public static Class classForName(String className) throws ClassNotFoundException 
{
        try
        {
            // trying with the default ClassLoader
            return Class.forName(className);
        }
        catch (ClassNotFoundException cnfe)
        {
            try
            {
                // trying with thread ClassLoader
                Thread thread = Thread.currentThread();
                ClassLoader threadClassLoader = thread.getContextClassLoader();
                return Class.forName(className, false, threadClassLoader);
            }
            catch (ClassNotFoundException cnfe2)
            {
                throw cnfe2;
            }
        }
}

Tries to load a class with more classloaders. Can be useful in J2EE applications if jar is loaded from a different classloader than user classes. If class is not found using the standard classloader, tries whit the thread classloader.