EXT: US Environmental Protection Agency (Quaglia)
Additional Information
Experiential CourseYes
Skills Training
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 Office of Regional Counsel (ORC) for EPA Region III provides legal counsel and representation to EPA and its programs in the Middle Atlantic region (PA, DE, MD, DC, VA, WV). Externs will be assigned to work with one or more of our practice groups, each of which focuses on a particular area of federal environmental law, such as Superfund (i.e., hazardous site cleanup), waste and chemical law, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, or federal law on environmental crimes.
Roles and Responsibilities: Each extern will have an assigned supervisor, who is a senior lawyer, managing one of the practice groups. Each extern will also be assigned a mentor. Assignments may include drafting of legal documents and administrative pleadings; case-related legal research and writing; attendance at meetings with clients or outside counsel; and assistance with case development and with referrals to the DOJ. Externs can also avail themselves of educational opportunities offered to EPA lawyers and EPA Program staff. The externship will begin with a brief orientation via Microsoft Teams that will include a session on ethics in the federal workplace and professional responsibility. Students are required to successfully complete a background check prior to the start of the semester.
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 Penn Carey Law 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. 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. 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.
Grading: The externship seminar and the field placement are combined for one Credit/No Credit grade. To receive credit, students must satisfy the field placement credit hours and all externship seminar requirements.
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
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.
Environmental Law Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of environmental law; Perform legal analysis in the context of environmental law; Communicate effectively on topics related to environmental law; Demonstrate an understanding of how environmental law affects 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.