The Pennsylvania State University — Dickinson School of Law

The Pennsylvania State University—Dickinson School of Law
Motto	Making Life Better
Established	1834
Type	Public
Dean	Philip McConnaughay
Faculty	50 full time, 30 adjunct, 12 visiting
Students	638
Location	University Park and Carlisle, Pennsylvania, USA
Campus	Urban
Colors	Navy Blue and White
Nickname	Penn State Law, Penn State Dickinson
Mascot	Nittany Lion
Affiliations	Big Ten Conference
Website	www.law.psu.edu

The Dickinson School of Law (also known as Penn State Dickinson, Penn State Law or The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University^[1]) is the law school of The Pennsylvania State University. Penn State Dickinson, one of the professional graduate schools of Penn State, operates as a dual-campus system with campuses located in both University Park, Pennsylvania and Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The two campuses operate meaningfully as a single enterprise, with a single identity, single reputation and single stature. The University Park Campus is Penn State's main campus, and it maintains over 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Carlisle, approximately 80 miles southeast of University Park, is the original home of the law school.

The law school was founded by John Reed in 1834, making it the fifth oldest law school in the United States and the oldest law school in Pennsylvania. It is home to over 600 law students, most of whom are earning the degrees of Juris Doctor (J.D.) or Master of Laws (LLM). Penn State Dickinson has a faculty and staff of over 100.

U.S. News and World Report, in its 2010 edition of America's Best Graduate Schools, ranked Penn State Dickinson 65th among the nation's top 218 law schools.

In June 2007 Penn State established the School of International Affairs that is intimately linked with the law school. The School of International Affairs, which will offer a professional master's degree in International Affairs with several specialty concentrations, will be housed administratively within the law school. The two schools will share similar educational objectives.

Randall Robinson was recently appointed as faculty of the School of International Affairs.

Dual-Campus System

In 2005 a dispute over whether to move the Dickinson School of Law to Penn State's University Park campus in State College, Pennsylvania led to a dual-campus proposal. Under this proposal, Penn State plans to invest over $110 million in a law school that will operate out of both locations. The proposal was approved by the law school's board of trustees before the 2005-2006 academic year.

The law school has now fully merged with Penn State, and has been integrated into the University's system. Starting in the fall of 2006, the law school began offering classes at its University Park location. Ground was broken for the Lewis Katz Building on January 18, 2007.^[2] The building opened for classes in January 2009.

Carlisle

Plans are for the Carlisle location to undergo a renovation. Due to the impending renovations at the Carlisle campus, the law school relocated five miles away from Trickett Hall to the Advantica building on Harrisburg Pike in Carlisle. The renovations to the Carlisle campus are expected to be completed by 2010.

The new facilities are the designs of Polshek Partnership Architects.

Lewis Katz Building

The Lewis Katz Building in University Park, Pennsylvania, opened for classes on January 9, 2009. The $60 million, 114,000 square-foot building is the first academic facility to be built on the west side of Park Avenue, opposite from Penn State’s main campus. It is adjacent to the Penn State Arboretum.

The Lewis Katz Building is LEED certified and equipped with advanced high definition digital audiovisual telecommunications capacity that enables the real-time delivery of classes and programs between the law school’s Carlisle and University Park campuses and other collaborative projects and programs with schools and institutions worldwide. The second floor includes the glass-enclosed library, with a two-story information commons, four group study rooms and 11 offices among the features. Library spaces comprise about 50 percent of the building.

In 2009, Judge D. Brooks Smith used the Lewis Katz Building's courtroom to hear an oral argument to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition to the courtroom, the Katz Building includes a 250-seat auditorium, four specially designed 75-person classrooms, several seminar rooms, and a highly advanced “board room” permitting electronic “face-to-face” contact with meeting participants worldwide.

Curriculum

Like many law schools, the first year program consists of required courses that include two semesters of research and writing. During their first year, 1Ls must complete courses in Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property and Torts. In the second semester, 1Ls may take one elective course from a list of options. Only two courses are required after completion of the first year: Professional Responsibility and a Seminar. Students' remaining credits are to be filled with electives.

