EXT: Senior Law Center (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 REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS PAGE.
SeniorLAW Center (SLC) is a Philadelphia 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 and veterans’ issues. BELOW ARE 3 DIFFERENTAREAS WHERE EXTERNS MAY BE PLACED. SLC will ask for student preference when making Unit assignments but cannot guarantee preferences.
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 be expected to 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 WILL BE EXPECTED TO APPEAR IN PERSON FOR COURT HEARINGS THURSDAY MORNING AND SHOULD IDEALLY BE ABLE TO WORK ALL DAY ON THURSDAY. All work will be 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 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 tasks such as legal research, client counseling, court representation, and document drafting. The extern will be expected to work approximately 12 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 2L or 3L 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
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 at a different placement 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.
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.
Family Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of family law; Perform legal analysis in the context of family law; Communicate effectively on topics related to family law; Demonstrate an understanding of how family law affects other areas of law.
Health Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of health law and policy; Perform legal analysis in the context of health law and policy; Communicate effectively on topics related to health law and policy; Demonstrate an understanding of the interconnection among health law and policy and issues of access to services, public and private financing of health industries, and the political and economic issues surrounding issues of health law and health services.
Property and Real Estate Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of property and real estate law; Perform legal analysis in the context of property and real estate law; Communicate effectively on topics related to property and real estate law; Demonstrate an understanding of how property and real estate law affect other areas of law.
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.