Sidebar

Alternative Study Spaces Over the Summer: Construction in the law parking lot throughout Summer 2026 may cause noise in the LRC. Please see our Alternative Summer Study Spaces guide for information on other study spots on campus such as Copley Library and the Learning Commons. Please remember that construction will take place during daytime hours but current students and recent grads can continue accessing the LRC 24/7 with their USD ID card. The LRC reference librarians will be available to answer questions by email, phone, or chat during regular business hours.

Register for Access to Westlaw After Graduation; Continuing Access to Other Databases: Graduating law students will continue to have access to Westlaw for 6 months after graduation if they sign up for Grad Elite Plus. This program allows graduates to use Thomson Reuters products, including Westlaw, Practical Law and Practice Ready solutions for non-commercial research for up to 60 hours/month. Graduates can turn to these resources to gain understanding and build confidence in their research skills, but they cannot use them in situations where they are billing a client. In addition, graduates get access to job searching databases on Westlaw and TWEN for 1 hour/month.

Law graduates automatically receive 6 months of access to Lexis after graduation. Graduates conducting verifiable 501(c)(3) public interest work may also sign up for the Lexis ASPIRE Program, which will permit further limited access to Lexis Advance for an additional 6 months.

Graduating law students also automatically receive 6 months of access to Bloomberg Law and 18 months of access to CEB OnLaw Pro if they sign up for accounts before graduation. If you do not have a Bloomberg or CEB OnLaw Pro account, please contact the LRC Reference Desk.

Notre Dame Law School
Southwestern Law School
Cumberland School of Law (Samford University)
UCincinnati Law

Let's get them next year!

In the meantime, please continue to access the suite of personal finance webinars and lessons Ask EDNA

Student Writing Competitions

Looking for a way to get published? Maybe earn some extra cash? Then consider entering a writing competition. Visit Writing Competitions webpage for current opportunities. Deadlines vary and new competitions are posted periodically. 

Graduate Student Life

Are you interested in connecting with other grad students across USD? Grad Life offers a wide variety of programming for grad and law students. See the events calendar and sign up for the newsletter! Check out the Grad and Law Student Handbook as well!

CalFresh Program

We recognize the importance of the CalFresh Program available to eligible, enrolled students and strongly encourage all to apply. CalFresh provides food resources in the form of an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, which works like a debit card. This program helps many graduate and professional students purchase groceries 12 months a year. Visit CalFresh at https://students.getcalfresh.org/ to start your application. If you have questions about eligibility or need assistance with your application, please contact a CalFresh representative. Approval is determined by CalFresh and the State of California. Please contact the USD School of Law Financial Aid Office  at lawaid@sandiego.com to request a CalFresh letter to submit with your application as supporting documentation. It is also recommended to include a copy of the 25-26 FAFSA Submission Summary (The FAFSA Submission Summary summarizes the information you reported on your FAFSA form and includes your estimated eligibility for federal funding, and your Student Aid Index (SAI) received by email from the Department of Education - Federal Student Aid after submitting the FAFSA) along with the CalFresh application, and USD supporting letter.

USD Food Pantry and Torero Closet    

The USD Food Pantry in Hahn University Center (UC) 116 includes: food, school supplies, hygiene supplies, laundry detergent, etc. Additionally, we have a refrigerator and freezer to offer students fresh produce, dairy, and additional protein options.

The Torero Closet’s mission is to provide support and resources to members of the USD community who are low income students who express need, identify as former foster youth, homeless or at risk for homelessness, and those students who were emancipated minors or in legal guardianships.  It is located at 5330 Linda Vista Road, just south of the West Parking Lot.

TimelyCare

TimelyCare provides students with 24/7 access to campus health and counseling resources—anytime, anywhere.

Make use of the variety of wellness resources available to you both on and off campus. We encourage you to adopt healthy practices now that will contribute to your long-term resilience and success.

Sidebar is a weekly newsletter prepared by the Office for Law Student Affairs and is emailed to all USD law students every Monday morning. It contains important deadlines, announcements and upcoming events for the following two weeks. Past issues of sidebar can be found online.

Submit your listing request online by noon on the Thursday before you wish the listing to run. Listing requests may be edited. Announcements will not be posted for more than two weeks..