the resources available, as well as practical substantive law knowledge. This seminar explores the availability of legal services in the United States and the unmet legal needs of low and moderate income individuals. We will explore the role of courts, legal services organizations, law schools and the private bar in advancing free and affordable legal services. We will read about the structure of the legal profession, the current state of government funded legal services, the cost of legal service delivery, and the opportunities and challenges faced by the private bar. We will look at substantive areas of law including housing, employment, immigration and criminal. This course will challenge your thinking on how legal services are provided, the gaps that attorneys can fill in providing these services, and cause you to creatively think about alternate structures for meeting the needs of low to moderate income individuals.
This course examines law and policy issues in the determination of refugee status, with emphasis on U.S. law and practice. We also will address international origins of refugee law, the significance of international norms in its development, and comparative state practice.
This seminar will explore how the ideals of equality, freedom, and self-determination survive a time when predatory global finance, militarism, and racism are ascendant. The seminar will create an opportunity to explore global struggles for economic and political self-determination; comparative conceptions of equality and justice; models of resistance, revolution and reform throughout history and in the contemporary modern context looking at the role of multinational corporations, governments, and post-colonial grass root organizations advocating the rights of racial, gender and cultural identity minorities. Seminar participants will explore what global progressive alliances are possible to resist global cartels of corruption and repression as well as the legal and non-legal mechanisms that both empower and imperil self-determination with case study examination of social demands for justice throughout western, Middle Eastern and other non-western societies. Students will have an opportunity to craft a project that purports to effectively address a contemporary issue of social, political and economic inequality of interest to them by developing a focused, limited and achievable plan of action involving both legal and non-legal means and taking concrete steps to implement their action plans.
Scholarly Legal Writing introduces students to legal scholarship. This course is reguired for Law Review members who are in the first semester of writing their law review note. It is limited to those students.
This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
This course focuses on the issues that arise in securities transactions. The class provides an overview of the 1933 Securities Act, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and other legislation relating to securities regulation issues. Selected topics may include: public offerings of securities; recapitalizations, reorganizations and acquisitions; Rules 10b-5 and 16(b); proxy contests; and tender offers and anti-takeover devices.
This introductory level course examines the fundamental legal and business building blocks for real estate transactions. It employs a transactional approach, with planning problems and case studies. It examines commercial real estate transactions in the context of governing legal principles. Students also explore the problems of deciding whether to invest, resolving legal issues that arise at the contract stage, using traditional and creative financing, and exploring legal issues that arise post-closing. Selected topics discussed include the role of the attorney in the transaction, agency principles, broker participation, listing agreements and responsibilities, issues at the contract stage including marketable title, risk of loss, and disclosure obligations, foreclosure risks and proceedings. Elements used in grading will include individual and group project participation and analytical/drafting exercises. This course does not satisfy the Professional Skills graduation requirement.
The Small Business Law Center (SBLC) at Thomas Jefferson School of Law provides legal assistance and representation to entrepreneurs, small businesses, and non-profits that do not have the means to hire an attorney to advise them. Students who participate in the SBLC will have the opportunity to assist clients by forming their entities, drafting, negotiating and reviewing contracts, and helping clients through the regulatory process. Students will be guided during representation by a licensed California attorney but students will have primary responsibility for their cases.
Students enrolled in the SBLC are required to participate in weekly class meetings that focus on the lawyering skills necessary to effectively represent clients. In addition to discussing client interviewing and counseling techniques, students will also focus on substantive areas of law that are relevant to students' cases, including issues of professional responsibility.
