Located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Penn State Dickinson Law is the oldest law school in the state and one of the oldest law schools in the country and is a springboard to nearby major legal markets and networking opportunities on the East Coast. For more than 186 years, Dickinson Law graduates have included the nation’s most distinguished attorneys, judges, government and corporate leaders, and legal educators.
Dickinson Law is committed to producing profession-ready lawyers equipped with the doctrinal knowledge, practical skills, and extralegal competencies necessary to excel in an increasingly global legal market. The hallmarks of a Dickinson Law education are an innovative curriculum that, from the very first day of law school, relies heavily on experiential learning to prepare our students to practice law, and a welcoming and supportive community. By the end of the first semester, every first-year Dickinson Law student will have worked with practicing lawyers to hone their client interview, counseling, and negotiation skills, and will have had the opportunity to work with under-served community members through the Law School’s Center for Public Interest Law and Advocacy.
The first-year curriculum includes traditional courses that introduce students to the core doctrinal, theoretical and policy foundations of domestic, transnational and international law. The upper-level elective curriculum is organized around the substantive ways lawyers use their training. Dickinson Law students may pursue a certificate in Corporate Compliance; Cyber Law, Data Privacy and Information; Entrepreneurship Law; Government Affairs; Health Law and Policy; or Litigation and Dispute Resolution. They may also obtain a joint degree from a coordinate department of Penn State, including a J.D./M.B.A., J.D./M.P.A., J.D./M.P.H., or J.D./Dr.P.H.; or supplement their legal education with cross-disciplinary learning by taking up to six credits from many of Penn State’s graduate programs.
The capstone of our mission to ready our students for the practice of law is our experiential learning requirement. Every Dickinson Law student must earn credits by practicing law in one of the following real-world settings: an in-house legal clinic, an internship for a federal or state judge, prosecutor or public defender, government agency, start-up, nonprofit organization, or approved private sector placement, or a Semester-in-Practice—an immersive program that allows you to work full-time in major markets across the country or at an international tribunal.
To ensure that we can provide hands-on training to our students, Dickinson Law aims to cap the entering first-year class at 75 students. This intentionally small class size ensures that students receive focused attention from faculty, guarantees ample opportunities to learn in practice settings, and fulfills Dickinson Law’s promise to best position its students to secure employment in a competitive marketplace.