Biography

Dean Friedman leads the Pro Bono and Public Interest Program team at Rutgers Law School. With others, and thanks to the generous support of James and Dr. Sharon Maida, she designed and implemented the Maida Public Interest Fellows Program, which awards one full-time post-graduate fellowship and up to 40 summer public interest stipends each year. In addition, in 2016, Friedman inaugurated the Camden-based Social Justice Scholars Program to recognize and nurture students with exceptional dedication to public interest work and to promote public interest career development; the Program provides scholarships, summer stipends, faculty mentoring; and career development programming. She is a co-founder of the NJ Innocence Project at Rutgers University.

Each Rutgers Law School campus offers approximately 10 in-house and external pro bono projects, including the  Hon. Judith H. Wizmur and the Hon. Morris Stern Bankruptcy Projects, domestic violence, legal research,  VITA, international refugee assistance, wills/powers of attorney and others. In 2015, Friedman was honored with a seed grant from Rutgers University - Newark Chancellor Nancy Cantor, in support of the Newark Educational Access and Advocacy Project. Starting with support from the Provost of Rutgers University-Camden in 2017, she and others from a range of disciplines built the NJ Innocence Project at Rutgers University, which hired its inaugural managing attorney in 2022.

Friedman directs the Rutgers chapter of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, a law school course and community civics education project designed to increase public literacy about the Bill of Rights. She has initiated and led many other diversity pipeline and community law-related education programs, including Street Law, Summer Law Institute, and, with Angela V. Baker, the LSAC Discoverlaw.org Prelaw Undergraduate Scholars Program , then one of five such programs in the United States. 

Dean Friedman serves on a number of professional boards and has been recognized with campus and community awards. She began her career as a staff attorney in the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society in New York City. She has served as a consultant to Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania and to Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY). At Good Shepherd Mediation Program in Germantown, PA, Dean Friedman helped develop the Family Passages Initiative, a divorce and child custody mediation project serving low- and middle-income families. From 2005 until 2007, she held a senior position at Philadelphia Futures, a nonprofit organization with the mission of increasing educational accomplishment and life opportunities for low-income and first generation public school students. She volunteers regularly as a mediator for the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations and serves on the Community Advisory Board at WHYY, Philadelphia's public media station.

Dean Friedman earned her J.D. from New York University (1987) and her B.A. from Yale University (1984).

 

Publications

"Legal Challenges and Resources for Children with Special Needs" (with E.Kerber, M. Miller, et al.), New Jersey Lawyer, October 2017.

"Educating Young People about Law in a Disadvantaged City: Rutgers University School of Law and the City of Camden, New Jersey" (with C. Haber and E. Biskind Klothen), The Denver University Law Review, Volume 90, Issue 4: 937.

PRESENTATIONS

"Communicating with Your Pro Bono Client," American Law Institute (ALI) Continuing Legal Education, Planning and Teaching Faculty, April 2016.

"Ethics for Pro Bono Lawyers," American Law Institute (ALI) Continuing Legal Education, Planning and Teaching Faculty, December 2015.

"Finding Support and Satisfaction in Pro Bono Work," American Law Institute (ALI) Continuing Legal Education, Planning and Teaching Faculty, August 2015.

"Rutgers School of Law-Camden and LEAP Academy Charter School: How a K12 School-Law School Partnership Engages Students and Families" (with G. Bonilla-Santiago and R. Ransom), Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) "Justice for All" Conference, February 27, 2015

"What Does School Choice Mean for Camden?" National School Choice Week, Democracy Prep, January 29, 2015

"Pro Bono Mediation Projects at Rutgers University - Camden School of Law" (with S. Raab), Association for Conflict Resolution  -  Delaware Valley Chapter, December 1, 2014.

“Upper Division:  Hybrid Clinical Projects” (with S. Ricks). Bringing Outside In:  Social Justice Collaborations in the Legal Writing Curriculum (re: Pro Bono Research Project), Drexel University School of Law, June 19, 2014. “Bankruptcy Pro Bono” (with R. Cooper, J. Hargrave, J. Kitson, P. Mertsock-Wolfe), 16th Annual William H. Gindin Bankruptcy Bench-Bar Conference, East Brunswick, NJ, May 9, 2014.

"Educating Young People about Law in a Disadvantaged City: Rutgers University School of Law and the City of Camden, New Jersey" (with C. Haber). Ira C. Rothgerber Conference, Public Constitutional Literacy, Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law, University of Colorado Law School, November 2012.

"Marshall-Brennan:  Best Practices". Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project National Summit, Washington, DC, January 2012.

“Engaging Urban Youth in Law-Related Education” (with Craig Livermore). New Jersey Council for the Social Studies, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, October  2010.

"Marshall-Brennan:  Best Practices" (with Roy Karp). Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project National Summit, Tempe, AZ, January 2010.

“Using Pro Bono to Launch a Public Interest Career” (with Rebecca Baehr). Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair, Washington, DC, October 2009.

“Engaging Urban Youth in Law-Related Education” (with Craig Livermore), American Bar Association Law-Related Education Conference, Chicago, IL, October 2009.