100 Years, 100 Milestones
| 1908 | The New Jersey Law School (NJLS) opens on October 5 in the Prudential Insurance Building. Founders Richard D. Currier is the first President, Percival Barnard the Dean, and Charles M. Mason a member of the faculty. In December, the school moves to its own building at 33 East Park Street. |
| 1909 | The State Board of Bar Examiners recognizes NJLS as school of “established reputation,” meaning that completion of an 18-month course of study would satisfy half of the three-year clerkship requirement for admission to the Bar. The first class graduates on June 18. |
| 1910 | Laura Mayo Wilson is the first woman to graduate.
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| 1913 | The state board of education approves NJLS to grant degrees. The law school extends its course of study from two to three years. |
| 1914 | NJLS Press publishes its first casebook (Cases on Torts by Currier & Bates). High school graduation becomes a requirement for admission. |
| 1915 | Calvin McClelland becomes the first blind professor. The school publishes the first issue of the New Jersey Law Review. |
| 1918 | Elizabeth Blume (Class of 1911) becomes the first woman to defend a client for murder. As Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein, in 1936 she becomes a co-founder with her husband Max Silverstein and others of the World Jewish Congress.
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| 1921 | 33 East Park Street is razed and replaced by a new building.
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| 1922 | NJLS is recognized by the New York State Education Department.
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| 1924-25 | A morning program is added to the afternoon and evening programs.
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| 1925 | Two years of college work is phased in as a requirement.
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| 1926 | Mercer Beasley School of Law (briefly located at 60 Park Place, then on sixth floor of Industrial Office Building at 1060 Broad Street) is founded.
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| 1927 | Pre-legal department of NJLS is established at 40 Rector Street. First edition of the yearbook Legacy and of the student newspaper Barrister are published. |
| 1928 | George S. Harris (Class of 1922) becomes Dean and serves until 1936.
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| 1929 | First edition of Pandects (Mercer Beasley School of Law yearbook) is published. Seth Boyden School of Business founded by NJLS. |
| 1930 | NJLS sells 33 East Park Street and completes relocation to 40 Rector Street. Dana College begins and absorbs pre-legal department of NJLS. |
| 1932 | First issue of Mercer Beasley Law Review.
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| 1933 | Merger of NJLS and Seth Boyden School of Business into Dana College.
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| 1934 | Merger of Mercer Beasley School of Law and Newark Institute of Arts & Sciences, forming the University of Newark, located at 17-25 Academy Street.
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| 1935 | First issue of the second New Jersey Law Review.
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| 1936 | Merger of Dana College, NJLS & Seth Boyden School of Business into University of Newark, located at 40 Rector Street, is completed. First issue of the University of Newark Law Review. |
| 1937-38 | Last year that the course Common Law Pleading is taught.
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| 1939 | Beginning of four-year, part-time program.
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| 1941 | University of Newark School of Law gains ABA accreditation.
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| 1946 | University of Newark becomes part of Rutgers University [Laws of 1946, ch.217]. Law school moves to 37 Washington Street. Legal clinic practice by students in criminal courts begins. |
| 1947 | First issue of Rutgers Law Review.
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| 1950 | William B. Widnall, Class of 1931, elected to the U.S. Congress, where he served for 24 years.
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| 1951 | Alfred C. Clapp becomes Dean. Beginning of Appellate Court Moot Program. |
| 1953 | Lehan K. Tunks becomes Dean.
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| 1955 | Clarence Clyde Ferguson, Jr. becomes the first African-American professor. The evening program is discontinued. |
| 1956 | The law school moves to 53 Washington Street.
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| 1961 | Richard J. Hughes, Class of 1931, is elected governor of New Jersey.
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| 1962 | Eva Hanna Morreale becomes the first woman professor. Edward J. Patten, Class of 1926, becomes a member of Congress and serves until 1980. |
| 1963 | Willard Heckel, Class of 1940, becomes Dean. Ruth Bader Ginsburg joins the faculty, teaching at the law school until 1972. |
| 1964 | Arthur Kinoy joins the faculty.
