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We Are Family The Minority Student Program at Rutgers Law School celebrates 50 years of promoting underrepresented students for careers in the legal profession. n a mid-April students to demand diversity at Rutgers evening in Newark University–Newark and its law school. this year, the ball- That year, of the 2,500 students attending room at the Robert Rutgers–Newark, a paltry 62 were African Treat Hotel was American, according to retired Rutgers quickly filling with Law School professor Paul Tractenberg, men and women the author of A Centennial History of dressed in formal wear as they arrived to Rutgers Law School in Newark: Opening Othe sound of glasses clinking and the din a Thousand Doors (The History Press, of excited conversation. After all, it was 2010). Between 1960 and 1967, only 12 a night that was 50 years in the making. nonwhite students graduated from the law Roughly 700 people—attorneys, judges, school, and in 1969, there were fewer than politicians, professors, and deans—were 60 African-American attorneys among the coming together to recognize the 50th 8,000 lawyers practicing in the state. anniversary of a pioneering program at To address this imbalance, law school Rutgers Law School that has diversified dean Willard Heckel enlisted a group the New Jersey State Bar. The Minority of professors and students to sit on the Student Program (MSP) is a nationally committee convened to establish the acclaimed postadmissions program that MSP. Among the participants was Frank serves students, regardless of race or Askin, who retired in 2016 after a 50-year ethnicity, who are underrepresented in career on the faculty and earlier had been the legal profession and who have faced a civil rights organizer in his hometown of discrimination or overcome social and Baltimore. Under his leadership, the com- economic hardships. The program offers mittee spent two years creating a broader legal-skills development, academic sup- admissions-evaluation system, which took port, alumni mentoring and networking, into consideration a student’s leadership internships, and other opportunities. ability, professional experience, and com- The program got its start during the munity involvement in addition to LSAT civil rights movement, rising from the scores and grades. Originally, it was a ashes of the civil unrest in Newark in quota program, but was later modified to 1967, when the simmering tensions led comply with U.S. Supreme Court rulings. 62 MAGAZINE.RUTGERS.EDU photography by jennifer brown FALL 2018 63 “It worked out really well,” says Askin. “It In 2015, the School of Law–Newark Ronald K. Chen was really the first [program of its kind] and the School of Law–Camden merged Esther Salas Distinguished Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School in the country.” to form Rutgers Law School; the MSP United States District Judge, District of New Jersey From its first class of 23 African- was introduced at the Camden location American students in 1968, the MSP has the following year. Program director After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy and Family means a lot to judge Esther Salas, includ- grown to include historically underrep- Rhasheda Douglas says 70 students Dartmouth College—“very admirable, but very tradi- ing the one she found at the MSP. Shortly after resented students regardless of ethnicity from underrepresented groups and tional, educational institutions”—Ronald K. Chen enrolling in law school at Rutgers, the first in her arrived in Newark in 1980 to attend law school at or socioeconomic background. More than disadvantaged backgrounds are taking family to pursue a legal degree, Salas RC’91, Rutgers and had his eyes opened wide to possibility. 2,500 students have graduated from the part in Camden’s MSP and 12 will NLAW’94 feared she wasn’t up to the challenge. His classmates, representing such diverse back- MSP, including United States Senator graduate in 2019; 200 students are But dean Janice Robinson allayed her fears, say- grounds and experiences, were just as much his Robert Menendez NLAW’79; New Jersey participating in the program at the ing all the right things. “If you said then that I teachers as were members of the faculty. Initially, he State Senator Nia Gill NLAW’75; New Newark location. Through Camden’s would become the first Latina United States District Judge in New Jersey, I wouldn’t have thought the MSP was just a support program but Jersey Assemblywoman Annette Quijano MSP, Rutgers Law School hosted a prelaw came to see it was much more than that. “It provides believed it,” says Salas. CCAS’88, NLAW’91; Passaic County diversity conference in January 2018, a vision of the law as an instrument of positive social After serving as an associate at Garces, change,” says Chen NLAW’83. prosecutor Camelia Valdes NLAW’96; created the MSP Summer Judicial Grabler & LeBrocq, she became an assistant The example set by the MSP propelled Chen along and Hudson County prosecutor Esther Internship