University of Pennsylvania Law School
University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania Law School
3400 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
www.law.upenn.edu
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Arlene Rivera Finkelstein
Assistant Dean and Executive Director
215.898.0459
arfinkel@law.upenn.edu
Ann Murray
Associate Director
215.898.3086
amurray@law.upenn.edu
Category Type
Pro Bono Graduation Requirement.
Description of Program
Penn's Public Service Program, created in 1989, was an outgrowth of a faculty effort to explore ways of meeting the increasing gap between the needs and the resources in the legal community. The Program is based on two premises: 1) that attorneys have an ethical obligation to devote some portion of their professional energy on pro bono work, broadly defined; and (2) that law students' experience in performing law related work would increase their ability and inclination to engage in such services during their careers as attorneys. The Program's mission includes the extension of the legal services delivery network and concomitantly, the development of innovative approaches to legal services work. The Program emphasizes the development of student clinical projects that leverage the supervisory skills of a shrinking public interest bar, attempting to meet increased community needs while at the same time cultivating public spiritedness and leadership in our students.
The Pro Bono Program, just one program of the Public Service Department, has a custom designed database that is updated daily to match students with the placement of their choice. Once a placement is approved and listed in the roster, the entire student body can review the placement description. Students may consult the Program staff to discuss available opportunities. The Program monitors compliance through correspondence, phone calls, site visits, and forms.
Location of Program
A stand-alone program in the Public Service Department. See http://www.law.upenn.edu/
Staffing/Management/Oversight
The Public Service Department oversees the pro bono requirement, student clinical projects, public interest scholars, public interest programming and co-curricular initiatives including the Edward V. Sparer Fellowship and the Edward V. Sparer Symposium. It has an attorney Executive Director, a full-time Associate Director (Pam Mertsock Wolfe), an Administrative Assistant, and an attorney student projects' coordinator. Both are compensated for their work for the pro bono requirement. The Executive Director serves as the liaison between the Program and the Advisory Board, Faculty Committee, and the legal community. In addition, the Executive Director counsels student clinical projects. Wolfe has primary responsibility for counseling individual students monitoring compliance, updating the database, and drafting manual. Wolfe oversees the Program's Philadelphia Urban Law School Experience Project.
The Program is overseen by an Advisory Board comprised of experienced public interest practitioners. A Faculty Committee is appointed each year to advise the Program director about various initiatives.
Student Clinical Leaders, the Public Interest Scholars, and the Equal Justice Foundation (EJF) leaders assist the Director and Associate Director in operating the Program.
Funding
The Program's annual budget is approximately $200,000 and is funded primarily by law school funds. The Program receives funding, largely from IOLTA, to hire expert attorneys to provide ongoing supervision and consultation to student group projects. The attorney student projects' coordinator is funded by grants.
The law school provides administrative support for all student group projects.
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
Animal Law Project- The Animal Rights Legal Project works with the Animal Rights Defense Fund and other organizations on legal projects to improve the lives of domestic and wild animals as well as animals used for research and experimentation. Students are working in collaboration with the group leaders at Wharton and the Veterinary School. Custody and Support Assistance - This student-run project provides legal assistance and referrals to low-income clients in the area of child custody and support.
Guild Food Stamp Clinic - Founded in 1984, this student-run project provides legal counseling and representation to clients in food stamp cases. This year 16 Penn law students participated in the Project and provided assistance to nearly 300 clients in food stamp cases.
Immigration Project - This student-run clinic provides legal assistance to Immigrant detainees seeking relief from deportation as victims of persecution or domestic violence in collaboration with the Nationalities Service Center.
Penn Advocate for the Homeless - Students provide legal assistance to homeless by conducting outreach at local West Philadelphia's homeless shelters. This year Penn Advocates for the Homeless trained thirteen new advocates who opened fifty cases in a variety of substantive areas of law including landlord-tenant, disability, family law, government benefits, and workers' compensation. The group works in collaboration with the Penn School of Social Work.
Penn Housing Rights Project- Through daily observations of landlord/tenant proceedings, students collect data on the extent to which the court complies with procedural and substantive rules and the particular challenges facing under-represented clients.
Prisoners' Rights Project - Through daily observations of landlord/tenant proceedings, students collect data on the extent to which the court complies with procedural and substantive rules and the particular challenges facing under-represented clients.
