The School of Law was founded in 1969. It was granted provisional American Bar Association (ABA) accreditation in 1996, and earned full ABA accreditation in 2001. In 2008, Thomas Jefferson became one of about 200 members of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), a prestigious organization which admits only highly-rated law schools.
In January of 2011, the law school will be moving to a brand-new, state-of-the-art high-rise campus in the East Village area of Downtown San Diego. The contemporary-looking structure will feature several outdoor terraces and walls of windows through which passersby can see into the law school while those inside can observe the activity of the East Village.
Thomas Jefferson has evolved into a private, non-profit institution that has distinguished itself as an innovative, cutting-edge law school, devoted to the individual needs and success of the student. The law school has a world-class full-time faculty of more than 40; our professors have been trained at the top law schools, with more than half of them graduating from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia and New York University, and all but a few from top 10 law schools. Our faculty is prolific in its publication of important scholarly works, including more than 500 scholarly articles and books collectively.
Thomas Jefferson has three Centers for Academic Excellence: The Center for Global Legal Studies, The Center for Law, Technology, and Communications; and The Center for Law and Social Justice. All three centers have achieved prominence in their fields through expanded course offerings and timely speaker programs. The law school has also achieved prominence in many legal areas such as intellectual property, international investment law and computer & internet law, to name a few.
The future of Thomas Jefferson School of Law will be defined by the continuing innovation and excellence of its faculty, alumni and students as we continue to provide a solid, practice-oriented, legal education which also offers opportunities to shape the rapidly-evolving new issues that will define the practice of law in the years to come.