Katherine C. Pearson

Professor of Law and Arthur L. and Sandra S. Piccone Faculty Scholar

For close to thirty years, Katherine C. Pearson’s academic focus in research and writing has been on laws and policies connected to aging. 

Professor Pearson served for more than ten years as director of Penn State’s Elder Protection Clinic (2001 to 2012), where students provided pro bono representation of older adults on cutting edge legal issues. Some of her clinical students have specialized in representation of older adults or care providers for disabled or older persons. For example, one of her former Clinical students was the recent Chair of the Elder Law Section for the Pennsylvania Bar Association. 

Today, Professor Pearson continues to use student-involved topics and practical experiences to inform her writing and research. She is the author of articles and book chapters on domestic long-term care, financing issues, and filial obligations, and is the co-author of The Law of Financial Abuse and Exploitation (Bisel 2011), a book about protection of vulnerable persons from financial exploitation.  She is an author of two chapters for a forthcoming research handbook on Law, Society and Ageing, with Edward Elgar Publishing, set for August 2024 and edited by S. Westwood and N. Knauer.

A Fulbright Scholar, Katherine Pearson was recently named the 2024-25 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy and Ethics with plans for an autumn residency in Ottawa Canada.  In 2009-10, she was a Fulbright Scholar for U.K., with her residency based at Queens University Belfast in Northern Ireland.  Professor Pearson’s cross-border work includes international, comparative analysis of laws and policies affecting older persons, including work as an international research consultant in the U.K. and Northern Ireland to promote better systems for safeguarding and adult social care. Her international work is not limited to aging concerns; thus, Professor Pearson’s international work also has taken her to Cuba with a group of students for an embedded course on Introduction to Cuban Legal Systems in January 2016.

During 2013 and 2014, Professor Pearson served as a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Elder Law Task Force at the invitation of Justice Debra Todd to examine issues of guardianships, abuse and neglect, and access to justice for older Pennsylvanians. The Task Force issued a report with 125 recommendations addressing guardianship and fiduciary duty issues in November 2014.

Professor Pearson frequently introduces concerns about both rights and responsibilities for older persons in her doctrinal courses, including her first-year course on Contract Law, and upper division courses on Conflict of Laws and Nonprofit Organizations Law.  She has developed a modular approach to a basic Elder Law curriculum, allowing students to take up to 6 individual credits organized around themes in financing, capacity, and comparative approaches to planning and care.  Each module incorporates a “practical” component to problem-solving, research and writing.