Real-World Experience
Manage a docket of 10–20 cases at a time, from handling simple divorce and child support/custody cases to consumer protection, employment discrimination, bankruptcy, estate planning, and will contests.
Rutgers Law Associates Fellowship Program
Guiding Graduates: Our Residency Program
Rutgers Law School offers recent law school graduates a one-year residency program inspired by medical school residencies. During this program, you will work full-time in law under close supervision and guidance, offering legal services to New Jersey residents with low to moderate incomes.
Upon completing the program, you will be fully prepared to join established law practice in either the public or private sector or to launch viable quality practices of your own.
The amount of work I got to do on my feet in the courtroom, in conference calls...was more than I have done in my subsequent years of private practice. It covered things I didn’t do in law school.
John Boehler '14
Advantages of the Fellowship Program
Launched in 2014, this one-of-a-kind program offers a post-doctoral fellowship to select law school graduates who are admitted to practice or are seeking admission to practice law in New Jersey. Go from a “new lawyer” to a successful practitioner with the skills and experience you’ll earn in the fellowship program.
Continuing Education Seminars
Attend seminars on civil and criminal procedural issues and professional responsibility, as well as business development, billing, collection, and law firm management, are provided each week.
Concentrated Skills Training Regimen
Fellows work collaboratively, brainstorming and critiquing one another with a managing attorney to develop best practices for their work. Unlike other postgraduate training programs, the Rutgers Law Associates Fellowship is an educational enterprise of the Law School and is not an independent non-profit law firm.
Train Under an Established Attorney
Fellows have constant access to the managing attorney to ensure that the highest quality work is provided to the program’s clients. Collaborate, share, and brainstorm with the managing attorney to solve problems and learn from their experience.
Serve the Community
Recent economic stresses have put tremendous pressure on that segment of the population that is neither indigent, and therefore eligible for some legal assistance from public defenders, legal aid organizations, and law school clinics, nor wealthy enough to afford a private attorney’s service. The provision of affordable legal services by new lawyers under the supervision of an experienced teacher/practitioner is helping to meet this burgeoning need.
Discover Our Associates Fellowship
The Rutgers Law Associates Fellowship is an innovative program that equips future lawyers for success. For more information about the program and how to apply, please visit the designated sections below.
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The Fellowship is open to qualified graduates from all ABA-approved law schools. Your application needs to include a cover letter, resume, transcript, and writing sample. Please submit your application to CareerDevelopment@law.rutgers.edu. Admission to the Fellowship Program is contingent on admission to the New Jersey Bar.
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August Admission for Newark and Camden-
Application Deadline: May 20, 2024
First Day of Classes: August 12, 2024
Completion Date: August 15, 2025
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Managing the program is Professor Andrew J. Rothman, Esq., an attorney/educator committed to legal education and professional practice. Professor Rothman has extensive experience in the courtroom and law school classroom, teaching civil practice, professional responsibility, and law firm development. You can contact Professor Rothman at andrew.rothman@law.rutgers.edu.
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As a program fellow, you are expected to work on client matters about two-thirds of your time and participate in seminars and other classes related to practice areas, business development, management, and problems in professional responsibility for much of the balance of your time. As you progress through the program, you will devote some of your time to marketing, client development, and your legal and classroom work. You will receive a modest stipend, and we cover all the tuition costs associated with your coursework.
Annual Stipend: $50,000
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Launched in January of 2014 in Rutgers School of Law–Newark and expanded to our Camden location, the Rutgers Law Associates is the nation’s first post-doctoral fellowship program of its kind, designed to train recent law school graduates as practitioners while providing a variety of legal services to low to moderate-income New Jersey residents at fees substantially below market rates.
Although initially created to serve that population of law school graduates looking to enter small or solo practice, the program has instead proven to be an outstanding entryway to more extensive firm practice and public interest lawyering. The experience gained in the fellowship year has been a key factor in the hiring decisions of these firms and nonprofit employers. (For example, virtually all fellows have had multiple court appearances within their first weeks in the program, and all will have settled several complex cases, tried one or more cases, and made dozens of court appearances before their fellowships end.)
Get Legal Help
If you are looking for legal assistance, please contact Rutgers Law Associates in Camden at 856-225-6088 or in Newark at 973-353-2564.