courses

In this course, students learn how financial accounting is used to measure and communicate the outcomes of business activities to parties inside and outside of an enterprise. The purposes of this course are to: (1) provide students with a basic understanding of the concepts and principles underlying financial accounting practices; (2) make students comfortable reading and understanding financial statements; (3) empower students to communicate with accountants; and (4) provide students with the technical tools that facilitate financial statement analysis. Note: This course will introduce Excel spreadsheets. It will also focus on accrual basis accounting.

This course is an introduction to the law of the administrative state—to the constitutional, statutory and judge-made rules governing what agencies may do, the procedures they must follow, and how they can be held to account. Topics include mechanisms for control of agencies by the legislative and executive branches; the constitutional basis for, and limits on, governance by agencies; the availability and effects of judicial review over agency action; and the features of agency rulemaking and adjudication.

Students who have successfully completed a clinic course may be eligible to apply for Advanced Clinic, with faculty approval. This second-semester clinic course is designed to significantly advance the student’s knowledge of the subject matter area studied in the first semester of clinic and to expand students’ knowledge of areas of practice in other clinics. Class sessions are devoted to case rounds discussions, and students take significant responsibility in crafting their own learning agendas. Acceptance to this course is limited and only permitted with faculty approval.

This course examines the constitutional, statutory and rule-based issues that arise in the formal processing of a criminal case. Subjects include the decision to charge, prosecutorial discretion, grand jury and preliminary hearing, joinder and severance, bail and pretrial release, discovery, plea bargaining and guilty pleas, speedy trial, jury composition and selection, pre-trial publicity, confrontation, cross-examination and the privilege against self-incrimination.

This course first will review the way in which the received view of our legal system is modeled upon the supposition of rational decision-making by judges and jurors and the formalistic analysis lawyers adopt in their legal and factual advocacy. The course then will explore the anatomy and operation of the brain that explains why emotion and pattern matching are embedded in every decision. We next will address how lawyers can and must modify their advocacy to judges. argument to jurors, and persuasion of other stakeholders to track the manner in which the brain makes its decisions. Finally, the course will posit ways in which the substantive law, or dispute resolution process could and should be adjusted to better align with the actual pathway used by decision-makers.

Every week the entire class meets for a lecture and demonstration session, and also breaks into small group courtroom section meetings during which every student will present a trial exercise. The goals of the course are 1) to improve confidence in public speaking, 2) to learn how to prepare documents that conform to multiple sources of rules, and 3) to implement the unique protocol for factual, as opposed to legal, persuasion.

This course will survey agricultural law issues including labor issues, land and water use, and food animal production and welfare. In addition, the course will focus heavily on the regulation of food production, food safety and food labeling. Finally, the course will review the emerging agriculture of medical cannabis and industrial hemp production.

The primary goal of this course is to prepare students to be effective appellate lawyers, in any practice setting as well as in moot court competitions. This upper-level advanced skills course focuses on appellate theory, standard of review, advanced appellate brief writing, and the art of appellate oral argument. The course is designed to build upon the legal research and writing skills learned in the 1L curriculum; to hone and refine writing, research, and oral advocacy skills; and to develop the judgment necessary to be exceptional appellate advocates. Students will work with a partner to prepare a simulated appeal, and will be responsible for analyzing a record on appeal, developing core themes, telling a persuasive story, crafting persuasive arguments, and presenting those stories and arguments in both an appellate brief and in an oral argument. Student work will culminate in a final appellate brief and a series of oral arguments.

This course examines legal aspects of the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, including selected FDA-related laws and regulations; issues related to COVID-19; IP issues affecting the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors (including patent strategy and litigation); genetic testing; medical and data privacy; direct-to-consumer marketing of genetic tests; telemedicine; commercialization of pharmaceutical and biotech products; genetic property; and ownership of human tissues and cell lines. This course will also cover ethical considerations related to several of the highlighted topics. No exams; the major project is a term paper.

This course will provide students with an engaging overview of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts to introduce them to the essential information every student should know about the legal implications of this emerging, disruptive global technology. The legal landscape includes government, payment systems, intellectual property, regulation, and civil and criminal liability.

Blockchain technology is poised to disrupt virtually every industry on a global scale in ways neither rivaled nor contemplated since the advent of the Internet. This course will involve individual and group work and challenge students to consider how this technology will impact their lives, their communities, and the world and prepare them to stay on the leading edge of innovation. Additionally, expert guest lecturers from the ecosystem (tech, law, business) will visit the class in person or via Zoom to present current issues, hot topics, and future trends.

This course will provide instruction to students in the legal representation of children in various civil matters, including dependency, adoption, and custody actions. Students will be managing a caseload of clients. Students will meet directly with their clients, and correspond with agencies and opposing counsel. Students will appear at all court appearances with a supervising attorney. The supervising attorney will meet with students individually on a regular basis for case reviews. The classroom component of the course will focus on various substantive and skills issues, including lectures on child interviewing skills and lectures from physicians on the medical aspects of child abuse. Students may also choose to focus their work on legislative and policy issues related to children's advocacy by drafting legislation and policies on local, state, and national levels.

This is a civil litigation clinic that focuses in the areas of family, disability, housing, and public benefits. Students will participate in civil hearings and traditional courtroom litigation, along with various opportunities for mediation and negotiation. Students will be exposed to issues including divorce, support, custody, adoption, protection from abuse, guardianships, social security and supplemental security income claims, special education, American with Disabilities claims, civil rights actions, health care directives, landlord/tenant, and public benefits. Cases will be selected based on educational value to students and expertise of the clinical faculty. Students who select a family law emphasis in their clinic work will enroll in the Family Law course as a pre- or co-requisite. Students who select a disability law emphasis in their clinic work will enroll in the Administrative Law course or Law of Individuals with Disabilities as a pre- or co-requisite. Preference may be given to students who have already taken either course.

Faculty approval is required.

Corporate Finance is a survey course that focuses on how corporations use legal instruments to raise capital. The course uses an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on both the economics of valuation (risk/return, asset valuation) and the legal structure of capital instruments (stocks, bonds). Students will walk away with an understanding of how businesses raise capital, the strategic differences between capital sources and the role of lawyers in guiding these critical business decisions

After completing the Introduction to CASA Training and Dependency Law course, students will begin serving as CASA volunteers. This course will support this service by focusing on the advocacy skills needed to represent a court appointed child’s best interest in the legal system. The course will complement the CASA volunteer work by helping students develop a fuller picture of each child’s life and using that information to advocate with judges to make the most well-informed decision for each child.

This course is designed to give students an accessible and foundational understanding of the legal and policy issues associated with cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is a concept that describes the tools and strategies used by entities to identify and respond to attempts by various actors to gain unauthorized access to, to cause disruption to, or to damage information systems. The course will start by providing a foundational understanding of the technical architecture and vocabulary in the field of cybersecurity and an analytical framework for assessing cyber-related events. The core of the course will introduce students to the domestic (federal and state) and international legal frameworks that govern cyberspace, and the institutions (both public and private) charged with operating in the cyber domain. We will do so by exploring a variety of case studies, including cyber events that have affected government agencies, individuals, and private companies.

Education in the United States is increasingly a regulated industry. Understanding the system by which we educate the nation’s children requires understanding a significant and complex hierarchy of laws and policy at the federal, state, and local level. This course will examine the interplay of law with fundamental areas of education policy and practice, including the basic premises of compulsory education; issues concerning exclusions of students; school control of student behavior and curriculum; teacher employment problems; and issues of funding, minority rights, disabilities, gender equity and access, and free expression. While the course will primarily focus on kindergarten to 12th grade education, some laws applicable to higher education will be explored.

When individuals are unable or fail to plan in advance for the possibility of incapacity, it may be necessary for loved ones (or public officials) to seek appointment of a formal legal guardian of the person and/or the estate. On the one hand, a third-party may be appropriate to protect the individual from physical or financial harm; on the other hand, the process is often intimidating and can severely limit the individual’s autonomy and enjoyment of life. We will examine the legal standards for formal court appointments, the rules government oversight and accountability, and potential alternatives, including the concept of “supported decision” now recognized by statutes enacted in some states, including Texas and Delaware. This module will provide students with a practical opportunity to consider specific steps associated with filing or terminating a guardianship in the practice-state of their choosing.

Medicaid, a state-federally funded welfare program, continues to play an important role in the financing for facility-based “long-term” care, especially for skilled care settings (the dreaded “nursing home”). In some states, “waiver” programs have also significantly expanded the potential for funding for individuals who wish to avoid nursing homes and want to living in their own homes or in less restrictive, community settings. Access to these programs can be fact-specific, complicated, and document intensive, but, when available, offer the possibility of maximizing existing family resources for care, and reducing the potential for inadvertent impoverishment of the healthier spouse. We will examine specific, classic fact patterns where families may wish to consider “Medicaid Planning” options to maximize financial options.

This course covers federal and state election law and will examine the constitutional basis for the regulation of elections, the development of the law in this area over the last 30 years, as well as criminal and civil enforcement of the law, the role of the Federal Election Commission, the formation and regulation of political action committees, as well as related federal tax law provisions impacting operation of political committees and advocacy organizations. The course will also examine the intersection of the election law with congressional ethics rules, lobbying regulations and representation of political candidates and entities in election law matters.

The seminar will cover the case law, procedural rules, evidence rules, and rules of professional conduct implicated by the unique attributes of information created and/or stored electronically, as well as the filing and courtroom presentation of documents in electronic format. There are three components to the course. The first part concerns the discovery of ESI, and covers the nature, sources, and terminology of ESI; the different formats of ESI and the implications for preservation and production of ESI attributable to the different formats; the evolution of the rules and case law regarding discovery of ESI; and the obligations of counsel with respect to the preservation of ESI. The second part of the course consists of filing in the federal courts’ electronic case filing system and the presentation of evidence using evidence presentation software. The final part covers Fourth Amendment and statutory issues involving electronic evidence.

This course provides an in depth look at the Federal statutes prohibiting employment discrimination, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended), the Equal Pay Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans With Disabilities Act, Executive Order 11246 (affirmative action), and the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1871 (now 42 U.S.C. Secs. 1981 & 1983). We will review issues which arise under each category of prohibited discrimination: race, sex, sexual harassment, national origin, religion, age and disability. The course seeks to develop students’ skills through a rigorous examination of statutory text, regulations and court decisions on the multitude of issues which arise under these laws, including burden of proof and the role of statistics. We will also review the role of the Federal agencies which administer these statutes, the EEOC and the U.S. Dept. of Labor. The course will also introduce students to the interplay between Congress and the Courts as Congress has acted multiple times to amend these statutes in response to Court decisions which Congress found unsatisfactory.

This course is the introductory course in the regulation of energy in the United States. It also considers some of the international impact of U.S. energy policy. The course examines each significant form of energy (oil, natural gas, nuclear power, electricity, coal and renewables) in terms of the manner in which each form is regulated by various government institutions. To understand the various forms of regulation, we will also consider a substantial amount of economic, political and socio/psychological information.

The course will provide a practical and comprehensive overview of the leading-edge business and legal issues arising in the entertainment industry, including motion pictures, television, music, book publishing, digital rights, cultural (mis)appropriation + bias and ethics. The topics vary from semester to semester and may include acquisition of rights, talent agreements, project financing and structures, distributor and licensing agreements, and new media. The course will actively leverage current and “hot” topics and emerging technologies as we survey the various areas of the law that impact the entertainment industry, such as contract, business organizations, securities, labor, copyright, trademark and right of privacy/publicity law.

Students survey the legal issues confronted by entrepreneurs and develop the practical skills to effectively and ethically represent them during the start-up phase. Students study how to interview, counsel, plan, draft, and negotiate, by applying relevant readings and putting them to use in the context of client interactions and classroom simulations. Students also will draft relevant blog posts, client correspondence and organizational documents typical of those that surface in small business and entrepreneur representation. A team collaborative exercise that requires students to prepare client advice on a proposed start-up will provide students with a way to apply information they’ve learned in other classes and result in a class presentation.

Students survey the legal issues confronted by entrepreneurs during the lifespan of their businesses and develop the practical skills to effectively and ethically represent them. Students study how to interview, counsel, plan, draft, and negotiate, by critiquing relevant readings and putting this to use in the context of client interactions and classroom simulations. Students also will draft relevant blog posts, client correspondence and memoranda typical of those that surface in small business and entrepreneur representation.

This course introduces some of the most important concepts, issues, and statutes in environmental law. After discussing the economic and ethical bases for environmental law and briefly reviewing the relevant principles of constitutional and common law, students examine a representative selection of federal statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, "Superfund," and the Clean Air Act.

Externship placements offer students the opportunity to integrate classroom knowledge and practical work experience in a wide range of different placement opportunities. Students work at the placement site under the supervision of a judge or an attorney. Externship placements are in federal and state judicial chambers, public service and nonprofit offices, state administrative agencies, non- profit, and corporate entities. Students’ work with experienced supervisors in these offices to develop stronger research and writing skills, judicial memorandum and opinion drafting, client counseling and interviewing skills, statutory and regulatory analysis interpretation and application, criminal practice, public interest and corporate compliance work. Through their work and classroom assignments and discussions, students are expected to develop a heightened awareness of the methods and functions of judicial, legislative, regulatory, public service and public interest, and corporate entities. Students in litigation placements will have the opportunity to obtain student intern certification and appear in court under the supervision of an attorney.

In terms of doctrine, this course examines the protection of freedom of speech and freedom of association, the guarantee of the free exercise of religion, and the prohibition of establishment of religion secured by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. In terms of lawyering skills, the course will cultivate the ability 1) to synthesize any area of law into a flowchart of issues; legal tests/elements for each issue, and factors the courts will and will not consider in applying the legal test/elements, and 2) to make strategic choices of claims and defenses to assert based upon that synthesis.

This course provides a substantive review of selected material routinely tested on the bar exam. Students will work through problems and exercises in a bar exam format designed to familiarize students with the exam and techniques for answering multiple choice and essay questions. Individualized feedback is provided to assist students with identifying areas of strength and weakness. The goal is to enhance student ability to prepare for the bar exam and is intended to supplement, not replace, commercial bar preparation courses. This course in not focused on any particular state, so all students will benefit regardless of where they will sit for the bar exam.

This course will focus on how the law treats issues concerning gender and sexuality.  The doctrinal themes that will be explored include constitutional notions of privacy/liberty, equality and expression as applied to categories based on gender, sexuality and/or sexual orientation.  For example, topics might include the right to sexual privacy (including access to birth control and abortion); discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation (including sodomy laws and same sex marriage); evolving theories of sexuality (including the rights of transgender persons and intersexuals; transsexuals, and the gay gene); identity speech and the First Amendment (including the gay prom case and sexual harassment cases); military exclusions; and the privatization of family law and family formation.  The course will examine the relationship between gender and sexuality, based on a multi-disciplinary approach informed by history, medicine, science and broader social and political theories.

The course will explore the history, constitutional, legal foundation and separation of powers issues involved in the government independent counsel from Teapot Dome to Watergate, Iran-Contra, Whitewater and the Russian hacking investigations. It will explore in depth, the unique problems and legal issues encountered in these cases, including conflict with parallel congressional inquiries, assertion and application of Fifth Amendment, executive and DOJ authority over the independent counsel as well as Supreme Court and lower court jurisdiction limning the office. I will also examine collateral constitutional issues under the pardon power and the relation to Congress’ impeachment processes.

This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the issues and case law related to wrongful convictions. The goal of the course is that students will gain an understanding of this dynamic and quickly growing area of law. The course will track a case from the Pennsylvania Innocence Project involving a man convicted of a crime he did not commit as a means of understanding how innocent people are convicted and why it is so difficult to exonerate them.

In collaboration with the Cumberland County CASA Program, this course will address topics such as Children and Youth Services and the legal system, cultural diversity, child development, confidentiality and ethics, the role of the CASA volunteer, and community and social service resources. This course will prepare students to serve as a CASA volunteer.

Treaties are the foundation of public and private international law and national foreign affairs law. This course examines: historical development of law of treaties; concept of treaty; treaty as source of international and national law; stages of concluding treaty; reservations; accession to treaties, functions of depositary; publication of treaties; breach of treaty obligations; invalidity, termination, and suspension of treaties; denunciation and other withdrawal from treaties; treaties and jus cogens; treaties and customary rules of international law; treaties and third States; treaties and municipal law; interpretation of treaties; languages and authentic texts of treaties.

While U.S. law schools generally do an excellent job of teaching students to “think like a lawyer,” there is a growing consensus that legal education has not provided students with the knowledge and skills they will need to help clients address multi-faceted issues in an interdisciplinary world. The goal of this course is to fill this gap by introducing students to topics that typically are not taught in the required law school curriculum but that are important for lawyers to know. The “extra-legal competencies” that will be covered in this course include reading financial statements, project management, negotiation theories, and cultural competency. The goal of the course is to help make lawyers better problem-solvers for their clients.

This course is based on simulated case modules. Students use transactional law to practice skills that lawyers use to begin and maintain relationships with clients. Working with law school faculty and practicing lawyers, students interview clients to determine the facts of the case and to understand the client’s goals. In addition, students work collaboratively to discover the relevant law, to assess the client’s options, to communicate the legal strategy to the client and to participate in negotiations. Students practice skills learned in the course by conducting a “Community Intake Interview” at an approved public interest location.

1L Fall Semester
In this course, students learn, practice and hone essential lawyering skills: analyzing a client’s case by researching the relevant law, including cases, statutes, constitutional provisions, and administrative regulations; and explaining and applying the law to the client’s situation using two of the most common written forms (objective or predictive writing in an office memorandum and a client letter). Because research, analysis, writing and oral communication skills improve only with practice, students will work through a variety of exercises and client problems, receiving individualized feedback from their professor during the course. Throughout the semester, we will remain mindful of the relationship between the concepts of law, order and justice — and will continually examine the role of the lawyer in that relationship.

1L Spring Semester
Lawyers must be able to advocate effectively both orally and in writing. In this course, students learn the essential skills of advocacy by using research and writing tools to craft arguments that are powerful, fair, well-reasoned, clearly-stated, and respectful of their adversaries and the court. Students communicate their arguments in both written briefs and in oral arguments to the court, at the trial level. Students practice the skills of effective advocacy by exploring a variety of client problems, and they receive individualized instruction throughout the process. As the course progresses, students explore the principles of fairness, order and justice in the context of the lawyer’s duties and responsibilities as an advocate.

1L Fall Semester
Legal research is an essential lawyering skill. In this course, students learn the processes to locate primary authority and secondary sources with the goal of evaluating, analyzing, and applying legal authority to resolve legal issues. Students perform various research exercises utilizing different legal research platforms, and receive individualized feedback on their exercises.

1L Spring Semester
After learning the strategies of basic legal research, a lawyer must become an efficient researcher. In this course, students build on the skills learned in Legal Research I and develop additional skills including research planning, docket searching, researching local government, and cost-effective legal research. Students perform various research exercises utilizing different legal research platforms, and receive individualized feedback on their exercises.

This innovative course will offer hands-on experience, working with real physicians — pediatric and community medicine residents at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center – to hone your advocacy skills while also learning about the increasingly complex field of medical professional liability. This course will be centered on mock trials based on real cases previously filed against medical professionals. You will have clients and expert witnesses, who are real physicians in their final year of residency training.

Students in the MLP Clinic will work to reduce health disparities and improve health in vulnerable communities through joint medical-legal advocacy with the Penn State Hershey Medical Group in Harrisburg. The Clinic will address the health-harming legal needs of the community, which may include public benefits, advance care planning, housing, and/or immigration matters; as well as policy and institutional projects that arise from its collaboration with medical partners. Visit the Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic site for more information.