Penn State Law

Clinic project helps unaccompanied immigrant childrenChildren are among the most vulnerable parties in the legal system and often lack legal counsel, especially in an immigration context. On behalf of client Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) and as part of their work at the Center for Immigrants' Rights, Penn State Law students (now attorneys) Nick Quesenberry ’11 and Tayler Summers ’12 helped create training materials on U and T Visas. Their contribution became part of a recently finalized training manual for pro bono attorneys who take on cases through KIND.

International Competition Network gets Professor Farmer's helpAt the International Competition Network (ICN) Advocacy Workshop in Paris last month, Professor Beth Farmer worked with fellow panelists Seppo Reimavuo, director of the Finnish Competition Authority, and Shri S.L. Bunker, secretary of the Competition Commission of India and moderator Caldwell Harrop, Foreign Commerce Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, to help define the role of the ICN in competition advocacy.

Mark Polin '10: New life, new careerDr. Mark S. Polin ’10 has devoted his career to helping women. As an OBGYN in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he delivered about 2,000 babies and focused his practice on treating infertility and performing advanced laparoscopic surgery.

The Mad Mullah MythProfessor Flynt Leverett co-authored "Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran." The book will be available in January and an excerpt is posted here with permission.

Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams brings personal experiences to ethics classIn introducing Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams to his professional responsiblity classmates, James Hendershot '14 said that Williams personifies the characterisitics of a professionally responsible prosceutor the class had been studying. "We have learned that a prosecutor is more than just an advocate for victims of crime, but a minister of justice. That is, a prosecutor is committed to the service of the public as a whole, and a prosecutor's ethical obligations reflect this," he said.

Civil Rights Appellate Clinic students await Supreme Court’s decision in harassment caseStudents in the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic are awaiting a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Vance v. Ball State University, which could have a widespread impact on how employment discrimination cases are handled throughout the country. At issue in the case is whether the person who allegedly harassed Vance qualifies as a "supervisor" under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Diversity of international student population a plus for LL.M. studentsInternational education exchanges are at all-time high, strengthening economies and societies around the world. During the 2011-2012 academic year, Penn State ranked 12th in the nation for its international student enrollment with a total of 6,075 international students enrolled at University Park and 6,621 University-wide. We caught up with a few international students in the LL.M. program who shared their impressions about Penn State Law.

Law school applicants get advice from admissions experts, tonight at 8:30 ETOn Nov. 27 at 8:30 P.M. EST a panel of experts from law schools across the nation, including Penn State Law's Director of Admissions Grant Keener, will discuss findings from a national survey of admissions officers and answer prospective student questions.

Focus on bar exam prep pays off for Class of 2012Bar prep is a notoriously difficult time for a new law grad, a process that begins just after Memorial Day and ends, hopefully for good, in an air-conditioning hotel convention center sometime in July. Last summer the Penn State Law Class of 2012 sat for bar exams in 25 states. Ninety-one percent of them passed on the first attempt and have joined the ranks of those licensed to practice law. In addition to many happy students, their families, and employers, another person who is pleased about the higher-than-average Penn State Law bar pass rate is Keith Elkin, Dean of Students, who organizes an annual bar preparation program for Penn State Law graduates.

Lewis Katz Building named one of the world's best academic buildingsArchitizier, a blog dedicated to architecture, named Lewis Katz Building to its list of “Top 10 University Buildings that Actually Make You Want to go to Class.” Lewis Katz Building is in the company of Centro Tecnologico San Joaquin in Santiago Chile, Library Technical University in Delft, Netherlands, and the Deichmann Center for Social Interaction & Spitzer-Salant School of Social Work at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel.