Bernard K. Freamon “A highlight of my career was the day we hung the ‘Seton Hall Law Center for Social Justice’ sign at the clinic’s entrance on McCarter Highway,” said Professor Freamon. “That sign made a statement to Newark that Seton Hall Law School is here to represent and give voice to the underserved populations in our city. Not many lawyers can hang that kind of shingle. To this day I have graduates tell me that their CSJ experience was one of the most rewarding and valuable of their careers.” Professor Freamon’s dedication to advancing human rights sparked innovative and transformational educational programs for Seton Hall Law students, starting with his work in the Center for Social Justice in the 1980’s. Teaming with Dean Ronald Riccio and other faculty, Professor Freamon helped forge a clinical model that was among the first of its kind in the country, with its duel focus on justice and providing hands-on learning for students in a community lacking pro bono services for the poor. Over the next 20 years, Professor Freamon introduced a number of groundbreaking studyabroad initiatives, bringing more than 700 students into comparative law programs held in Cairo, Egypt and later in Amman, Jordan. His continued focus on human rights sparked the launch of the popular winter intersession course in Modern-Day Slavery and Human Trafficking held in Zanzibar, Tanzania, the only ABA-accredited course of its kind. “My fondest memories of these programs emanate from watching students immerse themselves in parts of the world most had never visited, studying subjects they had never been exposed to before: Islamic jurisprudence, international criminal law, oil and gas law, international human rights and legal issues emerging in the Middle East and Africa,” Professor Freamon recalled. “These are opportunities they may never have the chance to experience again.”
Upper: Talking with students in the early days of the Center for Social Justice. Lower: Surrounded by his students in Zanzibar during the 2011-12 program.
Ronald J. Riccio ’71 Ron Riccio returned to his beloved alma mater in 1988, when he was appointed Seton Hall Law’s Dean after 16 years in private practice. Dean Riccio’s agenda for his first year in the role would have crowded another dean’s entire tenure: funding and planning a new building in Newark, transforming the Law School’s ethos to be student-centered, healing divisions among the faculty, restructuring the Law School’s clinics, creating new programs, and reforming the curriculum. He was remarkably successful on all counts. With its sweeping atrium and timeless design, the Seton Hall Law building, dedicated in 1993, has met the faculty’s original aspiration for Seton Hall Law’s “campus,” “to serve as a landmark for Newark…a place where students would flourish, and in which the public would be served.” Dean Riccio also launched an aggressive initiative to hire nationally distinguished faculty members to enhance the School’s visibility on the national stage, including Professor Eugene Gressman, Chief Judge John Gibbons, and Congressman Peter Rodino, while also appointing young scholars who would ensure the future of Seton Hall, including two who would be his successors as Dean. Remarkably for someone who shouldered so many administrative duties, he also became one of the most celebrated and beloved professors in the School’s history, teaching Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure, among other courses. Most recently, he taught the popular Introduction to Lawyering class for first-year students, putting them through their paces as he would newly minted associates in a law firm. “There’s nothing better than taking a young person who wants to become a lawyer and shaping them: to understand how to think like a lawyer, to understand how to act like a lawyer, and to understand that being a lawyer is more than just knowing the law,” Dean Riccio said. 4
Seton Hall Law Magazine
Upper: Talking with students during his inaugural year as Dean. Lower: Celebrating at the Annual Alumni Dinner Dance with his lifelong friends and colleagues at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP; from left, Edward Deutsch ’71, the Honorable Dennis Cavanaugh ’74, and Joseph LaSala ’72.