EXT: Philadelphia District Attorney's Office - Appeals Unit (Quaglia)
Additional Information
Experiential CourseYes
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Drafting Legal Documents
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
100% Other (Externships are graded credit/no-credit.)
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
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES FOR EXTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE ON THE REGISTRAR'S WEBSITE.
Assistant District Attorneys in the APPEALS UNIT represent the Commonwealth in the Pennsylvania Superior Court and Pennsylvania Supreme Court, filing briefs and presenting oral arguments in state post-conviction appeals. Externs will be assigned to work with an Appeals Unit ADA to research, write, and edit appellate briefs filed in state appellate courts. In addition to meeting regularly with their supervising ADA, externs will be assigned to a “team” of Appeals ADAs and will participate in weekly team meetings to discuss their cases and relevant legal and writing issues. Over the course of the semester, externs will write and edit two to three briefs that will be filed in the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
Externship Seminar Requirements: To receive academic credit, students will be automatically enrolled in an in-person, semester-long Criminal Externship Seminar at Penn Carey Law School that meets 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. Shortly after course schedules are released, students will receive a Qualtrics Survey to choose one of two seminar times and should plan their course and work schedules accordingly. The Criminal Externship Seminar begins the first week of classes and students will choose either Tuesdays from 12 to 1 p.m. or Wednesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. In the seminar, students will reflect on their field placement experience; examine topics such as their roles as lawyers and professionals; develop their professional identity; engage in difficult conversations related to the role of racism, bias, discrimination, power, and privilege in personal, professional, and societal settings; problem-solve; set career goals; and more.
Students who previously completed a criminal externship and are doing another criminal externship at a different placement will be placed in an Advanced Criminal Externship Seminar. Those students must 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.
Grading: The field placement and seminar are combined for one Credit/No Credit grade.
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. Students should review important externship registration information: Enrollment Procedures for externships
International JD Students must seek CPT (Curricular Practical Training) credit for the externship work BEFORE the start of the semester. Students will use the completed Statement of Understanding and upload that to their ISSS portal. International students who either get into a Gittis externship through the registration lottery or via a submitted application, or who receive an ad hoc externship approval notice, should email externships@law.upenn.edu right away so we can help you comply with the government’s CPT externship requirements.
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.
Criminal Law and Procedure Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of criminal law and procedure; Perform legal analysis in the context of criminal law and procedure; Communicate effectively on topics related to criminal law and procedure; Demonstrate an understanding of the role criminal law and procedure play in society and their impact on other areas of law and society.
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.