London Summer Program

20th Annual Summer-Abroad Program, Study Law in London June 16-July 17, 2024, Entertainment Law & Refugee and Public-Interest Law

Welcome to the 20th Annual Summer Law program in London, U.K., hosted and presented by Southwestern Law School. Studying law in London is an experience of a lifetime.  At Southwestern, we are thrilled to present two distinctive tracks of study: the Entertainment Law Track and the Public-Interest Law Track.  This five-week program provides an exceptionally unique and inspiring educational and international networking experience. No matter where you study law, we encourage you to take advantage of this career-enhancing opportunity.

For law students looking for a deeper global perspective, Southwestern offers a study abroad program in London.

Southwestern Law School, under the auspices of the Biederman Entertainment and Media Law Institute, will host a four-week Summer Program in International Entertainment and Media Law and International Humanitarian and Refugee Law at The University of London SOAS, Brunei Gallery from June 16 to July 17, 2024.  

This unique and exciting program offers a variety of academic, cultural, and social experiences through:

  • Courses on international entertainment, art, music, negotiating and drafting international entertainment contracts, and public-interest law. 
  • Instruction provided by U.S. and British faculty with extensive international experience
  • Guest lecturers on course-related topics
  • Field excursions to the Royal Courts of Justice and other legal, entertainment, media, and cultural institutions in London

Program Details:

Sunday, June 16 through Wednesday, July 17, 2024.


Calendar 

Saturday, June 15 — Students check into dorm rooms at College Hall

Sunday, June 16 — Mandatory Orientation followed by Thames River Cruise

Monday, June 17 — Classes Begin

Tuesday, June 25 — Last Day for Int'l Entertainment Business Affairs Negotiations

Wednesday, June 26 — First Day of Class for Int'l Live Theater Business & Legal Affairs

Wednesday, July 17 — Last Day of Classes

Thursday, July 18 — Final Exams for Int’l Live Theatre Business & Legal Affairs, Int’l Art Law, and Race, Culture and Law

Friday, July 19 —Final Exams for Comparative Media Law and Int’l Sports Law ︱Farewell Dinner Party

Sunday, July 21 — Last day to vacate College Hall


 

Course Schedule

Track 1: International Entertainment Law

Monday –Thursday

9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.                                          

International Business Affairs Negotiations (1 unit) and International Live Theatre Business and Legal Affairs (2 units)*

OR

International Art Law (3 units)

Monday –Thursday

11:10 a.m. – 1:10 p.m.               

Comparative Media Law (3 units)

OR

International Sports Law (3 units)

 Track 2: Public-Interest Law

Monday –Thursday

9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.                   

Race, Culture, and Law (3 units)

Monday –Thursday

11:10 a.m. – 1:10 p.m.                                 

Track 2 students may select one three-unit course from Track 1 at 11:10 a.m. – 1:10 p.m.

Comparative Media Law (3 units)

OR

International Sports Law (3 units)

All students must take at least three units and may take six units.

*Must be taken with the Int’l Business Affairs Negotiations course.


 

  1. Course Descriptions

    International Entertainment Business Negotiations (1 unit)

    This course will provide students with the opportunity to learn negotiation principles, techniques, and tactics before negotiating an actor agreement with other students in the class. Immigration and talent guild jurisdiction will also be covered as they may relate to the negotiation of the actor deal. Students will be asked to draft a deal memo outlining the terms of the deal. The deal memos will be reviewed and compared to those of the other negotiation teams in the class. The course will include a mandatory visit to a related facility, such as a theatre stage.


