PUBLIC INTEREST LAW

PENN LAW FACULTY

PENN LAW ADJUNCTS & LECTURERS

TOLL PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER PARTNERS AT PENN

PRO BONO PLACEMENTS

Advancement Project
American Civil Liberties Union – National Headquarters, NY; NJ
Bingham McCutchen, LLP
CASA of Allegheny County
Community Legal Aid Society, Inc.
Community Legal Services, Inc. – Public Benefits
Dechert LLP
Guild Food Stamp Clinic
Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin
Homeless Advocacy Project
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania (LSAP)
Legal Clinic for the Disabled, Inc.
Lutheran Children and Family Services – Adult Education Program
Medicare Rights Center
National Employment Law Project, Inc.
New York City Bar
Penn Advocates for the Homeless
Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program (VIP)
Public counsel Law Center
Public Defender Service – Washington, DC – Mental Health Division
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP)
Saul Ewing, LLP
Shore PC, Eric A.
South Jersey Legal Services, Inc.
Unemployment Compensation Project
Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center (VCRRC)

Penn Law Courses

We live in an administrative state, populated by thousands of governmental bodies that collectively exercise pervasive authority over the entire economy and the lives of every American. Unlike courts, which enjoy explicit constitutional independence, administrative agencies constitute a constitutionally ambiguous "fourth branch of government." Also unlike courts, most agencies have authority to wield a wide variety of regulatory powers other than adjudication, including rulemaking, licensing, advice-giving, and prosecution. "Administrative law" is the body of constitutional, statutory, Executive, and "common law" principles that constrain and thereby seek to legitimate the exercise of these powers. This course will be a critical examination of these principles. Topics include: the place of agencies in our tripartite structure of government, the choice between rulemaking and adjudication as devices for making policy, procedural requirements for the exercise of various administrative powers, and judicial review of administrative decisions.

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 whose interests are directly at stake in state and federal court proceedings and in administrative agency hearings. Students will interview and counsel clients, develop case theories, negotiate with opposing parties, and provide legal representation in formal adjudicatory hearings under Pennsylvania's student practice rule. Students will be assigned 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 enhancing skills development. Most important, each student will be assigned to an individual faculty supervisor with whom he/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.

The United States Constitution purports to restrain the actions of state and federal governments. When these restraints are transgressed, the injured parties and their representatives look to the federal courts for remedies. This course considers the legal doctrines that shape the courts' readiness to provide those remedies and the ways in which doctrines are likely to manifest themselves in the course of litigation. Topics include: the availability of damage actions, sovereign and official immunities, jurisdictional problems, abstention, Younger v. Harris and its emanations, standing and issues of institutional litigation. The format is Socratic.

This seminar changes every year to cover cases and legal issues that occur during the term and throughout the previous two years. Topics to be covered this semester will include the terrorism cases, the torture memos, gay marriage, the right to die, affirmative action, sentencing guidelines, the death penalty, election law controversies, and other topics that come up during the term.

This course will explore selected theoretical and doctrinal aspects of the field known as federal Indian law. We will study the historical, conceptual and legal roots of tribal sovereignty; the development of federal doctrines concerning the powers of tribal governments; and the current state of federal law concerning tribal legislative, executive and judicial authority. Attention will be given to the division of authority among tribal, federal, and state governments, as well as to questions concerning possible tensions between governmental powers and individual rights. We will consider a number of current issues, which may include land claims; gaming; family law; economic development; religious and cultural rights; and natural resources. The course is open both to Penn Law students and to students enrolled in other Schools at Penn.

The aim of this seminar is to explore how social movements influence legal reform, and how law and legal institutions shape social movements' development. The course examines a diverse array of twentieth-century American social movements, from civil rights and feminism, to religious conservatism and anti-communism, among others. Readings and discussions will consider the legal strategies social movements employed, and how law shaped strategic options as well as outcomes. These historical examples illuminate recurring challenges faced by social movements seeking to effect legal change through mobilization, lobbying, litigation, legislation, constitutional amendment advocacy, public education, and coalition-building. Course requirements include presentations and a research paper.

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 the 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 private practitioner in the delivery of legal services to the poor; and current themes and timely issues relating to access to justice and public interest practice.

