Phoebe Haddon
Chancellor Emerita, and Professor of Law
A nationally noted leader in issues related to access and equity, Phoebe A. Haddon served as chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden from July 2014 through June 30, 2020. Under her leadership, Rutgers University–Camden widened affordable access through its landmark Bridging the Gap program, which provides full or significant tuition coverage for New Jersey’s working families. She amplified Rutgers–Camden’s role as an anchor institution in Camden and the Delaware Valley by expanding the university’s nationally recognized civic engagement program.
Haddon is the recipient of the 2019 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of American Law Schools and the 2019 Smith College Medal. In 2015, she received the Trailblazer’s Award from the New Jersey Women Lawyer’s Association, and was similarly honored by the National Association of Women Business Owners in South Jersey in 2016. In 2014, Haddon was an invited speaker at the 91st annual meeting of the American Law Institute, where other invited speakers included U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Haddon is on the Boards of Trustees for the Cooper University Health System, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and HERS (Higher Education Resource Services).
NJBIZ named her among the “Top 50 in Higher Ed” in New Jersey in 2019, while Philadelphia Business Journal named her to its “Power 100” list for 2019 and the Philadelphia Inquirer selected her as a winner of its 2019 Diversity & Inclusion Pioneer Award.
Haddon earned an LL.M. from Yale Law School in 1985 and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Duquesne University School of Law in 1977. She received a bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1972 and served as vice chair of the Smith College Board of Trustees until 2009.
Biography
Prior to joining the Rutgers–Camden community, Haddon served as dean of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, which benefited from the new, transformative academic resources and intellectual vitality that occurred under her leadership. In 2011, the school received a $30 million commitment from the W.P. Carey Foundation, the largest gift ever received by the University and its law school.
The new resources, targeted toward faculty development, allowed Haddon to strengthen the school’s already nationally ranked programs in health, environmental and clinical law and to allocate additional resources to build its newer programs in business and intellectual property law. She also enriched students’ legal education by expanding the law school’s commitment to recruiting a diverse student body.
In 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 Haddon was honored by the National Jurist as one of the “25 Most Influential People in Legal Education.” In 2012, the Daily Record of Baltimore named her one of the “Top 100 Women” in Maryland; in 2010, the newspaper named her as one of the year’s most Influential Marylanders. In 2011, she received the Great Teacher Award from the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT).
In Maryland, Haddon has been honored by the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture; serves on the board of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women; and is a member of the Lawyers’ Round Table, the 2011 class of Leadership Maryland, and Network 2000.
Haddon currently is a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on the Future of Legal Services. She has served on numerous boards, including the Delaware Valley Community Reinvestment Fund, the Women’s Law Project, the William Penn Foundation, the Samuel S. Fels Fund, and the Philadelphia Education Fund. In addition, she is on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
She also served as co-president of the board of governors and as a member of the executive committee of the Society of American Law Teachers, as a member of the executive committee of the Association of American Law Schools, and as a trustee of the Law School Admissions Council.
In 2014, Haddon was an invited speaker at the 91st annual meeting of the American Law Institute, where other invited speakers included U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was named among the "2014 Women of Distinction" by Philadelphia Business Journal. In January 2015, she delivered the keynote address at the 20th Mid-Atlantic People of Color Conference. She is a recipient of the 2015 New Jersey Women Lawyers Association’s Women’s Initiative and Leaders in Law Platinum Award.
Chancellor Haddon offers her thoughts on being named “Trailblazer of the Year” by the National Association of Women Business Owners in New Jersey in 2016 in this video.
Prior to joining UM Carey Law, Haddon served for more than 25 years as a distinguished faculty member at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. An accomplished scholar on constitutional law and tort law, she is the co-author of two casebooks in those fields and has written numerous scholarly articles on equal protection, jury participation, academic freedom and diversity.
During her years at Temple, she fought racial and gender bias on the Pennsylvania bench and bar, serving on several state and city bodies, including the City of Philadelphia Board of Ethics. Previously she practiced at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., and clerked for the Honorable Joseph F. Weis Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Haddon earned an LL.M. from Yale Law School in 1985 and a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Duquesne University School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the Duquesne Law Review, in 1977. She received a bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1972 and served as vice chair of the Smith College Board of Trustees until 2009.
Born in Washington, D.C., Haddon spent much of her childhood in Passaic, New Jersey, where her mother was a public school teacher and her father served as a dentist. She is married to Frank McClellan, a 1967 graduate of Rutgers University–New Brunswick and a professor emeritus at Temple University law school. She has a daughter and two sons.
Publications
Books
Tort Law: Cases, Problems, Perspectives (LEXIS 4th ed. 2007) (with Galligan, Maraist, McClellan, Rustad, Terry & Wildman).
Tort Law: Cases and Materials (Matthew Bender & Co. 3d ed. 2002) (with Phillips, Terry, Maraist, McClellan & Galligan).
