# Penn State Dickinson Law

Penn State Dickinson Law, formerly Dickinson School of Law, is a public law school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It is one of two separately accredited law schools of Pennsylvania State University.

## History

The Law School offers J.D. and LL.M. degrees in law and hosts visiting scholars. The Law School was opened by Judge John Reed in 1834 as the law department of Dickinson College, named for Founding Father John Dickinson. It received an independent charter in 1890 and ended all affiliation with the college in 1917.
In 2000, Penn State and The Dickinson School of Law completed a merger that began in 1997. From 2006 until 2014, Penn State's Dickinson School of Law operated as a single law school with two campuses – one in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and one in University Park, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 2014, Penn State received approval from the ABA to operate the two campuses as two distinct law schools (now known as Penn State Law and Dickinson Law), both of which share the history and achievement of The Dickinson School of Law.
In November 2022, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi announced a task force to implement the recommendation that the two schools be merged into a single entity, with the primary location to be at the Carlisle campus.

## Lewis Katz Hall

Lewis Katz Hall is named in honor of philanthropist and businessman Lewis Katz for his $15 million gift to the Law School as the principal donor to the construction and renovation project that began in January 2008. Completed in January 2010, the transition marked the end of a two-year, $52 million construction project which included the addition of the elegant, new Lewis Katz Hall which leverages advanced high-definition, digital audiovisual telecommunications systems to connect Dickinson Law to not only Penn State's University Park campus but to locations around the world.
The project included an extensive renovation of historic Trickett Hall, the Law School's home since 1918, which houses the Law School's library, named in honor of H. Laddie Montague, Jr., a prominent Philadelphia lawyer and trial attorney who has committed $4 million to the school. As a design companion to Penn State Law's Lewis Katz Building, Dickinson Law's Lewis Katz Hall was renovated and rebuilt to comply with LEED Silver standards. The facilities feature classrooms, a courtroom/auditorium, an exterior courtyard, and a vegetated green roof.

## Curriculum

Dickinson Law's required 1L curriculum begins with the fundamentals of national and transnational law. During their first year, students must complete courses including Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Property, legal writing, and Torts.
At Dickinson Law, students must earn at least six of 12 required experiential learning credits in a real-world practice setting, such as a certified legal internship within one of the Law School's in-house legal clinics; an internship with a government, nonprofit or private office; or full immersion in the Semester-in-Practice program; or an international venue. The second and third years at Dickinson Law are distinguished by "The Lawyer As...": electives and experiential learning opportunities organized by the way lawyers use their training. Required courses after completion of the first year include Problem Solving III: The Lawyer as Persuader and Practicing Law in a Global World: Context and Competencies II.
Students may earn up to six credits towards the J.D. degree from approved graduate-level courses offered by other Penn State departments. Students also may enroll in one of an array of joint degree programs, graduating with both a J.D. from Dickinson Law and a master's degree from a coordinate department of Penn State. Current joint degree offerings include a J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.P.A., J.D./M.P.H., J.D./DRPH. Dickinson Law also offers certificate programs in which students may hone their expertise in a specific area by taking a prescribed combination of core and elective courses. Current certificate offerings include Corporate Compliance Certificate, Cyber, Privacy, and Data Security Certificate, Government Affairs, Health Law and Policy, and Litigation and Dispute Resolution.

### Dickinson Law Programs

* Semester-in-Washington, D.C. Program (federal government)
* Semester-in-Harrisburg Program (state government)
* International Justice Program at the Hague, Netherlands (international criminal law)
* Center for Public Interest Advocacy
* Children's Advocacy Clinic
* Community Law Clinic
* Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic with Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

## Law journals

Dickinson Law features three scholarly journals, including 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. In addition, the school also publishes the Penn State Journal of Law and International Affairs, and The Yearbook on Arbitration and Mediation.

