Directory
Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law
Villanova University
Law School Pro Bono Programs
Contact Information
Sharon Buckingham
Associate Director of Career Strategy
[email protected]
(610) 519-3865
Michael Campbell
Professor of Law
[email protected]
(610) 519-7652
Mary Ann Robinson
Professor of Law
[email protected]
(610) 519-6281
Category Type
Independent Student Pro Bono Group Projects with no school-wide program. Also, recipients of Villanova's public interest scholarships are required to perform pro bono as law students in addition to expectations post-graduation.
Description of Programs
Information about pro bono opportunities, including training sessions, panel discussions and other presentations, is publicized through the various student organizations and on the Law School’s website. There are a number of Facilitated Pro Bono Opportunities, which have the following features:
- Villanova shares these opportunities with students;
- A student liaison from the Pro Bono Society is assigned to that opportunity;
- A faculty liaison is assigned to that opportunity;
- Information regarding the opportunity (including brief description, contact person at the organization, name/email of student and faculty liaison) is provided on our website;
- Villanova students will have the opportunity to express interest in working with the opportunity by completing a webform listed in each Program Description.
Also, public interest scholars are required to participate in at least one clinical course and either a second clinical course or an externship.
For more information, see https://www1.villanova.edu/university/law/experience/public-interest/pro-bono.html
Location of Programs
The program is overseen by the faculty Public Interest Committee.
Staffing/Management/Oversight
The faculty Public Interest Committee consults and works with the members of the student organizations, particularly the Pro Bono Society. The student run Pro Bono Society has as its purpose "to provide students the opportunity to volunteer their time and unique skills as law students for members of our community."
The Public Interest Committee also administers the Public Interest Scholars’ Program. For more information, see https://www1.villanova.edu/university/law/admissions/financial-aid/scholarships/public-interest-scholars.html
Other faculty advise the Public Interest Fellowship Program. https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/law/currentstudents/stuaffairs/stuorg/PIFP.html In addition, the Associate Director of Career Strategy serves as a career services professional specializing in public interest/ government career counseling.
Funding
The Law School provides student pro bono groups with office space, computer access, the use of the Law School website and bulletin boards, and the cost of photocopying and other miscellaneous expenses. The Law School provides the same financial and administrative assistance for faculty pro bono projects as for other faculty service projects.
Student Run Pro Bono Groups/Specialized Law Education Projects
Black Law Students Association – BLSA sponsors several pro bono and law-related projects, including legal workshops at local schools.
Criminal Law Society – The Criminal Law Society coordinates several law education projects.
Christian Legal Society – Members of the Christian Legal Society regularly volunteer at the Christian Legal Services Clinic at various locations in Philadelphia.
Face to Face – The Face to Face birth certificate clinic provides legal and monetary support to enable clients to obtain birth certificates. The birth certificate clinic is integral to meeting the needs of Philadelphia's Germantown community because birth certificates are required to obtain identification. Legal identification cards enable clients access to housing and work opportunities. The clinic offers an opportunity for VLS students to deeply connect with the Philadelphia community by directly interacting with the clients and providing tangible service.
Family Law Society – The Family Law Society coordinates a number of law education projects, including debates on topical issues.
Tax Law Society – Tax Projects Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) assists low-income taxpayers in the Philadelphia area to prepare their returns.
The Pro Bono Society (PBS) – The Pro Bono Society (PBS), [email protected], sponsors several pro bono and law-related projects including spring break service trips.
SREHUP Anti-Poverty Society (SAPS) - Members of SAPS host campus speaker series, trainings, and film screenings related to poverty and homelessness. Members also volunteer at the SREHUP Upper Darby Legal Aid Center and Shelter.
Women's Law Caucus – WLC coordinates several law education events.
Faculty and Administrative Pro Bono
Every law student group has a faculty adviser. Faculty members advise the students participating in the student-sponsored projects.
Awards/Recognition
The Villanova Law Alumni Association annually gives the Law Alumni Award for Pro Bono Service to the third-year student who has contributed the most meaningful service to those in need. In deciding who should be the recipient of the award, the committee considers both direct and indirect service. The Alumni Association also gives the Donald W. Dowd Alumni Association Award for Public Service, which recognizes outstanding service by alumni to society. The award is presented to an alumnus or alumna who has dedicated time and energy to the public welfare. The Law School also selects third-year students to receive the Eve Biskind Klothen Law Student Public Interest Award, which is presented by the Philadelphia Bar Association annually at its summer Quarterly Meeting.
Students are also recognized through the Dorothy Day Award for Pro Bono Service, which acknowledges students who have volunteered at the inception of their careers to take on the added responsibility of pro bono service by providing direct representation to the poor or disenfranchised. The award is named for Dorothy Day (1895-1980), a Catholic journalist and peace and justice activist who co-founded the Catholic Worker and established Houses of Hospitality to help feed, clothe and comfort the poor. To be eligible for the award, Villanova Law students must complete a minimum of 60 hours of pro bono service during their three years of law school.
