Contact Information

Biography

Grace Wankiiri Orsatti, Clinical Assistant Professor, directs the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of University's Wills & Healthcare Decisions Clinic, and Externship & Pro Bono Program.

As Director of the Duquesne Kline Wills & Healthcare Decisions Clinic, Professor Orsatti’s work centers on promoting justice through clinic collaborative work and pro bono initiatives.

Professor Orsatti’s research operates at the intersection of aging and the law and healthcare ethics. Her scholarship examines legal and ethical aspects of estate and incapacity planning, with a particular focus on older adults, alternatives to guardianship, health/financial decision-making, and age-related racial disparities. Her scholarship appears in leading health journals.  Professor Orsatti has received funding from the McElhatten Foundation and the American College of Trusts and Estates Council (ACTEC) Foundation for her interdisciplinary medical-legal and estate planning community clinical work serving older adults.

Professor Orsatti serves on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Advisory Council on Elder Justice in the Court, the Pennsylvania Bar Association Elder Law Section Council, and the Allegheny County Bar Association Elder Law Committee. 

The Duquesne Kline Externship Program prepares students take the next step in their education.  As Externship Program Director, Professor Orsatti helps students secure meaningful externship opportunities to meet student’s educational needs, support their pre-professional development, and complement and enrich classroom learning.  Externship students partner with  leading law firms, government agencies, non-profits, judiciary, and in-house counsel.  Externship students benefit from immersion in subject-specific areas of law while developing critical transferable legal skills, equipping students for their future as effective practitioners.

The Duquesne Kline Pro Bono Program offers a variety of pro bono opportunities to students, and coordinates legal service opportunities with community organizations.  The Duquesne Kline Clinics, Pro Bono Program and Externship Program embody the law school’s mission to educate lawyers to excel in the ethical practice of law, to preserve the highest ideals of our profession, and to promote equal  justice  and  democratic  discourse  through  leadership,  service,  and  civic engagement.

Education

  • J.D., Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Â鶹ֱ²¥, 2004
  • B.S, Business, Â鶹ֱ²¥, 2001

School

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Fall:
  • Advanced Seminar
  • Government Seminar
  • Judicial Seminar
  • Non-Profit Seminar
  • Wills Clinic

Spring:
  • Advanced Seminar
  • Government Seminar
  • Judicial Seminar
  • Non-Profit Seminar
  • Wills Clinic
  • Accompany the Dying, Comfort the Grieving: Counseling Clients about Organ Donation Decisions, Northeastern University Law Review, (2023 forthcoming)
  • Grace W. Orsatti, , 50 Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics 157-168 (2022).
  • Sibling Conflict Over a Parent's End-of-Life Care: A Legal Perspective
    Grace Wankiiri Orsatti and Alison M. Colbert, , 50 Nursing 17 (November 2020).
  • Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) Annual Conference, Embracing Non-Traditional Experiential Projects (2023)
  • Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) Annual Conference, Emerging Considerations for Clinics at the Intersection of Law Office, Course, and University Unit (2023)
  • Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) Annual Conference, Critical Evidence Concerns Across the Curriculum (2023)
  • Yinz are Good Podcast, Episode 83 Allegheny County Medical Society' & Allegheny County Bar Association's Life Planning Fair (2023)
  • Community Lawyers as Advance Care Planning Partners, UPMC Montefiore Hospital, Geriatrics and Pulmonary and Critical Care Division (2023: .
  • Mid-Atlantic Consortium of Externships (MACE), Building Cultural Awareness in Externship Students, (co-organizer, 2023)
  • PCN TV Pennsylvania Cable Network - Superior Court Commentator on En Banc Panel (2022)
  • Medical-Legal Continuing Education, The Revised Allegheny County Bar Association/Allegheny County Medical Society Advance Directive, Allegheny County Bar Association (2022)
  • University of Pittsburgh Section of Hospice and Palliative Care, UPMC Family Hospice, the Palliative Research Center (PaRC), and Destiny of Faith Church Educational Curriculum to train Black lay ministers as community hospice ambassadors (2022)
  • Guidance for Agents Acting Under a Healthcare Power of Attorney, Medical-Legal CLE Panel, Allegheny County Bar Association (2022)
  • Department of Human Services Area Agency on Aging Senior Companion Program, End-of-Life Considerations for Caregivers. (2022)
  • Mid-Atlantic Consortium of Externships (MACE), Successful Externship Supervision: Giving Feedback, Getting Results, (co-organizer (2022)Grace W. Orsatti, Lisa Levers, Amy Mattila, Spiritan Pedagogy Conversations is "Broadening our Scholarship, Deepening our Disciplinary Commitments, and Reaching People on the Margins" (2021)
  • Grace W. Orsatti, Sr. Mary Traupman, Karen Timko, A Look at the Updated ACBA Advance Directive Forms, Allegheny County Bar Association CLE (2021)
  • Grace W. Orsatti, "When Siblings Disagree about end of life care of an incapacitated Parent" - An overview of applicable law, Carol Carfang Nursing and Healthcare Ethics Conference, (2020)
  • Grace W. Orsatti, Sr. Mary Traupman, Barbara Simanek, Katherine Norton, Introduction to Will Drafting and Advance Directives: A Medical - Legal Perspective, CLE at Duquesne University School of Law (2019)
  • Grace W. Orsatti, Katherine Norton and Rochelle McCain, Ask Not What your Legal Intern Can do for you, CLE at Â鶹ֱ²¥ School of Law (2019)
  • Jewish Healthcare Foundation Death and Dying Fellowship, 2020
  • New Pittsburgh Courier's Women of Excellence, 2018