A pioneering post-graduate legal residency program that will provide low-cost legal assistance to New Jersey residents will launch this January at Rutgers Law School in Camden.
Led by Professor Andrew J. Rothman as managing attorney, the Rutgers Law Associates Fellowship Program offers recently graduated law students a one-year residency to hone their practice skills while handling a range of legal matters for low-to-moderate-income clients.
Ten to 20 cases are assigned to each fellow that might include, consumer protection; divorce, child support, and child custody; bankruptcy to will contests; criminal defense to employment law; and veteran’s rights cases.
According to Rothman, market rate lawyers are simply out of reach for most middle income New Jersey residents.
“All too many decide to represent themselves, with disastrous results, or never pursue their legitimate claims, or defenses,” he says. “A central mission of this program is to provide access to justice: access to excellent legal representation for a population that historically has had to fend for itself in court, and to give these people a fighting chance.”
The fellowship program, a general practice firm, charges New Jersey residents in the low, or moderate income range, $50 per hour, plus costs, for legal services. Depending on the complexity of the matter, clients could pay an initial retainer, ranging from $1,000 to $3,000. When the Camden office is operational, a local intake line will be established, but clients can now call the intake line in Newark at 973-353-2564.
Rothman, a graduate of Yale University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers Law School, developed and manages the program now in Camden and Newark, where it was launched in 2014. Prior to joining Rutgers as associate dean for student affairs, he practiced law at Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith, Ravin and Davis; Goldstein Lite and DePalma; and Goldstein Lem, LLC. He also teaches various upper-level courses in the Law School including New Jersey Practice, Non-Profit Corporations, Professional Responsibility and Evidence.
Fellows in the Rutgers Law Associates Program will be appointed to the Camden program in the coming weeks and will receive a stipend of $30,000 each.
The post-grad program includes seminars on civil and criminal procedural issues and professional responsibility; weekly training on business development, billing, collection and law firm management; and daily supervision from Rothman. Scholarship funds cover the costs for tuition and fees.
Although originally designed to equip graduates planning to start their own practices after law school with all the tools they would need, in fact, the program has instead proven particularly appealing to a very different market of graduates.
As explained by Rothman, “After completing the one-year program our fellows are uniquely qualified to join small and mid-size law firms looking to hire experienced lawyers from an increasingly shrinking pool of laterals. Our fellows quickly develop the courtroom and docket management skills, and negotiation and settlement skills, typically found in lawyers with three or four years of experience. Although each year, one of the fellows has opened a solo practice successfully, the majority of those completing the program are grabbed by New jersey law firms looking for lawyers able to hit the ground running.”