Stephanie Thompson

"I hope to inspire our students to embrace the struggle of learning to be a successful law student. I encourage them to recognize that mistakes are not failures, but mistakes are our greatest learning opportunities."

Professor Stephanie Thompson teaches in McGeorge's extensive Academic Support Program, to which she contributes her own love of learning, fascination with learning styles and learning theory, along with her experience as a litigator, legal counselor, and legal writing professor. She is a Sacramento native and received her BA from the University of California, Davis in Political Science and History, and also was a member of the U.C. Davis Women's Soccer Team. During her undergraduate education, she lived in Washington, D.C. and had the opportunity to work for then Vice President Al Gore. Inspired by her time in Washington, D.C., Professor Thompson attended Georgetown Law. At Georgetown, she was a member of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review. She also participated in the school's D.C. Street Law Program where law students are given the opportunity to teach law to high school students throughout the D.C. area. This was where Professor Thompson first developed her love of teaching.

Professor Thompson began her career at a large law firm in Los Angeles, California where she spent several years working on all types of employment-related disputes ranging from discrimination, to sexual harassment, to large wage and hour class actions. Professor Thompson then joined the McGeorge faculty in 2003 as a legal research and writing professor. She helped develop and direct the nationally recognized Global Lawyering Skills program, which is the required two-year skills program that introduces students to a broad range of core lawyering skills that include legal research, writing, and oral advocacy, as well as client interviewing, client counseling, negotiation, and drafting.

Professor Thompson is the co-author of Global Lawyering Skills (West 2013), a legal skills textbook that is unique in the market for its focus on cross-border and cross-cultural considerations in lawyering skills and practice. She also authored a legal writing book that has both a hands-on approach and experiential approach to legal writing entitled, Legal Writing Exercises: A Case File and Formula-Based Approach to Legal Reasoning (West 2010).

Her teaching approach is student-centered with a focus on individual learning styles. This student-centered teaching style is evident in her academic support courses, Principles of Legal Analysis I and II, which are courses that she designed. These courses help students reach their full potential in law school through a continuum of academic support and counseling, as well as introduce them to the skills necessary to be a successful law student and pass the bar exam on the first attempt.

Although Professor Thompson primarily teaches in the academic support program, she has not lost her love of employment law and litigation. She also teaches, on occasion, Employment Law, California Employment Law Practicum, Written Discovery, Global Lawyering Skills I, and Global Lawyering Skills II, and serves as the faculty advisor for the Employment and Labor Law Student Association (ELLSA).