EXT: Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project (Quaglia)
Additional Information
Experiential CourseYes
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Drafting Legal Documents
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
100% Other (Externships are graded Credit/No Credit and based on successful completion of fieldwork and externship seminar course.)
No
Class meets in person.
Course Continuity
Students are encouraged to stay home if you are ill or experience flu-like symptoms. If you miss a class for any reason, it is still your responsibility to make up the work missed.
I offer the following to students who miss class due to illness:
- If you are absent due to illness or some other unavoidable circumstance, email me and I can make PowerPoint slides or other class materials available to you.
Meeting Times/Location
TBA
TBA
Category
Clinics/Externships
Credits
4.0
*THE APPLICATION PERIOD FOR APPLYING TO THIS EXTERNSHIP HAS NOW CLOSED*
Field Placement Description: The Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project (CBAP) is a non-profit organization located at 718 Arch Street, Philadelphia, that was founded in 1992 to provide pro bono Chapter 7 Bankruptcy representation to low-income Philadelphians struggling with debt and needing a fresh start. The organization serves residents of Philadelphia who have gross incomes below official poverty guidelines. CBAP relies on volunteer attorneys, law students, and paralegals to accept client case referrals and assist clients in need of bankruptcy relief. CBAP provides law students with an opportunity to expand their skills, learn about Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, and assist individuals who are unable to hire a bankruptcy attorney in the private market.
Responsibilities: Externs will be assigned an initial caseload and will be responsible for scheduling all initial informational interviews, signing interviews, and clients’ two mandatory financial management courses. They will be expected to explain the entire bankruptcy process to clients, track case progress through required steps, compile all necessary documents, organize case files, and utilize bankruptcy software to prepare bankruptcy documents for filing in Bankruptcy Court. Depending on CBAP's current caseload externs may also be responsible for preparing motions, pleadings and depositions for student loan cases while sharpening their interviewing, listening, writing, and advocacy skills. In all cases, externs maintain all client contact and therefore this externship is a great experience for those seeking direct client contact experience.
Prior Experience: Prior bankruptcy experience is helpful but not needed. CBAP's supervising attorney will train on substantive bankruptcy issues as well as the intersection of bankruptcy and poverty law in general. Supervision will be provided through weekly meetings with a CBAP Staff Attorney, and the attorney will also be available on an as-needed basis to answer bankruptcy questions as they arise.
Externship Seminar Requirements: To receive academic credit for this externship, students will be enrolled in an in-person, semester-long Civil Externship Seminar that meets at the Law School during the same semester as the field placement. Students will meet as a group for one hour every other week during the semester for a total of six meetings and will meet individually with the professor mid-semester and at the end of the semester.
A few weeks before the semester begins, students will receive a Qualtrics Survey to choose one of two seminar times and should plan their course and work schedules accordingly. The Civil Externship Seminar begins the first week of classes and students will choose either Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. or Wednesdays from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Students may not change their seminar time once the semester has started.
Students who previously completed a civil externship and are doing another civil externship will be placed in an Advanced Civil Externship Seminar. Those students should notify Professor Kathryn Quaglia at kquaglia@law.upenn.edu for a Qualtrics survey after course schedules have been released to arrange a convenient class meeting time.
Credit Restrictions: No more than 14 semester hours (of the 22 co-curricular semester hour maximum) can be earned in externships (both Gittis and ad hoc externships). Students are not permitted to enroll in a Clinic and Externship in the same semester, or in two Externships in one semester. International JD students must seek and be approved for CPT (Curricular Practical Training) credit for the externship well before the start of the semester. Students should review important externship registration information: Enrollment Procedures for externships
Business and Corporate Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of business and corporate law; Perform legal analysis in the context of business and corporate law; Communicate effectively on topics related to business and corporate law; Demonstrate an understanding of the interconnection between the world of business and finance and that of business and corporate law, and how they affect other areas of law and society.
Skills Learning outcomes: Demonstrate an understanding of the individual course skill; Demonstrate the ability to receive and implement feedback; Demonstrate an understanding of how and when the individual course skill is employed in practice.
Public Interest Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of the varied legal aspects of public interest law; Perform legal analysis in the context of public interest law; Communicate effectively on topics related to public interest law; Demonstrate an understanding of how public interest law is connected to and affected by a wide variety of legal and regulatory structures and doctrines.