Arlin M. Adams Center for Law & Society

The center provides opportunities for students to receive hands-on, résumé-building experiences that connect to their research interests and career goals, including supporting internships and externships, visiting courts and law schools, attending national and regional conferences and professional seminars, completing research projects in social and criminal justice, and giving enhanced access to library resources relating to law and society.

Through the Adams Center, students are matched with several paid internship opportunities with regional partners. Prior placements include the Snyder County District Attorney’s Office, Snyder County Courts, Court Appointed Special Advocates, and other county or nonprofit legal services entities. Additionally, the center annually presents the Arlin M. Adams Lecture, which brings legal scholars to campus to present a lecture on relevant legal topics

Student opportunities

We’ll help you get hands-on, resume-building experience through:

• Internship and externships
• Visiting courts and law schools
• Attending national and regional conferences and professional seminars
• Independent study research projects in social and criminal justice
• Enhanced library resources relating to law and society
• Networking relationships with law schools, medical centers, businesses, courts and social service agencies

More than a dozen paid student internships are available each year to our Adams Center Scholars. They’ve worked with Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), as well as area judges, district attorneys and probation offices. 

Graduates who have had experiences through the Adams Center are now in law school, graduate school, working on Capitol Hill and one even won a Fulbright award.

Namesake

The Arlin M. Adams Center for Law & Society was created to honor Judge Arlin M. Adams H’85, a prominent jurist dedicated to public service and a longtime friend of Susquehanna University.

About Arlin M. Adams

Arlin M. Adams was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His distinguished career included 17 years on the bench and decades of involvement in professional, charitable and educational organizations.

Adams began his career in private legal practice and, while continuing to practice law, he joined the faculty at The University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his appointment as a federal judge, he served a term as secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. After he retired as a federal judge, he went on to serve as counsel at one of Philadelphia’s largest law firms, Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis, for 25 years. He was also a past president of the American Judicature Society and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts.

A Philadelphia native, Adams earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Temple University and a law degree from The University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of Penn Law Review. Determined to serve his country, Adams enlisted as a logistics officer with the U.S. Navy during World War II.

A long-time friend of Susquehanna University, Adams was a visiting Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Susquehanna in 1981 and received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the university in 1985.

The family of Sigfried and Janet Weis and The 1994 Charles B. Degenstein Foundation, with support from the Annenberg Foundation, established the Arlin M. Adams Center for Law and Society in 2001 in honor of Adams. The center presents the annual Arlin M. Adams Lecture, which brings legal scholars to campus to present on relevant legal topics.