Solo Practice Concentration will introduce students to the basics of owning a solo law practice. Topics covered will include: deciding to go solo; planning to go solo; the nuts and bolts of opening a law firm; developing a business plan; financial planning; selecting a practice area; generating cash flow; networking; marketing; client relations; billing and fees; budgets; trust accounting; collections; work-flow management; legal research solutions; forms; office protocols; strategic planning; growth; and management. Lectures will be supplemented with presentations by guest speakers who have started solo practices in a variety of litigation and transactional practice areas. It is recommended that students not take Solo Practice Concentration until completing a minimum of 31 credit hours, including Civil Procedure I and II, Legal Writing I and II, and Professional Responsibility. Students are expected to have basic familiarity with Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, and Westlaw/Lexis. The class, which qualifies for two units, will be graded on a credit/no credit basis with a limited number of students eligible for honors.
This course is designed to familiarize Spanish speaking persons with basic Spanish legal terminology so students can develop sufficient interviewing techniques in order to determine whether they can be of legal assistance to the prospective client. The primary focus will be on case studies covering criminal law, personal injury, family law, estate planning, and business law. This course will be open to alumni as well as current students.
This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
This course involves an intensive study of free exercise and establishment cases before the United States Supreme Court. Past and pending religion cases will be read and discussed. Each student will be assigned the role of a clerk to a sitting Justice on the United States Supreme Court and will be expected to read that Justice's decisions or writings in the religious liberty area. In that role as a clerk, students will be expected to write the following papers: 1. An analysis of the Justice's theory of precedent; 2. An analysis of the Justice's theory of interpretation; 3. An opinion for the Justice in a pending religious liberty case; and 4. A critique of the Justice's position in this area. The students will sit as the Court in the pending case and decide that case as if they were each representing their Justice in that case.
This course qualifies for the skills requirement or Upper Level Writing Requirement (with additional drafts required) - but not both. No text will be required. Students will read the actual decisions and certain materials prepared for the course by the Professor.
This course will discuss how to develop and structure appellate and constitutional arguments. Class discussion will take place in a live discussion chatroom on the Westlaw/TWEN site. In the chatroom discussion, students will draft arguments related to both current and past United States Supreme Court cases. For example, students will reargue decisions on abortion, school prayer, and search and seizure issues, as well as discussing a number of other important Supreme Court cases. Students will prepare their arguments using briefs filed with the Supreme Court.
Students should expect to draft arguments for a case roughly every two weeks.
Each student will write a research paper about one case currently filed with the United States Supreme Court. Students will receive substantial research and writing experience.
This course introduces the student to the federal income taxation of corporations, S corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies. The material will examine the tax issues surrounding the formation, operation and dissolution of a business conducted through each business form, permitting the student to evaluate whether one business form offers more tax advantages than the others in any given situation.
This course focuses on current trademark and unfair competition law from different view points: theory, case law, and litigation strategy.
The Trademark Clinic at Thomas Jefferson School of Law is part of the Small Business Law Center (SBLC) and provides trademark-specific legal assistance and representation to individuals and organizations that do not have sufficient means to hire a trademark attorney to advise them. Students will be actively supervised during each client representation by a California licensed, U.S. patent and trademark attorney. Students interested in the Patent Clinic must be eligible for certification under the State Bar of California's Practical Training for Law Students program. A student must have completed one full year at an accredited law school or passed the First Year Law Student's Exam (FYLSE). The Trademark Clinic has two components, classroom and clinical fieldwork. The classroom portion is a weekly class meeting that focuses on the lawyering skills necessary to effectively represent clients. In addition to discussing client interviewing and counseling techniques, the weekly class will also focus on substantive areas of law that are relevant to students' cases, including issues of professional responsibility.
The Trademark Clinic at Thomas Jefferson School of Law is part of the Small Business Law Center (SBLC) and provides trademark-specific legal assistance and representation to individuals and organizations that do not have sufficient means to hire a trademark attorney to advise them. Students will be actively supervised during each client representation by a California licensed, U.S. patent and trademark attorney. Students interested in the Patent Clinic must be eligible for certification under the State Bar of California's Practical Training for Law Students program. A student must have completed one full year at an accredited law school or passed the First Year Law Student's Exam (FYLSE). The Trademark Clinic has two components, classroom and clinical fieldwork. The clinical fieldwork portion of the course gives students the opportunity learn and practice transactional trademark matters as well as general administrative practice skills. Participating students are eligible for 1 to 5 units of clinical fieldwork. Each unit is equivalent to 5 hours per week of client work. The minimum commitment of clinical work hours per week is determined on a semester-by-semester basis.