The law school is nationally recognized for its Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Program.

Institutes, Centers & Programs

Center for the Study of Mergers & Acquisitions

Headed by Samuel C. Thompson Jr., former director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Mergers and Acquisitions, the center examines corporate, securities, tax, antitrust, and other legal and economic issues that arise in mergers and acquisitions. An important part of the Center's mission is to sponsor continuing legal education programs addressing these issues.

In October 2007, Penn State Dickinson and the New York City Bar co-sponsored the Fourth Annual Institute on Corporate, Securities, and Related Aspects of Mergers and Acquisitions. The Institute, which was co-chaired by Professor Thompson and H. Rodgin Cohen of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, was held at the Bar's facility in New York City. Sessions provided penetrating analyses of recent developments in this very dynamic area; speakers at the Institute included some of the world's leading M&A attorneys, investment bankers, and governmental officials.

Institute for Sports Law, Policy & Research

Directed by Professor Stephen Ross, one of the nation’s leading sports law scholars, the Penn State Institute for Sports Law Policy and Research is designed to:

• promote dialogue between students of sport and major industry participants
• aid scholars in policy-oriented research and facilitate the dissemination of this research to policy makers and industry participants, and
• serve as resource for journalists, lawyers and others connected about sports and public policy

The Institute is aided by an advisory board of prominent industry leaders, sports scholars from around the world, and Penn State faculty and alumni, all dedicated to advancing the study of sports. The Institute works closely with a faculty and staff from another of other disciplines on the Penn State campus, including the John Curley Center for Sports and Journalism, the Center for Sports Business Research in the Smeal College of Business, and the Departments of Kinesiology and Statistics. In addition, the Institute facilitates inter-disciplinary work with a variety of sports-interested faculty on the Penn State campus, sponsoring faculty colloquia and faculty/student reading groups. The Institute intends to feature programs that are of utmost importance to the field, including a speaker series featuring prominent industry leaders, private conferences to explore consensus approaches to difficult sports policy issues, and ongoing lectures to faculty and students.

Institute of Arbitration Law & Practice

The Penn State Institute of Arbitration Law and Practice was established in August 2005 to promote the study and scholarship of arbitration law and practice. Professor Thomas E. Carbonneau, the Samuel P. Orlando Distinguished Professor of Law, serves as faculty director and is widely considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on international and domestic arbitration. Mary Helen Mourra is Executive Director of the Institute for Arbitration Law and Practice.

The Institute’s publications include the World Arbitration and Mediation Review, the Smit-Carbonneau-Mistelis Guides to International Commercial Arbitration and the student publication Beyond Litigation[1]. The Institute also sponsors student participation in moot court competitions, including the prestigious annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna, Austria, and hosts the Montreal Summer Study Program in Arbitration at the McGill University Faculty of Law in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Affiliated Penn State faculty include William E. Butler, John Edward Fowler Professor of Law and member of the Russia International Court of Commercial Arbitration; Tiyanjana Maluwa, H. Laddie and Linda P. Montague Professor of Law; Philip J. McConnaughay, dean and Donald J. Farage Professor of Law; Panagiotis Takis Tridimas, professor of law and Sir John Lubbock Professor of Banking Law at Queen Mary College, University of London.

Other Penn State Dickinson Programs

• Center for Immigrants' Rights
• Center for Applied Human Rights Research
• Washington, D.C. Semester Program
• Miller Center for Public Interest Advocacy
• Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center
• Uniform Commercial Code Institute
• In-house Clinics
• Study Abroad

Law Journals

The Law School also features four academic journals, including the Penn State Law Review, formerly the Dickinson Law Review. The Law Review was founded in 1897, and is one of the oldest continually published law school journals in the country.

