ABA President-Elect to Serve as Guest Speaker at Rutgers Law-Camden Welcome Reception for New Students
Even before the first day of classes on Aug. 25, incoming Rutgers Law–Camden students will be poised to serve as “champion[s] of fairness and due process.”
The approximately 182 first-year students will be led in a ceremonial lawyer’s pledge by New Jersey State Bar Association President Paris P. Eliades during an annual dean’s welcome reception, held in the Gordon Theater on the Rutgers–Camden campus. They’ll also have the distinct privilege to hear remarks from a guest speaker who is making legal history: Paulette Brown, partner at Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP, the first woman of color to serve as president-elect, and eventually president, of the American Bar Association.
Brown returns to Rutgers Law–Camden, after being one of three outstanding individuals honored by the Rutgers Law–Camden Black Law Students Association during its 18th annual Champions of Social Justice Awards Banquet in January.
A labor and employment law partner and chief diversity officer with the Morristown, N.J., office of Edwards Wildman Palmer, Brown has been recognized by the New Jersey Law Journal as one of the prominent women and minority attorneys in the State of New Jersey and by the National Law Journal as one of "The 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America." An alumna of Seton Hall University School of Law, Brown has received the New Jersey Medal from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation and currently serves on its Board of Trustees.
She has repeatedly been named as a New Jersey Super Lawyer and by US News as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of commercial litigation. In 2009, Brown was a recipient of the Spirit of Excellence Award from the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. In 2011, she was honored with the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.
Brown will be introduced at the Aug. 24 reception by newly appointed Dean John Oberdiek. Welcome remarks will be made by Dennis Braithwaite, a visiting professor at Rutgers Law–Camden, where he teaches Criminal Law and was nominated by the students as 2014 Professor of the Year and by Meredith Olearchik, who serves as chancellor of the Camden Law Alumni Association. According to Angela Baker, associate dean of students and career planning, this annual welcome reception serves as rite of passage for new students to begin their rigorous legal education in a supportive community. She says having such a prominent speaker involved in this year’s event is ideal.
Rutgers Law–Camden student leaders are equally excited to be part of the tradition and to have the opportunity to not only hear Brown speak, but to share some words of advice with incoming law students.
Matt Schorr, president of the SBA, says he’ll be talking to students about the importance of staying connected to friends and family. “When you enter law school, it is important not to forget about your friends and family. They are what helped you get to this point and they are going to be what will help you through the next three plus years of law school education.”
But he also will encourage incoming students to take note of the other students also just beginning this journey. SBA 3L president Jen Houghton agrees and plans to address this in her remarks.
“The next three years will be some of the most difficult of your life, but the people you meet and education you gain here at Rutgers is unmatchable,” she notes. “One point of advice is to stay true to yourself. Your impressive accomplishment has gotten you this far, and we look forward to what you all can bring to Rutgers Law.”