    Comparative Media Law (3 units)

    This course explores the intersection of media and the law, focusing on the impact that the law has upon the press as it gathers information and publishes the news. Students will become familiar with cases addressing the issues of prior restraint, libel, incitement to violence, privacy, reporter’s privilege, access to court proceedings, rights of reply, and cultural taboo. Students will compare U.S. law to the law of other jurisdictions to examine different legal approaches used in a free and democratic society to balance the interests of government accountability, press freedoms, and individual rights. By the conclusion of the course, students should be able to identify and apply the relevant common law, statutory, and constitutional rules affecting the gathering and publishing of the news. They should be able to strategize and make legal arguments in cases emerging from restraints on publication, defamatory publication, alleged violations of privacy rights, and governmental refusals to grant press access. Students will also have a better understanding of our current era of “information disorder,” caused in part by the rise of disinformation and misinformation on social media and by orchestrated state-supported propaganda initiatives.


    International Art Law (3 units)

    Artworks reflect the cultures of their creators, but artworks themselves know no boundaries. Perhaps for this reason, the most interesting and newsworthy issues in art law today are international law issues. This course will address international legal issues related to art as a creative endeavor, art as an article of commerce, and art as a significant cultural artifact. Issues to be examined include international jurisdictions and choice of law conflicts; legal aspects of international sales and resales; legal duties of international dealers and auctioneers; international sales and import taxes required on cross-border shipment of artworks; international recovery of artworks plundered during wartime; and international copyright (and other) protections for artists and their work.


    International Sports Law (3 units)

    This course surveys current legal issues relating to the global sports industries, with a special emphasis on sports in the European Union. Among the topics to be studied are the following: the nature of the sports industries; sports law as a distinctive discipline of study; the business structures of team versus individual sports; player transfers; cheating, including the use of performance-enhancing substances; licensing of international broadcasting rights; international merchandising; effective sports governance; and dispute resolution by national courts and the International Court of Arbitration for Sports.


    Race, Culture, and Law (3 units)

    Race, Culture, and Law will examine the complex relationships between the legal system and intersectional structural inequalities, exploring how culture, race, racism, law, and policy interact in the UK. Students will learn the principles of critical race theory and apply them to an examination of current events, multimedia engagement, debates, in-depth discussions, and the production of a high-quality paper or project. Students will develop excellent skills in writing, speaking, problem-solving, cultural competency, and legal analysis. They will explore how stereotypes communicated through film, television, books, news and social media, music, art, and other forms of culture influence society, law, and policy. The class will include guest lectures, field trips, and community engagement. 


    International Live Theatre Business and Legal Affairs (2 units)

    Bringing a live stage production to Broadway, the West End, a regional theatre, or on the road is a challenging feat. Developing the environment and atmosphere for audiences to immerse themselves in the story presented takes a great deal of creativity, artistry, patience, and money!  Live stage performance comes together because of the collaboration of many people. This course will explore these relationships in International Live Stage Business & Legal Affairs. The course moves from an overview of professional communication, copyright implications (specifically in the United States and the United Kingdom), and financing commercial theatre and entities in the US vs. the UK to a deep dive into the people who make theatre happen – producers, playwrights, directors, performers, designers, stage crew, location and box office managers, and marketing teams. For each of these groups of people, the course will review (a) any trade unions or associations that are involved in the fair labor negotiations and deals that are made through collective bargaining agreements and (b) other typical deal terms and agreements governing talent contracts. The course will explore ethical marketing practices that derive from potential legal implications. After reviewing Theatre BLA under the Broadway/West End spotlight, we’ll turn our study to other forms of theatre that producers must utilize or plan for, including pre-Broadway/West End try-outs, Off-Broadway/West End runs, touring companies, regional and local productions, and replica vs. non-replica productions. Finally, we’ll tie it all together to understand how the whole live theatre ecosystem functions (and how the ecosystem relates to other entertainment mediums) and apply what we’ve learned to develop a Production Launch Checklist of business and legal considerations for live theatrical productions.

Professors Kevin Greene and Orly Ravid with students in front of the Royal Courts of Justice
Professors Kevin Greene and Orly Ravid with students in front of the Royal Courts of Justice

 

Faculty

  1. Michael Epstein

    Professor Michael Epstein will co-teach the Comparative Media Law course.

