Rutgers Law School students played a crucial role in a $20.8 million settlement providing compensation to women who recently served time at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women (EMCF), where a systemic culture of abuse has been well documented. Students worked directly with claimants who served time in New Jersey’s only women’s state prison.

Rutgers Law School alumna, groundbreaking attorney, and tireless advocate Marilyn Askin (RLAW ’70) passed away on December 29, 2022. Throughout the course of her distinguished career, Marilyn’s reputation earned her recognition by her peers as the founder of the field of Elder Law in New Jersey.

Kayvon Paul (RLAW ’23) was recognized with a law student award by the Public Interest Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association at its gala on December 8. Each year, the Public Interest Section recognizes one graduating student from each Philadelphia area law school.

The bankruptcy of major cryptocurrency platform FTX is causing massive fallout in this evolving financial industry. On Monday, U.S. prosecutors charged the founder and former CEO of FTX with several financial crimes and campaign finance violations including wire fraud and money laundering. According to the complaint released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Sam Bankman-Fried orchestrated years of fraud by diverting investor funds to his private hedge fund and used those funds to make venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.

Rutgers Law School Distinguished Professor John Oberdiek won the 2023 Fred Berger Memorial Prize in Philosophy of Law, awarded by the American Philosophical Association (APA). His article, “The Wrong in Negligence,” was published in 2021 in the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. As part of the prize, the APA will host a special symposium on the topic of the article this upcoming spring at its Pacific Division meeting in San Francisco, California. The prize is awarded every two years.

The Fred Berger Memorial Prize was established by the APA in memory of Professor Berger of the University of California at Davis. The prize is awarded to an outstanding published article in philosophy of law by an APA member.

Click here to read more from the APA on Prof. Oberdiek’s selection

Rutgers Law School and Minority Cannabis Academy are collaborating to expand access to cannabis-related educational programming for disenfranchised communities impacted by the war on drugs. The collaboration means that Minority Cannabis Academy students will be able to participate in Rutgers’ Certificate in Cannabis Law and Business at no cost to themselves.

Vanessa Williams is Rutgers Law’s first assistant dean of new programs, charged with expanding the school’s educational programming to reach a wider audience. Her first initiative is a cannabis certificate program for New Jersey cultivators and retailers.

A new Rutgers Law fellowship helps bridge the teaching gap for aspiring professors from under-represented communities.

Governor Phil Murphy today announced he intends to name Allison Chris Myers as the Acting Chair/CEO of the New Jersey Civil Service Commission (CSC). Myers will replace current Chair/CEO, Deirdré Webster Cobb, Esq., who recently announced her retirement, effective January 1, 2023, after serving over 30 years in state government. Myers will become the first transgender person to serve as a Cabinet Member in New Jersey state history.

In light of the uncertain future of reproductive rights in the United States and ongoing battle over women’s rights, the theme of this year’s Rutgers Law School Mary Philbrook Public Interest Awards Celebration focused on reproductive justice.

Gurneet Singh RLAW ’19 was already working as a patent agent at a law firm, and decided to go to law school after he realized he didn’t always have all the answers for clients asking questions about intellectual property licensing, enforcement, and possible litigation.

Rutgers Law School has awarded former Co-Dean John Oberdiek in Camden and Vice Dean Reid Weisbord in Newark with the 2017 Greg Lastowka Award for Scholarly Excellence. The Lastowka Award, now in its second year, is named in memory of Rutgers Law School Professor Greg Lastowka, an expert in cyber law, who died of cancer in 2015.