NEWS RELEASE                               
December 13, 2007                                                  

Eighty-Five Thomas Jefferson School of Law Students to Graduate

Walter H. Diamond to Deliver Commencement Address

WHEN:        Sunday December 16, 2007
                     10:30 a.m.

WHERE:      San Diego Air & Space Museum
                      Balboa Park

SAN DIEGO – Eighty-Five Thomas Jefferson School of Law students will graduate on Sunday, December 16, at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in Balboa Park. The invitation-only ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m.
The commencement speaker will be Walter H. Diamond, who is a respected international tax authority and economist.  He is co-author, with his wife, Dorothy B. Diamond, of 81 tax and trade books and more than 100 investment booklets.

The Diamonds have endowed Thomas Jefferson’s new and innovative LL.M. (Master of Laws) program in International Tax and Financial Services, The Diamond Program.

Mr. Diamond has written 500 speeches covering the international scene and his weekly and monthly columns appear in The Financial Times and Offshore Investment magazine. As an officer in the U.S. Navy he was involved in six military operations in both the Pacific and Europe, including D-day. He was asked to engineer the safe return of 1,800 survivors of a sunken flotilla. As trade and investment adviser at the U.N. he helped more than 100 world leaders—from kings to presidents, prime ministers to finance ministers—draft plans for fighting poverty.

Mrs. and Mrs. Diamond will both be conferred honorary juris doctorate degrees from Thomas Jefferson at the commencement ceremonies.

Dorothy B. Diamond is an author and editor of Overseas Press and Consultants in Hartsdale, New York.  Aside from being an author for legal publishers, Mrs. Diamond has contributed articles to national magazines and has written travel features for the New York Times, New York Post, Trans World Airlines and the Pan-Am World Guide.  A pioneer in consumer education, she was a columnist for two leading trade magazines and wrote 50 booklets on consumer affairs.

The class valedictorian is Donald McDermott, who is graduating Summa Cum Laude, a Distinguished Honor Roll student, who won numerous Jefferson Medals for having the highest grade in a course.

Another distinguished graduate is Lisa Pisano, who is graduating Cum Laude, was named to the Distinguished Honor Roll and was awarded the 2007 American Bankruptcy Institute Medal of Excellence for her coursework.

A full list of Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude graduates follows.

The new graduates will join the law school’s more than 5,000 alumni that include San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and United States Congressman and presidential candidate Duncan Hunter.

Thomas Jefferson School of Law, located just off Interstate 5 in historic Old Town, is fully accredited by the American Bar Association, and the Committee of Bar Examiners of the State of California.

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This event is by invitation only; media coverage is welcome.

Full List of Students Graduating Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude and Summa Cum Laude:

HADLEY T. AJANA, B.A., M.A.
Magna Cum Laude

MICHAEL P. BOEHM, B.S.
Cum Laude

TERESA LOUISE CANNADY, B.S.
Magna Cum Laude

ELISIA LYN CARLSON, B.A.
Cum Laude

NICHOLAS M. CASSIDY, B.A.
Cum Laude

ERAN FORSTER, B.A.
Cum Laude

RYAN CURTIS GREGG, B.A.
Magna Cum Laude

CLAYTON CHARLES GRIESSMEYER, B.S.
Cum Laude

CAROLINE HAKIM, B.S.
Cum Laude

SARAH ELIZABETH HERZOG, B.A.
Cum Laude

SARAH KATE HOESTENBACH
Magna Cum Laude

.CHELSEA R. HUETH, B.A
Cum Laude

DAMIEN JORGENSEN, B.S.
Cum Laude

JASON E. LAGAS, B.A.
Cum Laude

JOHN MICHAEL MASNICA, B.A.
Cum Laude

BRIAN R. MASON, B.S.
Cum Laude

DONALD G. MCDERMOTT, B.A.
Summa Cum Laude

ERIN MICHELE PEDERSEN, B.A.
Magna Cum Laude

LISA MARIE PISANO, B.A.
Cum Laude

LAURA NICOLE SMITH, B.S.
Magna Cum Laude

DANA SNIEGOCKI, B.A.
Cum Laude

MATTHEW J. SPEREDELOZZI, B.A.
Cum Laude