Each year the Dean and the Villanova Law Alumni Association Leadership host a brunch, designed to welcome members of the graduating class into the Association and to celebrate the tradition of service by Villanova Law students and graduates. The program includes presentations of the Law Alumni Award for Pro Bono Service and Dorothy Day Service Awards to third year students.
Community Service
There has been a student-led Day of Service incorporated into the fall orientation for new students and other community service projects and activities throughout the year, most sponsored by the Pro Bono Society (PBS) and others by Villanova University. These include Villanova’s annual St. Thomas of Villanova Day of Service; the Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service; the annual PBS spring break service trip; and Street Law outreach to local schools. Many of Villanova Law’s student groups, (coordinated through the Student Bar Association), and faculty/staff (coordinated through University Staff Council or Campus Ministry) organize and participate in ongoing initiatives to assist the local community, non-profit agencies and families-in-need, including school supply collections, clothing drives, the annual Thanksgiving dinner drive, and toy/gift collections for “adopted” low-income families at the holidays.
Law School Public Interest Programs
Contact Information
Sharon Buckingham
Associate Director of Career Strategy
[email protected]
(610) 519-3865
Michael Campbell
Professor of Law
[email protected]
(610) 519-7652
Mary Ann Robinson
Professor of Law
[email protected]
(610) 519-6281
Certificate/Curriculum Programs
Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law encourages students to pursue careers in public interest law. To facilitate such careers, the law school created the Public Interest Scholars Program. Each year, several students are offered a full tuition-waiver scholarship based on their past academic achievement, leadership, public interest work and commitment to contribute to public interest endeavors as future public interest practitioners. Villanova Law Public Interest Scholars must participate in at least one clinical course, and then either a second clinical course or a public service externship. They must also complete 200 hours of public service. Scholars receive specialized advising from a faculty member with public service experience, as well as a Mentor from the public interest community, and a dedicated career advisor, to assist with curricular and career choices and to provide mentoring throughout the three years of law school.
In addition, to assist law students in selecting courses, the Villanova faculty have prepared course guides which identify those courses relevant to specific practice fields, including Public Interest Law. As part of the law school's three-year, credit bearing Professional Development curriculum, students have the opportunity to attend programs relating to public interest practice.
Public Interest Centers
The Villanova Law Institute to Address Commercial Sexual Exploitation
The Institute seeks to educate and provide technical assistance to those who respond to commercial sexual exploitation in Pennsylvania and to promote victim-centered, multidisciplinary collaboration.
The Anti-Poverty Law Initiative
The Initiative provides onsite legal and housing aid to Delaware County’s Unhoused Population. Trained lawyers, case managers, doctors, and housing specialists will teach paraprofessionals and law students in these areas. The Initiative will document the ways in which homeless people are denied their rights and the barriers to housing access, and craft anti-poverty policy initiatives.
Public Interest Clinics
Advanced Advocacy Clinic - A limited number of students who have already completed a semester in the clinical program may continue with their studies in an advanced setting. Admission and credit amount are determined prior to registration at the discretion of the faculty, in consultation with the Academic Dean.
Civil Justice Clinic - Students represent low-income clients in various civil matters, including family law, housing, and governmental benefits.
Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES) - Students represent refugees who are seeking asylum in the United States because of threatened persecution in their home countries.
The Clinic for Law and Entrepreneurship – Students provide pro bono legal services to Philadelphia-area community enterprises, non-profit organizations, entrepreneurs and small businesses. Many of CFLE's clients promote social and economic equity and are under resourced.
Farmworker Legal Aid Clinic - Students represent agriculture workers living and working in Pennsylvania in a variety of legal matters, including worker's employment issues and matters associated with immigration status.
Federal Tax Clinic - Students represent low-income taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service and in the U.S. Tax Court.
Interdisciplinary Mental and Physical Health Law Clinic – Students represent low-income individuals with problems at the intersection of law and medicine, such as surrogate decision-making, pursuit of disability claims, and appeals of the denial of health benefits under Medicaid.
Externships/Internships
Villanova has an extensive externship program, offering placements with government agencies, public interest organizations and state and federal judges in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. Placement sites include the U.S. Attorney's Office; the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office; the Pennsylvania Office of General Counsel; the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel; the Defender Association of Philadelphia; the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office; Student-Run Emergency Housing Unit of Philadelphia (SREHUP), the Delaware Department of Justice; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Internal Revenue Service; the Clean Air Council; the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project; Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania; the SeniorLAW Center; and Philadelphia Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.
