EXT: Wistar Institute (Quaglia)
Additional Information
Experiential CourseYes
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Team Projects
Drafting Legal Documents
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
100% Other (The field placement and seminar components are combined for one credit/no credit grade. )
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.
- If you are absent for illness or other emergency, please email the professor for a mandatory make-up assignment.
Meeting Times/Location
TBA
TBA
Category
Clinics/Externships
Credits
4.0
*THE APPLICATION PERIOD FOR APPLYING TO THIS EXTERNSHIP CLOSED ON MAY 13, 2025*
Field Placement Description: Join a rich history of over 125 years of cutting-edge biomedical research in your externship at The Wistar Institute. Located in the heart of University City, Wistar is the nation’s first independent institution devoted to biomedical research and training. Today, Wistar is an international leader in basic biomedical research in cancer and infectious diseases. Wistar’s discoveries have led to the development of vaccines for rabies, rubella, rotavirus, Zika, and most recently, COVID-19, as well as the identification of genes associated with breast, lung, and prostate cancer, and the development of monoclonal antibodies and other significant research technologies and tools.
This externship is an ideal opportunity for students interested in hands-on experience working in-house at a nonprofit organization in the biomedical research industry. Students will witness firsthand how lawyers can support and work to propel medical innovation forward through the power of collaboration with academic and industry partners. Examples of tasks performed by law students include: • Conducting legal research, analysis and writing on a broad range of topics, including regulatory and compliance requirements for the conduct of scientific research, data and privacy issues, intellectual property, corporate and nonprofit law, and labor and employment issues; • Drafting, reviewing and revising various contracts and agreements, including confidentiality, material transfer, data use, clinical trial, government, consulting, and vendor agreements; • Drafting and reviewing institutional policies, procedures and templates; and • Attending meetings with internal leaders and stakeholders.
Prior Experience: Wistar’s Legal Department seeks motivated and creative 2L and 3L students with an interest in health, life sciences, and/or nonprofit law.
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 the Law School 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 five meetings. In addition, students will meet individually with the professor mid-semester and at the end of the semester. 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 to 1:00 p.m. 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 complete 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: Enroll
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. Intellectual Property and Technology Law
Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of intellectual property law; Perform legal analysis in the context of intellectual property law; Communicate effectively on topics related to intellectual property; Demonstrate an understanding of the interconnection between technology and intellectual property, and how they affect other areas of law and society. Administrative and Regulatory Law
Learning outcomes: Demonstrate a core understanding of administrative and regulatory law and the administrative process, including the role of statutory authorization and work of administrative agencies; Perform legal analysis in the context of administrative and regulatory law; Communicate effectively on topics related to administrative and regulatory law; Demonstrate an understanding of the role administrative and regulatory law play in our legal system and in society as a whole. 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.