Angela R. Dean

Visiting Assistant Professor of Law

Angela R. Dean joined Penn State Dickinson Law in the fall of 2024 as a visiting assistant professor. She obtained a Juris Doctor and Master of Laws in Taxation with a Certificate of Employee Benefits from Villanova University School of Law.

Before coming to Penn State Dickinson Law, Ms. Dean held various in-house counsel roles with pension funds and health insurers. Angela previously served as associate general counsel to the YMCA Retirement Fund where she acted as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) subject matter expert responsible for inter-departmental project management, compliance issues, regulatory agency inquiries as well as benefit claims and appeals.

She also served as senior ERISA counsel to Health Now New York n/k/a Highmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Eastern and Western New York where she handled the self-funded employer line of business for their third-party administrator. As an investigator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, Angela enforced Title I of ERISA where she handled complex compliance matters that focused upon protecting the interests of participants and beneficiaries in private sector employee benefit plans.

Ms. Dean’s academic teaching experience includes serving as a guest lecturer at the University of Maine School of Law and as an adjunct instructor at Penn State Dickinson Law.

Her scholarship includes a current work in progress entitled “The American Hustle” which examines the ERISA deemer clause, its creation of a two-tiered private sector health insurance system in America and the regulatory landscape.

During law school, Ms. Dean served as a member of the Sports and Entertainment Law Journal and published a case note, “Expanding the Doctrines of Vicarious and Contributory Copyright Infringement: Fonovisa, Inc. v Cherry Auction, Inc. Targets the Primary Distribution Channels for Counterfeit Merchandise.” She received the Best Team Argument-Respondent award at the Niagara International Moot Court Competition while serving as a member of the Moot Court.

 

Angela R. Dean

Location: Carlisle

Email  ard6303@psu.edu

Phone  717-241-3514

Professor Dean’s News and Activity

Faculty Impact


Education
J.D., LL.M. in Taxation with Certificate of Employee Benefits, Villanova University School of Law

B.A., cum laude with distinguished honors in Political Science, Temple University


Research Interests
ERISA, retirement plans and health insurance plans with a particular interest in self-funded health plans, insurers and plan sponsors.

Admissions
New York, U.S. Tax Court and the Internal Revenue Service

 

 


Penn State Dickinson Law and Penn State Law are reunifying to operate as Penn State University’s single law school, which will be known as Penn State Dickinson Law. While ABA approval for the reunification is pending, both schools are currently fully accredited. We submitted an application for acquiescence to operate as a single law school in July 2024 and plan to enroll a unified class in Fall 2025. Once reunification is complete, the separate faculties of each school will be members of the reunified Penn State Dickinson Law faculty.