On Thursday, November 6, 2014 the Alumni Association of Rutgers School of Law–Newark will celebrate the achievements of Mary Beth Hogan ’90, Senior Co-Chair of Litigation at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; the Honorable Esther Salas ’94, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey; and Amy Gottlieb ’96, Associate Regional Director, American Friends Service Committee, Northeast Region. Mary Beth Hogan and Judge Salas will receive a Distinguished Alumna Award and Amy Gottlieb will be honored with the Fannie Bear Besser Award for Public Service. 

 

The Annual Alumni Recognition Dinner will take place at Nanina’s in the Park, Belleville. To learn more about the event and to register online, visit: rutgersalumniassociation.cvent.com/2014dinner.

 

Mary Beth Hogan has a broad-gauged litigation and investigations practice. Her practice focuses on regulatory investigations and enforcement actions involving the Department of Justice, State Attorneys General, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, New York’s Department of Financial Services, and other federal and state regulators. In the past several years, she has represented large financial institutions on various mortgage and credit card-related investigations and class actions. In addition, she represents companies and law firms in commercial litigation and employment matters, including those involving the False Claims Act, whistleblower and discrimination claims. 

 

Hogan has been recognized as Up & Coming Litigation Lawyer of the Year at the 2012 Chambers USA Women in Law awards, a “Future Star” in the 2009 edition of the IFLR Benchmark Litigation Guide, and in 2007, one of the Top 50 litigators in the United States under the age of 45 as named by The American Lawyer. She is also recognized in Profiles in Diversity Journal’s “Women Worth Watching” issue (2013) and was named to Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 250 Women in Litigation 2014.”

 

After graduating from law school, Honorable Esther Salas clerked for the Honorable Eugene J. Codey, Superior Court, Essex County, New Jersey, and then practiced law at Garces & Grabler for two years. In 1997, she joined the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of New Jersey as an Assistant Federal Public Defender. 

 

In November 2006, she was sworn in as a U.S. Magistrate Judge, making her the first Hispanic U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey. As a Magistrate Judge, she managed several District Judges’ dockets and issued Opinions and Orders for non-dispositive motions, as well as Reports and Recommendations for dispositive motions. In June 2011, she was sworn in as a U.S. District Judge, becoming the first female Hispanic to serve as a U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey.  

 

In this capacity, Judge Salas has presided over both criminal and civil trials and has issued opinions on a variety of issues. Most recently, she presided over a bench trial in a pharmaceutical patent infringement action.   

 

Amy Gottlieb has spent her entire legal career at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). She was hired as the first full-time staff attorney for the Immigrant Rights Program in Newark. In May 2001 she became Director of the program, which had grown from a two-person to a 15-person program. As of June 2014, Gottlieb serves as the Associate Regional Director for the AFSC Northeast Regional Office, based in New York. She oversees the Immigrant Rights and Healing Justice Programs in New York and Newark, and will supervise programs currently in development in Connecticut and Philadelphia. 

 

Gottlieb has taught as an adjunct professor at the law school and served on the board of the school’s Loan Repayment Assistance Program. In addition, the AFSC has partnered on cases and projects with many of the clinics. 

 

She is a recipient of the ACLU of New Jersey’s Legal Leadership Award (2012), the Arthur Kinoy People’s Lawyer Award from Rutgers–Newark Law School Student Lawyers Guild (2012), and the Richard J. Hughes Public Interest Award from Seton Hall Law School (2004).