Course description currently unavailable.
Transportation is the most unique industry in the United States due to its profound relationship to employment, investment and impact on other industries. After having learned the history of transportation modes (rail, water, pipeline, trucking and air), students will discover that even though transportation was the first industry to be regulated, it was also the first industry to be significantly deregulated. The course examines how political, legal, and economic forces converge to make national policy. Specific topics of inquiry will include history, economic regulation, liability issues, government operations, labor law, and environmental issues. This course is driven by readings, discussion, and research papers.
This course provides training in trial techniques through lecture and participation in practice sessions. Students participate in all phases of civil and criminal cases under the supervision of an experienced attorney.
This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit. Honors designation will convert to a 4.0.
This course is graded non-anonymously Honors, Credit, Low Pass, No Credit.
Students provide actual legal representation to clients of Veterans Village of San Diego under the supervision of the professor. Veterans Village provides housing, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and job training to struggling veterans. The actual composition of students' caseloads will be determined by client need, however, it is anticipated that case work is likely to be concentrated in the areas of family, consumer, and administrative law. Students will be required to spend approximately 20 hours per week on their case work, and will receive four credits for this work. The fieldwork component of the course will be graded on an honors/credit/low pass/no credit basis. In addition to the clinic's fieldwork component, there will be a required two credit classroom component that will meet once per week for two hours. This will be similar to a traditional law school class, with required reading and other assignments, and classroom discussion of the assigned materials. Additionally, however, the classroom component will devote significant time to discussion of students' clinic cases, and the substantive areas of law that govern the cases. The classroom component will be graded according to the school's numerical grading scale, with the grade to be based on the classroom exercises and on a final take-home examination. Due to the nature of the course, grading for this course will be non-anonymous. Students registering for the clinic will be asked to complete a 1 page statement of interest and relevant experience. In the event that the clinic is oversubscribed, this statement will be considered in making admission decisions, in addition to students' academic standing and proximity to graduation.
This course explores the past and present law and policy pertaining to crimes of vice. We will focus primarily on six areas - drugs, alcohol, gambling, socially condemned sexual behavior, pornography, and prostitution. Prosecution of crime in these areas is of tremendous importance today, not only because it constitutes a significant portion of the criminal docket, but also because it raises hard questions about the proper scope of the criminal law. We will start by looking at the law itself, reviewing past and present vice codes to determine what the law allows and what the law prohibits. With that foundation in place, we will ask whether the law we have is the law we want: are the legal regulations governing drugs, gambling, prostitution, etc., well-fashioned? Do they go far enough? Do they go too far? More fundamentally, why does the criminal law concern itself with these "morals offenses" at all? Along the way, we will also look at how social and political attitudes toward vice have shaped vice law, consider whether law enforcement practices are and have been consistent with the vice law on the books, and try to find lessons in the law of vice that can help us understand or reform other areas of the criminal law.
This course examines the law of disposition of property through inter vivos and testamentary means: intestate succession; execution, alteration and revocation of wills; family protections and restrictions on testation; will substitutes; probate and will contests; creation, modification, and administration of various types of trusts and related trust issues.
This one-unit course will provide students with an introduction to sports law: professional, international, and amateur. Students will be guided by licensed California attorneys. Topics of discussion range from fans, to league commissioners, owners, players (retired and active), attorneys and agents, student-athletes, coaches, administrators, collective bargaining disputes and more among national, collegiate, international private and regulation sports entities, in the areas of private and public negotiations, disputes, and controversies.
The course covers law in the areas of contract, constitutional, tort, criminal, employment, labor, intellectual property and licensing, antitrust, and legal ethics in the sports context.