Reproductive Rights Project - Launched in January 2005, the Reproductive Rights Project is assisting the Women's Law Project on legislation as well as legal research and writing on local, state and federal issues and activities that may advance or undermine reproductive rights. The clinic advocates for women who seek access to reproductive health services.
Street Law - Through Street Law, advocates teach a law related curriculum on social justice to middle school student in middle schools throughout Philadelphia.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
There is no formal faculty pro bono policy. Clinical faculty and Program staff work closely with the group projects.
Awards/Recognition
Students who exceed the pro bono requirement, who work for two summers in the public sector, or who serve as student clinical leaders receive a certificate at an annual recognition event at the end of the academic year.
Community Service
The Dean of Students and Public Service Program inform students about community service opportunities on a regular basis.
Law School Public Interest Programs
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Contact Information
Arlene Rivera Finkelstein
Assistant Dean and Executive Director
215.898.0459
arfinkel@law.upenn.edu
Ann Murray
Associate Director
215.898.3086
amurray@law.upenn.edu
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Penn Law School's Public Interest Scholars
This Program provides a unique opportunity for public interest minded students to combine practical experience with theoretical inquiry, while serving the needs of the poor. Following their first summer internship, Scholars enroll in a Seminar in Lawyering in the Public Interest, taught by Clinical Professor Louis Rulli. In addition, all Scholars participate in the planning and implementation of the Annual Edward V. Sparer Symposium on current topics relevant to public interest law. Finally, third-year Scholars enroll in an in-house clinical program and perform academic research with a faculty member on a topic related to their summer public interest experience.
Public Interest Centers
Field Center for Childrens' Policy, Practice and Research - www.sp2.upenn.edu/fieldctr
Public Interest Clinics
Civil Practice Clinic - This clinical course examines first hand the challenging issues that confront lawyers who represent clients in civil disputes and litigation. Under close faculty supervision, students will serve as litigators in the Penn Legal Assistance Office, a teaching law firm providing legal representation to actual clients whoseinterests are directly at stake in state and federal court proceedings and in administrative agency hearings. Students will interview and counsel clients, develop case theories, engotiate with opposing parties, and provide legal representation in formal adjudicatory hearings under Pennsylvania's student practice rule. Students will bea ssigned their own individual cases in which they will have primary responsibility in a broad range of substantive areas, such as housing, social security disability, child custody and support, civil forfeiture, education, and discrimination and civil rights. The skills and experience obtained in this course will serve students throughout their professional careers, whether or not they choose to pursue litigation practice. In addition to their casework as lawyers, students will engage in classroom seminars twice weekly to obtain training in basic interactional skills (e.g. interviewing, counseling, negotiating) and to discuss in a collegial setting issues of case development, strategy and professional responsibility which arise in the Clinic's cases. Students will also participate in videotaped simulations utilizing trained actors as a means of enchancing skills development. Most important, each student will be assigned to an individual faculty supervisor with whom eh/she will meet regularly on a one-to-one basis to receive close supervision and constructive feedback. Students will develop competence in basic lawyering skills as well as self-reflection, acquiring an ability to analyze what it is they do as lawyers and to learn from their own experiences.
Criminal Defense Clinic - This clinical course will combine hands on trial experience with an educational component tailored to developing litigation skills. Students will try cases under the close supervision of a senior trial attorney from the Defender Association of Philadelphia. During the first four weeks there will be intensive classroom study where students will learn Pennsylvania Criminal Law, Procedure, Evidence, trial and cross examination skills. Durin this period students will also be assigned mock cases to prepare ina ddition to boserving actual preliminary arraignments, preliminary hearings, and trial in municipal court.
Students will then be assigned to represent defendants. Students will conduct misdemeanor trials and preliminary hearings for felony cases. Students will interview and counsel clients, develop case theories, negotiate with opposing parties and prepare various pretrial motions. Students will be interacting with their clients, members of the judiciary, District Attorneys, witnesses and complainants. Successful participants will need to be able to persuasively articulate legal arguments, work with a wide variety of individuals and maintain their composure in difficult situations. It is the instructor's expectation that each student will have the experience of representing clients on 5 to 7 different cases.
In addition to the classroom educational component described above, students will be exposed to a variety of guest speakers who will examine some of the ethical and social issues raised in criminal defense, and particular issues involved in representing the indigent.
