SANDRA L. RIERSON

Professor of Law

DEGREES

J.D., Yale Law School
B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

COURSES

Civil Procedure I and II
Constitutional Law I and II
Trademark Law
Slavery’s Imprint on the U.S. Constitution (seminar)

BIOGRAPHY

Professor Rierson will be teaching Civil Procedure I and II, and Constitutional Law I and II, during the 2024/25 academic year at Western State College of Law. Formerly, she was a Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and a Visiting Assistant Professor at California Western School of Law. She has also taught as a legal writing instructor at the University of San Diego School of Law. Before joining the faculty at Thomas Jefferson, Professor Rierson was a partner at Quinn Emanuel in Los Angeles, California, where her practice focused on civil litigation, primarily government contracts and intellectual property law.

Professor Rierson’s scholarship falls into two general categories: Trademark Law and Constitutional Law. She has utilized a historical approach to both subjects and explored issues relating to federalism in both contexts. Prof. Rierson’s trademark scholarship highlights the dangers to free speech and anti-competitive effects posed by the modern expansion of trademark law, which reaches far beyond its historical roots in the law of unfair competition. She has explored these issues in the framework of trademark antidilution laws, the genericism doctrine, trademark functionality, and trademark remedies. Her Constitutional scholarship focuses on the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, the Reconstruction era more broadly, and the intersectional nature of race and gender discrimination during this historical period. She has also explored the parallels between this era and today, particularly in the context of immigration law and citizenship.

Professor Rierson received the 1L Faculty of the Year Award at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2019. She also co-chaired the 2023 Women and the Law Conference at Thomas Jefferson (with Dean Linda Keller), entitled Hate Crimes: Theory, Reality, Impact. Professor Rierson is a member of the State Bar of California, the American Constitution Society, the American Intellectual Property Law Association, and the American Society for Legal History.

You can view Professor Rierson’s complete research on her SSRN Author page: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=337819

• From Dred Scott to Anchor Babies: White Supremacy and the Contemporary Assault on Birthright Citizenship, 38 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 1 (2023).
• Tracing the Roots of the Thirteenth Amendment, 91 UMKC L. Rev. 57 (2022).
• The Wilmington Massacre and Coup of 1898 and the Search for Restorative Justice, 14 Elon L. Rev. 117 (2022) (with Melanie Schwimmer).
• Fugitive Slaves and Undocumented Immigrants: Testing the Boundaries of Our Federalism, 74 Miami L. Rev. 598 (2020).
• U.S. Anti-Dilution Law in its Historical and Contemporary Context, in Cambridge Handbook on International and Comparative Trademark Law, Cambridge University Press, Jane C. Ginsburg and Irene Calboli eds. (2020) (book chapter).
• Towards a More Coherent Doctrine of Trademark Genericism and Functionality: Focusing on Fair Competition, 27 Fordham IPLJ 691 (2017).
• “I Mean to Succeed”: Clara Foltz and the Reinvention of Self, 53 Am. J. Legal Hist. 131 (2013) (with Marybeth Herald) (book review).
• The Myth and Reality of Dilution, 11 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 212 (2012).
• The Thirteenth Amendment as a Model for Revolution, 35 Vermont L. Rev. 765 (2011).
• IP Remedies after eBay: Assessing the Impact on Trademark Law, 2 Akron Intell. Prop. J. 163 (2008), reprinted in Trademark: Concept and Context (Amicus Books 2008).
• Pharmaceutical Counterfeiting and the Puzzle of Remedies, 8 Wake Forest Intell. Prop. L.J. 433 (2008).
• Confronting the Genericism Conundrum, 38 Cardozo L. Rev. 1789 (2007) (with Deven R. Desai), reprinted in Intellectual Property Law Review (West 2008).

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS:

• Patent Reparations: HBCU’s Paving the Road to Recovery from Racial Disparities in the USPTO, Mosaic IP Law and Policy Roundtable Conference, Institute for Intellectual Property & Social Justice, University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) Law School, Chicago, Illinois (October 27, 2023).
• Patent Reparations: HBCU’s Paving the Road to Recovery from Slavery, Jim Crow, and Persistent Racial Disparities in the USPTO (with Prof. Mimi Afshar), Annual Law & Technology Summit, NCCU Technology Law & Policy Center, North Carolina Central University School of Law, Durham, North Carolina (October 13, 2023).
• Panel Presenter, Social Justice Issues in IP, 2023 Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) Annual Conference, Boca Raton, Florida (July 28, 2023).
• Trademark Law and the Creep of Legal Formalism, Works in Progress in Intellectual Property Conference (WIPIP), Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts (February 3-4, 2023).
• Trademark Law and the Creep of Legal Formalism, Sixth Annual Texas A&M Intellectual Property Scholars Roundtable, Texas A&M Center for Law and Intellectual Property at Texas A&M University School of Law, Fort Worth, Texas (November 11-12, 2022).
• The Wilmington Massacre and Coup of 1898 and the Search for Restorative Justice (with Melanie Schwimmer), Elon Law Review Symposium, Reparations: Restorative Justice for Racial Disparities, Elon University School of Law (online) (September 24, 2021).
• Speaker, 2020 Year in Review – Key Intellectual Property Cases and Insight, San Diego County Bar Association, Intellection Property Section (online) (December 15, 2020).
• The Three-Fifths Clause, Dred Scott, and the Fourteenth Amendment: Preserving an Inclusive American Citizenship, Constitutional Law Colloquium, Loyola University Chicago School of Law (online) (November 6-7, 2020).
• The Three-Fifths Clause, Dred Scott, and the Fourteenth Amendment: Preserving an Inclusive American Citizenship, University of Baltimore Law Review Symposium, 400 Years: Slavery and the Criminal Justice System, University of Baltimore School of Law, Baltimore, Maryland (November 15-16, 2019).
• Fugitive Slaves, Sanctuary Cities, and the Illusion of States’ Rights Conservatism, University of Detroit-Mercy Law Review Symposium, The Return of Sanctuary Cities: The Muslim Ban, Hurricane Maria, and Everything in Between, University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law, Detroit, Michigan (March 22-24, 2018).
• Tracing the Roots of the Thirteenth Amendment, American Constitution Society (ACS) Forum, Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law at Barry University, Miami Shores, Florida (March 1-3, 2018).
• Tam vs. Lee: The Supreme Court Considers the First Amendment Implications of the Federal Government’s Refusal to Register Scandalous and Disparaging Trademarks, The San Diego Center for Systems Biology (SDCSB), Intellectual Property and Licensing Workshop, University of California at San Diego (UCSD) (March 16, 2017).
• Towards a More Coherent Doctrine of Trademark Genericism and Functionality: Focusing on Competition, American Bar Association Intellectual Property Law Conference, Bethesda, Maryland (April 6-8, 2016).