    An aspiring journalist in college, Michael Epstein turned to law when a research project for a PBS documentary series on the U.S. Constitution put him in contact with some of the leading lawyers in the country. While in law school, the two interests blended well, leading him to serve as Book Review editor of Columbia Human Rights Law Review. Later, he received a Public Interest Law Foundation Fellowship and served an internship at the Media Access Project in Washington, D.C. Following graduation, he joined the law firm of Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood in New York City as an associate focusing on media mergers and acquisitions, as well as bank refinancing, leveraged leasing and alternative energy projects. Later, with the firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, he expanded his areas of practice to include bankruptcy, corporate and real estate law and lobbying efforts before Congress and federal agencies on behalf of clients.

    Professor Epstein returned to academia to earn his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, and while a graduate student, received his first teaching assignments in the University of Michigan's Departments of Anthropology, Communication, English Language and Literature and in the Program in American Culture. He later taught courses on media law and theory, communication and society, and television industry and regulation at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

    Professor Epstein joined the Southwestern faculty in 1999. Teaching in the areas of business, entertainment and media law, he also created and supervises Southwestern's Amicus Project Practicum and assists students in arranging entertainment law externships. He is the Supervising Editor of the Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law, and serves as a faculty advisor to the Media Law Forum and the Entertainment and Sports Law Society.

    Professor Epstein's most recent book is Mass Media Law: A Survey of Content and Culture (2014). He has published numerous articles in the areas of communications law, access to electronic media, television industry and entertainment culture.

  2. Andrea Freeman

    Professor Andrea Freeman will teach the Race, Culture, and Law course.

    Andrea Freeman writes and researches at the cutting-edge intersection of critical race theory and food policy, health, and consumer credit. Much of her work explores her pioneering theory of food oppression, which examines how food law and policy, influenced by corporate interests, disproportionately harms marginalized communities. She is the author of Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race, and Injustice (Stanford University Press 2019) and Ruin Their Crops on the Ground (forthcoming from Henry Holt in 2024) and the recipient of the 2020-21 Fulbright King's College London US Scholar Award to study food inequality in the UK.

    Professor Freeman teaches Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, Race and Law, Food Law and Policy, and Comparative Social Justice and Constitutional Law. She previously taught at the University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law, where she was a Carlsmith Ball Faculty Scholar. She has visited at the UC Berkeley School of Law, University of Denver Sturm College of Law, Santa Clara University School of Law, University of San Francisco School of Law, and California Western School of Law, and served as a Distinguished Scholar of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School.

    An active community member, Professor Freeman has served on the Litigation Committee of the ACLU Hawai'i chapter for 10 years. She was Chair of the AALS Constitutional Law section in 2022-23 and is Past Chair of the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Agriculture and Food Law.  She is co-Chair of the Law and Society Collaborative Research Network for Critical Race Research and the Law and a Founding Member of the Academy of Food Law and Policy. In 2015, she received the Community Faculty of the Year award from Richardson's Advocates for Public Interest Law.

    After graduating from U.C. Berkeley School of Law, Professor Freeman clerked for Judge Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and former chief Judge José A. Fusté of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Before law school, she worked in Toronto as a counselor for women and children who experienced domestic violence and in New York as a production manager in the independent film industry. 

     

  3. Simon Gardiner

    Professor Simon Gardiner will teach the International Sports Law course

    Dr. Simon Gardiner is a Professor of International Sports Law and has worked at a number of universities in the UK and in Australia including Middlesex University and Griffith University in Queensland. He has been at Leeds Becket University since 2006.

    Simon has been an active researcher in the area of sports law for over twenty years and has an international reputation. His particular research interests include sports governance and the regulation of sports-related corruption, racism in sport and the construction of national identity and athlete mobility in sport. He has been involved in funded research projects and consultancy for a range of sports bodies and has worked with the European Union concerning a number of projects.  This includes a study on legal issues concerning anti-doping provisions and the related decisions of the Court of Arbitration for Sport; the regulation of football hooliganism; legal expert with the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency and its study on Racism in Sport; and a study on the Equal Treatment of Non-Nationals in Individual Sports Competitions. He has also worked with the Council of Europe in the area of conflict resolution and human rights in sport together with the ‘Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport’ organization. 

