Associate Dean and Professor of Law Jon Dubin, who has directed Rutgers Law School’s Clinical Program for much of his 20 years at Rutgers Law School in Newark, was named a Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, one of the university’s highest honors. 
The Rutgers Board of Governors unanimously approved this distinction at its meeting on June 19, 2019.

“We at Rutgers Law are proud of the long years of hard work and dedication done by Associate Dean Dubin, who has led our nationally recognized and award-winning clinical program. Under his leadership, it has grown to provide needed legal help to the larger Newark community, and transformative and valuable educational experiences for students, and is staffed by a diverse group of professors and lawyers who are among the top in their fields. It is fitting he should receive this honor, which coincides with the upcoming 50th anniversary of the clinics,” said Rutgers Law Co-Dean David Lopez. 

The university distinction recognizes sustained and exceptional service of faculty members who, after having reached full professorial status, demonstrate service above and beyond what is expected and who have made a recognized exceptional impact bringing acclaim to them, the university, the broader community, the academic community, state, or nation.

Dubin is the first Director and Associate Dean of Clinical Education at Rutgers Law School in Newark. An expert in social security disability law, he has won national awards for his scholarship, public interest lawyering, and contributions to clinical education. He’s published writings cited multiple times in U.S. Supreme Court decisions and has successfully litigated in landmark cases including a U.S. Supreme Court and several U.S. Court of Appeals victories. He has co-authored the only casebook on social security law, and a leading treatise on federal court social security disability practice and procedure, and provided Congressional testimony on social security adjudication. He has been inducted into the National Academy of Social Insurance—one of the highest honors for social insurance professionals.  

Dubin also co-counseled class action litigation in Newark Coalition for Low-Income Housing v. NHA & HUD—a lawsuit limiting plans to demolish 5700 public housing units without adequate replacement; voiding sale of desirable public land to developers; and remedying racial steering and segregated and environmentally unsuitable replacement housing.

He has been honored with awards from the Northeast People of Color Legal Scholarship Conference (NEPOC); National Equal Justice Library; National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives; Clinical Legal Education Association; Garden State Bar Association; and New Jersey Public Interest Law Center. He has served on the boards of the National Center on Law and Economic Justice, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Clinical Law Review, and Clinical Legal Education Association. He is currently a pro bono consultant for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

Dubin is the third Rutgers Law faculty member to be awarded with the professorship and the first in 15 years.

“It is a tremendous honor to receive this professorship, and be associated in any manner with Rutgers faculty law giants and path breaking publicly engaged scholars and legal advocates like Paul Tractenberg and John Payne, the prior two law faculty recipients,” he said.

Dubin received his A.B. from Dartmouth College and J.D. from N.Y.U.  Before coming to Rutgers, he worked as Professor of Law and Clinical Director at St. Mary’s Law School, as staff attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and ACLU, as Director of Litigation at the Harlem Neighborhood Office of the Legal Aid Society, and law clerk to U.S. District Judge John L. Kane.