Esther Canty-Barnes is the director of the Education and Health Law
Clinic and represents indigent parents and caregivers of disabled
children in need of educational services, teaches law students in this
area of the law, and provides educational programs for parents and
caregivers.
Professor Canty-Barnes earned her B.A. from Bennett College (summa
cum laude) and her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Newark. She is the director of the Education and Health Law Clinic and a clinical professor
of law. As director of the clinic, Professor Canty-Barnes
was instrumental in developing and implementing one of New Jersey's
first Special Education in the Courts Initiatives to heighten the
importance of addressing the educational needs of disabled children in
the courts; developed programs and training for attorneys and
underserved populations of families; and works to ensure equal access to
education for disabled children and their families who are unable to
afford legal representation. She served on the Supreme Court Committee
on Women in the Courts for 10 years, where she was appointed the first
chair to the subcommittee on women of color, and was instrumental
in conducting a survey and report on women of color in 2009 titled "Survey Perceptions of Race and Gender in the New Jersey Courts."She is a member of NJ Court Improvement Committee where she serves as
a resource to the committee on the educational needs of disabled
children who routinely come before the court and is a member of the AALS
Clinical Legal Education Association. She is a recipient of several
awards, including the following: AALS Clinical Legal Education Shanara
Gilbert Award; National Association of Women Judges, District III Award;
ABWL Award; Presidential Citation from the National Association of
Equal Opportunity in Higher Education; and Outstanding Woman in Law and
the "Belle Ringer" Awards from Bennett College. She is a former
president of the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey, a
former barrister of the William Heckel Criminal Litigation Inn of Court
at Rutgers Law School, and a former presiding municipal court judge for
the Township of Irvington, New Jersey.