Interdisciplinary Child Advocacy Clinic - Child abuse and neglect is a serious and chronic national problem that demands increased academic and clinical attention. Such child maltreatment gives rise to complex medical, psychological, parenting and legal issues. Unfortunately, the structures in place to respond to children who have suffered abuse or neglect are disjointed, and many of the providers of services to children at risk are inadequately trained and lack needed experience in collaborating to address the children's immediate an dlong-term needs.
Dr. Christian, a pediatrician, and Director of the Child Abuse Referral and Evaluation (CARE) Clinic at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and Professor Lerner will offer an innovative, interdisciplinary, clinical seminar to bring together medical students, residents and/or fellows, and graduate social work students with upper class law students to study and compare the context, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect; the legal, social services and medical systems' respnses to child maltreatment; and the treatment and advocacy skills necessary to help maltreated children survive and prosper. In the process, the students will jointly examine and grapple with important professional responsibility issues that arise in such interdisciplinary work.
In addition to academic study of these issues, the students in the Clinic will collaborate to provide legal representation and other forms of advocacy as child advocates or Guardians Ad Litem for children who come into the jurisdiction of the Philadelphia Family Court's dependency court rooms.
Lawyering in the Public Interest - This seminar explores major lawyering themes that confront public interest lawyers in diverse practice areas and settings. It is designed to integrate theory and academic analysis with practice themes emerging from students' public interest work experiences during law school. Students will closely examine the unique challenges posed by community lawyering; the efficacy of competing service delivery models; the impact of scarcity of resources and high volume practice upon the practitioner; the empowerment of hte disadvantaged and powerless through law and education; litigation and non-litigation strategies; legal and non-legal restrictions on the work of public interest lawyers; professional responsibility issues; the role of the privact practitioner in the delivery of legal services to the poor; and current themes and timely isuses relating to access to justice and public interest practice.
Requirements include mandatory attendance, class participation, oral presentations, and completion of a seminar paper. Students will write seminar papers on topics selected with the approval of the instructors. Paper topics may, but need not, relate directly to the particular issues discussed in class. THe paper is expected to be of publishable quality and may, with additional development and instructor permission, be used to satisfy the senior writing requirement. The final several weeks of the seminar will include oral presentations by students on their papers.
Legislative Clinic - The Legislative Clinic offers students an opportunity to gain deeper understanding of the role of lawyers in the legislative process and in the formation of public policy. The seminar is a "live" client course that combines legislative placements with a classroom seminar component. After consultation to consider student interests and preferences, students will be assigned to legislative placements in the offices of members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly or the U.S. Congress, or at public interest organizations advocating for legislative change under the supervision of experienced legislative advocates. In the seminar portion of the course, students will examine basic lawyering competencies required for successful legislative lawyering and will discuss issues of public policy, legislative strategy and professional responsiblity that arise in their fieldwork. Semianr topics will include an examination of the role of the legislative lawyer; a comparison of lawyering skills needed to succeed in legislative and judicial forums; strategic legislative planning; statutory drafting; legislative research; and principles of legislative advocacy.
Mediation (and other alternatives to Litigation) - Mediation involves the intervention of a neutral third party into an existing or threatened dispute, with the aim of facilitating a negotiated resolution of the conflict. Lawyers are increasingly immersed in this arena, both as mediators and as traditional representatives of clients in mediation. It is also a subject of great interest to business lawyers and those practicing criminal law.
This clinical course focuses on the skills, role and ethical questions involved in the mediation function. It includes classroom study of mediation (and related 'alternatives' to formal adversary litigation), simulated skills training, observations of outside neutrals in actual cases, and real case fieldwork in which students are frontline mediators under facutly supervison. By the end of the course students learn a great deal about negotiation, advising, evaluating cases in litigation, presiding over a meeting -- as well as conflict resolution as a mediator.
The course begins with classroom study and an intensive simulation skills training. During this period, students are assigned to boserve actual adjudications and mediations. In order for the fieldwork to begin by week six, there are appproximately 12 hours of extra "skills" classes. These extra classes will be scheduled during the first week of class and will be at times that are open to all students' schedules.
Starting with week 6, students are required to be available for assignment to mediations. The fieldwork component of this course demands the rapid development of interactional skills as well as the flexibility to be avaialble for case assignments. Cases may include civil litigation, criminal matters, child custody disputes, and employment discrimination matters.
