Rutgers School of Law – Newark

History

Before the merger, the former Rutgers Law School–Newark was the oldest of the then-three law schools in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Founded in 1908 as the New Jersey Law School, it merged in 1936 with the University of Newark, which itself merged with Rutgers University, the eighth oldest college in the country. The former Rutgers Law School–Newark celebrated its centennial on September 9, 2008. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association, a member of the Association of American Law Schools, and registered with the Board of Regents of the State of New York. According to the former school's annual 2014 ABA-required disclosure, 85.5% of the Class of 2014 secured long-term employment nine months after graduation; 65.2% of the class was employed in full-time, long-term, J.D.–required positions nine months after graduation.

By the late 1960s, Rutgers School of Law–Newark had received the moniker "The People's Electric Law School." Its faculty included such activists as Arthur Kinoy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. As of January 2017, the alumni of the former Rutgers Law School–Newark include two currently sitting United States senators, Robert Menendez and Elizabeth Warren.

Admissions

Rutgers' selective admissions are administered with a process that offers applicants a choice between competing for admission based primarily on traditional measures such as LSAT scores and college GPAs, or, alternatively, on the basis of an applicant's life experience, with a lesser (though still significant) emphasis placed on traditional factors. Factors that may be considered in the Rutgers admissions process include, but are not limited to, work experience, personal accomplishments, and other aspects of the applicant's personal background.

Rutgers' unique admissions process is particularly significant when contrasted with the efforts of other law schools to maximize the undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores of their incoming classes in order to improve their standing in popular law school ranking publications.

Academics

A unified admissions process accompanies the merger of the Newark and Camden schools into a single Rutgers Law School. Starting with the incoming class of 2016, application materials and requirements are identical. Applicants indicate, after admission, which of the two cities — Camden or Newark — will be their preferred home base for legal studies.

The J.D. program at Rutgers requires a total of 84 credits to graduate. The 1L curriculum requires traditional courses in Torts, Contracts, Property, Criminal Law, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, and Legal Analysis, Writing and Research Skills. All required courses are graded on a standard B-curve. 1Ls are grouped in small sections of roughly 30 people, who take all of the same required classes together. Though two or three sections are generally combined for required courses, each student has a 'small section' class where their section of 30 or fewer people is taught a required subject by a tenured faculty member. Students may choose to attend classes on either a full-time or part-time basis.

Journals

The law school has five student journals:

Additionally, there are two unaccredited journals:

Clinics

Rutgers School of Law – Newark, the first law school in New Jersey to provide law clinics and one of the first in the country, provides legal services and clinical education in it its ten clinics.

Employment

According to the Law School's official 2014 ABA-required disclosures, 85.5% of the Class of 2014 obtained long-term employment within nine months of graduation, with 65.2% of that class obtaining full-time, long-term, bar passage-required employment within nine months. An additional 11.5% of the Class of 2014 obtained a J.D.-preferred job within nine months of graduation. 7.9% of the Class of 2014 was unemployed nine months after graduating.

Costs

Tuition and fees at Rutgers law School for the 2016-2017 academic year is $27,011 (full-time, in-state) and $39,425 (full-time, out-of-state).

Rankings

According to the U.S. News Law School Rankings for 2015-16, the Law School is ranked 87th overall, with its part-time program ranking 19th overall. It is ranked 74th according to Peer Reputation score, making it the highest peer-rated school in New Jersey, tied with its sister school in Camden. The U.S. News rankings are based heavily on incoming student attributes, such as average undergraduate GPA and LSAT score, as opposed to employment outcomes. U.S. News has ranked the Law School 9th in the country on its list of law degrees "with the biggest return on investment."

The National Law Journal ranked the Law School 47th on its 2015 list of the Top 50 Go-To Law Schools. It was the only law school in New Jersey to appear on that list, which reported that 10.1% of the Law School's 2014 graduates were hired directly by one of the country's top 250 law firms.

The Law School ranks 42nd in the nation in the 2015 Above the Law Rankings, which weighs graduate employment, quality of graduate jobs, education cost, alumni feedback, student debt, and the number of alumni serving as federal judges.

Finally, the Law School is ranked 30th according to Business Insider's 2014 'Top Law Schools in America' list.

Notable alumni

Graduates of the law school are prominent in the judiciary, academic, private practice, public interest practice, and all levels of government. Two alumni are current United States Senators, at least ten are current federal judges, and two are chairs of "white shoe" law firms. Dozens are professors—tenured and/or clinical—at prominent law schools. These alumni include:

Judiciary

Academia

Public Service

Public Interest

Business and others