Biography

Prof. Friedman teaches Interviewing and Counseling and Professional Responsibility. She directs the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, and co-teaches a course that trains and supervises Fellows who teach about the Bill of Rights in Camden's high schools. She directs the Pro Bono and Public Interest Program, which includes approximately 15 in-house pro bono projects and additional opportunities in partnership with legal services providers.

With support from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, Prof. Friedman directs the law school's Street Law Pro Bono Project, which trains, supports, and supervises law students who provide practical law-related education to hundreds of disadvantaged young people each semester in schools, detention centers, shelters and elsewhere in Camden and its vicinity. Prof. Friedman inaugurated a Summer Law Institute, a Camden moot court program and--in partnership with student groups-- a Camden-wide Constitution Day Project, all opportunities for law students to use their legal training to empower disadvantaged young people. In 2012, Prof. Friedman and Associate Dean Angela V. Baker were selected to co-direct the LSAC Discoverlaw.org Prelaw Undergraduate Scholars Program at Rutgers School of Law-Camden; one of nine such programs in the United States, PLUS has the mission of increasing the diversity of the legal profession and improving the qualifications of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups who may want to become lawyers. It provides a month-long residential immersion in the law for exceptional future lawyers.

Prof. Friedman was appointed in 2010 to the National Advisory Committee of Equal Justice Works, which has the mission of mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to advocating for underrepresented people and causes.  She serves on the Board of Directors of New Jersey Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts and completed a three-year term on the Board of Trustees of Camden's LEAP Academy University Charter School.   Admitted to practice law in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, she received a Faculty Appreciation Award from the Women's Law Caucus in April 2009.

Prior to joining Rutgers, Prof. Friedman served from 1987 until 1993 as a staff attorney and senior 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, Prof. Friedman co-founded 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 for low-income public school students. She also worked as a community mediator and was a member of the founding Board of Directors of the Delaware Valley chapter of the Association for Conflict Resolution.

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

Publications

"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), forthcoming inThe Denver University Law Review, Volume 90, Issue 4.

PRESENTATIONS

"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 2013.

"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.