This seminar covers basic legal issues which are distinctive for nonprofit organizations, primarily charities but also other organizations exempt from federal income taxation. It concentrates on federal tax law, including obtaining and maintaining tax exempt status; distinguishing between public charities and private foundations; income-generating activities; Form 990 tax reporting; and operating private foundations. It covers structuring and operating nonprofits under state law; corporate governance; bylaw drafting, mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances; officer and director personal liability and insurance protection; and the law of volunteers. It covers charitable solicitation registration requirements. It covers the basic principles of charitable giving law and includes a session on ethical issues for nonprofits and for lawyers on their boards. The emphasis is on practical solutions to real problems of nonprofit executives. The seminar is taught by a practitioner with more than 35 years of experience in representing nonprofits on all types and more than 15 years writing and publishing a national newsletter on nonprofit law.

This course will study legal material as expressive of, and as supportive of, differing concepts of equality and its role as a social value, rather than as simply part of a course of doctrinal development or a system of analytical reasoning. Its premise is that differences in those concepts are often not recognized, and the contestability and bases of one's approach to equality issues are often not acknowledged. Substantively, the course will include aspects of legal regulation affecting the status of racial, religious and ethnic "minorities," women, gay and lesbian people, and people perceived as disabled, as well as, the interaction between the law and inequality in the distribution of wealth and income. It will do this in part by examining "antidiscrimination," "equal protection," or "poverty" law, but will focus also on issues of equality implicit in such mainstream first-year subjects as Procedure and Contracts.

This course examines issues relating to the enactment, application and interpretation of legislation, primarily at the federal level. The course will introduce students to the basic contours of Congressional lawmaking practice, theoretical models of the legislative process, the application and interpretation of statutes by the executive branch, and numerous aspects of judicial statutory interpretation. Students will explore and critique the different methods and canons that courts apply in construing statutes and consider issues such as the appropriate degree of deference to administrative interpretations, judicial use of legislative history in construction, and interaction between the courts and Congress. The basic text will be the Eskridge, Frickey and Garrett casebook, but students will also read selected legal and/or political science articles presenting current theories of legislative process and interpretation, and review examples of current cases and statutory debates. Grades will be based on an examination at the end of the semester.

The Legislative Clinic offers students an opportunity to gain a 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 responsibility that arise in their fieldwork. Seminar 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.

This course will examine the use of litigation as a tool to effect social change. We will look at the unique nature of the American legal system that makes this possible. We will review the use of class actions and other vehicles that have been successfully employed. We will consider the consequences of the use of litigation. There will be a takeaway exam.

Over ninety percent of Americans live in urban areas. This course will examine many of the issues facing urban America through an analysis of the function of local governments in the American legal and political system. We will consider federal, state and local statutes and case law that shape government institutions. Specific topics include: the formation of local and sublocal governments; the scope of local autonomy with respect to zoning and the provision of public services; federal-local, state-local, and inter-local relations; the relationship between cities and suburbs; and the impact of race on the structure of metropolitan governance. We will be employing legal doctrine as well as political and social theory in exploring these issues. Because local governments operate in a variety of jurisdictions (and because local government law intersects numerous areas of substantive law) this course will not primarily emphasize legal doctrine or the mastery of specific legal rules. Instead, the course is intended to familiarize you with those general concepts from which to draw more specific legal and political conclusions. This course will be followed in the spring by the Seminar in Urban Policy, which will provide an opportunity for students to conduct research in areas of urban policy. Students in Local Government Law will receive priority in registering for the seminar

This seminar provides legal and policy background for persons interested in issues affecting the poor, disabled, and elderly and in the design of income support and anti-poverty programs at the local, state, and federal level. The years since the New Deal have witnessed a dramatic expansion in governmental benefits and monetary transfers designed to alleviate poverty, redistribute wealth, and provide for basic human needs. This seminar will examine legal and policy issues surrounding existing and proposed anti-poverty programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the newly enacted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Social Security (including disability benefits), guaranteed income proposals, the minimum wage, and wage subsidies. Topic covered will include: constitutional and statutory issues in the design and administration of welfare programs; political and theoretical aspects of economic redistribution; defining poverty; the causes and cures of poverty; and proposals for reforming welfare and social security programs. The course will make use of the social science literature on the role of economic and social factors (such as labor markets, family structure, and anti-poverty programs) in creating and maintaining poverty.

This course will examine federal, state and local policies towards urban areas (broadly defined) with a focus on their impact in Pennsylvania. Among the topics we will examine are: the role of government in shaping housing development in cities and suburban areas, the application of zoning and other land use controls to urban areas, the impact of urban renewal and economic development policies on American cities, and the changing relationships between cities and suburbs. This course will operate as a seminar, and students will be encouraged to conduct research in a specific aspect of urban policy. This course will involve collaboration with members of the Pennsylvania state government, in particular the Pennsylvania State Planning Board. Under the supervision of the professor, students in the course will participate in researching and drafting proposed changes to state law regarding land use and economic development.