Penn Law’s Top Ten News Stories from 2020
It would be easy to let the pandemic dominate every moment of 2020, but that hasn’t stopped the Law School community from finding ways to help the public navigate federal stimulus bills, herald change in legal education and the wider professional landscape, or celebrate the generosity of the Toll Foundation. For more bright spots from the past year at Penn Law, read our top ten stories from 2020!
-
Penn Law student co-creates CARES Act calculator to determine coronavirus stimulus bill eligibility
Peter Neal L’22 and the U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden C’16, have waded through the 335-page CARES Act and devised an online quiz that calculates eligibility for federal relief under the coronavirus stimulus bill’s provisions.
-
The Law School’s joint JD/PhD programs set graduates on the path to careers in academia
Learn how the Law School’s cross-disciplinary offerings have played a vital role in sending our graduates on to successful careers in academia.
-
Penn Law announces new ‘Future of the Profession Initiative’ focused on legal education innovation, profession-wide thought leadership
FPI seeks to act as a catalyst for the ongoing fundamental evolution in the legal profession, as well as in legal education, by facilitating essential interdisciplinary conversations, resources and action items that transform the way legal services connect clients with more responsive systems.
-
Law School adds new faculty for 2020-21
For this academic year, the Law School has added three standing professors and welcomes six additional distinguished teachers, lawyers, and leaders who will enhance our academic program and educate and mentor our students.
-
Louis J. Capozzi III L’19 selected for Supreme Court clerkship
Recent Penn Law graduate Louis J. Capozzi III L’19 has been selected as a clerk for Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch of the Supreme Court of the United States during the 2021 October Term.
-
Law School hosts Beyond Reform: Reenvisioning the Role of Police
In June, the Law School held the first event in its summer series, A Path for Change: Policing in America, hosted by the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, in partnership with the Office of Inclusion & Engagement and the Toll Public Interest Center’s Social Justice Programs. The series is part of a yearlong colloquium, Achieving Racial Justice, responding to the national racial justice movement. The panel discussion was moderated by George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights, Dorothy Roberts. Panelists included Amna Akbar, Associate Professor of Law at The Ohio State University; Monica C. Bell, Associate Professor of Law and Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University; and Jocelyn Simonson, Associate Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Approximately 400 people attended the event, which took place on Zoom.
-
Law School hosts Structural Frustrations: Challenges to Implementing Change
In its second virtual event in the summer series, A Path for Change: Policing in America, the Quattrone Center, E&I, and the TPIC hosted Structural Frustrations: Challenges to Implementing Change. Moderated by Executive Director of the Quattrone Center John Hollway, the discussion addressed the ongoing outcry for racial justice and police reform in the U.S. The Law School’s yearlong colloquium was previously announced by Dean Theodore Ruger as one of many initiatives Penn Law will be implementing in the coming months “to work internally and externally against anti-Black violence and racism and to promote meaningful change toward a more just reality.”
The two events, Beyond Reform: Reenvisioning the Role of Police and Structural Frustrations: Challenges to Implementing Change, were part of a yearlong colloquium dedicated to help bring about the end of systemic racism and anti-Black violence. They were hosted in partnership by the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice, the Office of Equity & Inclusion and the Toll Public Interest Center’s Social Justice Programs
-
Meet four Penn Law professors who hold joint appointments at Wharton
The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s commitment to cross-disciplinary study shines brightly in the impressive number of faculty members who hold joint appointments at Penn. Meet four faculty members who hold dual appointments at Wharton.
-
Clark Edmond L’19 launches Crate, an innovative, socially conscious online art gallery
After graduating from Penn Law, Edmond founded Crate, an innovative online gallery platform aimed at empowering younger patrons of the arts to become collectors. Crate promises “socially conscious advisory practices” aimed at equitably supporting the diverse perspectives of emerging artists, particularly those hailing from demographics that have traditionally been underrepresented in the arts.
-
$50 Million Gift for Public Interest Lawyering
The Robert and Jane Toll Foundation, founded by Robert Toll L’66 and Jane Toll GSE’66, has made a $50 million gift to the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School to dramatically expand the Toll Public Interest Scholars and Fellows Program, doubling the number of public interest graduates in the coming decade through a combination of full and partial tuition scholarships.
The Toll Foundation’s $50 million gift is the largest gift in history devoted entirely to the training and support of public interest lawyers, and among the ten largest gifts ever to a law school in the United States.