Thomas Jefferson Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp presenting at the 2009 Marco Biagi Comparative Labour Law Conference at the University of Modena, Italy, where she is a member of the teaching faculty of the Doctoral Research School in Labour and Industrial Relations at the Marco Biagi Foundation.

The location of Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, a bustling port city along the U.S.-Mexico border, makes it an especially fitting place to gain exposure to international commercial law. The heart of the school's strength in international business, however, is its faculty. Nearly every full-time faculty member who teaches a course in international or comparative commercial law has actually worked in the field, either in a governmental agency or in the private sector representing and advising clients. Some faculty members are considered the leading experts in their fields, with books and other scholarly writings to their credit. That kind of experience and reputation permits them to provide an authoritative, real world perspective in their courses.

Eniola Akindemowo (eCommerce Law) frequently speaks and writes about the law of electronic commerce and financial transactions, including her Ph.D. thesis titled Electronic Fund Transfers, Consumers, Electronic Funds and the Law, a comparative study of U.S. and British law. She is the author of the first substantive book on IT law published in Australia, and co-author of another on E-Commerce and the Law. She practiced commercial law in the law firms of J.B Majiyagbe (SAN) & Co, and Abayomi Sogbesan (SAN) & Co.

Susan Bisom-Rapp (Globalization and the Workplace, International Labor and Employment Law) is a widely cited expert on employment discrimination and international and comparative workplace law. Her scholarship, examining the effects on civil rights enforcement of employers' compliance efforts and attorneys' litigation strategies, has for more than a decade been influential not only in the legal academy but also in the disciplines of sociology and psychology. Her co-authored casebook, The Global Workplace (Cambridge University Press, 2007), is the first law school text on international and comparative employment law. She practiced labor and employment law at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in New York City.

Richard Scott (European Union Law, International Economic Law, International Law, World Trade Organization Law) has had an illustrious career as an international lawyer, including service as Deputy General Counsel to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and as the founding General Counsel to the International Energy Agency in Paris. The co-author of The International Legal System, one of the most respected and widely used casebooks in the world, he is also the acclaimed author of the three volume History of the International Energy Agency, and co-author of two European Union law casebooks: European Union Law - A New Constitutional Order and European Union Economic Law and Common Policies.

William Slomanson (International Law) has published extensively in the field of international law and served as editor of the American Society of International Law's section on the United Nations Decade of International Law since 1992. From 1995 to 2006, he served as chair of the section. He has lectured on the teaching of international law to the United Nations Sixth Committee (legal) at the U.N. in New York and is a Visiting Professor at Pristina University in Kosovo. He also has lectured in Moscow, Budapest and Istanbul. In fall 2007, he was appointed to serve as a Corresponding Editor for the American Society of International Law's International Legal Materials.

Susan Tiefenbrun (European Union Law, International Business Transactions, International Intellectual Property Law) worked in an international law firm in Paris and in the New York office of Coudert Brothers, handling international commercial transactions. She is a specialist in eastern European joint venture laws, as well as the laws of the European Union, China and the former Soviet Union. She speaks ten foreign languages and has written a book-length study of Chinese, Russian and Eastern European joint venture laws, and numerous articles on international intellectual property, the World Court and international human rights laws. In 2003, she was awarded the French Legion of Honor for fostering French-American cooperation and cultural exchanges.

Kenneth J. Vandevelde (International Investment and Arbitration, International Law) is one of the world's leading authorities on U.S. international investment law. He practiced international law with the State Department Legal Adviser's Office. Since publishing his book, United States Investment Treaties: Policy and Practice, he has served as a consultant on international law to Japan, Lithuania, Slovakia, the Republic of Georgia, the United Nations and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and lectured on the subject of international investment law in 16 countries. His latest books are U.S. International Investment Agreements and Bilateral Investment Treaties: History, Policy and Interpretation.

Ilene Durst (Immigration Law, Refugee & Asylum Law) has extensive litigation and immigration law experience with law firms and public service organizations in New York. She has authored articles that apply language and narrative theory to immigration law.

Richard Winchester (International Taxation) practiced at major law firms and tax boutiques in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, developing an expertise in international tax and the taxation of financial institutions. He also was an international tax attorney in the national tax office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, advising both U.S. firms investing abroad and foreign companies investing in the U.S.

Claire Wright (International Trade and Developing Countries, World Trade Organization Law, World Trade Organization Law and China) is a former partner at the international law firm of Baker & McKenzie, where she practiced international trade law. She also was a partner at the international consulting firm of Ernst & Young LLP, where she directed the firm's World Trade Organization (WTO) Center and advised governments and businesses on WTO issues. She has special expertise in matters involving Mexico and China and is a member of an American Law Institute committee that publishes a review of the cases decided each year by the WTO. She has spoken and published widely on issues involving international trade, the WTO, U.S.-China relations, U.S. - Mexico relations, international trade in cultural products and media services, urban policies and human rights.