Global reach and impact
Masoud Naseri, JD class of 2009, came to Pierce Law from a large Midwest public university of more than 30,000 students and arrived on campus knowing little about the school beyond its reputation for Intellectual Property. He admits he was a rather leery about the school’s location; it was part of New England, but beyond beautiful fall leaves and maple syrup, what did it hold for him?
When he arrived on campus, he was surprised by the number of international students who were drawn to the school by its global reputation in Intellectual Property; he soon realized that Franklin Pierce Law Center was not a parochial school, but a worldwide leader. “In Latin America and East Asia, Pierce Law is really well-known. It’s known abroad better than in the States.”
Since its inception, Franklin Pierce Law Center has striven to be a global leader in intellectual property issues that affect related areas of social justice, commerce and technology, and international law at large. In a recent article, faculty members Jon Cavicchi and Dr. Stanley Kowalski describe the evolution of Pierce Law’s intellectual property global reach:
“…in 1986 Pierce Law established the first international, interdisciplinary program in intellectual property rights education in the United States, with specific focus on educating intellectual property rights professionals from developing nations on how intellectual property rights systems work. Over the past two decades, government officials, tech-transfer professionals, research institute administrators and lawyers from over 96 countries have attended these programs, supported by many public and private institutions, including WIPO, the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) and the Fulbright Program.”
Masoud studies alongside people from China, Columbia, Honduras, Azerbaijan, Taiwan, South Korea, Venezuela, Japan, and Brazil and is taught by faculty who appear on the world stage in roles as various as consultant, teacher, advisor and pro bono lawyer.
“One of the reasons I initially applied to Pierce Law was the summer institutes in China and Ireland,” Masoud says. He chose to attend the school’s e-Law institute at the University College Cork in Ireland last year. "I went to Ireland because it’s in the midst of one of the biggest economic booms Europe has ever seen. In just one generation it has moved away from an agricultural to an information technology based economy and it’s exciting that Pierce Law understands how important that is for IP and other legal issues.
“It’s great because in many ways we’re not just about law, we’re about technology. And we’re combining the two well… we must be, or we wouldn’t be so well-known globally.”
