Rosa Newman-Ruffin joins the law school community as a property and contracts professor with a scholarly interest in real estate law, with Robert “Bob” Minarcin bringing experience as a public defender to his role as a professor in the Legal Method & Communication Program.
Two new professors will bring their passion for practical training and creating hands-on learning opportunities when they join the Elon Law faculty in the 2022-23 academic year.
Assistant Professor Rosa Newman-Ruffin’s interest in property law and affordable housing will be of particular benefit to students with an interest in real estate law in fast-growing North Carolina.
Assistant Professor Robert “Bob” Minarcin will join the law school’s Legal Method and Communication Program, which has been ranked in the top 20% among American law schools by U.S. News & World Report.
The duo will complement the enhanced roles of Elon Law legal writing professors Chrystal Clodomir and Srikanth Reddy as the latter transition from visiting status to permanent members of the law school faculty.
“The energy Professor Newman-Ruffin and Professor Minarcin will bring to our community promises to benefit Elon Law students in countless ways,” said Interim Dean Alan Woodlief. “Their credentials already demonstrate a belief in the power of experiential learning, which will help our students excel in their studies and, more important, once they enter the profession as practicing lawyers.”
“And we have already witnessed how Professors Clodomir and Reddy enthusiastically dedicate themselves to the academic achievement of first-year students in the Legal Method & Communication Program. We are excited that they are now joining our faculty and that our students will continue to benefit from their excellent teaching.”
About the New Professors
Rosa Newman-Ruffin will conclude her service in May as a Louis Westerfield Fellow at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law before she assumes full-time responsibilities at Elon Law teaching contracts and property.
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.
She earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago as a Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholar before completing a Master of Science from Barry University, also as a Gates Millennium Scholar. She earned a dual degree from the University of Iowa: a Juris Doctor and a Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning with a specialization in housing and economic development.
Newman-Ruffin said she was excited to join the Elon Law community and is inspired by its ethos of experiential learning. She is teaching Wills & Trusts as an adjunct professor over Elon Law’s 2022 Spring trimester.
“The skills-based curriculum really appealed to me because my teaching philosophy is centered on graduating practice-ready attorneys,” she said. “I was particularly impressed to hear how hard-working and motivated students are here. I appreciate that they self-select into this rigorous program, and I am eager to employ my experience to set them up for success.”
Robert “Bob” Minarcin comes to Elon Law with a wealth of experience supervising and teaching the lawyering skills program at the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and, before that, teaching legal writing at Florida A&M University College of Law, where he also directed the Criminal Defense Clinic.
Prior to academia, Minarcin represented clients as a public defender in Philadelphia and Florida, worked briefly in private practice, and served as assistant general counsel in the Division of Real Estate for Florida’s Department of Business & Professional Regulation.
Minarcin, who earned his Bachelor of Arts and his Juris Doctor from Temple University in Philadelphia, also said he was drawn to Elon Law by its approach to practical training.
“I have been a firm believer that experiential learning is how we should be teaching our students to prepare them for their legal careers, and Elon Law does this,” Minarcin said. “I am impressed with its experiential program, integrating competitive advocacy teams, lab courses, and the outstanding Residency-in-Practice Program to graduate practice-ready students.
“Coupling this with their professionalism program, Elon has created a program to prepare ethical, zealous advocates upon graduation. I look forward to working with the Elon students and adding those practice-ready skills in legal writing and the other courses that I will teach.”
About Elon Law
Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law. With a focus on learning by doing and among the top quartile of American law schools for low levels of student loan debt at graduation, it integrates traditional classroom instruction with course-connected, full-time residencies-in-practice in a logically sequenced program of transformational professional preparation. Elon Law’s groundbreaking approach is accomplished in 2.5 years, which provides distinctive value by lowering tuition and permitting graduates early entry into their legal careers.