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Informed Citizens

are Better Citizens

Call for Nominations ~ 2024 Medal of Honor

The New Jersey State Bar Foundation is seeking nominations for the Medal of Honor, its most prestigious award, given to lawyers, law-related professionals and people who have made significant contributions to the advancement of the justice system or legal profession in New Jersey. The deadline to submit a nomination for the 2024 award is Friday, March 8. Submit here or by clicking on the button to the right.

Medal of Honor Award

The New Jersey State Bar Foundation’s Medal of Honor Award is given annually to lawyers and law-related professionals, as well as lay people, who best exemplify either or both of the following criteria:

  • significant contribution to the advancement or improvement of the justice system or the betterment of the legal profession in New Jersey
  • professional excellence as demonstrated by accomplishments in the law; or service to the profession and the community during their careers.

2023 Sponsors

We thank our 2023 Medal of Honor Award Celebration sponsors for making a difference. Their sponsorship supports the Foundation’s mission of informing and educating about the law. Event proceeds help fund the Foundation’s many law related programs, including the  Law School Scholarship program.

2023 Medal of Honor Celebration Event Journal

Justice Barry T. Albin (Ret.) served as a judge of the New jersey Supreme Court for 20 years. He is currently a partner at Lowenstien Sandler in the Litigation group and is the Chair of the firm’s Appellate practice.  During his time as a justice, he authored more than 400 opinions, including more than 230 majority opinions, more than 130 dissents, and dozens of concurrences on issues spanning the wide spectrum of the law.  He has written on such topics as civil rights, criminal law, insurance, employment discrimination, contracts, taxes, municipal government, elections, product liability, and mass toxic torts. Justice Albin is the author of landmark opinions on the rights of same-sex couples, the rights of the accused and workers, and civil rights, among others. He also authored a number of dissents, which later became law.

“I am deeply honored to receive the 2023 Medal of Honor conferred by the New Jersey State Bar Foundation.  I have had a fulfilling and rewarding journey through the law — and have endeavored to make some positive contribution to our profession and legal system, while in public service and private practice. I am gratified by this recognition, but my journey continues.  I accept this award as a challenge to renew my commitment to the goal to which we all aspire — a more perfect system of justice.”

Lawrence S. Lustberg, Esq., is the longtime Chair of Gibbons’s Criminal Defense practice and Director of the firm’s John J. Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest & Constitutional Law, which litigates historic, cutting-edge civil rights and civil liberties cases in a broad range of areas. As Director of the award-winning Gibbons Fellowship, Mr. Lustberg is responsible for the scope of the Fellowship’s work and its legendary accomplishments. Under his leadership for over 30 years, the Fellowship has become widely known in New Jersey and across the country as a voice for the poor and underrepresented and has litigated some of the most significant legal issues of our time, receiving national recognition.   He is a renowned white collar criminal defense attorney and civil rights lawyer and a recognized authority in constitutional and criminal law, responsible for hundreds of seminal federal and state court decisions and engaged in many of the most significant cases under investigation or in the courts today.

“I am honored to be a recipient of the Bar Foundation Medal of Honor this year. I could not be more grateful, not only for the award but also for the opportunity that the profession has provided me to work on some of the great issues of our time from racial equality to criminal justice reform, to diversity and access to justice.  I am proud to have made those issues the focus of my career and so appreciate that I have had the opportunity to do so; I accept this award as an affirmation not only that it has been the right thing for me to do, but that it is the privilege that all lawyers have – to make a difference.”

Past Medal of Honor Recipients

1988—Vincent J. Apruzzese, Esq.
1988—Matthias D. Dileo, Esq.
1989—Hon. Richard J. Hughes
1990—Hon. Stanley S. Brotman
1991—Daniel L. Golden, Esq.
1991—Joseph M. Nolan, Esq.
1992—Fred W. Friendly
1992—Melville D. Miller Jr., Esq.
1993—Hon. John F. Gerry
1993—James O’Brien
1994—Dean Ronald J. Riccio
1994—Miriam L. Murphy
1995—Hon. John J. Gibbons
1995—Lois A. Winnberg
1996—Hon. Samuel G. DeSimone
1996—Paulette Brown, Esq.
1997—Murray L. Cole, Esq.
1997—Walter N. Read, Esq.
1998—James Youngelson, Esq.
1998—Alan I. Gould, Esq.
1999—Hon. Joseph L. Rodriguez
1999—Thomas F. Campion, Esq.
2000—Hon. Marilyn Loftus
2000—James McCloskey

 

 

2001—Hon. Marie Garibaldi
2001—Raymond R. Trombadore, Esq.
2002—Raymond A. Brown, Esq.
2002—Joseph H. Kenney, Esq.
2002—Nancy Erika Smith, Esq.*
2002—Raymond A. Noble, Esq.*
2003—Justice James H. Coleman Jr.
2003—Saul A. Wolfe, Esq.
2004—Hon. Sylvia Pressler
2004—William John Kane, Esq.
2005—Hon. Anne E. Thompson
2005—Joel A. Leyner, Esq.
2006—Hon. Martin L. Haines
2006—Professor Paula A. Franzese
2007—Hon. Daniel J. O’Hern
2007—Thomas R. Curtin, Esq.
2008—Hon. William A. Dreier
2008—Hon. Stewart G. Pollack
2009—William S. Greenberg, Esq.
2009—David E. Johnson Jr., Esq.
2010—Hon. James R. Zazzali
2010—Hon. Renee J. Weeks
2011—Hon. L. Anthony Gibson
2011—Cynthia M. Jacob, Esq.
2012—Hon. John E. Wallace Jr.
2012—David H. Dugan III, Esq.
2013—Richard J. Badolato, Esq.
2013—Michael R. Griffinger, Esq.
2014—Hon. Helen E. Hoens
2014—Raymond S. Londa, Esq.
2015—Hon. Edwin H. Stern
2015—Hon. Lawrence M. Lawson
2016—Hon. Peter G. Verniero
2016—Wayne J. Positan
2017—Hon. Marie White Bell
2017—Joseph P. LaSala, Esq
2018—Hon. Linda R. Feinberg, AJSC (Ret.)
2018—Justin P. Walder, Esq.
2019—Ralph J. Lamparello, Esq.
2019—Shirley Berger Whitenack, Esq.
2020—Susan A. Feeney, Esq.
2020—Hon. John E. Keefe Sr. (Ret.)
2021—Lynn Fontaine Newsome, Esq.
2022—Raymond M. Brown, Esq.
2022—Hon. Jaynee LaVecchia (Ret.)
2023—Justice Barry T. Albin (Ret.)
2023—Lawrence S. Lustberg, Esq.

 

*In recognition of the generous contributions of the legal community on behalf of the victims of 9/11.