• Penn State Law Review
• Penn State International Law Review
• Penn State Environmental Law Review
• The Yearbook on Arbitration and Mediation

Student organizations

The Law School maintains an extensive roster of student organizations, including:

• ABA/Law Student Division — PBA/Young Lawyers Division
• Alternative Dispute Resolution Society
• Alumni Relations Committee
• American Civil Liberties Union
• Amnesty International
• Animal Legal Defense Fund
• Asian Pacific American Law Student Association
• Association of Non-Traditional Students (ANTS)
• Association of Trial Lawyers of America
• Black Law Students Association (BLSA)[2]
• Books to Prisoners Project (B2PP)
• Christian Legal Society
• Corpus Juris Society
• Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity (Holmes Senate)
• Dickinson Democrats
• Dickinson Republican Council
• Environmental Law Society
• Federalist Society
• First Impression
• International Law Society
• Islamic Legal Council (ILC)
• J. Reuben Clark Law Society
• Jewish Law Students Association
• John Reed Inn of Phi Delta Phi
• Joint Degree Students Association
• Latino/a American Law Students Association
• Law, Economics and Business Society
• Law & Education Alliance at Penn State — LEAP
• Law & Philosophy Society
• Legalese
• Minority Law Students Association
• OutLaw (for LGBT students)
• The Penn State Dickinson Agricultural Law Society
• The Penn State Dickinson School of Law Blue and White Society
• Phi Alpha Delta
• Phi Delta Phi
• Project S.T.A.F.F.
• Public Interest Law Fund
• Real Estate Law Students Association
• Res Ipsa Loquitur
• Rugby Club
• Saint Thomas More Society
• South Asian Law Student Association (SALSA)
• Speakers Trust Fund
• Sports, Entertainment and Art Law Society
• Student Bar Association
• Student Health Law Organization
• Toastmasters International
• Trial Moot Court Board
• Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program
• Women's Law Caucus
• WorkLaw Society

The school also participates in the prestigious Willem C. Vis Moot Commercial Arbitration Moot Court, held each year in Vienna, Austria and the National Environmental Law Moot Court held at Pace University in White Plains, New York.

Students at Penn State Dickinson are active in intramural sports program. Current intramural sports include indoor soccer, flag football, volleyball, basketball and bowling.

Several students are also members of rugby and softball teams. Each spring, the school sends a softball team to participate in the University of Virginia Law School Softball Tournament.

Notable alumni

• Christopher Conner, Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
• Pedro Cortés, current Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Andrew Curtin, Civil War Governor of Pennsylvania (1861 - 1867)
• J. Michael Eakin, Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• John Sydney Fine, former Pennsylvania Governor (1951 - 1955)
• Jim Gerlach, United States Congressman from Pennsylvania
• Kim Gibson, Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
• Milton W. Glenn (1903-1967), represented New Jersey's 2nd congressional district from 1957-1965.^[3]
• Rick Gray, current mayor of Lancaster, PA
• T. Millet Hand (1902-1956), represented New Jersey's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1945-1957.^[4]
• Arthur Horace James, former Pennsylvania Governor (1939 - 1943)
• John E. Jones III, U.S. District Judge for United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, who presided over the ruling in Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District which states that the teaching of Intelligent design in public classrooms violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
• Paul E. Kanjorski, United States Congressman from Pennsylvania
• Lewis Katz, owner of the New Jersey Nets Basketball Team
• Sylvia Rambo, first woman to serve as Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania for the Middle District
• Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania Governor (1995 - 2001), former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security (2001–2003), first United States Secretary of Homeland Security (2003 - 2005)
• Rick Santorum, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (1995-2007)
• Lansdale Sasscer, 1914, U.S. Congressman for Maryland's 5th District.
• D. Brooks Smith, class of 1976, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
• Donald William Snyder (LLM, Commerce and Taxation), Member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives 1981-2000 and Majority Whip.^[5]
• Thomas I. Vanaskie, class of 1978, former chief judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and current nominee to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

References

External links

• Penn State Dickinson School of Law
• Pennsylvania State University
• Construction and Renovation Website