Co-Dean Michael T. Cahill addresses students in Camden during orientation.
Tomorrow starts a brand new and eventful year for Rutgers Law School.
Around 1,100 students will attend Rutgers Law this fall, making it one of the largest law schools in the Northeast. Of the entering class this fall, 49 percent are female, 51 percent are male, and 33 percent are students of color. Law students come from 16 states and 22 foreign countries.
Our Camden location welcomes 132 first year law students, including 17 night students and 6 transfer students for the 2017/18 school year. In Newark, 175 daytime and 43 evening students make up the 1L class and 11 transfer students for the 2017/18 school year.
Rutgers Law welcomes four new professors. Three are social justice scholars who will teach at the Newark location. Sahar Aziz and Rachel Godsil, who begin teaching this fall, and Rose Cuison Villazor, who will join the law school next fall.
The fourth professor is Adnan Zulfiqar, at the Camden location. An expert in criminal law, Islamic law and laws of war, Zulfiqar comes to Rutgers from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
The law school also welcomes two new staff members who will oversee Financial Aid–Tai Gedeon in Newark and Shadiyah Andrews in Camden.
This year’s students have new courses to explore. In Camden, Louis Moffa of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads is the instructor for the Civil Rights Practicum, and John Kearney, of Ballard Spahr, is teaching Class Action Litigation. Megan Bannigan of Debevoise & Plimpton is teaching the Fashion Law course, and Paul Bond of Reed Smith is teaching Privacy Law Essentials for Corporate Counsel.
Newark students can check out Environmental Justice with Professor Rachel Godsil, Constitutional Law: Presidential Powers with Professor Carlos Gonzalez, and a Low-Income Housing Seminar with Professor and Former Dean Stuart Deutsch.
Student organizations at each location introduced the new law students to more than a dozen social and professional groups such as the Philadelphia Bar Association, Association of Public Interest Law, Black Law Students Association, the LGBTQ Caucus, the Asian Pacific Law Students Association, and the Women’s Law Caucus.
Students in the incoming class got to know each other during the orientation program.
The Immigration Justice Clinic welcomes Jason Hernandez, as staff attorney to provide immigration legal services to Rutgers students on all three campuses and to engage in community outreach on immigration issues, as part of an initiative from Rutgers University President Robert Barchi’s office.
Save the dates for some important law school events that are coming up this fall. On Wednesday, November 1 at 6:30 p.m. the Newark Alumni Association Gala will be held and on Thursday, November 30 at the Maplewood Country Club, while Camden will host its Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Rutgers Student Center on the Camden campus.
And on April 14, 2018, Rutgers Law School will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Minority Student Program at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark.
For a wrap-up of the highlights from the last school year, read the Co-Deans’ End of Year message.