The annual PILF Auction is run by students and raises funds to assist nontransferring first, second, and nongraduating third-year students at Penn State Law to work in unpaid public interest jobs that give them valuable experience working with low-income and marginalized clients.
In 2021, the PILF Fellowship provided aid to four students:
- Grace Ward, 2022 juris doctor candidate, who interned with Ascend Justice, a domestic violence legal clinic in Chicago, Illinois.
- Michelle Miles, 2023 juris doctor candidate, who worked at both the Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City and the New York State Supreme Court with the Honorable Judge Adams, Civil Division New York, New York.
- Halle Finegold, 2022 juris doctor candidate, who interned with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C.
- Kaitlin Briggs, 2022 juris doctor candidate, who worked with the ACLU Foundation of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.
The event, emceed by Jenna Ebersbacher, juris doctor 2022, began with a welcome from PILF President, Beth Anne Patterson, juris doctor 2022 and Ret. Vice Admiral James W. Houck, interim dean of Penn State Law and the School of International Affairs.
Houck’s remarks centered on the role PILF plays in the Penn State Law community. “PILF is a great organization that financially supports students while they diligently work for important public interest organizations all over the country,” said Houck.
Danielle Conway, dean of Penn State Dickinson Law, joined via Zoom to speak on anti-racism in legal education and the legal profession.
The third-year law students, who will graduate this May, had front-row seats to engage in the bidding wars — capitalizing on their last chance to win one of these unique experiences before transitioning into their legal careers.
With 125 law student attendees, the student-run and student-supported event featured experiences with faculty and staff members. Per tradition, Director of Financial Aid Susan Bogart performed an original song on the ukulele and offered a dinner with her and her husband.
Some of the other experiences included: accompanying law professor, Kit Kinports, on her morning flower walk, followed by breakfast at Starbucks; two-on-two basketball game against law professors Daniel Walters and Ben Johnson; a no-holds-barred discussion on national security issues and gift cards for national-security-related books of their choice with the Interim Dean of Penn State Law and the School of International Affairs James W. Houck; and a yoga class taught by Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Jill Engle. “I am always thrilled to support PILF,” said Engle. “It’s such a great organization that helps our students solve real, legal problems for the underserved.”
Recapping the evening’s events, Ebersbacher said, “The PILF Auction is a gratifying opportunity to see the entire law school come together and acknowledge how vital the work that the public interest students and future lawyers do — it’s the reason that a lot of students come to law school.”