Small Business Clinic - This clinical course helps students examine issues and role demands that face lawyers engaged in business planning and counseling and transactional law practice. Students participate in a teaching law practice representing small businesses, nonprofit corporations, and /or larger organizations involved in community economic development activities. Live-client experience introduces students to the relationship between substantive law and relevant lawyering skills such as interviewing, counseling, case planning, drafting, research and case management.
Students are assigned their own individual matters in which, under faculty supervision, they have front-line experience in a range of client matters. FOr example, students may participate in: advising on the appropriate chosie of business entity for entrepreneurs in start-up busiensses; forming for-profit and nonprofit entities; drafting bylaws, perating agreements, consulting agreements, lease agreements or sales agreements; advising on general legal compliance; filing applications for federal tax-exemption; and preparing for rela estate or loan closings. Students may provide counsel on intellectual property concerns, including the filing of trademark and copyright protection. Students may also provide representation to non-profit developers on a range of matters related to long-term real estate or economic development transactions.
Students gain exposure to the importance of financial and other non-legal resources in business settings. The skills and experience obtained in the course will serve students throughout their professional careers, especially in practices -- such as transactional lawyering, corporate planning and tax -- that call heavily upon planning and drafting abilities.
The Clinic has a weekly seminar during which students may present their client matters for discussion in a collegial atmosphere. THe seminar also provides opportunities for exploration of certain substantive areas and professional responsibility issues applicable to business and transactional law practice. Some sessions include simulation exercises designed to highlight basic business lawyering themes. In addition to the firm meeting sessions, each student meets regularly with a facutly supervisor to receive one-on-one supervision and constructive feedback.
Student may also be asked to particpate in workshop presentations on legal matters of interest to entrepeneurs and non-profit organizations. These workshops are sponsored by small business technical assistance programs in the Greater Philadelphia area.
Externships/Internships
Seven-credit externships require a minimum of twenty hours a week of supervised work at the externship site. Four-credit externships require a minimum of 12 hours a week of work time at the site. All externship students must maintain a daily log of their work and reflection on that experience, the supervision they receive, and the institutions they observe an dparticipate in. Those logs will be the basis of a bi-weekly tutorial with a member of the clinical faculty. Placement opportunities:
Philadelphia District Attorney's Office (7 credits) - Participant, after an intensive training program, and upon certification by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, will appear in the Philadelphia Municipal Court to handle preliminary hearings in felony cases, pre-trial motions and trials in misdemeanor cases. Student experiences are closely supervised and critically analyzed. Mock presentations and evaluations are conducted throughout the course.
Participants must possess the fortitude to litigate in court; students will be interacting not only with members of the judiciary before whom they appear, but also with opposing counsel, and witnesses and victims of crime, some of whom may be uncooperative. Successful participants need excellent interpersonal and communications skills, abundant self-confidence, an outgoing nature, flexibility, and an ability to maintain their composure under stress.
Community Legal Services (7 credits) - Community Legal Services is one of the primary legal services agencies responsible for meeting the civil legal needs of Philadelphia's poorest citizens. CLS employs experienced lawyers and leading advocates in priority areas of law affecting low-income residents, including landlord-tenant, consumer, employment, welfare, disability and elder law. Opportunities for placements exist in CLS offices in Center City or at CLS' neighborhood office in North Central Philadelphia. Student assignments will involve a broad range of lawyering tasks, including to the greatest extent possible client interviewing, counseling, case planning and development, and hearing preparation and participation. Each student will work closely with an experienced legal services attorney at the assigned location.
There are potential placement sites at CLS in its Landlord-Tenant, Employment, Public Benefits, and Consumer-Housing Units. In addition, CLS' Advocating on Behalf of Children Project represents disabled children from low income families seeking SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and other benefits. The law students working with the ABC program have their own cases, get their own records documenting their clients' disability, write briefs and represent their clients at hearings before Administrative Law Judges of the SSA (Social Security Administration). The ABC program is a small unit with one paralegal, one full time attorney and one part time attorney. Students enjoy the collegial atmosphere of the unit. Students also work on systemic issues and appellate briefs as they arise during their externship.
Philadelphia Legal Assistance (7 Credits) - With a budget of almost three million dollars in federal funds, Philadelphia Legal Assistance (PLA) is one of the primary legal services agencies responsible for meeting the civil legal needs of Philadelphia's poorest citizens. PLA employs experienced lawyers and leadinga dvocates in priority areas of law affecting low-income residents, including family law, disability, housing, consumer and bankruptcy. Placement will be in PLA offices in Center City. Student assignments will involve a broad range of lawyering tasks, including to the greatest extent possible client interviewing, counseling, case planning and development, and hearing preparation and participation. Each student will work closely with an experienced legal services attorney at the assigned location.
