About Pierce Law
Contact:
Barbara Wilson, Associate Director of Communications
Phone: (603) 513-5111
Cell: (603) 986-4191
Fax: (603) 225-4016
bwilson@piercelaw.edu
Mailing Address:
Franklin Pierce Law Center
Two White Street
Concord, NH 03301 USA
WELCOME TO FRANKLIN PIERCE LAW CENTER
"Pierce Law strives to provide its students with the best possible legal education. Pierce Law is a community of scholars, oriented towards the practice of law, who teach, learn and empower others to contribute productively to a global legal system. Students from around the world with diverse experiences engage in active, practice–based learning in small, cooperative and interactive learning environments. While traditional areas of law and emerging specialties are taught, the intellectual property law curriculum, one of the broadest in the country, is continually emphasized and improved. Graduates are highly capable, confident professionals who will serve clients, employers and the public with integrity and excellence."
– Mission Statement
AN OVERVIEW
Founded in 1973 to encourage innovation in legal education, Franklin Pierce Law Center is a private, independent law school with an enrollment of approximately 450. New Hampshire's only law school, Franklin Pierce Law Center remains, by choice, one of the smallest independent law schools in the United States. Students learn in a close, cooperative and informal environment. While our students learn the practice of law in New Hampshire, the majority of our graduates launch their practice of law outside New England. Pierce Law's extensive alumni network throughout the United States and around the globe provides limitless options for graduates seeking employment.
Pierce Law is proud of the role its students and faculty members play in advancing the economic and social well–being of Concord and its surrounding communities. Legal services to the state's under–represented are provided through our extensive clinical programs, offering students practical hands–on training both in the classroom and in the state's courts. New Hampshire's only law school, Pierce Law has earned worldwide recognition for its programs in the study of international intellectual property.
Accredited by the American Bar Association, Pierce Law is located in Concord, New Hampshire, home to the state's legislature, state offices, as well as local, state and U.S. federal courts. Concord is centrally located, only an hour's drive from Boston, MA and New Hampshire's majestic White Mountains, pristine lakes, and Atlantic seacoast.
Our Students
Each entering Juris Doctor class numbers approximately 135 students, most of who come from outside of New England. Students come to Pierce Law from every state and more than 80 countries. The diversity of our student body is evident when you enter our doors. Members of a first–year class, on average, represent more than 100 undergraduate schools, and speak nearly two–dozen foreign languages. Students' interests and hobbies are as varied as their previous vocations, with careers ranging from engineering, education and nursing to radio production, biotechnology, and systems management. Students come from around the world to enroll in one of Pierce Law graduate programs offering a Joint JD/Master of Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology (JD/MIPCT), Six Month Diploma of Intellectual Property (DIP), a Master of Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology (MIPCT), and a Master of Laws in Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology (LLM) Their diverse backgrounds, languages, and perspectives broaden and enrich the educational experience for all. Their diverse backgrounds, languages, and perspectives broaden and enrich the educational experience for all.
Our Distinguished Faculty Inspires Excellence
Comprised of 26 full–time members and 38 adjuncts, our faculty members are dedicated to teaching and to providing their students the best possible legal education. All are experienced practitioners, many national and international experts in their respective fields. They are committed to academic excellence and scholarship, and to inspiring graduates to seek rewarding and successful careers.
AREAS OF CONCENTRATIONS: BUILDING A LEGAL EDUCATION
Preparing to practice law in today's market requires in–depth knowledge of several subjects in order to build an economically viable practice, as well as proficiency in professional skills such as interviewing, drafting, counseling, and trial practice. Acquiring this range of experience in three years, with time left for some exploration and evaluation, is not easy.
Therefore, we offer concentrations — opportunities to help you gain expertise in one or more areas of the law. Unlike college majors that have fixed requirements and lead to a degree in a particular subject, concentrations are flexible guides for the second half of law school. These concentrations enable you to shape your education to prepare you for the real needs of legal practice.
