According to Thomas Jefferson School of Law's official 2018 ABA-required disclosures, 19% of the Class of 2018 obtained full-time, long-term, JD-required employment nine months after graduation.

In 2013, The National Law Journal reported TJSL had the highest unemployment rate after graduation (31.5%) amongst all law schools in the US.

In January 2011, a New York Times article about the inability of many recent law school graduates to get jobs discussed Thomas Jefferson's claim that 92% of the class of 2009 was employed within nine months of graduation. The school's claim was based on a survey of the class of 2009. (Under ABA rules, 25% of graduates who do not participate in employment surveys are counted as employed.)

In May 2011, Anna Alaburda filed a class-action lawsuit against TJSL, alleging that the school had committed fraud by publishing deceptive post-graduation employment statistics and salary data in order to bait new students into enrolling. Alaburda, a 2008 honors graduate, claimed that despite graduating at the top of her class and passing the California bar exam, she was unable to find suitable legal employment, and had incurred more than $150,000 in student loan debt. This is the first time a law school would stand trial for allegedly inflating its employment statistics. The jury found in favor of TJSL with a 9–3 verdict.

Center for Solo Practitioners

Since autumn 2012, TJSL has operated Center for Solo Practitioners, a lawyer incubator program that provides space and support for selected alumni who are going into solo practice. It is also intended to help serve under-represented communities.

At the 2013 annual meeting of the American Bar Association, the Center for Solo Practitioners was honored with an ABA award in recognition of "successful implementation of a project or program specifically targeted to solo and small-firm lawyers."

Additional programs offered

Intellectual property

In 2009, TJSL initiated an Intellectual Property Fellowship Program for students with undergraduate or advanced degrees in the hard sciences or engineering. The TJSL Center for Law and Intellectual Property has course offerings in copyright, patent, trademark and unfair competition law as well as cyberspace law, biotechnology law and bioethics, telecommunications and media law, and sports and entertainment law.

International law

The Center for Global Legal Studies offers a specialized program in international law.

Social Justice Center

The Center for Law and Social Justice is a research and teaching program in areas of public policy and law in its field.

Notable people

Alumni

  • Roger Benitez (1978), federal judge of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of California
  • Bonnie Dumanis (1976), first openly gay or lesbian district attorney in the US and the first Jewish woman DA in San Diego
  • Michael Dvorak (1975), former Indiana State Representative and St. Joseph County, Indiana prosecutor
  • Duncan Hunter (1976), Republican member of the House of Representatives from California's 52nd, 45th and 42nd districts from 1981 to 2009 and 2008 Presidential candidate
  • Jessica King (2001), Wisconsin professor and former Wisconsin state senator
  • Leslie Alexander, former stock trader and former owner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Houston Rockets
  • Tim Purpura (1992), former general manager of the Houston Astros baseball team
  • Sherrexcia "Rexy" Rolle (2014), Bahamian attorney, singer and VP of Operations & General Counsel of Western Air

Faculty

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  • Marjorie Cohn, former president of the National Lawyers Guild and author

See also

  • Law school rankings in the United States
  • List of law school GPA curves

References