A hallmark of our externship program is the direct involvement of a faculty supervisor, a full-time member of the faculty who meets at least four times a semester with the student, providing substantial expertise and reflective components.
https://www1.villanova.edu/university/law/about/current-students/securing-externship.html
Classes with a Public Service Component
Children and the Law - This course begins with an analysis of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. It then explores the division of power over the child between the state and parents, children's constitutional rights in school, parents' privilege to discipline, child abuse and neglect, the sexual abuse of children, state removal of the child from parental custody, foster care, termination of parental rights, and adoption.
Students apply the doctrine and theory learned in this class in a mandatory service-learning project.
Feminist Legal Theory - This course exposes students to the major paradigms of feminist legal thought and their application to a number of contemporary legal problems. It begins with an analysis of the theoretical constructs of legal feminism: formal, constitutional equality; dominance theory; and difference theory. It then grapples with the critique of these paradigms, including ones based on critical race theory and the intersection of gender, class and sexual orientation. After mastering the theories and critiques, the course will apply both to a variety of issues, including sexuality, reproductive rights, rape, pornography, domestic violence and marriage. Students apply the doctrines and theory learned in this class in a mandatory service-learning project.
Poverty Law - This course engages students in a general study of the history and current reality of poverty in our society, as well as how the legal system has responded to the poor, both through governmental programs and civil justice systems.
Class topics include the history and current demographics of poverty, the antipoverty policy issues that underlie the body of law in the area of social welfare, access to justice and the evolution of legal services to the poor, the development and application of due process and the quest for equal protection and various substantive topic areas.
Students apply the doctrine and theory learned in this class in a mandatory service-learning project.
Public Interest Lawyering - This course is a practical look at how lawyers use their skills to serve the public good. Through course readings, class discussions, court observations, and four writing assignments, the course explores cause lawyering and what it means to be a public interest lawyer. Students define public interest lawyering, review the history of public interest lawyering, discuss the roles of the public interest lawyer, and study the unique professional responsibilities of a public interest lawyer. They then explore the strategies used by public interest lawyers (both within the court system and outside the court system), the challenges associated with funding, and working with clients different from ourselves. Finally, they consider how to become a public interest lawyer while staying true to themselves and their values.
Villanova Sentencing Workshop - The Sentencing Workshop brings together students, judges, criminal law practitioners and others to discuss sentencing policy through the lens of pre-screened, actual cases.
The heart of the workshop is student-judge interaction, and discussion of real cases during three intensive weekend sessions. Specifically, the workshop will include three sessions, each beginning on a Thursday evening and ending mid-day on Saturday. The workshop participants will include approximately twelve students, eight trial judges, a prosecutor and a defense attorney, and other professionals. Each of the workshop sessions will revolve around actual cases submitted by the judges. Before each workshop session, the participants will review voluminous information on each case (often including source materials such as police reports and court transcripts), determine an appropriate sentence, and prepare a very brief sentencing memorandum explaining his or her sentencing decision. This sentencing information will be distributed to the other workshop participants in order to facilitate discussion of the cases. Most of the sessions will be devoted to discussing the cases and learning about the factors that go into the sentencing decision.
Wrongful Convictions: Causes and Remedies - This course examines the causes of wrongful convictions. Some of the topics covered include eyewitness identification, false confessions and incompetent lawyering.
Public Interest Journals
Environmental Law Journal: Members of the Journal write scholarly articles on topics relating to environmental law and edit and prepare for publication articles written by outside authors. The Journal publishes two issues each year and presents a symposium on a current topic. Students are selected for the Journal at the end of their first or second year through an open writing competition.
PI Career Support Center
The Associate Director of Career Strategy coordinates the public interest career-related services in the Office of Career Strategy and Advancement. Among the Associate Director's responsibilities are encouraging and supporting students to choose public interest and public service careers by advising them on all aspects of career planning; creating educational programs to promote public service and government careers; and cultivating and maintaining relevant employer relationships. The Associate Director is actively engaged in NALP's Public Service Section and in the Philadelphia Bar Association Public Interest Section's Law School Outreach Committee.
Throughout the year, the Career Strategy office provides and participates in a variety of educational and recruitment programs to promote public interest careers and increase employment opportunities. This includes planning, and preparing students to attend, local programs such as the Public Interest Public Service (PIPS) Job Fair and the Government Careers program hosted by the Greater Philadelphia Area Law School consortium. It also includes national programs such as the Equal Justice Works Annual Conference and Career Fair. The office presents panel discussions on Public Interest and Government careers as part of its credit bearing Professional Development curriculum, along with programming throughout the year regarding post-graduate fellowships, government honors programs, and other career opportunities.
Career Strategy also prepares and maintains materials for students regarding public interest career opportunities and funding resources, and educates about public interest resources, including PSJD.org, to which Villanova subscribes.
