When it launched in 1969, the Thomas Jefferson School of Law was the San Diego campus of Western State University College of Law. Thomas Jefferson split off from Western State in 1995, and gained ABA accreditation shortly thereafter. These days, the school attracts a large number of mid-career professionals from the San Diego area, and works to maintain flexibility in its part- and full-time programs to accommodate them. Academically, TJSL has a healthy legal writing program, which was one of the first to exclusively use tenured and tenure-track professors. The school also houses the Center for Law, Technology & Communications, the locus of the program's strong intellectual property department.

TJSL follows a standard law school curriculum and has a flexible rather than fixed grading curve. The school offers specialties in entertainment and sports law and human rights, as well as more traditional concentrations. In Vault's survey, students report that San Diego, though lovely, is expensive and that TJSL's facilities need updating. Luckily, the school already has renovations in the works--in 2008 the school began construction on a new campus in the East Village area, due to be completed within two years.