    Simon has published widely in refereed journals, numerous professional journals, and in book collections of edited chapters across a range of sports-related disciplines, including law, sociology, and management. He is lead author and editor of the UK’s principal student-targeted textbook, namely Gardiner et al, Sports Law due to be published in its fifth edition in December 2020.  This book is used by both undergraduate and postgraduate students and practitioners and provides an explicitly socio-economic context to the development and application of law to sport. He has also co-edited two books (2000 and 2009) with seminal collections of articles on the development of the European Union’s sports regulation policy. His published work has had a significant impact on and is heavily cited in other Sports Law literature and more widely in related sports studies disciplines.  The work has also been cited, by the UK Law Commission, the European Commission, and in a number of legal cases.

     

  4. Jay Gendron

    Professor Jay Gendron will teach the International Business Affairs Negotiations course. 

    As a former executive in business affairs and legal affairs at Warner Bros. and consultant to Showtime and other media companies for more than two decades, Jay Gendron brings an insider's perspective on every facet of television production to the law classroom. His expertise is a tremendous asset for teaching Entertainment Business Affairs Negotiation, the Entertainment Law Capstone and the Entertainment and the Arts Legal Clinic at Southwestern.

    Professor Gendron spent more than 20 years at Warner Bros. Television, most recently as Vice President of Business Affairs, where he served as the primary point person for negotiations for writers, producers, directors and actors for the world's largest supplier of primetime scripted television. In this position, he handled all aspects of television business affairs including network license agreements, rights acquisitions and A-Level overall writer/producer agreements. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Legal Affairs, where he oversaw all legal aspects of production, rights acquisitions, co-production agreements, distribution agreements, negotiation/drafting of contracts, and garnered court approval of minors' contracts. He also drafted seminal development, license and termination agreements for The WB network.

    Before he joined Warner Bros. in 1991, Professor Gendron was the Director of Legal Affairs at Lorimar Television for several years. There, he served as production counsel, primarily handling network license agreements and clearance matters. Earlier in his career, he was an attorney with the firms of Leopold, Petrich & Smith and McCutchen, Black, Verleger & Shea.

    While in law school, Professor Gendron was editor of the Duke Legal Research Program. He also took part in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Oral Advocacy Project and served on the Moot Court Board.

  5. RonNell Andersen Jones

    Professor RonNell Andersen Jones will co-teach the Comparative Medial Law course

    Professor RonNell Andersen Jones is a University Distinguished Professor and Teitelbaum Chair in Law at the University of Utah and an Affiliated Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project. For the 2023-24 academic year, she is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. A former newspaper reporter and editor, Professor Andersen Jones is a First Amendment scholar who teaches, researches, and writes on legal issues affecting the press and on the intersection between media and the courts. Her scholarship addresses the constitutional treatment of the press and the role of journalism as a check on government. She is also a widely cited national expert on newsgathering rights, media defamation suits, and social-media speech. Her scholarly work has appeared in numerous books and journals, including Northwestern Law Review, Michigan Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Washington University Law Review, and the Harvard Law Review Forum. She is a frequent commentator on media-law matters for MSNBC, The New York TimesThe Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, NBC News, and Politico, among others. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an Advisor on its Restatement of the Law Third Torts: Defamation and Privacy. Professor Andersen Jones graduated first in her law school class and clerked for the Honorable William A. Fletcher on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the United States Supreme Court. 

     

  6. Henry Lydiate

    Professor Henry Lydiate will teach the International Art Law course.

    Professor Lydiate is an international art lawyer who has specialized in the law relating to visual art and design for over 35 years. A scholar-practitioner who has been a visiting tutor at leading UK art schools and colleges; former Visiting Professor in Art Law at the University of the Arts London; current educational portfolio includes designing and delivering international legal and art business modules for Sotheby’s Institute of Art and Southwestern Law School.