Each concentration involves survey and specialty courses, an array of simulations, clinics or externships to develop your skills, and a culminating experience such as a seminar or advanced practice opportunity that pulls all the elements together. Most concentrations encompass multiple areas of the law that you may decide to pursue.
In addition, we help students create individually designed externships in their chosen fields, independent studies, or summer study abroad with transfer credit. With planning and careful use of these options, you can also create your own concentration. Our students have used elective courses, externships, and independent studies to prepare themselves for many legal fields including admiralty law, banking law, immigration law, solid waste management law, risk management law, securities law, construction litigation, and international dispute resolution.
Business and e–Commerce Law
A concentration in business and e–commerce law prepares students for traditional, corporate or nonprofit practice in private firms, corporate legal departments, tax practice, estate planning, or to work with business start–ups in fields ranging from technology to real estate.
Pierce Law offers a number of core courses in business and e–Commerce law. Additions or substitutions to the core curriculum adapt the design to emphasize real estate work, traditional corporate or nonprofit practice, technology management, estate planning and probate, public utilities regulation, bankruptcy, or international trade. This concentration also integrates well with our intellectual property curriculum, particularly for those interested in computer software, multi–media, and the explosion of business and legal innovations associated with the growth of the Internet, including software design, technology licensing, and electronic publishing and research.
Criminal Law
The criminal law concentration prepares graduates for work in the criminal justice system. Upon graduation, students are prepared for careers as public defenders, private defense lawyers, prosecutors, or lawyers in the corrections system.
At Pierce Law, students have the opportunity to gain extensive real–life experience through externships with the public defender, a local prosecutor, or participation in our Criminal Practice Clinic. The Clinic allows students to represent, in the local district court, clients charged with misdemeanors. In the Clinic, students are responsible for interviewing their client, conducting an investigation, filing motions, negotiating with the prosecutor, and trying the case before a judge or jury. Students work under the direct supervision of a full–time clinical professor who is an experienced criminal defense lawyer. Cases include DWI, and other serious driving offenses, domestic assaults, thefts, and juvenile offenses.
In the Appellate Defender Program, students work on appeals of criminal convictions to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Students read transcripts, help select the issues, and write briefs in cases that raise important evidentiary and constitutional issues. All students work under the supervision of full–time clinical professors who are experienced appellate lawyers. Students may apply for summer grants through the Public Interest Coalition to do a variety of criminal law work ranging from research on the death penalty to working in the Public Defender Offices.
General Practice
Students who choose to concentrate in general practice emerge from their legal education at Pierce Law as independent practitioners, competent to counsel and represent clients. Whether you undertake the social justice path emphasizing public interest work, or prefer a different emphasis, you need to plan carefully. In just three years, you will want to survey enough of the subject matter of the law to be able to diagnose and refer matters calling for a specialist, yet acquire sufficient practical skill and depth in some reliable lines of business to sustain a general practice.
Intellectual Property
Pierce Law is one of the world's premier centers for the study of intellectual property law. Pierce Law is a pioneer in training lawyers of all backgrounds and specialties to deal with technological and scientific issues, while at the same time offering an internationally recognized program for specialists in patent law and related intellectual property fields. Pierce Law graduates are employed in leading patent firms, corporate legal departments, software companies, and broadcast networks around the country and abroad.
Approximately 35% of our current students have the solid training in engineering or the physical sciences required for patent law itself. Our program is also designed for students specializing in those areas of intellectual property for which a science or technology background is not required. These areas include copyrights for literature, art, or computer software; trademarks; trade secrets; and licensing as well as issues involving the Internet such as e–Commerce and cybercrime.
These forms of intellectual property law are open without regard to prelaw education. Some students with liberal arts, social science, or business degrees have found satisfying intellectual property careers, particularly involving computer software (largely copyright law) and trademarks.
Social Justice
Lawyers working in public interest law have an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of many. The lack of legal representation available to those with low incomes, or with physical or mental disabilities, is a continuing problem.