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| 1965 | The law school moves to the newly constructed Ackerson Hall at 180 University Avenue.
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| 1968 | Minority Student Program is established.
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| 1969 | The Administrative Process Project becomes the first curricular clinical program. The Constitutional Litigation Clinic is established by Professor Frank Askin, Class of 1966. |
| 1970 | James C.N. Paul becomes Dean. The Urban Legal Clinic is established. The first issue of Rutgers Journal of Computers and the Law is published. |
| 1971 | José Cabranes becomes the first Latino professor. The first issue of the Women's Rights Law Reporter is published. |
| 1974 | The Education Law Center is founded by Professor Paul Tractenberg.
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| 1975 | Peter Simmons becomes Dean. The Urban Legal Clinic has a victory in Smith v. Walker, 138 N.J. Super 187 (Essex County Court), requiring the county to pay the cost of blood tests for indigent putative father. The evening program is re-established. |
| 1977 | Peggy Cooper Davis becomes the first African-American woman professor. The Women's Rights Litigation Clinic is successful in Tomkins v. PSE&G, 568 F.2d 1044, first Third Circuit decision to recognize sexual harassment as gender discrimination. |
| 1978 | The law school moves to 15 Washington Street.
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| 1979 | The Constitutional Litigation Clinic wins its case involving the FBI investigation of a high school student, Paton v. LaPrade, 471 F. Supp. 166 (D.N.J.).
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| 1982 | Alan Karcher, Class of 1967, becomes Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly.
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| 1983 | Right to Choose v. Byrne, 91 N.J. 287, with Professors Nadine Taub and Louis Raveson for the plaintiffs-respondents, establishes that the State of New Jersey must pay for Medicaid abortions for indigent women.
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| 1985 | Environmental Law Clinic is established.
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| 1987 | Ronald Chen becomes the first Asian-American professor.
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| 1988 | Initial decision in Abbott v. Burke. The case was brought by Marilyn Morheuser (Class of 1973) as director of the Education Law Center; opinion was written by Steven LeFelt, ALJ (Class of 1965).
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| 1989 | Jaynee LaVecchia (Class of 1979) becomes director of the NJ Office of Administrative Law.
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| 1990 | The Animal Rights Law Clinic is founded and continues until 2000.
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| 1991 | Professor Arthur Kinoy retires, remaining on the faculty as an emeritus professor until his death in 2003.
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| 1993 | Robert Menendez (Class of 1979) is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New Jersey. He is elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. Hazel O'Leary (Class of 1966) is appointed U.S. Secretary of Energy. Roger Abrams becomes Dean. Louis J. Freeh (Class of 1974) becomes director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. |
| 1994 | The mall leafletting case, New Jersey Coalition Against War in the Middle East v. J.M.B. Realty Corp., 138 N.J. 326, with Professor Frank Askin representing the ACLU, establishes that the free speech provisions of the State constitution exceed those of the First Amendment.
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| 1995 | The Special Education Clinic is established.
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| 1996 | Rutgers Law Record becomes a general law review and is published online.
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| 1998 | First issue of Rutgers Race & the Law Review. Constitutional Litigation Clinic victory establishing customary international law as basis for suit in Jama v. U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service, 22 F.Supp.2d 353 (D.N.J.) [see also 343 F.Supp.2d 338 (D.N.J. 2004). |
| 1999 | Stuart L. Deutsch becomes Dean. The Loan Repayment Assistance Program is created. Appellate Division Presiding Judge Virginia Long (Class of 1966) becomes a Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. |
| 2000 |
Law school moves to the new Center for Law and Justice at 123 Washington Street. |
| 2002 | First issue of Rutgers Bankruptcy Law Review. The name is changed to Rutgers Business Law Review in 2006.
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| 2004 | Environmental Law Clinic victory in beach access case, Raleigh Ave. Beach Ass'n v. Atlantis Beach Club, 370 N.J. Super. 171 (App. Div. 2004), aff'd, 185 N.J. 40 (2005).
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| 2006 | Ronald Chen (Class of 1983) becomes NJ Public Advocate.
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