Assistant Professor Rosa Newman-Ruffin will serve over the next year as vice-chair of legal education for the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section.
An Elon Law expert in real estate law has been appointed to a leadership role with the American Bar Association to help manage professional development opportunities for legal educators who teach property, trust, and estate law.
Professor Rosa Newman-Ruffin started duties on September 1, 2023, as vice-chair of the legal education committee for the Joint Legal Education and Uniform Laws Group of the ABA’s Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section.
As a vice-chair, Newman-Ruffin will assist with setting up and overseeing the implementation of the section’s goals for the Bar Year. Specifically, Newman-Ruffin will facilitate the hosting of a monthly Professors’ Corner webinar series as well as an annual panel for legal educators attending an ABA Real Property Trust and Estate continuing legal education program.
Newman-Ruffin was nominated to the post by past section chair Shelby Green, a professor with the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, and formally appointed by section chair-elect Robert S. Freedman.
“The ABA’s RPTE section has been a vital resource to me over the course of my career both in practice and academia,” Newman-Ruffin said. “I am honored and excited about this service opportunity that allows me to actively engage with my practicing colleagues in the legal profession.”
Newman-Ruffin joined the Elon Law faculty in 2022 after concluding her service as a Louis Westerfield Fellow at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. Her legal research and teaching are focused primarily on property, land use, and business transactional law, with additional interest in affordable housing development.
Newman-Ruffin previously worked in the commercial real estate development field for several firms both in her hometown of Miami and in Charlotte, specializing in multilayered financing for mixed-income, multifamily housing developments in four states. She also has experience working for a Florida elder care law firm where she handled wills, trusts, and estate matters.
In addition to her teaching and research, Newman-Ruffin serves the statewide legal community as a member of the Trusts Drafting Committee of the North Carolina General Statutes Commission.