Loan Repayment Assistance Programs (LRAP)
The Detta and Joseph Tate Loan Repayment Assistance Program was started in 2006 by the Public Interest Fellowship Program and is now generously supported by Detta and Joseph Tate. Under the program, alums practicing public interest law compete for grants of $4,000 per year for up to three years.
Post-Graduate Fellowships/Awards
Law School Funded:
Villanova offers a full-time fellowship to provide a platform for an individual to assist in the teaching of our CARES Clinic. The position provides an opportunity for the fellow to receive training in teaching and support for scholarly activities.
Graduate Student Funded:
N/A
Other Funding Sources:
The Career Strategy Office connects students and alumni with a multitude of fellowship opportunities through its own hiring platform, as well as through PSJD.org. Fellowships are often publicized in the weekly career newsletter. The Associate Director of Career Strategy also conducts educational programs to assist students with the fellowship application process. Villanova graduates have competed successfully for several fellowships, including Equal Justice Works, Independence Foundation, ABA Tax and Stoneleigh Emerging Leader fellowships.
Term Time Fellowships/Scholarships
Law School Funded:
Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law encourages students to pursue careers in public interest law. To facilitate such careers, the Law School has created the Public Interest Scholars Program. Each year, several students are offered a full tuition-waiver scholarship based on their past academic achievement, leadership, public interest work and commitment to contribute to public interest endeavors as future practitioners.
Graduate Student Funded
N/A
Other Funding Sources:
N/A
Summer Fellowships
Law School Funded:
N/A
Graduate Student Funded:
N/A
Other Funding Sources:
A law student organization, the Public Interest Fellowship Program, organizes an auction every year that raises approximately $40,000 for summer fellowships, $5,000 each for law students employed at public interest organizations. Fellowship recipients over the years have worked at organizations including the Pennsylvania Innocence Project, Philadelphia Lawyers for Social Justice, South Carolina Appleseed Justice, Philadelphia Women's Law Project, the Philadelphia AIDS Law Project, the Philadelphia Women Against Abuse Legal Center, the Defender Association of Philadelphia, the Montgomery County Public Defender, the Los Angeles Public Defender, the United States Attorney Office, the New Jersey Attorney General Office, and the Pennsylvania Health Law Project.
Extracurricular and Co-Curricular Programs
Public Interest Scholars Program Reception - The Public Interest Scholars Program reception welcomes the new class of Scholars to Villanova and introduces them to the faculty.
Public Interest Fellowship Program Annual Auction - Founded in 1998, the Public Interest Fellowship Program (PIFP) at the Villanova University School of Law provides financial support to students who commit their summers to public service work. By raising money, PIFP helps students at Villanova who in turn aid the larger community through their work.
Martin Luther King Jr Keynote Speaker - Each year, the MLK Committee of faculty, staff and students coordinates a week of events to honor Dr. King's legacy. The culmination of the week is a keynote address on a public interest topic by an attorney committed to Dr. King's ideal of service to the community.
BLSA Lecture Series - The Black Law Students Association coordinates a number of public service activities, including lectures focusing on public interest topics.
Public Interest Brown Bag Lunch Series - In conjunction with the Philadelphia Area Law School Consortium, Villanova collaborates on a weekly brown bag lunch series featuring Philadelphia public interest agencies. The series takes place throughout the summer, and Villanova students have the opportunity to participate as student ambassadors and co-moderators.
Student Public Interest Groups
Black Law Students Association – BLSA sponsors several pro bono and law-related projects, including legal workshops at local schools.
Criminal Law Society – The Criminal Law Society coordinates several law education projects.
Christian Legal Society – Members of the Christian Legal Society regularly volunteer at the Christian Legal Services Clinic at various locations in Philadelphia.
Face to Face – The Face to Face birth certificate clinic provides legal and monetary support to enable clients to obtain birth certificates. The birth certificate clinic is integral to meeting the needs of Philadelphia's Germantown community because birth certificates are required to obtain identification. Legal identification cards enable clients access to housing and work opportunities. The clinic offers an opportunity for VLS students to deeply connect with the Philadelphia community by directly interacting with the clients and providing tangible service.
Family Law Society– The Family Law Society coordinates a number of law education projects, including debates on topical issues.
Tax Law Society – Tax Projects Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) assists low-income taxpayers in the Philadelphia area to prepare their returns.
The Pro Bono Society (PBS) – The Pro Bono Society (PBS), [email protected], sponsors several pro bono and law-related projects including spring break service trips.
SREHUP Anti-Poverty Society (SAPS) - Members of SAPS host campus speaker series, trainings, and film screenings related to poverty and homelessness. Members also volunteer at the SREHUP Upper Darby Legal Aid Center and Shelter.
Women's Law Caucus – WLC coordinates several law education events.
2/1/2022