Jamie Beck

Lecturer in Law
Last Updated: September 25, 2023

Jamie Beck is the founder, president and managing attorney of Free to Thrive, a Southern California-based nonprofit organization that breaks down barriers for survivors of human trafficking by providing holistic legal services and transforming the legal system through policy advocacy and stakeholder education. She founded Free to Thrive after providing pro bono legal services to human trafficking survivors and discovering that there was no dedicated legal services provider for trafficking survivors in San Diego. She was so moved by this experience and the need for more attorneys to help trafficking survivors that she left private practice to launch Free to Thrive.
Prior to starting Free to Thrive, Beck practiced civil litigation at Procopio, Cory, Hargeaves & Savitch LLP. Before joining Procopio, Beck served as a judicial law clerk to Hon. Michael M. Anello, Federal District Court judge for the Southern District of California.


Beck currently serves on the Dean’s board of advisors for the University of San Diego Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, where as an adjunct professor she taught a course titled Reframing Human Trafficking. She has trained thousands of attorneys, students, stakeholders and community members on human trafficking and trauma-informed practices.


Beck is a past president of Lawyers Club of San Diego and founded the Lawyers Club Human Trafficking Collaborative in 2016. Under her leadership, Lawyers Club successfully advocated for a law to help survivors of human trafficking clear criminal convictions related to their exploitation, now codified under California Penal Code 236.14. This law is a powerful tool that Free to Thrive uses to help its clients get a fresh start.


Beck graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law where she was a member of the San Diego Law Review.