First Amendment Law: Cases, Comparative Perspectives, and Dialogues (Anderson Pub. Co. 2003) (edited with others).
Constitutional Law: Cases, History & Dialogues (LEXIS (formerly Anderson Pub. Co.)) 1996 & 2000 (2d ed.) (with Lively, Weaver, Araiza, and Roberts), and 2006 (3d ed.) (with Roberts & Araiza).
Constitutional Law Anthology (Anderson Pub. Co. 1997) (with Glennon, Haddon, Lively, Roberts & Weaver).
Book Chapters
Finding Justice: Women of Color in the Maryland Bar, in A History of Women Lawyers in Maryland Since 1638 (Lynne Battaglia ed. George F. Thompson, LLC) (forthcoming 2014).
Leadership Studies for Lawyers of the Future, in Law and Leadership: Integrating Leadership Studies into the Law School Curriculum (Paula Monopoli & Susan McCarty eds. Ashgate Pub. Ltd.) (2012).
A Dinamica da Afirmativa Nos Estados Unidos [in] Acao Afirmativa na PUC: Reflexao Sobre Experiencias Concretas Editoria PUC-RIO (2004) (talk delivered at PUC-RIO University, Brazil in 2003).
Products Liability: U.S. Experiences, International Composium on Sino-American Forum on Chinese Torts in Treatise on Torts Law (Democracy and Legal System Press of China 2004).
Articles
Has the Roberts Court Plurality‘s Colorblind Rhetoric Finally Broken Brown’s Promise? 90 Denv. U.L. Rev. 1251 (2013).
A Public Calling: Lessons from the Lives of Judges of Color in Pennsylvania, 20 Temple Pol. & Civil Rights Review 159 (2010).
Educating Lawyers with a Global Vision, 25 Maryland Journal of International Law 1 (2010).
Misuse and Abuse of the LSAT: Making the Case for Alternative Evaluative Efforts and a Redefinition of Merit (coauthored with Deborah Post), 80 St. John’s Law Rev. No. 41 (2006).
An Independent Judiciary: The Life and Writings of Robert N.C. Nix, Jr., 79 Temp. L. Rev. (Spring 2006).
Executive Summary of the Report on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System, in Litigating Medical Malpractice Claims (2005).
Protection of Human Subjects in Clinical Trials and Research: Selected Issues, in Litigating Medical Malpractice Claims (2005).
Does Grutter Offer Courts an Opportunity to Consider Race in Jury Selection and Decisions Related to Promoting Fairness in the Deliberative Process?, 13 Temp. Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 547 (2004).
Addressing Race and Gender Bias, in Litigating Medical Malpractice Claims (2004).
Coalescing with SALT: A Taste for Inclusion, 11 So. Calif. Rev. of Law & Wom. Stud. 321 (2002).
Some Ethical Considerations of Emerging Forms of Practice: Multidisciplinary Practice and Multijurisdictional Practice, in Litigating Medical Malpractice Claims (2002).
Bias Scenarios, in Litigating Medical Malpractice Claims (2001) (with J. Berkman).
Multidisciplinary Practice: Recent Developments and Effects of the Continuing Debate, in Litigating Medical Malpractice Claims (2001).
The Litigator's Dilemma: "Should I Confront or Ignore Concerns about Racism, Sexism or Other Isms in my Case?" in Litigating Medical Malpractice Claims (2001).
The MDP Controversy: What Legal Educators Should Know, 50 J.L.E. 504 (2000).
All the Difference in the World: Listening and Hearing the Voices of Women, 8 Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. No. 2 (1999).
Keynote Address: Redefining Our Roles in the Battle for Inclusion of People of Color in Legal Education, 31 N. Eng. L. Rev. 709 (1997).
Education for a Public Calling in the Twenty-First Century, 69 Wash. L. Rev. 573 (1994).
Rethinking the Jury Function, 3 Bill of Rights L. Rev. 29 (1994).
An Essay on the Ninth Amendment: Interpretation for the New World Order, 2 Pol. & Civ. Rts. L. Rev. 93 (1992).
Academic Freedom and Governance: A Call for Increased Dialogue and Diversity, 66 Tex. L. Rev. 1561 (1988).
Baby “M” (mock decision of opinion of Superior Court Judge) 119 N.J.L.J. 335 (1987).
Baby Doe: Compromise and Moral Dilemma, 34 Emory L.J. 545 (1985).
McClellan & Northcross (now Haddon), Remedies and Damages for Violation of Constitutional Rights, 18 Duq. L. Rev. 409 (1980).
Note, Jersey Central Power & Light Co. v. Local 327, IBEW, 14 Duq. Law Rev. 475 (1976).
Monographs
Final Report of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Committee on Racial and Gender Bias in the Justice System (Pennsylvania Supreme Court 2003) (with others).