Eve Biskind Klothen, ’75, assistant dean for pro bono and public interest programs at the Rutgers School of Law-Camden, is the recipient of the 2009 Father Robert Drinan Award, a highly prestigious award presented by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). The AALS presents the annual award to acknowledge outstanding contributions to pro bono and public service by law schools and legal educators.
In naming Klothen as the 2009 winner of the Drinan Award, the AALS noted that her work at the Rutgers-Camden law school "has both dramatically expanded opportunities for students to engage in an array of pro bono activities, and has been instrumental in building a broad law school culture that values and rewards public service and makes it possible for more students to pursue careers in public service."
Klothen received her award during a meeting of the AALS’s Section on Pro Bono and Public Service Opportunities in San Diego on January 8. The award honors Drinan, the former dean of Boston College Law School and a former U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, who was a human rights activist who served on the boards of the International League for Human Rights, the Lawyer’s Committee for International Human Rights, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, among many others.
Since 2002, Klothen has advanced and expanded the portfolio of pro bono and public interest programs at the Rutgers School of Law-Camden, which offers a diverse array of programs in such areas as bankruptcy, domestic violence, immigration, and more. Under Klothen’s tenure, Rutgers-Camden law students and recent graduates have earned national honors for their work in public interest law, including fellowships from Equal Justice Works, the Independence Foundation, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.
Prior to joining the law school staff at the Camden Campus of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Klothen served as executive director of the Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent Program, a nationally recognized initiative offered by the Philadelphia Bar Association. She also served as a federal agency litigator, and as a legal services attorney. She serves on the boards of City Year Greater Philadelphia and MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, where she is the immediate past president. She is a member of the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission and the Civil Justice Advisory Committee for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Klothen earned her J.D. degree from Vanderbilt Law School in 1975. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in 1972.