CAMDEN - Two remarkable members of the region’s legal community will be honored by Alianza, the Latino Law Students’ Association at Rutgers Law–Camden, during its 11th annual “Campeones de la Justicia” banquet on Thursday, April 3.

The honorees for  2014 are the Honorable Felipe Restrepo, United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Rayman Solomon, professor and dean of Rutgers Law–Camden, and newly appointed provost of Rutgers University–Camden.  

This year’s event will be held during 6 to 9 p.m. in the Clark Commons, the second floor lobby of the law school, located on Fifth Street between Cooper Street and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

Appointed to the United States district Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania by President Obama in June 2013, Judge Restrepo was born in Colombia, raised in northern Virginia, and became a U.S. citizen in 1993. A federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 2006 to 2013, Restrepo previously served in private practice; as assistant federal public defender for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; and as assistant defender for the Defender Association of Philadelphia. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his law degree from Tulane.

Solomon has served as dean of the Rutgers School of Law-Camden since 1998 and will begin serving solely as Rutgers–Camden provost in July 2014.  Under his leadership as dean, the Rutgers–Camden law school opened a new, state-of-the-art $37 million classroom building; greatly expanded its portfolio of clinical and pro bono legal programs; attracted faculty whose scholarship has received high recognition worldwide; and positioned Rutgers–Camden graduates to compete in such areas as judicial clerkships, in which the law school is ranked nationally.

Previously, Solomon served as an associate dean for Northwestern University law school.  He directed the Seventh Circuit History Project and published the book A History of the United States Court of Appeals, 1891 to 1941. He received his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and attended the University of Chicago, where he earned his J.D. and Ph.D. degrees. Solomon is a veteran of the U.S. Navy who served aboard the U.S.S. Dale during the Vietnam War from 1969-70.