## Student organizations

Student organizations at Penn State Dickinson Law include the following:
* American Constitution Society
* Animal Legal Defense Fund
* Asian Pacific American Law Students Association
* Black Law Students Association (BLSA)
* Business Law Society
* Christian Law Community of Dickinson Law
* Criminal Law Society (CLS)
* Dickinson Law Intellectual Property Law Society
* Federalist Society (Fed Soc)
* Health Law and Policy Society
* International Law Society
* Latinx Law Students Association (LLSA)
* Middle Eastern Law Students Association (MELSA)
* Military Law Caucus (MLC)
* Moot Court Board
* OutLaw
* Phi Alpha Delta — Burr Chapter (PAD)
* Public Interest Law Fund (PILF)
* Speakers Trust Fund
* Sports and Entertainment Law Society
* Student Bar Association (SBA)
* Women's Law Caucus (WLC)
Dickinson Law students also participate in a number of moot court competitions and are active in intramural sports leagues, including flag football, basketball, and volleyball. Dickinson Law also sponsors a softball team that competes in a national tournament each spring along with nearly 1,500 law students from across the country. Also, students have coached soccer, lacrosse, track, swimming, and field hockey teams at the nearby Dickinson College and other local youth leagues.

## Employment

According to Penn State Dickinson Law's official 2022 ABA-required disclosures, about 91% of the class of 2022 obtained full-time, long-term, J.D.-required employment nine months after graduation.

## Costs

The total cost of attendance (including tuition and related expenses) at Dickinson Law to earn a J.D. or LL.M. degree during the 2020-2021 academic year is $67,656.

## Notable alumni

* Matthew W. Brann, chief judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* Bill Bufalino, attorney to Jimmy Hoffa
* Christopher F. Burne, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General, Judge Advocate General (TJAG)
* William W. Caldwell, former judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* Mitchell Harry Cohen, former judge, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
* Christopher Conner, judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* Pedro Cortés, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
* Andrew Curtin, Civil War-era governor of Pennsylvania (1861–1867)
* J. Steward Davis, Baltimore trial lawyer and first Afro-American valedictorian at Dickinson
* J. Michael Eakin, justice, Pennsylvania Supreme Court
* John Sydney Fine, former Pennsylvania Governor (1951–1955)
* Mike Fitzpatrick, United States Congressman from Pennsylvania
* Robert S. Gawthrop III, former judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
* Jim Gerlach, former U.S. Congressman
* Kim Gibson, senior judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
* Milton W. Glenn (1903–1967), former U.S. Congressman
* Thomas M. Golden, former judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
* Rick Gray, former mayor of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
* T. Millet Hand (1902–1956), represented New Jersey's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 to 1957
* John Berne Hannum, former judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
* Daniel Brodhead Heiner, former U.S. Congressman
* John W. Herron, judge, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (1988-2023)
* Arthur Horace James, 31st Governor of Pennsylvania
* Charles Alvin Jones, former judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
* John E. Jones III, former judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and 30th President of Dickinson College
* Paul E. Kanjorski, former United States Congressman from Pennsylvania
* Lewis Katz, former owner, New Jersey Nets
* Jack Keeney, U.S. Department of Justice attorney
* John W. Kephart, former chief justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
* Edwin Michael Kosik, judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* George Kunkel, former Pennsylvania State Senator
* Tom Marino, U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania and former judge, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* Julia K. Munley, judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* Clarence Charles Newcomer, former judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]
* John Pettit, former district attorney, Washington County, Pennsylvania.
* Sylvia H. Rambo, first woman to serve as chief judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* Tom Ridge, former Pennsylvania governor, former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, first United States Secretary of Homeland Security
* Carl Risch, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs
* Andrew Sacks, Pennsylvania trial lawyer, one of the few U.S. attorneys who has handled two cases in excess of $1 billion
* Rick Santorum, former U.S. Senator
* Joseph F. Saporito Jr., judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* Lansdale Sasscer, former U.S. Congressman
* Ronald A. Sell, Wisconsin State Assemblyman
* Michael Henry Sheridan, judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
* D. Brooks Smith, senior judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
* Edward G. Smith, former judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
* Donald Snyder (LLM, Commerce and Taxation), Pennsylvania State Representative and Majority Whip, Pennsylvania State House of Representatives
* Gerald J. Spitz, former state representative, Pennsylvania House of Representatives
* Correale Stevens, justice, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
* Richard Barclay Surrick, senior judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
* Emanuel Mac Troutman, former judge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
* Thomas I. Vanaskie, former chief judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and former judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals