Pictured from left: Professor Pamela Juliana Aguirre Castro, Director of the UEES Social Legal Observatory; Temple Law Dean Rachel Rebouché; Professor Pablo Alarcón, Director of the UEES Graduate School of Law; and John Smagula, Assistant Dean, Graduate & International Programs.
On July 17, 2025, Temple Law School signed an agreement with Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo (UEES) in Guayaquil, Ecuador to promote dual degree, student mobility, academic exchange, and short-term training programs. Following Temple’s successful Spanish-language trial advocacy bootcamps, which UEES faculty have attended, the law schools plan to work together to expand trial advocacy training in Latin America.
To launch the partnership, on August 2, Dean Rachel Rebouché welcomed Professor Pablo Alarcón, Director of the UEES Graduate School of Law, and Professor Pamela Juliana Aguirre Castro, Director of the UEES Social Legal Observatory to the law school. Dean Rebouché expressed a warm welcome to the guests, learned about legal education and lawyer training in Ecuador, and expressed support for our students and faculty to visit UEES in person or virtually.
Professor Alarcón explained that UEES is the top private law school in Ecuador, has a strong curriculum in civil, criminal, and commercial law, and that many of their students study in the United States during and after their legal study in Ecuador. “The 3+1 LLB/LLM and 1+1 LLM/LLM pathways will be very attractive to our students, allowing them to earn a dual degree before graduating from UEES,” said Professor Alarcón, “and we are certain that our students will greatly benefit from this opportunity.”
In addition to student study abroad, Dean Rebouché invited UEES faculty to come to Temple as visiting research scholars. “Faculty exchange and study abroad are both key parts of a successful partnership,” she said, “and we hope that our faculty will get to know each other and work on scholarly projects of mutual interest, either in person or virtually. We have so much to learn from each other.”
Professor Aguirre Castro, who attended the March 2024 boot camp, reported that she came away from the boot camp with increased litigation skill and a greater understanding of the U.S. trial system. “This helps me expand on the comparative law portions of my teaching and research,” she said, “and the boot camp students and I were all impressed with the caliber of the faculty, thoughtfulness of the curriculum, and practicality of the teaching.”
Assistant Dean John Smagula echoed Dean Rebouche’s remarks, saying, “This is our first partnership in Ecuador, and we are delighted to collaborate with UEES. There has been great interest among Ecuadorian judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers in our boot camps. We look forward to working with UEES to build upon our programs, expand our team teaching, and create additional training programs in areas of priority and importance to UEES and in Ecuador.”