Program, and, working with federal public defender and then, in 2006, the an illustrious legal career path: former New Jersey Suarez DC’92, NLAW’97. the Philadelphia Diversity Law Group, first Hispanic magistrate judge for the United Public Advocate; current general counsel of the A daylong symposium that complemented placed seven students who served as States District Court in New Jersey. Nominated American Civil Liberties Union and chair of the New Jersey Supreme Court Advisory the April 14th evening anniversary celebra- summer associates at Philadelphia-area by President Barack Obama, Salas was confirmed as the United States District Judge for the Committee on Professional Ethics; and inaugural co-dean of Rutgers Law School, from which District of New Jersey in 2011. tion featured remarks from former MSP law firms and corporations. he recently stepped down to return to the law school’s faculty. In litigating civil rights and civil “From the professors to the administrators to your classmates,” Salas says, “there was a deans, current professors, students, and liberties cases, Chen has been a legal warrior for voters’ rights, among other causes. “Newark’s MSP has provided outstanding critical sense that, together, anything is possible through the MSP. I never felt alone. I always The MSP’s promotion of diversity in the classroom and inclusiveness in the legal profession alumni, including Menendez. “One of the leadership in diversifying the legal profes- felt accepted for who I was and who I wanted to be.” taught Chen the value of passionate advocacy. “Rutgers’ greatest gift was to empower me to things that you got through the MSP [was sion for over 50 years,” says Douglas, “and Every year, a new MPS class visits Salas. The students watch court proceedings and discuss make a difference—to promote social justice and give voice to the voiceless,” says Chen. to know] how everybody came through I am inspired by its history, and I hope to with her expectations for law school. “We owe the MSP,” says Salas, pointing out that for some sort of struggle and had the desire to repeat its success in Camden.” first-generation law students, it gives them a fighting chance. “You just don’t get where you create change—whether that was change The impact of the MSP is even more are and forget to leave the door open.” Tamara J. Britt to the law, using the law as a tool of social significant because Rutgers Law School is General Counsel, Manhattan College justice, economic change, or change to the one of the 10 largest public law schools in political process,” he said. the nation, with more than 1,100 students. Wade Henderson Felicia Romain, who will graduate in With that kind of wind in the program’s Retired President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Tamara J. Britt was reluctant to apply to the 2019, says the MSP experience has been sails, alumni at the festive gala weren’t MSP. She was in her 30s, had a graduate rewarding. “As someone who did not have just looking back but also to the future. degree, would be a second-generation attor- When Rutgers legal legend Arthur Kinoy argued any family members who were lawyers,” Jeffrey Hsi NLAW’97, an expert in intel- ney, and was excelling in “majority” environ- a case on behalf of Adam Clayton Powell before ments. Britt NLAW’09 was advised that the she says, “I was extremely nervous and lectual property and patent law who is a the United States Supreme Court in 1969 and MSP was one big supportive family and that overwhelmed with the idea of being in shareholder at Wolf, Greenfield & Sacks emerged on the court steps with two African- she might need it. The pressures of job, fam- law school. However, with the MSP, I had in Boston, recently pledged $250,000 to American lawyers by his side, Wade Henderson, ily, and attending law school at night quickly readily available resources that I knew I the MSP and challenged law alumni and a Howard University undergrad observing the tanked her first-semester grades. Feeling could rely on.” students to join him in offering financial proceedings, knew then that he wanted to be an defeated, Britt was encouraged by her advis- Jennifer Velez spent her childhood in help to first-year MSP students serving in attorney. Henderson NLAW’73 entered law ers not to give up. “That’s the MSP: people school at Rutgers two years later and came to a trailer park in Moonachie, New Jersey, summer public-service internships. who lifted you up when you were down.” She embody the mission of the MSP. For more than began to excel. and became the longest-serving commis- “The misconceptions are that there’s 20 years, he was the president and CEO of the Britt saw, too, that the MSP was about sioner of the state’s Department of Human not a need for diverse lawyers,” he says, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human more than just law school; it was about help- Services, holding the position for eight believing there is still a need to diversify Rights.

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