Saint Vincent College unveils Legal Practice Certificate program

LATROBE, PA – Undergraduate students preparing for law school and legal professionals aiming to improve their skills can benefit from Saint Vincent’s College’s new Legal Practice Certificate program.

The program, which was initiated in the spring 2025 semester, consists of 12 credits in courses covering the essential elements of law practice:

• Legal Reasoning and Analysis (in-person) – Focuses on analyzing legal problems using statutes and precedents. Students will tackle hypothetical cases, explore different arguments and learn statutory interpretation principles.
• Crafting Legal Documents (online) – Covers effective legal research, compelling document writing and authoritative source citation. Students will create documents such as civil complaints, motions in criminal prosecution and sales agreements, learning to present them clearly and authoritatively for court review.
• Survey of Legal Practice (online) – Covers legal ethics and key areas of practice, including criminal and civil litigation, property law and wills and estates. Practicing attorneys will present insight into these fields.
• Law Office Practicum (in-person) – Students will complete a one-semester internship at a law office in their chosen field and submit a report on their experiences.

Bruce Antkowiak, C’74, JD, law professor and senior legal counsel to Saint Vincent College and Saint Vincent Archabbey, said the certificate program will give the College’s students an advantage if they matriculate to law school.

“They will find themselves leaps and bounds ahead of the game,” Antkowiak said. “Law school does not teach you the practicalities of practicing law; it teaches you legal principles. If you go in understanding how those principles translate into actually helping somebody, you have a much better grasp of the whole system.”

Antkowiak said the program also has upsides for people who work in law offices, law firms and government offices in roles such as clerks and legal secretaries

“It will help them put out a better work product—make their pleadings better, make their preparation more effective,” Antkowiak said. “Anyone who has completed a two-year paralegal degree would also benefit from taking a hard look at the nuts and bolts of how you practice law and what you deliver to your clients.”