PUBLIC INTEREST AT PENN: THE CHOICE IS YOURS

Penn Law offers a legal education that is unrivaled in its support for public service and public interest law. The Law School offers a broad range of courses, academic programs, and clinics to suit the particular intellectual interests and career goals of students pursuing public interest and public service work.

The Law School's jurisprudence program is one of the strongest in the nation with leading scholars in virtually every area of public interest practice including civil rights and constitutional litigation, government practice, environmental law, health law, international human rights, labor law, and family law. Furthermore, Penn Law offers one of the most outstanding clinical programs nationwide.

The Law School's nationally renowned Public Service Program annually places nearly 600 law students at hundreds of non-profit organizations, legal services agencies, and pro bono law firms in Philadelphia and nationwide.

Topical listing of Public Interest Opportunities

The pro bono roster includes numerous cross-disciplinary projects in a broad range of substantive areas. A few examples:

University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics

Law students work on law related research for the Center for Bioethics, an interdisciplinary unit of the University of Pennsylvania Health System . As the nation's leader in bioethics research and its deployment, the Center focuses on the ethical, efficient, and compassionate practice of medicine. Law students partner with graduate students from other schools and departments including medicine, nursing, business, education, philosophy, sociology, public policy and public health.

University of Pennsylvania Center for Community Partnerships

Penn Law students work on community health issues in collaboration with graduate students from Penn's Medical and Nursing Schools.

Justice Talking/Annenberg Schools

Penn Law students join Graduate School of Education and Annenberg students to assist "Justice Talking," a multi-media effort to engage teachers and students in thoughtful dialogue on issues of law and social justice.

Students Can Initiate Their Own Placements

The Public Service Program encourages interested students to initiate their own placements, provided they meet the guidelines of the Program. Placements are expected to provide students with 35 to 70 hours of law-related public service work, generally done under the supervision of an attorney. Placement may not compensate students while they are fulfilling their public service requirement.

Examples of eligible placements include the following:

All government employers.
All non-profit organizations other than trade associations.
Work done for attorneys in private practice where the work is pro bono. This is defined as work done for no fee or at a substantially reduced fee on behalf of a person or group ordinarily unable to secure legal representation (certain court appointments, particularly those for indigent defendants fit into these guidelines)
Work done for a faculty member other than work on scholarship.

Once a student has identified an interest, the Public Service Office needs to be consulted to determine whether that particular placement is not already on our rather extensive roster. In this way, any students who might already have indicated their preference for that placement will not be displaced. The Public Service Program office will then contact the proposed supervisor to verify the opening and seek clarification.

Students have the entire academic year to complete their projects, but the precise pacing of the work must be done consistent with the needs of the supervisor. A student log of their work must be submitted to the supervisor for approval signature at the end of the placement period and submitted to the Public Service Program by the last day of spring semester classes.