Rutgers School of Law – Newark

The Newark campus of Rutgers Law School (formerly the Rutgers School of Law–Newark) is located in the Center for Law and Justice, Rutgers University-Newark, in Newark, New Jersey. It and the Camden campus are the two campuses of the unified Rutgers Law School. In 2015, the former Rutgers Law School–Newark officially merged with the former Rutgers School of Law–Camden, thereby creating the unified Rutgers Law School with two campuses.^[2]

U.S. News & World Report, in its 2018 rankings of Best Graduate Schools, ranked Rutgers Law School 62nd among 197 law schools fully accredited by the American Bar Association.^[4]

History

Before the merger, the former Rutgers School of Law–Newark was the oldest of the then-three law schools in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1908 as the New Jersey Law School, it merged in 1936 with the University of Newark, which itself merged with Rutgers University, the eighth oldest college in the country.^[5][6] The former Rutgers School of Law–Newark celebrated its centennial on September 9, 2008. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association, a member of the Association of American Law Schools, and registered with the Board of Regents of the State of New York. According to the former school's annual 2014 ABA-required disclosure, 85.5% of the Class of 2014 secured long-term employment nine months after graduation; 65.2% of the class was employed in full-time, long-term, J.D.–required positions nine months after graduation.^[7]

By the late 1960s, Rutgers School of Law–Newark had received the moniker "The People's Electric Law School." Its faculty included such activists as Arthur Kinoy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.^[8] As of January 2017, the alumni of the former Rutgers Law School–Newark include two currently sitting United States senators, Robert Menendez and Elizabeth Warren.

Admissions

Rutgers' selective admissions are administered with a process that offers applicants a choice between competing for admission based primarily on traditional measures such as LSAT scores and college GPAs, or, alternatively, on the basis of an applicant's life experience, with a lesser (though still significant) emphasis placed on traditional factors. Factors that may be considered in the Rutgers admissions process include, but are not limited to, work experience, personal accomplishments, and other aspects of the applicant's personal background.^[9][10]

Rutgers' unique admissions process is particularly significant when contrasted with the efforts of other law schools to maximize the undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores of their incoming classes in order to improve their standing in popular law school ranking publications.^[11]

Academics

A unified admissions process accompanies the merger of the Newark and Camden schools into a single Rutgers Law School. Starting with the incoming class of 2016, application materials and requirements are identical. Applicants indicate, after admission, which of the two cities — Camden or Newark — will be their preferred home base for legal studies.

The J.D. program at Rutgers requires a total of 84 credits to graduate. The 1L curriculum requires traditional courses in Torts, Contracts, Property, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, and Legal Analysis, Writing and Research Skills. All required courses are graded on a standard B-curve. 1Ls are grouped in small sections of roughly 30 people, who take all of the same required classes together. Though two or three sections are generally combined for required courses, each student has a 'small section' class where their section of 30 or fewer people is taught a required subject by a tenured faculty member. Students may choose to attend classes on either a full-time or part-time basis.^[12]

Journals

The law school has five student journals:

• Rutgers Law Review (merged with the Rutgers Law Journal, to form the Rutgers University Law Review)
• Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal, the first journal in the country to address the interaction between computers, technology and the law.
• Women's Rights Law Reporter, the first journal in the country to focus on women's rights. Co-founded by then–Rutgers Professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
• Rutgers Race and the Law Review
• Rutgers Law Record, the first legal journal to be published entirely online.

Additionally, there are two unaccredited journals:

• Rutgers Business Law Review
• Rutgers Conflict Resolution Law Journal

Clinics

Rutgers School of Law – Newark, the first law school in New Jersey to provide law clinics and one of the first in the country, provides legal services and clinical education in it its ten clinics.

• Child Advocacy Clinic
• Civil Justice Clinic
• Community and Transactional Lawyering Clinic
• Constitutional Rights Clinic
• Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic
• Education and Health Law Clinic- including the HEAL Collaborative with Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences Outpatient Pediatrics Department.
• Federal Tax Law Clinic
• Immigrant Rights Clinic
• Intellectual Property Law Clinic
• International Human Rights Clinic

Employment

According to the Law School's official 2014 ABA-required disclosures, 85.5% of the Class of 2014 obtained long-term employment within nine months of graduation, with 65.2% of that class obtaining full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment within nine months. An additional 11.5% of the Class of 2014 obtained a J.D.-preferred job within nine months of graduation. 7.9% of the Class of 2014 was unemployed nine months after graduating.^[7]

Costs

Tuition and fees at Rutgers law School for the 2016-2017 academic year is $27,011 (full-time, in-state) and $39,425 (full-time, out-of-state).^[13]

Rankings

According to the U.S. News Law School Rankings for 2015-16, the Law School is ranked 87th overall, with its part-time program ranking 19th overall.^[14] It is ranked 74th according to Peer Reputation score, making it the highest peer-rated school in New Jersey, tied with its sister school in Camden.^[15] The U.S. News rankings are based heavily on incoming student attributes, such as average undergraduate GPA and LSAT score, as opposed to employment outcomes. U.S. News has ranked the Law School 9th in the country on its list of law degrees "with the biggest return on investment."^[16]

The National Law Journal ranked the Law School 47th on its 2015 list of the Top 50 Go-To Law Schools. It was the only law school in New Jersey to appear on that list, which reported that 10.1% of the Law School's 2014 graduates were hired directly by one of the country's top 250 law firms.^[17]

