After Hours: Cooper Levenson; Rutgers Law School

Cooper Levenson announced an early start to the summer program led by “Let Us Eat – Please Inc.,” a member charity of the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, Southern Branch. The charities have teamed up to deliver food to area school districts with families in need during the COVID-19 crisis. “The attorneys in our education law group learned that our client school districts have families in urgent need because of school closings during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Kenneth J. Calemmo Jr., chairman of the charity and chief operating officer of Cooper Levenson, in a statement. “We are very pleased to be able to work with our local school districts and provide them with emergency boxes of food and vouchers that will each feed a family of four for 14 days—enough for a total of 53,550 meals,” he added. The “Let Us Eat – Please” program is set to enable the food bank to deliver a total of 1,275 boxes of food and vouchers to school districts in Galloway Township, Somers Point, Egg Harbor City, and Egg Harbor Township, the release said, noting that delivery was scheduled for April 8. 

Rutgers Law Clinic Helps Families Facing Foreclosure

A Rutgers Law School professor from the Camden campus and her students are working to help residents avoid losing their homes to foreclosure. Approximately 95% of homeowners facing foreclosure do not have legal representation, according to Anne Mallgrave, director of the Rutgers Law Mortgage Foreclosure Project, in a recent statement. “They don’t understand the terminology, they don’t understand the law, they don’t understand the process,” Mallgrave said. “I’ve had conversations with homeowners over the past few years where they had a valid defense to the foreclosure action, but they were trying to represent themselves and didn’t know how to make that argument, it just wasn’t heard, and their homes have been foreclosed on.” She added, “While they are going through the process, the foreclosure action continues to move on,” and, “If the homeowners haven’t filed an answer to the complaint, it moves on very quickly, and before they know it, in some cases, their home is listed for sheriff’s sale as they are still trying to negotiate a modification.” Under Mallgrave’s guidance, Rutgers Law students participating in the project gain experience serving clients; they conduct legal research; interview clients; counsel clients about their options; and prepare documents and briefs that are filed in court. In New Jersey, third-year law students are permitted to be certified to practice law and are allowed to represent a client at a mediation hearing. The program, launched in 2017, is funded by a grant from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation. Eventually, Mallgrave said, she hopes to expand the program by developing a community education program in South Jersey to provide information to help homeowners understand and navigate the foreclosure process. “We’re just trying to level the playing field from the get-go,” she said.