Seton Hall Law School Adds Four New Faculty Members

Seton Hall Law School is thrilled to announce that four new professors are joining our faculty this month: Elizabeth Carter, Anjali Deshmukh, Paul Rink, and Amy Saji. These exceptional additions to our faculty will enrich Seton Hall’s impact and expertise in health, food and drug law, environmental law, and experiential learning, while deepening the law school’s commitment to social justice and engagement with the community.

“We are very proud to welcome these extraordinary people as our newest colleagues,” said Dean Ronald Weich. “Already accomplished scholars, teachers, and lawyers in their diverse fields, I have no doubt each will positively impact the development of the law and advance the cause of justice, while inspiring and shaping the next generation of Seton Hall lawyers.”

An expert on community economic development, affordable cooperative housing, social entrepreneurship, and cooperative enterprises, Elizabeth L. Carter will launch a new transactional community economic development clinic at Seton Hall Law. In private practice in Chicago, Professor Carter managed a boutique commercial real estate and finance law firm and led a $45 mill inclusive redevelopment project within a historically disinvested community while also co-founding a membership-owned holding cooperative aimed at supporting self-employed Black women workers. Prior to this, Professor Carter was a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago in their Community Enterprise and Solidarity Economy Clinic. Previously, she worked on community economic development as Special Counsel for the Economic and Housing Development Department at the City of Newark where she led a $8.1 mill affordable housing cooperative project and helped author the City’s amended tax abatement ordinance which provides tax incentives for inclusionary redevelopment. Professor Carter received her Masters in urban planning and a J.D. from Rutgers University. She received her B.A. with honors in political science, philosophy, and African-American studies from the University of Michigan. She has served on many public and private Boards and was recognized by the Harvard Law & Political Economy Emerging Scholars Program for her work combatting systematic racism through innovative economic structures, particularly cooperatives.

Dr. Anjali Deshmukh joins Seton Hall Law’s health law faculty and will teach Food and Drug Law and Administrative Law. Prior to joining Seton Hall, Professor Deshmukh was an Assistant Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law. She is also a board-certified pediatrician. Her interdisciplinary research and teaching focuses on the impact of pharmaceutical law and regulatory policies on patient health outcomes, particularly for children. Professor Deshmukh draws on quantitative empirical methods in addition to normative and doctrinal analysis to understand judicial review and regulation of evolving technologies, including cell and gene therapies, regenerative medicine, and AI. Her research has or will appear in Cardozo Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Tennessee Law Review, Health Affairs, and Journal of Law Medicine and Ethics amongst others.  In 2023, Professor Deshmukh was recognized as an American Society for Law, Medicine, and Ethics Health Law Scholar. Prior to joining the academy, Professor Deshmukh was a fellow at the Program on Regulation Therapeutics and the Law at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital and a pharmaceutical litigation associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosatti. She holds a J.D. from Stanford Law School, a M.D. from Vanderbilt School of Medicine and an A.B. from Dartmouth College.

Professor Paul Rink is an environmental law scholar whose research focuses on human rights and climate change, sustainable investment, and administrative cost-benefit analysis amid the climate crisis. Prior to Seton Hall Law, Professor Rink served for two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University. Professor Rink has written about climate litigation, the household economic benefits of rainwater harvesting systems, and forestry policies in Indonesia and Brazil. His work is forthcoming in the Harvard Environmental Law Review and he has contributed chapters to the Oxford Handbook on International Environmental Law (2021) and Yale University Press’s A Better Planet: 40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future. Prior to teaching, Professor Rink worked at the climate law firm, Our Children’s Trust, representing young people from around the world in strategic, legal efforts to secure their right to a safe climate system. Professor Rink has a B.S. from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Masters of Environmental Management from Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Prior to law school, he taught soil science and environmental science, engaged in policy advocacy, and worked as a forest restoration consultant at locations around the world. 

Professor Amy Saji will launch a new Medical Legal Partnership (MLP) clinic at Seton Hall Law, collaborating with healthcare providers to address legal barriers negatively impacting the health and well-being of families. Before joining Seton Hall, she served as a Supervising Attorney and Clinical Teaching Fellow in the Health Justice Alliance Law Clinic, an MLP at Georgetown Law. Prior to that, she was a special education attorney at the Center for Children’s Advocacy and provided holistic legal representation and advocacy for youth of color and students with disabilities. In this role, Professor Saji collaborated with MLPs at Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale Child Study Center, and CT Children’s Medical Center, and co-supervised clinical interns in the UConn Child Advocacy Clinic. During law school, she held roles in MLPs, government, nonprofit, and higher education offices. She served as President of the UConn Public Interest Law Group, Assistant Managing Editor of the Connecticut Public Interest Law Journal, and was the Special Education Teaching & Research Assistant. In 2024, she received the Carolyn Golden Hebsgaard Award from Lawyers Collaborative for Diversity. Professor Saji earned her BA in Honors Political Science and her JD from UConn School of Law in six years through the Accelerated Program. Professor Saji earned her LLM in Advocacy with distinction from Georgetown Law.