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Course Details

EXT: Philadelphia District Attorney's Office - Federal Litigation Unit (Quaglia)

Spring 2025   LAW 831-002  

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Additional Information
Experiential Course

Yes

Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Team Projects
Drafting Legal Documents
Other Professional Skills:

Grading
100% Other (Externships are graded Credit/No Credit )

Satisfies Senior Writing Requirement

No

Location

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 FEDERAL LITIGATION UNIT represent the Commonwealth in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. Externs will assist these ADAs in researching, writing, and editing federal filings responding to federal habeas corpus petitions. In addition to developing their legal research and writing skills, externs will learn about and engage in the complex world of federal habeas and U.S. Constitutional law. Externs will develop a background in the EDPA, as well as common claims such as ineffective assistance of counsel and suppression of exculpatory evidence. Through this work, externs will also engage in issues related to progressive prosecution in post-conviction appeals.

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. Students may not change their seminar time once the semester has started. 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 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.

Course Concentrations

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.