July 2024 — Penn State Dickinson Law Professor Emeritus Bob Ackerman has a theory about students who participated in Dickinson Law’s in-house legal clinics.

“I think if you ask most of the graduates of Dickinson Law who were in the clinics what their best experience at the Law School was, without fail they would say it was the clinic,” said Ackerman. “I think they value that experiential element.”

Currently, Dickinson Law offers three legal clinics through which second- and third-year students work under faculty supervision to provide pro bono legal assistance to underserved clients. Dickinson Law’s clinics include the Children’s Advocacy Clinic, the Community Law Clinic, and the Medical-Legal Partnership Clinic. Ackerman said students gain something through the hands-on experience that they cannot get in the classroom.

“In the regular podium courses, where the professor stands in the front of the room and tries to be Socratic and involve people in discussion, we talk about cases. We talk about problems, clients, and other people you may run into. But in the clinic, they get to experience those things — that is why it is called ‘experiential education,’” said Ackerman.

To recognize the great value of the clinics and the contributions two of his longtime faculty colleagues made to Dickinson Law, Ackerman and his late wife, Janis, recently made a gift of $50,000 to endow the Professor Thomas Place and Professor Robert Rains Excellence in Clinical Education Fund at Penn State Dickinson Law. The gift was finalized just before Janis suffered a stroke in March and, to the family’s great sorrow, passed away shortly after.

Ackerman hopes the gift will inspire others to make gifts to the fund as an expression of their appreciation for professors Place and Rains and clinical education at Dickinson Law. Those who wish to do so can make an online gift at www.Raise.psu.edu/PlaceRainsClinicFund or by mailing a check, payable to Penn State University and with Place Rains Clinic Fund in the memo line, to: Dickinson Law Office of Development, Lewis Katz Hall, 150 S. College Street, Carlisle, PA 17013.

The Place Rains Clinic Fund will provide flexible resources to support and enhance clinical education at Dickinson Law, to include current and future clinics. It may also provide scholarship support to law students participating in clinical opportunities. Rains and Place, now both professors emeritus, said they were honored and humbled by the gift. “I hope it succeeds in inspiring additional donations and raising more money for the clinics,” said Rains.

The origins of the Dickinson Law clinics

Place started the Prison Clinic in the mid-1970s. “I was interested in creating opportunities for students to practice law, to have actual client experience as part of their legal education,” said Place, who came to Dickinson Law from a public interest law firm in Eastern Kentucky. “That was happening on a pretty small scale when I joined the faculty.”

Students assisted inmates at SCI-Camp Hill and later women at SCI-Muncy on a range of issues, including state and federal post-conviction relief, commutation, and immigration matters. Federal court lawsuits addressed access to medical care, religious freedom, exposure to asbestos, use of excessive force, and conditions in solitary confinement.

Dickinson Law clinics have changed and evolved over the years. The Prison Clinic at Camp Hill continued until the early 1990s, when a fire destroyed the office the clinic had used. After that, the mechanics of student visits to the prison became too challenging. Place began the Family Law Clinic in 1979 with the help of Assistant Dean Peter Kutulakis. Both professors were convinced that family law cases offered a unique opportunity for students to learn both substantive law and the essential lawyering skills of interviewing, counseling, pleading, negotiation, and advocacy.

Rains joined the Dickinson Law faculty in 1983. He supervised students in practice in the Family Law Clinic and also started the Disability Law Clinic.

Place remembers that in the early days of the clinics, before they had staff attorneys, he or Rains would stay on call all summer. “It had to run 12 months a year. There was no other way to run a clinic,” said Place. “Getting staff attorneys came much later in our history.”

The professors appreciated the opportunity for more one-on-one instruction. “I taught family law for years, but you have 60, 80 students in the classroom for three hours a week. How much time can you give each student?” said Rains. “In the clinic, students learn how law is actually done. Under supervision, they interview clients and witnesses, develop a theory or theories of the case, apply the law to the evolving facts, prepare correspondence and legal documents, often deal with opposing counsel, try to negotiate where possible, present cases to judges at administrative hearings or in court, prepare appeals where appropriate, etc. In short, they do the work of lawyering.”

The value of the clinics has always been apparent. “I am so proud of the students we dealt with in the clinic and all the wonderful, wonderful work they did helping clients who would not otherwise have gotten the help they needed,” said Rains.

“What Place and Rains started here at Dickinson Law has continued and grown,” said Dickinson Law Assistant Professor of Law Lucy Johnston-Walsh ‘97, director of the Children’s Advocacy Clinic, who was hired by Place and Rains. “Students still thoroughly enjoy the opportunities afforded in a clinical setting and the opportunity to provide a level of service to our community during their time in Carlisle.”

“Dickinson Law was very much a second home for us”

Ackerman began teaching at Dickinson Law in 1980. His classes focused on torts and dispute resolution, and he became involved with the Council on Legal Education Opportunity.

He and Janis raised their two children in Carlisle, and Dickinson Law played a prominent role in the family’s life. “My experience with Bob and Tom typifies what so many of us have felt for Dickinson Law,” said Ackerman. “I think for the faculty, members of the staff, and students alike, Dickinson Law was very much a second home for us. We would bring our families to events, and our kids were all friends with each other.” The Rains and Ackermans vacationed together, and the Ackermans joined the Places at their cottage in Ontario.

Though Ackerman never taught in a Dickinson Law clinic, he participated in a clinic while attending law school himself and always appreciated the experience. “I think most of us got into law because we wanted to help people. And clinics offer a way to put our legal knowledge into action helping someone else,” said Ackerman.

Experiential learning with lasting lessons

Rains agrees with Ackerman’s theory about the lasting value of clinics. “Attorneys I talk to who participated in clinics tell me that was the best thing they did in law school. That is where they learned how to be a lawyer,” said Rains. “They need the classroom lessons. They have to know the fundamentals; those are important, too. But the clinics provide exceptional value.”

“Tom and Bob gave of their time, and they gave much more than just hours on the clock," said Ackerman. “They gave of themselves. That is very special.”