Externship: Senior Law Center (Shapiro)
Faculty
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| Beth Shapiro Executive Director - Gittis Legal Clinics bethshap@law.upenn.edu |
Additional Information
Experiential CourseYes
Skills Training
Oral Presentations
Drafting Legal Documents
Other Professional Skills:
Grading
100% Other (Fieldwork & is pass/fail)
No
Class meets in person.
Meeting Times/Location
TBA
TBA
Category
Clinics/Externships
Credits
0.0
PLEASE SEE IMPORTANT ENROLLMENT PROCEDURES FOR EXTERNSHIPS AVAILABLE ON THE REGISTRATION INSTRUCTIONS PAGE.
STUDENTS SHOULD ONLY REGISTER FOR THIS EXTERNSHIP IF THEY ARE AVAILABLE ON THURSDAY MORNINGS (AND IDEALLY ALL DAY THURSDAY). ALL WORK WILL BE DONE IN PERSON AT THE SENIOR LAW CENTER IN PHILADELPHIA.
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 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 on Thursday mornings, and should ideally be able to work all day Thursday. All work will be done in person at the Senior Law Center.
Students are not permitted to enroll in this Externship if also enrolled in another Clinic or Externship in the same semester. Students who elect to use their enrollment in this Externship toward their public service requirement will receive one fewer credit for this course, in exchange for 35 hours of TPIC credit (students should contact TPIC to arrange for the credit exchange).
ADD/DROP FOR EXTERNSHIPS: The placement site incurs a substantial amount of time and investment in the program and is burdened by drops that occur after enrollment has been announced. As such, students should not register for this Externship if they are uncertain about remaining in the course. Please email externships@law.upenn.edu with any questions.
FACULTY SUPERVISION: Students are assigned a faculty supervisor who is a member of the Clinical Faculty with whom they will meet on a bi-weekly basis for hour-long tutorials.
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.
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.