Community Impact

Erinmarie Byrnes ‘23 always had a passion for social justice, and knew she wanted to dedicate her legal career to serving communities in need. Unfortunately, this path is incredibly difficult for new attorneys because the nonprofit sector often lacks the time and resources needed to pay, train, and mentor them. But Byrnes is meeting this challenge head-on thanks to the Maida Postgraduate Public Interest Fellowship, a two-year program specifically designed to support and sustain public interest legal work by graduates of Rutgers Law School.

Years of work by Professor Ruth Anne Robbins, her students, and their partners at the NJ Coalition to End Domestic Violence (NJCEDV) culminated on January 8 in the signing of bill A-1475, which requires the court to consider information regarding coercive control in domestic violence proceedings.

Every year in February, the nation recognizes the history and contributions of the Black community in the United States. There is no shortage of trailblazers at Rutgers Law School who paved the way for generations and altered the course of American history. Here are just a few Rutgers Law alumni who broke ground in their respective legal fields and beyond.

An Essex County judge has appointed a receiver to take over management of 75 Prospect Street in East Orange, New Jersey. Members of the 75 Prospect Street Tenant Association demanded a receiver in two separate lawsuits due to the Weiss Property Group’s well-documented history of neglect, including pervasive leaks, mold, and dysfunctional elevators. Effective December 7, 2023, the receiver, who was proposed by Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), is charged to take immediate control of the building and to hire contractors to make repairs. The court’s order bars the building’s owner and members, including Mordechai Weiss, from entering the building and collecting rents. 

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.