The annual Public Interest Experience Auction on March 7, the law school’s raucous rite of spring, raised $22,000 to support students who take on summer jobs providing legal services to under-represented members of the community.

Held at the Field House in the Philadelphia Convention Center, this year’s auction included an Elvis Presley siting, twin cream-pie throwings and an impromptu swing dance featuring 3L Josef Mensah and Assistant Dean Mary McGovern.

Senior Associate Dean Kevin Oates once again served as auctioneer but also donned an Elvis wig and white jumpsuit before singing “Suspicious Minds” and throwing in Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” for good, well perhaps satisfactory, measure.

Top-selling items included tickets to a Jay-Z show with Professor Donald Tibbs, which went for $950, and tickets to “A Raisin in the Sun” and a restaurant dinner with Professor David S. Cohen, which cleared $1,050.
Professor Rose Corrigan paid a sweet $100 to throw a cream pie in Cohen’s face, while 2L Brad Wilhelm also received a whipped-cream facial.

Having auctioned control of his facial hair for several weeks this spring, Dean Roger Dennis wound up spending $500 to outbid Class of 2011 alumna Stephanie Cieslak.

“It was a question of sheer survival,” said Dennis, whose son will be married in April. “My wife would have killed me if I’d showed up at the wedding with a soul patch.”