Penn State Law, located in University Park, Pennsylvania, is one of two separately accredited law schools of the Pennsylvania State University.^[1] Penn State Law offers J.D., LL.M., and S.J.D. degrees. The school also offers a joint J.D./M.B.A. with the Smeal College of Business, a joint J.D./M.I.A. degree with the School of International Affairs,^[2][3] which is also located in the Lewis Katz Building, as well as joint degrees with other graduate programs at Penn State.

Penn State Law traces its roots to the founding of The Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Penn State and The Dickinson School of Law merged in 2000, and, until fall 2014, Penn State's Dickinson School of Law operated as a single law school with two campuses—one in Carlisle and one on Penn State's University Park campus in State College, Pennsylvania. The first class to attend the University Park campus was during the 2006-2007 academic year. In the summer of 2014, Penn State received approval from the American Bar Association to operate the two campuses as two separate and distinct law schools,^[4] both of which share the history of The Dickinson School of Law: Dickinson Law, in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Penn State Law, in University Park, Pennsylvania. In November 2022, Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi announced a task force to implement the recommendation that the two schools be merged into a single entity, with the preferred location to be at the Dickinson campus. ^[5]

U.S. News & World Report, in its 2021 rankings of Best Graduate Schools, ranked Penn State Law 60th among 194 law schools fully accredited by the American Bar Association.^[6]

Penn State Law is housed in the Lewis Katz Building on Penn State's University Park campus. The building opened for classes on January 9, 2009. The $60 million, 114,000-square foot building is the first academic facility to be built on the west side of Park Avenue on the University Park campus. The building is adjacent to the Penn State Arboretum.

The Lewis Katz Building is LEED certified and equipped with advanced high-definition digital audiovisual telecommunications capacity that enables real-time collaborative projects and programs with schools and institutions worldwide. The second floor includes the glass-enclosed library, with a two-story information commons, four group study rooms, and 11 offices. Library spaces comprise about 50 percent of the building.

In 2009, Judge D. Brooks Smith used the Lewis Katz Building's courtroom to hear an oral argument to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition to the courtroom, the Katz Building includes a 250-seat auditorium, four 75-person classrooms, several seminar rooms, and a "boardroom" facilitating electronic "face-to-face" contact with meeting participants worldwide.

The Lewis Katz Building is a shared academic space that is used by both the law school and the Graduate School of International Affairs. As such, many professors teach in both capacities.

The J.D. program at Penn State Law is a three-year, six-semester course of study. In the first year, required courses include Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Property, and Torts. In the second or third year, two courses are required: Professional Responsibility and a seminar. Students must also complete required experiential learning credits.

Penn State law also features three scholarly journals, including the Penn State Law Review. In addition, the school also publishes:

• Penn State Journal of Law and International Affairs
• Arbitration Law Review (formerly The Yearbook on Arbitration and Mediation)

Penn State Law has the following student organizations:

The school also participates in a number of moot court competitions including the Willem C. Vis Moot Commercial Arbitration Moot Court, held each year in Vienna, Austria and the National Environmental Law Moot Court held at Pace University in White Plains, New York.

Students at Penn State Law also participate in intramural sports programs. Current intramural sports teams include basketball, bowling, flag football, floor hockey, indoor soccer, and volleyball. Several students are also members of rugby and softball teams. Each spring, the school sends a softball team to participate in the University of Virginia Law School softball tournament.

The Woolsack Honor Society was founded in 1920 for the purpose of recognizing academic excellence. It was reestablished in 1981. Membership in the Society is extended to: 1) Students who rank in the top fifteen percent of the graduating class after 5 semesters; and 2) Students who do not qualify for membership after 5 semesters but who rank in the top 15 percent of the graduating class after six semesters.

Academic Honors are awarded as follows: cum laude to graduates who rank in the top 30 percent of the graduating class, magna cum laude to those who rank in the top 15 percent, and summa cum laude to those who rank in the top 5 percent of their class.

According to Penn State's official 2019 ABA-required disclosures, 80.4% of the class of 2019 from Penn State Law obtained full-time, long-term, J.D. required or J.D.-Advantage employment 10 months after graduation.^[10]

The total cost of attendance (including tuition and related expenses) at Penn State Law for the 2018-2019 academic year is $73,964.^[11]