Civil Law

Pennsylvania Civil Law Practice

Join this practice area if you are a volunteer attorney, legal services advocate, law student or faculty member advising low income and disadvantaged clients. There are resources here to help you covering the broad spectrum of civil legal issues, including family law, facing low income residents of Pennsylvania. If you are already a member you can sign in by clicking the "Login" link to the left.

Welcome to the Pennsylvania Civil Law Practice Area

The Civil Law Practice area contains many resources designed to help advocates in their representation of needy clients.

To access or contribute resources, you must be an approved member of the community. To join the Civil Law Practice Area select Join this Area in the bar to the left.

You are eligible for membership in this area if you are a public interest attorney; a law school student or faculty member; or a private attorney actively engaged in pro bono work or willing to become actively involved in pro bono by accept a pro bono case within the next six months.

The Civil Law Practice Area contains:

News - Items and alerts on issues of interest to advocates representing low-income individuals.

Calendar - Listings of CLE Training Events and other events of interest. Events can be viewed by date, location or topic and members can add their own events to the calendar.

Cases - Listing of cases where you can volunteer to help in representing individuals and families in need of legal assistance.

Library - Resource materials to support you in your representation of clients in need of assistance. Resources include pleadings, briefs, legal reference materials, manuals and other training materials.

Discussions - Groups you can join to participate in e-mail discussions about issues relating to the representation of clients needing assistance.

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Research Assistance Available for Pro Bono Work

Miller Center - Penn State Dickinson School of Law

Need help on a pro bono matter? The Miller Center for Public Interest Advocacy, at the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, matches students who have expressed a willingness to do pro bono research with public defenders, legal services attorneys, public interest attorneys and lawyers who are providing pro bono representation.

Originally, the Miller Center limited student research to pending cases. However, the Center recently extended its mandate to offer student research on public interest issues or projects that are not directly tied to a matter currently in litigation.

You may request law student help from the Miller Center by:

Sending an email to millercenter@dsl.psu.edu;
Submitting a request by completing the web form on their web site; or
Sending a fax to 717-240-5126.

Law students cannot provide legal advice directly to clients.

All requests for student research assistance from attorneys, public interest organizations and pro bono programs will be forwarded to the Director of the Miller Center, Professor Gary S. Gildin, and the Law School's Public Interest Fellow Kate Cramer Lawrence.

The Miller Center will attempt to place the request with a law student who has expressed willingness to conduct pro bono research. The Center will endeavor to contact the requesting attorney or organization to confirm the student's acceptance of the research request within three business days of its submission.

If you have any questions, please contact the Director, Professor Gary S. Gildin (gsg2@psu.edu) at (717) 240-5238 or Kate Cramer Lawrence (kmc32@psu.edu) at (717) 240-5210.

Philadelphia Area Law Schools

Law Schools in the Philadelphia area are all participating in a program that provides law student volunteers to attorneys handling pro bono cases.

The Philadelphia Bar Association has profiles of the student volunteer programs on their website and online forms where pro bono attorneys can submit an application for student volunteer assistance.

Law schools participating in the program include Drexel University College of Law; Rutgers-Camden School of Law; Temple University Beasley School of Law; University of Pennsylvania School of Law; Villanova University School of Law; and Widener University School of Law.

Please visit the Philadelphia Bar Association website at the link below for more information and to apply for student volunteer assistance.

Philadelphia Bar Association - Pro Bono Assistance

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