EXT: Senior Law Center (Quaglia)
Meeting Times/Location
TBA
TBA
Category
Clinics/Externships
Credits
7.0
SeniorLAW Center (SLC) is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that provides direct legal and educational services to over 10,000 Pennsylvania seniors each year in home ownership rights, tenant rights, elder abuse and financial exploitation victim services, kinship care and grandparents raising grandchildren, veterans’ issues and advance life planning.
The Tenant Rights Project externship offers students the opportunity to work on direct client representation, legal research, and systemic advocacy to protect the rights of Pennsylvania tenants. Students will attend landlord-tenant hearings at Municipal Court and assist SLC attorneys with client intake, help with preparation for court hearings, and research legal issues related to active cases. Students will interview tenants and draft letters to clients. Students may assist in drafting legislative testimony or other needed advocacy documents. Students will also attend meetings, briefings, and legislative hearings related to protection of tenant rights. The student must appear in person for court hearings on Thursday mornings and should be able to work all day Thursday. All work is done in person at the SeniorLAW Center.
The Pursuing Justice for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren in Pennsylvania Project (“GRG”) externship offer students the opportunity to work on direct client representation, legal research and systemic advocacy to protect the rights of Grandparents (and other kin) raising children in Pennsylvania. The GRG Project statewide initiative is poised to increase access to legal representation, education, and resources to older adults caring for children when the biological parents are absent. The externship will provide access to all aspects of litigation, from intake, advice/counsel, client management, case preparation and court appearances. Depending on the need, the student will engage in legal research, client counseling, court representation, and document drafting. The extern will work approximately 21 hours a week in person at the SeniorLAW Center.
The Homeownership Rights Team assists clients with legal issues involving tangled title, foreclosure, and other related problems. The externship will offer one student the opportunity to assist SLC attorneys with client intake, research legal issues related to active cases, and direct client representation. The extern may also have opportunities to draft pleadings and other documents related to probate and the recording of deeds. The extern will work approximately 21 hours per week, preferably on three full days.
SLC will ask for student preference when making Unit assignments but cannot guarantee preferences will be accommodated.
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. Before the semester begins, students will receive a Qualtrics Survey to choose one of two seminar times: Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. or Wednesdays from 12 to 1:00 p.m. The Seminar meets six times over the course of the semester and begins the first week of classes. 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.
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 cannot 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.
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.
Courts and the Judicial System Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of both substantive and procedural issues in the operation of our legal system; Perform legal analysis in the context of procedural issues and the judicial process; Communicate effectively on topics related to procedure and the judicial process; Demonstrate an understanding of how procedural issues and the judicial process affect all other area of our legal system.
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.