Rutgers University has announced a $6.5 million gift from the Stephanie and Harold Krieger Charitable Trust to help establish the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Women’s Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at Rutgers Law School.

The clinic will work to advance gender equity through direct representation, impact litigation, and legislative work; educate a new generation of students to continue the fight for gender equity; and expand the reach of Rutgers’ nationally ranked clinical programs with a distinct women’s and gender rights clinic. In addition, the gift will establish the Stephanie and Harold Krieger Memorial Endowed Scholarship with a $1 million endowment to provide scholarships for three law students in Newark, with preference given to first-generation college students. 

Ginsburg taught at Rutgers Law School in Newark from 1963 to 1972, becoming one of only two women law professors at Rutgers and one of just a handful in the nation. The original Women’s Rights Litigation Clinic was created in the early 1970s and closed roughly three decades later. The announcement was made in Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall, which was named after her in 2020. Built in 1928, the facility was home to the law school from 1975 to 1999 and now features event space and a residential facility for students.

“Standing here, in a building named for our beloved Justice Ginsburg, on a campus where she herself found inspiration, I find inspiration, too; to keep fighting for justice with our faculty, our staff, our students who are incredibly inspiring in their own right,” said Rutgers-Newark chancellor Nancy Cantor.

(Photo credit: Flickr/Rutgers-Newark)