Students are encouraged to pursue this important avenue of the law. We are committed to training lawyers who want to use their skills and knowledge to represent those without adequate access to the legal system, and to affect public policy for public benefit. We also realize that it is not enough to foster the ethics of lawyers who want to dedicate their efforts to others; we also have to help ensure that public interest law practitioners can earn a living.
Pierce Law created the Social Justice Institute to train lawyers for work in the public sector, private practice, or government service, helping to fulfill the growing need for advocates, organizers, strategists, and policy experts. With a concentration in this program, you will acquire knowledge in fee–generating public interest work, the practical skills for applying this knowledge professionally, as well as law office management skills.
Graduates with a social justice concentration pursue careers in family and youth services, combating domestic violence, protection of the elderly and people with disabilities, civil rights, consumer protection, occupational health and safety, gay and lesbian representation, environmental protection, health care delivery, or traditional legal aid work.
USING TECHNOLOGY TO PREPARE LAWYERS FOR TOMORROW
Devine, Millimet & Branch Courtroom
One of the most advanced courtrooms in the country, the Pierce Law's Devine, Millimet & Branch Courtroom provides students the opportunity to experience a high–tech facility equipped with the state–of–the–art hardware and software programs. Through a variety of courses held in the courtroom, students significantly enhance their understanding of file and case management, particularly in complex cases, and expand their knowledge of visual persuasion beyond the traditional bounds of demonstrative evidence.
Smart Classroom
Pierce Law's newest building addition features a "smart" classroom, equipped with state–of–the–art electronic and non–electronic presentation technology. It also includes a second classroom designed to facilitate distance learning and space for housing Pierce Law's consolidated clinical programs in a law firm atmosphere.
ADVANCED DEGREE PROGRAMS
Intellectual Property
In addition to the JD program in intellectual property law, Pierce Law offers additional degree programs in this field.
Master of Intellectual Property in Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology (MIPCT) and Joint JD/MIPCT
Our one–year Master of Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology (MIPCT) degree program is designed for professionals from countries with widely varying business, legal, and governmental systems. Since 1986, more than 500 intellectual property administrators and practitioners from over 60 countries have taken part in the program.
The MIPCT is open to qualified JD candidates who seek the credentials of both a general legal education and an intensive specialty. It requires more time and effort offers enhanced professional potential; and merits the additional degree. You can complete both the JD and MIP programs within the three years required for the basic law degree by increasing your course load in your second and third years or by taking courses during the Intellectual Property Summer Institute. JD students may apply for simultaneous enrollment in the JD/MIPCT in their second semester. The joint JD/MIPCT requires a minimum of 99 credits.
Master of Laws in Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology (LLM)
The Master of Laws in Intellectual Property, Commerce and Technology (LLM) is designed for law graduates who wish to examine the legally sophisticated intellectual property issues that often arise in policymaking or teaching. The LLM candidate must complete a minimum of 30 credit hours of course work and have completed all requirements for the JD (or equivalent) prior to enrollment.
SUMMER ABROAD PROGRAMS
Pierce–Tsinghua China Intellectual Property Summer Institute
Tsinghua University School of Law
Beijing, China
The Intellectual Property Summer Institute in China is an extension of Pierce Law's Summer Institute in Concord. The China program provides an insightful introduction to the contemporary law of China and the country's legal system. It also offers an overview of China's patent, copyright, and trademark laws as well as an introduction to some of the major international instruments and institutions regulating international trade and intellectual property. Located in northwest Beijing, the site of the former Imperial Gardens of the Qing Dynasty Emperors, Tsinghua University is China's premiere institution of science and technology.
eLaw Summer Institute
University of College Cork Faculty of Law
Cork, Ireland
The eLaw Summer Institute is a comparative program focusing on law and emerging policy of the Information Age. The Institute is designed to offer a critical learning experience, providing lawyers of the 21st century a greater understanding and appreciation of the domestic and international aspects of Information Age law, an evolving and growing body of law. The six–credit program features courses taught by an experienced team of faculty from Pierce Law and the University College Cork Law School.