    Commissioned in 1976 by the Arts Council of Great Britain and The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to conduct research into the legal needs of visual artists in the UK, which led to his establishing Artlaw Services, a non-profit national legal advice, and professional practice training service: Chairman and pro bono legal adviser and trainer until 1984. Founding partner of The Henry Lydiate Partnership LLP, the international art business consultancy whose current clients include artists, artists’ estates, collectors, agents & dealers, art fairs, auction houses, foundations, and public-facing art institutions. Henry has published numerous articles and publications and currently writes a regular Artlaw column published by Art Monthly since its first issue in 1976.

    Henry received a Bachelor of Laws, LLB, from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K. Former practicing Barrister and Pupil-master, Inns of Court, U.K.

  7. Stephen Pidcock

    Professor Stephen Pidcock will co-teach the International Live Theatre Business and Legal Affairs course.

    Stephen advises clients from the subsidized and commercial sectors on all areas of theatre and live performance, including commercial, licensing, intellectual property, and rights issues. He has also advised on corporate transactions in the entertainment, fashion, leisure, and retail fields.  Before qualifying as a solicitor, Stephen was a theatre publicist working in-house at the Royal Court Theatre and then for The Corner Shop PR in the West End and across the UK.  As a publicist, his clients included many leading West End theatre production companies.

    A member of SOLT UK Theatre and the Charity Law Association, trustee of the Bush Theatre, and of Mercury Musical Developments. He also is an award-winning translator of new Italian plays.  

    Stephen completed his masters degree in English literature and Italian at the University of St Andrews.  Stephen qualified as a solicitor in 2018.

  8. Perry Poussard

    Professor Perry Poussard will co-teach the International Live Theatre Business and Legal Affairs course.

    Professor Poussard is an international lawyer, entertainment producer, and entrepreneur who utilized his combined JD/MBA to launch and run his own international production company. In addition to teaching at his law school alma mater, Southwestern Law School, he is also a faculty member at UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he has been integral in creating and shaping a curriculum that has a wide range of perspectives, including business, business law, and executive communications. His work as an executive communications coach has resulted in significant increases in his clients’ confidence and presentation skills.

    As a working entertainment professional and business owner, Professor Poussard’s legal expertise has been integral in bridging the gap between the creative, the business, and international law in the mediums of television, film, and live theatre. In the United States, he has structured both 501(c)3, not-for-profit entertainment initiatives with the establishment of the Los Angeles Broadway West and for-profit production companies, including his own Tenacity Artistic Productions, which is currently in development and pre-production on multiple internationally endorsed series. Throughout his time in the industry, he has negotiated deals with numerous Emmy-winning celebrities, studios, and commercial entities for endorsements and corporate integration into scripted and unscripted content.

Additional Details

  1. Admissions, Fees, and Deadlines

    Admission and Course Credit

    Southwestern is approved by the American Bar Association and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools. The ABA has approved the International Summer Law Program in London. Most applicants must be students in good standing at an American or Canadian law school. Applicants with sufficient English proficiency from law schools in European Union and other countries will also be considered for admission. Before starting the summer program, each student must have completed the first year of law study and submit a transcript and a letter of good standing from his/her home institution. If applications are received from more students than the program can accommodate, applicants' academic performance (as shown by their transcripts) may be considered in deciding which applications will be accepted.  

    Students may register for four courses for a maximum total of six-semester units of credit.  Any requests for class change must be made in writing to the Biederman Institute. Each professor will administer a written final exam and assign grades. Grades will conform to Southwestern's grading policies. Southwestern utilizes an alpha grading system in which the actual grade earned is represented by an alphabetical letter. Grades range from A+ (4.33) to F (0.00).  No unit credit will be granted if the grade received is an F.  Additional information can be found in Southwestern's Institutional Policies. Students are advised to consult their home institution's policies concerning the transfer of credit for coursework.  There are no prerequisite courses for any of the courses offered in this program.

