Professor Raveson is a 1976 graduate of the School of Law-Newark, where he was a member of the Law Review.
After graduation, he clerked for Judge Phillip Forman of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and then practiced with the ACLU
Prisoners Rights Project and Essex-Newark Legal Services. He also was a
staff attorney in the Urban Legal Clinic prior to his appointment to the
faculty in 1981, and served as director of that clinic from 1993 to
2001. In 1985, Professor Raveson established the Environmental Law
Clinic, then only the second such law school clinic in the nation.
Professor Raveson has litigated countless trials in state and
federal courts and numerous appeals before the New Jersey Supreme Court
and the Second and Third Circuits, including Right to Choose v. Byrne,
successfully challenging the constitutionality of restrictions on
Medicaid funding for abortions and expanding the use of state
constitutions as independent sources of protection of individual rights;
several police misconduct actions; an action successfully challenging
the constitutionality of a municipal ordinance restricting street
vending; a case defining the parameters of the judicial contempt power, a
topic on which he has published three law review articles; an action
arguing for the recognition of a constitutional right to shelter for the
homeless; several HIV discrimination actions; the defense of an
attorney facing disbarment; and a case attempting to collect a judgment
against a Swiss bank for $124 billion, then the largest judgment in
history. Professor Raveson also helped to brief Karcher v. May in
the U.S. Supreme Court, a successful challenge to New Jersey's "moment
of silence" law. He was also one of the attorneys representing Rubin
"Hurricane" Carter and John Artis in their federal habeas action, which
resulted in the reversal of their convictions after 17 years in prison.
In 2001, Professor Raveson took a leave for several years to
establish and run an international solar energy company. During a prior
leave, from 1985 to 1987, he served as the assistant commissioner of the
New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate. Professor Raveson has
also served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Committees on Complementary
Dispute Resolution and Civil Practice.
