When word came last weekend that 23-year-old law clerk Jade Kouretchian had died suddenly, the halls of law offices across Southern California grew quiet — a hopeful, hard-working young attorney-in-training had passed, and with her went a bright spark of promise.
Jade was a J.D. candidate at University of San Diego School of Law. She distinguished herself not just through academic excellence, but through a level of dedication and clarity of purpose rarely seen in someone early in their legal career: a true believer in justice, guided by empathy and precision.
Last summer, Jade joined Klinedinst PC’s 2025 Summer Law Clerk Program — a cohort selected “for academic excellence, drive, and potential.” Even as a student, she impressed mentors with her seriousness, her sharp mind, and her eagerness to dive into real-world legal work.
By fall, she had begun working at Hoffman & Forde, Attorneys at Law, A.P.C., where colleagues quickly came to know her as bright, warm, and uncommonly hardworking. She threw herself into every task — big or small — treating each with professionalism and genuine care for the people behind the cases.
But beyond the resumes, recommendations and office-hours lies what many remember most of Jade: her kindness. She listened with empathy, supported friends, inspired classmates. In every room she entered, she brought humanity — a rare quality in a profession often weighed down by deadlines and paperwork.
Now her passing — so sudden, so young — has left a deep void. Those who knew her speak of the tragedy not just in terms of lost potential, but in terms of lost warmth, lost support, lost brilliance. There is shock, grief, and a heavy silence where once there was hope.
As of now, no public details about memorial arrangements have been released. But for many in San Diego’s legal community — and beyond — Jade Kouretchian’s memory will live on: not just in her academic and professional achievements, but in the kindness and humanity she brought into every moment, every conversation, every case she touched.
