UC San Diego Revives Plans for Law School

sara — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:24:34 +0000

The University of California San Diego is reviving a plan to establish a law school through a partnership with California Western School of Law. There are no concrete plans yet but ongoing discussions indicate a variety of options are on the table. These options include a strengthened affiliation between California Western and UCSD to a full merger.

This month faculty and administrators from both schools formed a committee to explore a partnership. Leaders from both schools stressed that if a school of law were created it would be self-supporting and not involve state or UCSD campus funds initially. Supporters of the partnership believe it could advance research collaborations, provide more opportunities for students and raise the prestige of both schools.

Critics are concerned about the viability of the financial model the research committee has proposed and whether there is a mismatch between San Diego’s focus on research and California Western’s on teaching. Five UC law schools already exist and some question the need for another.

Since the early 1980s UCSD has had aspirations of building a law school. A similar merger was rejected at that time. An official recommendation on the new proposal will not be forth coming until later in the year.

Virtual Law Partners Hires Four Attorneys

Erik Even — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:07:57 +0000

Virtual Law Partners, which hired five new partners four weeks ago, has this week brought on four new partners for its commercial lending and intellectual property practices.

David Lawson joins from Troutman Sanders, where he was a partner, to chair Virtual Law’s commercial lending practice. He earned his JD from the University of Southern California Law Center.

Janyce Mitchell joins from Strategic Patent Group, where she was a vice president. She received her JD from the UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, and her MS and C. Phil in Physics from the University of California, San Diego.

Stephen Sullivan also joins from Strategic Patent, where he was president. He will focus on patent prosecution for software companies. His JD is from the Santa Clara University School of Law.

David Roise joins from Ropes & Gray, where he was an associate. He is a former assistant professor of biochemistry and cellular biology at UC San Diego. He specializes in patent law. He earned his Ph.D in biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his JD from Stanford Law School.

Founded in 2008, Virtual Law Partners is a distributed, web-based law firm that goes beyond the constraints of brick & mortar law firms to provide legal services at rates lower than those of conventional law firms. Powered by a digital infrastructure, VLP eliminates costly physical offices and minimizes environmental impact, while significantly lowering administrative costs and overhead.

JD Journal » University of California San Diego

UC San Diego Revives Plans for Law School

Virtual Law Partners Hires Four Attorneys