The Law School ranks 42nd in the nation in the 2015 Above the Law Rankings, which weighs graduate employment, quality of graduate jobs, education cost, alumni feedback, student debt, and the number of alumni serving as federal judges.^[18]

Finally, the Law School is ranked 30th according to Business Insider's 2014 'Top Law Schools in America' list.^[19]

Notable alumni

Graduates of the law school are prominent in the judiciary, academic, private practice, public interest practice, and all levels of government. Two alumni are current United States Senators, at least ten are current federal judges, and two are chairs of "white shoe" law firms. Dozens are professors—tenured and/or clinical—at prominent law schools. These alumni include:

Judiciary

• Harold Ackerman (1928–2009), United States District Judge, District of New Jersey, 1979–2008.
• Raymond L. Acosta, United States District Judge, District of Puerto Rico
• Judith M. Barzilay, Judge, United States Court of International Trade.
• Vincent Biunno, United States District Judge, District of New Jersey 1973-1991; Director, Prudential Insurance Co., 1960-1973.
• Renee Marie Bumb, United States District Judge, District of New Jersey
• Robert E. Cowen, United States Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
• William S. Greenberg, United States Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
• Jennifer Choe Groves, Judge, United States Court of International Trade; first Asian American appointed to the U.S. Court of International Trade and second Korean American woman federal judge in the U.S.
• Richard J. Hughes, Chief Justice, New Jersey Supreme Court 1973-1979, and 45th Governor of New Jersey (1962–1970), and the only Governor to also serve as Chief Justice.
• Jaynee LaVecchia, Associate Justice, New Jersey Supreme Court.
• Virginia Long, Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court (1999–2012).
• William Martini, United States District Judge, District of New Jersey.
• Barry Moskowitz, Chief United States District Judge, Southern District of California.
• Morris Pashman (1912–1999), Justice, New Jersey Supreme Court (1973–1982).^[20]
• Nicholas H. Politan (1935–2002), United States District Judge, District of New Jersey 1987-2002.
• Sylvia Pressler (1934–2010), Chief Judge of the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, and Editor of the New Jersey Court Rules.
• Esther Salas, United States District Judge, District of New Jersey; first Hispanic woman appointed U.S. District Court judge in New Jersey, and first such Magistrate Judge.^[21][22]
• William Francis Smith (1904–1968), U.S. Circuit Judge, Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1961–1968); District Judge for District of New Jersey (1941–1961); U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey (1940–41).
• Freda L. Wolfson, United States District Judge, District of New Jersey
• Alfred M. Wolin, United States District Judge, District of New Jersey 1987-2004.
• James Yates, Judge, New York Supreme Court. Former Speaker of the New York Assembly.

Academia

• Frank Askin, Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law- Newark. Former ACLU General Counsel. Current Director of Constitutional Litigation Clinic.
• Mary Cheh, Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School. Washington, D.C. City Council member.
• Ronald Chen, Acting Dean, Rutgers School of Law- Newark. Former Public Advocate of the State of New Jersey.
• Elizabeth Warren, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; United States Senator (D-MA); Chair of the Congressional Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) oversight panel.^[23][24]

Public Service

• Michael Patrick Carroll, New Jersey State Assemblyman (R-25th Dist), 1996–present.
• Ida L. Castro, Chair, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 1998-2001.
• Zulima Farber, Former Attorney General and Public Advocate of New Jersey.
• Louis Freeh, FBI Director 1993–2001; U.S. District Judge, Southern District of New York 1991–1993. Current Chairman, Pepper Hamilton LLP.
• Elbert Guillory, Senator, Louisiana Senate. Only African-American Republican in Louisiana State Senate.^[25]
• Richard J. Hughes, Governor of New Jersey (1962–1970); Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court (1973–1979).
• Alan Karcher, (1943–1999), Former Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly; Assemblyman 1973-1990.
• Robert Menendez, United States Senator (D-NJ). Class of 1979.^[21]
• Patrick Morrisey, Attorney General of West Virginia (2013–present).
• Sybil Moses (c. 1939 – 2009), Prosecutor of the "Dr. X" Mario Jascalevich murder case and New Jersey Superior Court judge.^[26]
• A. Harry Moore, Former United States Senator and Governor of New Jersey.
• Hazel R. O'Leary, United States Secretary of Energy (1993–1997), and President of Fisk University (2004–2012).
• Annette Quijano, New Jersey Assemblywoman (D-20th Dist), 2008–present. Deputy Majority Leader 2012–present. First minority and first woman to represent her district.
• Jemera Rone, Human Rights Investigator in Sudan.
• Peter Rodino, noted United States Congressman (D-NJ), 1949–1989.
• Robert Torricelli, Former United States Senator (D-NJ).
• Elizabeth Warren, United States Senator (D-MA).
• Chester A. Weidenburner, United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey, 1956-1961.

Public Interest

• Wade Henderson, President of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights; Counsel to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund; Professor of Law, Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia.

Business and others

• George McPhee, Vice President and General Manager, Washington Capitals (NHL)
• Ozzie Nelson, Entertainer.
• Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr., billionaire newspaper publisher and founder of Advance Publications, which includes the Condé Nast family of magazines.
• Lynne Stewart, Prominent lawyer and civil rights activist. Convicted of conspiracy and providing material support to a terrorist client.
• Walter Walsh (1907–2014), Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and Olympic sharpshooter.
• William W. Robertson (1941-2008), served as Acting United States Attorney from 1980-1981.

See also

• Henry Rutgers
• Rutgers–New Brunswick
• Post-secondary education in New Jersey
• List of universities named after people
• Lists of law schools

References

External links

• Official website