    Southwestern will send a transcript to the student's home institution following completion of the program and final payment of all tuition and fees. Acceptance of transfer credit is subject to determination by the student's home institution. Students should be aware that participation in a summer program is unlikely to accelerate their graduation date; students interested in acceleration should consult their home institution.

    NOTE: Acceptances to the program will be offered to applicants on a rolling basis, beginning in February

    Applications will be accepted until maximum enrollment is reached. Enrollment in each course is limited due to classroom size, so early application is strongly encouraged. 

    A seat deposit fee of $750 will be due immediately after acceptance. Until the seat deposit fee is received, the student's spot in the program will not be reserved and may be offered to another applicant.


    2024 Fees

    Program Cost

    • Application Fee: $250 (nonrefundable; applied toward tuition)
    • Seat Deposit Fee: $750 (nonrefundable; applied toward tuition)
    • Block Tuition (for up to six units): $6,350 (includes educational excursions in the London area and all applicable course materials and books)
    • The following mandatory fees are 50% nonrefundable within 30 days of the program start date (May 17, 2024) and 100% nonrefundable after the program start date:
      • On-Campus Housing Fee: $3,500
      • Global Travel Insurance Fee: $200
    • STRF Fee:1 $0 (nonrefundable following the Cancellation Period, which is defined below)

    Total $10,050

    Students are solely responsible for costs not listed above. Examples of costs that students are responsible for include but are not limited to:

    • airfare to and from London;
    • lunch, dinner, snacks, drinks;
    • transportation in London;
    • entertainment;
    • travel expenses for weekend, out-of-London trips;
    • phone calls; and
    • personal items, including toiletries, clothes, and souvenirs. 

    1. This fee is required only for California residents or those enrolled in a California residency program. 


     Deadlines

    Confirmation notice and enrollment agreement

    Mid-April

    Payment in full or financial aid confirmation

    May 1

     

  2. Travel and Living Accommodations

    Students will be responsible for their own travel arrangements to and from London. 

    State Department Travel Information

    Visit the United States Department of State website for information about traveling to and within the United Kingdom. If prior to the commencement of the program, a U.S. State Department Travel Warning or Alert is issued for the country(ies) in which the program will be conducted, all registrants will be notified promptly of the warning and be given an opportunity to withdraw from the program. If during the program, a U.S. State Department Travel Warning or Alert is issued for the country(ies) in which the program is being conducted, students will be notified promptly of the warning and given an opportunity to withdraw from the program. If students withdraw from the program as permitted in these criteria during the course of the program, or if the program is terminated, students will be refunded fees paid except for housing and materials payments utilized prior to the date of withdrawal or termination.      


    Living Accommodations and Classroom Facilities

    Housing has been arranged at the University of London’s College Hall and will be provided for program participants from Saturday afternoon, June 18, through Friday morning, July 21.  All rooms are single occupancy and have private toilets and showers.  Housing includes breakfast. There are no cooking facilities available to students in College Hall, but College Hall is in the University of London/Russell Square/Bloomsbury District of London, where a wide variety of eating establishments are located.   Brunei Gallery SOAS, the classroom facility, is located in Russell Square and can accommodate up to 40 students in their classrooms. College Hall and Brunei Gallery are committed to making the necessary adjustments (including physical layouts) to support persons with disabilities wherever possible.      

     

  3. Liability and Insurance

    Southwestern will not be responsible for personal injuries to students, medical conditions, or for loss or damage to personal property within or in transit to London. Southwestern requires students to obtain health insurance that covers or reimburses for health care abroad.  Students participating in Southwestern’s summer program are covered under ON Call International global travel insurance, which includes medical evacuation, repatriation, and quarantine coverage and is included with tuition.

     

  4. London Summer-Abroad Program Right to Cancel and Tuition Refund Policy

    A. Right to Cancel and Refund During the Cancellation Period

    Students have the right to cancel their enrollment in the London Summer-Abroad Program before the first day of the program (the “Cancellation Period”). 

