By all accounts, the Housing Justice Program in Camden, which includes the Housing Advocacy Clinic and Eviction Prevention Project, recently achieved a significant win: a judge agreed with attorney Ashley Maddison ’19 that her client’s rental home was so unsafe it was uninhabitable, ordered the landlord to pay for six months of relocation expenses, and allowed the client to retain nearly $7,000 in withheld rent payments. But the reality is much more complicated, shedding light on the need for support and education right in Rutgers Law School’s own backyard.

The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender (OPD) announced today that it filed a class action lawsuit against the New Jersey State Police (NJSP) to require it to timely process expungement orders. The suit is the result of the collaborative efforts of Rutgers Law School’s Expungement Law Project (ELP) in Camden, OPD, ACLU-NJ, Volunteer Lawyers for Justice (VLJ), and Legal Services of New Jersey. Rutgers Law Professor and ELP Director Meredith Schalick convened this group of stakeholders over the past year to discuss concerns about the criminal expungement process in New Jersey. Sandra Simkins, Rutgers Law professor, and Dr. Sarah Lageson, Rutgers School of Criminal Justice associate professor in Newark, also lent their expertise to the group.

Rutgers Law Professor Jorge Contesse was elected to the United Nations (UN) Committee Against Torture (CAT) on October 19, 2023 in Geneva, Switzerland.  This is one of the most prestigious posts in the field of international human rights. Professor Contesse joins nine other independent human rights experts who monitor compliance of the UN Convention Against Torture by state parties. Members are elected to a four-year term and can be re-elected if nominated.

The Stephanie and Harold Krieger Charitable Trust has gifted $6.5 million to Rutgers Law School, the second largest gift in the law school’s history. Of the donation, $5.5 million will be used to establish the new Ruth Bader Ginsburg Women’s Rights and Gender Justice Clinic.

On September 21, 2023, a Rutgers Law Associates (RLA) fellow met a young boy at a ticket counter in Newark Liberty International Airport, handed his passport to United Airlines personnel, and secured his safe return to his father in Ireland. It was the final step in a case that began in April, when the US State Department first reached out to RLA regarding a dispute between an Irish national and his wife, a US citizen who brought their son to live stateside without his consent.

Emilio Gutierrez is an award-winning Mexican journalist, devoted father, University of Michigan Knight-Wallace Fellowship recipient, and National Press Club honoree. Thanks to the work of Rutgers Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC), he is also a newly-minted US asylee, protected from ever being deported back to Mexico, where he was intimidated with beatings, home raids, and death threats as a result of his reporting on government and police corruption.

Among the ranks of Rutgers Law School’s incoming students are professionals and academics, first generation law students and legacies, and locals and out-of-towners. Get to know just some of the illustrious first-year students who arrived on campus this fall.

Rutgers Law School will begin providing all of its graduating students with free comprehensive test prep for the bar exam through a new partnership with global educational services provider Kaplan. Rutgers Law students in the Class of 2024 will be the first to benefit from the partnership, which extends through the 2025-2026 academic year. Kaplan will also provide the school with curriculum support to benefit all students throughout their Rutgers journey.

Every year, September 15 to October 15 is observed as National Hispanic Heritage Month. The spotlight is on the generations of Hispanic Americans who have made countless contributions to all aspects of American life. As we celebrate the cultures and achievements of the Latinx diaspora, we recognize a few of our Rutgers Law School alumni who are trailblazers in the legal field.

In 2020, the Legislature passed NJSA 22A:2-51a, funding law school programs to prepare more law students to help with the housing crisis. The legislation acknowledged that the lack of affordable housing, long an issue in New Jersey, was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and disproportionately impacts Black and Latinx residents of New Jersey. The Legislature renewed these critical appropriations in 2022 and 2023. Thanks to ongoing support from the Legislature, the New Jersey Housing Justice Project continues helping improve conditions for low- and middle-income tenants, promote housing stability in the state, and build a new generation of advocates.

Anyone with a young child knows they can be inquisitive and daring, and that it only takes one moment for an accident to happen. But a new Newark, New Jersey amendment is protecting families from one significant safety hazard, thanks to help from multiple teams of students across Rutgers Law School, Rutgers Medical School, and their community partners.

Though law students are no strangers to research, it’s rare for their work to land on the floor of a governing body and lead to concrete legal change, all before they pass the bar. But that’s just what happened after Professor Ruth Anne Robbins reached out to members of the New Jersey Legislature and offered to help advance two significant bills.