Rutgers Law School received $6.5 million from the Stephanie and Harold Krieger Charitable Trust, one of the largest gifts in its history, to help establish the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Women’s Rights and Gender Justice Clinic.
Rutgers Law School Dean Johanna Bond announced the gift on Monday at a formal unveiling of the U.S. Postal Service’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg stamp. The celebration took place at Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall on Rutgers-Newark’s campus.
“This gift will re-establish and expand the former Women’s Rights Litigation Clinic which the Justice founded here in the early 1970s and which accomplished groundbreaking law reform until it ceased operation in the early 2000s,” Bond said.
The clinic’s mission will be 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.
Part of the gift also creates The Stephanie and Harold Krieger Memorial Endowed Scholarship with a $1 million endowment. This will provide major scholarships for three law students in Newark. Preference will be given to first-generation college students in good academic standing with demonstrated financial need.
Harold Kreiger graduated from New Jersey Law School, the predecessor of Rutgers Law, in 1929. He had an active practice that spanned labor law, workers compensation, criminal law, and municipal law. During his lengthy career of private and public practice in Jersey City, he served as municipal judge, assistant corporation counsel, counsel to the Redevelopment Agency and the Parking Authority, and Hudson County counsel. In later years, he served as commissioner of the Tri-State Regional Planning Commission.
Kreiger’s will provided that upon the passing of his wife, Stephanie, a charitable trust would be created and directed by the named trustee, Brett S. Harwood, a longtime family friend. Before Stephanie’s passing, Harwood received her full endorsement of the new clinic’s funding and scholarship fund.
“The fight goes on. The legacy goes on,” Harwood stated. “We’re creating the funds to create a long lasting legacy to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and it pleases me very, very much to be able to facilitate this.”
The celebration to unveil the new stamp in Ginsburg’s honor drew nearly
200 people, including students from Barringer, Central, and University high schools in Newark. Justice Ginsburg’s granddaughter Clara Spera, a lecturer at Harvard Law School, gave remarks at the celebration.
“This stamp is an especially meaningful tribute to my grandmother for many reasons,” Spera said. “She joins the ranks of other justices she revered, like Thurgood Marshall, and other path-marking civil rights advocates like Ella Baker and women’s rights pioneers like Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.”
The event was co-sponsored by the U.S. Postal Service, the Ebony Society of Philatelic Events and Reflections, which commemorates stamps related to the African Diaspora, and the American Association of University Women’s New Jersey Chapter. Rutgers-Newark was also a sponsor.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hall, built in 1929, was named in her honor in 2020. The neoclassical skyscraper was home to the law school from 1975 to 1999 and now features a residential facility for students and event space.