    To cancel, a student must notify the Director of the London Summer-Abroad Program, Tamara Moore (tmoore@swlaw.edu), in writing, indicating that they no longer wish to attend the program or be bound by the Enrollment Agreement.

    Students who cancel before the first day of the London program will receive a 100% refund of the amount paid for institutional charges, except for the following:

    • The $250 Application Fee is nonrefundable;
    • The $750 Seat Deposit Fee is nonrefundable;
    • The $200 Global Travel Insurance Fee is nonrefundable within 30 days of the program start date;
    • 50% of the On-Campus Housing Fee becomes nonrefundable within 30 days of the program start date, and 100% of the On-Campus Housing Fee becomes nonrefundable after the program start date.

    Southwestern will process the refund within 45 business days of receiving the cancellation notice.

    B. Refund Following a Withdrawal

    After the program begins, students have the right to withdraw and receive a pro-rata refund for the program (excluding nonrefundable fees), up to and including 60% of the current period of attendance. If the student has received federal student financial aid funds, the student is entitled to a refund of monies not paid from federal student financial aid program funds.

    The prorated nonrefundable charge is calculated by counting the number of calendar days starting with the first day of the term and ending with the last date of attendance. That result is divided by the number of calendar days in the term. The resulting percentage is then multiplied by the original tuition charged to determine the prorated nonrefundable charge, less nonrefundable fees.

    To withdraw, a student must notify the Director of the London Summer-Abroad Program, Tamara Moore (tmoore@swlaw.edu), in writing, indicating that they wish to withdraw from the program.

    Once the student completes more than 60% of the London Study-Abroad Program, the student will be charged 100% of tuition and other charges, and no amount will be refunded.

    For purposes of determining a refund under this section, a student will be deemed to have withdrawn when any of the following occurs:

    • The student notifies the London Study-Abroad Director in writing of their withdrawal or the actual date of withdrawal, whichever is later.
    • Southwestern terminates the student’s enrollment for failing to maintain satisfactory progress, abide by the school’s rules and regulations, adhere to the attendance policy, or meet other obligations.

    To determine when the refund must be paid, the date of Southwestern’s determination that the student withdrew should be no later than 14 days after the student’s last day of attendance, as determined from the school’s attendance records. An R2T4 (federal) refund calculation will be made along with the California Bureau of Private Post-secondary Education calculation, and if a difference exists, Southwestern will refund the larger amount.

    If the student obtains a loan to pay for this educational program, the student will be responsible for repaying the full amount of the loan plus interest, less the amount of any refund. If any portion of institutional charges was paid from the proceeds of a loan or third party, Southwestern will send the refund to the lender or third party that guaranteed or insured the loan. Any refund amount in excess of the unpaid balance of the loan will be used first to repay any student financial aid programs from which the student received benefits, in proportion to the benefits received. Any remaining amount will be paid to the student, or if the student requests, will be sent to the appropriate lender to pay down the student’s debt.

    C. Special Provision

    Students who cancel their enrollment before the program begins due to a significant change in the London Study-Abroad Program (e.g., change of program dates, change in curriculum, etc.) or program termination, including termination because of a U.S. State Department travel warning or alert, will receive a refund from Southwestern of all monies paid.

    Students who withdraw after the program begins due to a significant change in the London Study-Abroad Program (e.g., change of program dates, change in curriculum, etc.) or program termination, including termination because of a U.S. State Department travel warning or alert, will receive from Southwestern a refund of all tuition paid and a pro-rata refund of housing and insurance fees.

    D. Visiting Students Receiving Financial Aid

    In accordance with the London Law Summer Program Consortium Agreement, the student’s home school is the parent institution for all financial aid matters. Visiting students receiving federal financial aid for this program should contact their home school and Southwestern if they intend to or do withdraw from the program so the home school can complete the federally required R2T4 process.

Celebrating our 20th Anniversary London Summer Program 2024