Richard L. Newman has been named executive director of the American Museum of Tort Law.
The Museum, located in Winsted, Connecticut, and, according to the Museum’s website, is “dedicated to greater citizen understanding of the civil justice system and the crucial role this muscle of justice plays in protecting the health, safety and personal freedoms of all Americans.”
Newman practiced trial law with the firm of Adelman Hirsch and Newman in Connecticut.
He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin School of Law.
Newman is the co-author of the standard treatise on Connecticut Law of Torts and served in 2004-2005 as President of the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association.
“Mr. Newman has combined a sterling career as a practicing consumer attorney, a scholar and an author that spells a combination of experience, compassion and enthusiasm to advance the first law museum in the United States,” said Ralph Nader, the founder of the Museum. “This educational institution, scheduled to open in September, will communicate the remarkable historical legacy and continuing contributions of an evolving Tort Law to the quality of American life and culture as well as providing a sense of security and stability for a rapidly challenging technological society.”
Newman said the Museum “represents an historic opportunity for citizens of all walks of life to learn about tort law—the law of wrongful injury.”
“I will work to build a museum that will serve as a broad forum to increase our understanding of the civil justice system and the various ways the law has served and can serve to protect our safety, our rights and our freedoms in a democratic society.”
Nader quoted Roscoe Pound, the former Dean of Harvard Law School that “the law must be stable but it cannot stand still.”
“It must also stand strong against the sustained assault on its overall access to justice for the powerless, the wronged and the harmed,” Nader said. “The Museum will serve to organize factual information, display and promote knowledge of tort law and its constitutional foundations, its landmark judicial decisions and its consequential societal functions.”