Women's Law Project (4 credits) - The Women's Law Project will provide students with an opportunity to work with experienced lawyers on the Law Project's current and proposed litigation. The Law Project specializes in several areas of law, including reproductive rights, family law, gender-based discrimination in insurance, and violence against women. Externs will be under the supervision of the Managing Attorney. The Women's Law Project is a public interest law center devoted to improving the legal status of women and their families. It does high impact litigation, policy development, and systems advocacy on a broad range of issues.
U.S. Attorney's Office - Civil Division (7 credits) - Student-externs will engage in and observe all phases of work of the civil "side" of the U.S. Attorney's Office. This will include both affirmative and definitive litigation on behalf of the federal government agencies and will likely involve the extern in discovery or trial-type proceedings.
Death Penalty Litigation (Capital Habeas Corpus Unit: Federal Defender) (7 credits) - The death penalty externship will provide law students with hands-on training in most areas of post-conviction capital case litigation. Students will participate in a thorough orientation on capital work and responsibilities at the Capital Habeas Corpus Unit, Federal Court Division of the Defender Association. They will also attend informal seminars instructed by staff attorneys on specific aspects of capital post-conviction litigation including habeas corpus evaluation hearings and appellate litigation. Most of the students' time will be spent researching and writing claims for inclusion in habeas petitions as well as investigating cases, including interviewing clients, witnesses, and jurors.
Classes with a Public Service Component
Many of the law school faculty teach seminars with a public service component which is often coordinated with the Public Service Program. The following is a partial list of faculty who have taught courses with a pro bono component related to their seminars:
- Professor David Rudovksy, Evidence (student perform legal research in civil rights cases)
- Director of Center for Children's Policy, Practice, and Research (director teaches a seminar in Juvenile and/or Family Law and students work concurrently on legal research for practitioners)
- Professor Jason Johnstone, Environmental Law (students performed research for various environmental agencies)
- Professor Nathaniel Persily, Constitutional Law (students perform research for the Brennan Center)
- Professor Fernando Chang Muy, Immigration Law (students assist with pro bono assistance in immigration matters)
- Professor Harold Reicher, International Human Rights (students perform research for international human rights agencies including the United Nations)
- Professor Seth Kreimer, Constitutional Litigation (students perform research for the American Civil Liberties Union)
- Professor Dina Schlossberg, Small Business Clinic (work for the People's Emergency Center).
Public Interest Journals
Constitutional Law Journal
HYBRID: Journal of Law and Social Change
Public Interest Career Assistance
Career counseling, fellowship writing, assistance and many other resources. Programming on public interest careers, government programs, job search strategies, funding information, public interest loan repayment assistance, newsletters, job announcements access to job search websites. Alumni mentors, alumni network contracts...etc. For more information, go to www.law.upenn.edu/cpp/prospective/publicinterest/index.html The Public Interest/Public Service Career Fair takes place each February. It features public interest and government employers interviewing for summer and permanent positions. It is held by the consortium of Philadelphia area law schools. www.law.upenn.edu/cpp/pips.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
Loan assistance is available to students pursuing careers in the public sector following graduation. The contact person for this program is Ann Murray, Esq., 215/898- 0386.
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
None.
Graduate Student Funded:
None.
Other Funding Sources:
None.
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
Th Law School funds approximately 100 students to pursue internships in the public sector each year through the Sparer Summer Fellowship Program, the work-study program and the Public Interest Scholars Program.
Graduate Student Funded:
Other Funding Sources:
The Equal Justice Foundation, a public interest student organization, annually funds 10-20 students to work in public interest internships during the summer.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Public Service Mentors Series
Penn graduates serving in the public service advise current law students on public interest pro bono and career opportunities.
Public Service Awareness Series
Public interest lawyers speak on a variety of topics relevant to the public interest legal practice.
Feminist Working Group
Students teach Feminist Jursiprudence Seminar and conduct research for gender bias project.
United Students of Color
Students host talks and conferences relevant to topics in critical race theory.
Student Public Interest Groups
Equal Justice Foundation
This organziation hosts an annual auction for fund students pursuing summer internships in public interest.
