The Superior Court of Pennsylvania will hold a special session at Penn State’s Dickinson School of Law, University Park campus on April 1 and 2.
Court sessions will begin at 10 a.m. on April 1 and at 9:30 a.m. on April 2. Court will recess at approximately 4 p.m. on both days. Sessions will take place in the Apfelbaum Courtroom of the Lewis Katz Building in University Park and will be simulcast to law school facilities in Carlisle.
“The session is a wonderful opportunity for the public to see this appellate court in action,” said Centre County President Judge Thomas King Kistler, who is helping to organize events that will include educational sessions for law students and local members of the bar.
The Superior Court is one of the busiest appellate courts in the nation, deciding close to 8,000 cases each year. The court hears arguments on appeals in Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but occasionally visits other locations around the Commonwealth for special sessions. During the two-day Penn State session, the court will hear arguments on appeals from decisions of local trial courts in civil, criminal and domestic cases.
Penn State Dickinson School of Law invited the Superior Court to sit on campus to foster educational opportunities for its students and members of the public. A special invitation was also extended to high school students in Centre County. More than 100 students are expected to attend the oral arguments over the course of the two-day session. All sessions are open to the public.
Serving on the Superior Court panel will be Judges Christine Donohue, Cheryl Lynn Allen and Sallie Updyke Mundy. Judges Donohue and Allen maintain chambers in Pittsburgh. Judge Mundy’s chambers are in Tioga County.
Judge Allen is a 1969 graduate of Penn State’s College of Education. She was one of only 22 Penn State alumni honored as an Alumni Fellow in 2013 for her outstanding professional achievements.
The title of Alumni Fellow is the highest award given by the Penn State Alumni Association and is designated a permanent and lifelong title by the Penn State Board of Trustees. Since the award was established in 1973, fewer than 800 alumni have been honored with the title, representing only one-eighth of one percent of all 616,000 living Penn State alumni.
