Rutgers Law Honors Trailblazing Attorney with Plaza and Portrait Dedication

 

The plaza in front of Rutgers Law School in Newark was dedicated as Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein Plaza on Monday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony honoring one of New Jersey’s pioneering attorneys. 

Blume-Silverstein, a member of the Class of 1911, was a trailblazing lawyer whose legacy continues to shape the legal profession. Her son Nathan Royce Silverstein – a 1960 graduate of Rutgers College and a 1964 graduate of Rutgers Law School – made a high seven-figure gift to support Rutgers Law and create the Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein Endowment. Through this gift, Rutgers Law will continue Blume-Silverstein’s legacy by supporting pioneering initiatives like the clinical program, MSP, and public interest work. A small portion of the gift funded the renovation.

As part of Monday’s celebration, a portrait of Blume-Silverstein inside the law school was also dedicated after remarks from Nathan Silverstein, Rutgers Law Dean Johanna Bond, Rutgers-Newark Provost Jeffrey Robinson, and Rutgers Law Associate Dean for Advancement Robert Steinbaum. 

“Naming a central thoroughfare on the Rutgers-Newark campus for a graduate of the class of 1911 is historically appropriate,” Provost Robinson said. “That the graduate is a woman, who was the first female lawyer in Essex County to practice law on the same basis as male attorneys by opening a law office, employing staff, and trying cases, even death penalty cases before juries, is even more appropriate.”

Blume-Silverstein graduated from one of the first classes of what is now Rutgers Law School and built a legal practice in Newark that spanned nearly six decades. She broke barriers as the first woman attorney in New Jersey to represent a murder suspect, securing an acquittal for her client.

Dean Bond remarked, “By 1924, in her then-eleven-year career, she had been appointed by the court to try seven jury trials on behalf of defendants charged with homicide, the first woman in the State and perhaps beyond, to be appointed to such consequential cases… She was not just known for criminal defense. She also represented corporations in Chancery Court and had a general law practice.”

By the end of her career, Blume-Silverstein had handled more than 5,000 cases and was a recognized expert in criminal law. She also co-founded the World Jewish Congress in 1936.

The Rutgers Board of Governors voted in December 2024 to renovate and rename the plaza in her honor at the S.I. Newhouse Center for Law and Justice at Rutgers Law School in Newark.

Nathan Silverstein began his career practicing law alongside his mother before managing the family’s commercial and residential real estate interests in New York and Florida. In recent years, he has focused on honoring his parents through philanthropy. This past December, he conveyed his Osborne Terrace home to Clinton Hill Community Action, led by Khaatim Sherrer-El, who has agreed to pursue historic designation and establish the Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein Community Center in the heart of Newark’s Clinton Hill neighborhood.

Click here to view archival documents and photos of Blume-Silverstein preserved by the Rutgers Law Library
Click here to view the photo gallery from the dedication