The Debevoise-Eakeley Award

A graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, Mr. Lustberg is a partner with the firm Gibbons PC of Newark, where he chairs the Criminal Defense Department and serves as Director of the John J. Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest and Constitutional Law. A past president of Essex-Newark Legal Services, he currently serves on the boards of Common Cause New Jersey, the Fund for New Jersey, the Education Law Center, and the Legal Services Foundation of Essex County. His other current professional activities include membership on the New Jersey Commission on Government Efficiency and Reform, the Board of Advisors of the New Jersey Office of the Child Advocate, and the Governor’s Council on HIV/AIDS and Related Bloodborne Pathogens. Mr. Lustberg is recognized for more than two decades of extraordinary service to the disadvantaged, through direct representation, advocacy and other endeavors. Through his efforts – recognized across the state and nation – he has helped move the law toward greater justice in multiple areas.

The Richard J. Hughes Career Public Service Award

Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 2000 to 2006 and Chief Justice in 2006-2007, Justice Zazzali is now Of Counsel for the firms Gibbons PC and Zazzali, Fagella, Nowak, Kleinbaum & Friedman, both in Newark. Prior to his service on the bench, he had served as New Jersey Attorney General; general counsel for the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority; Chairman of the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation; Chief of the Appeals Division of the Office of the Essex County Prosecutor; and in other positions, in addition to his private law practice. A graduate of Georgetown University and the Georgetown University Law Center, Justice Zazzali is also a former Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall Law School, where he taught mediation and arbitration. This award is presented in recognition of his distinguished career in the law and public service, particularly as Justice and Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and as Attorney General – a career marked by strong leadership, wisdom and insight, unswerving commitment to justice, and a special respect, compassion and concern for those with less means and from other cultures. Through both decisional law and court administration, he helped make New Jersey’s system decidedly more fair and more just for the disadvantaged.

South Jersey Legal Services

A litigation associate in the Princeton office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Mr. Orr is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University Law School. Although his practice primarily involves commercial litigation, Mr. Orr has personally contributed more than 600 hours to pro bono representation in the past three years, particularly on behalf of disabled children in appealing denials of Supplementary Security Income (SSI). In addition, he has rallied more than twenty attorneys at his firm to become involved with the Children’s SSI Project, a partnership between Rutgers Law School in Camden and South Jersey Legal Services, more than doubling the firm’s annual pro bono hours since 2006 and quadrupling the number of attorneys involved in pro bono service. He has also been instrumental in the establishment of an innovative partnership between medical students at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the private bar.

Professor Emeritus at Burlington County College, where he taught business law for twenty-eight years, and a former municipal court judge now in solo practice, Mr. Schmoll has been instrumental in the success of the Wills Project of the Burlington County Office of South Jersey Legal Services, assisting clients with the preparation of Wills, Powers of Attorney and Living Wills. He has generously given of his time, drafting estate planning documents, answering clients’ questions and conducting signings for the Project’s participants, who might not otherwise be able to obtain these documents. A graduate of Rider College and Temple University School of Law, Mr. Schmoll is the author of “The Absecon Diary of Margie Roth, 1933-37,” a book of his mother’s memoirs from the Great Depression.

Essex-Newark Legal Services

Mr. Sodono is honored for his considerable pro bono efforts in bankruptcy cases for low-income clients of Essex-Newark Legal Services, taking on three new bankruptcy cases for clients in the past year, when attorneys who will do pro bono bankruptcy work under the new law have been extremely difficult to find. Now a member of the West Orange firm Trenk, DiPasquale, Webster, Della Fera & Sodono, he served for seven years as the Assistant U.S. Trustee for the Department of Justice, for which he supervised and monitored all Chapter 11 cases filed in New Jersey. A graduate of Kean College and Seton Hall University School of Law, his practice is concentrated in the areas of corporate reorganization, debtor/creditor rights, bankruptcy and commercial litigation.

Northeast New Jersey Legal Services

Now in his third year of pro bono service, Mr. Iskra is honored for his assistance to Northeast New Jersey Legal Services’ Pro Se Divorce Clinic, for which he has participated in six clinic presentations, giving his time, expertise and advice to more than 60 low-income Passaic County residents. Formerly an assistant prosecutor in Passaic, Somerset and Morris counties, Mr. Iskra is currently a partner in the Parsippany law firm Schonwald & Iskra, serves on the boards of two non-profits and is Treasurer of the Morris County Bar Association. He is a graduate of Xavier University and the St. Louis University Law School.

A graduate of Brown University and Boston University School of Law, Mr. Lester is a partner in the Hackensack firm Braverman & Lester. Appointed by the Office of the U.S. Trustee, he has administered bankruptcy cases in the Newark vicinage since 1982, serving as a trustee for more than 12,000 Chapter 7 debtors. Now in his tenth year as a pro bono volunteer, Mr. Lester is honored for continuously going beyond the call in accepting difficult cases and always being available for consultation with clients of Northeast New Jersey Legal Services in Bergen County. Always responsive when the program is overwhelmed with request for help, he has been most generous in giving of his time and expertise.

Central Jersey Legal Services

A former Legal Services attorney and a pro bono volunteer for more than 20 years, Mr. Bergen is honored for his long history of support of Legal Services, its mission and goals, and accepting the referral of many pro bono cases from Central Jersey Legal Services over the years. In a notable recent example of his service, he appeared – on short notice – in Municipal Court on behalf of a client, and secured a favorable outcome for her that would have been unattainable on her own. A partner in the Cranford firm Krevsky, Silber & Bergen, Mr. Bergen is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University and Seton Hall University Law School. He is currently President of the Board of Directors of Central Jersey Legal Services.

Accepting referrals on a pro bono basis from the Volunteer Attorney Program at Central Jersey Legal Services since 1999, Mr. Kaufman is honored for his considerable pro bono efforts in bankruptcy cases for Central Jersey’s low-income clients, taking on four new bankruptcy cases in the past year alone. A solo practitioner in Highland Park, he earned both his undergraduate and law degrees at Rutgers University.

Legal Services of New Jersey

Ms. Rocci is honored for her tireless pro bono efforts in asylum and naturalization cases for the low-income clients of Legal Services of New Jersey’s Immigration Representation Project, generously taking on cases despite other demands on her time. A solo practitioner in Metuchen, she is a graduate of Seton Hall Law School, with an undergraduate degree from American University and a Master’s degree in Spanish and Hispanic Literature from Rutgers University.

Mr. Parker is honored for, first, setting up a pro bono partnership between the corporate law department at Wyeth, where he is Chief Trademark and Copyright Counsel and Assistant General Counsel, and Legal Services of New Jersey; and for his own outstanding volunteer efforts in representing clients of LSNJ. In less than one year, Wyeth’s attorneys have represented more than a dozen clients, in cases with varying degrees of complexity involving government assistance, family, immigration, community economic development, copyright, and contract issues. And Mr. Parker has completed work on two cases, in the diverse areas of domestic violence and copyright establishment. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Fordham University School of Law, Mr. Parker has previously been with the Colgate-Palmolive Company and in private practice. Among his other activities, he serves as Chair of the Pro Bono and Public Outreach Committee of the New Jersey Corporate Counsel Association.

Legal Services of Northwest Jersey

Located in Morristown, Salvaggio Garibian – despite its small size – supported the time-consuming pro bono work of one of their attorneys, Dina M. Mikulka, on a hotly contested private adoption case for a client of Legal Services of Northwest Jersey. Representing the birth father, she provided the representation – putting in more than 400 hours – that preserved the parent-child relationship and ultimately resulted in a settlement.

Through the considerable pro bono efforts of two of this firm’s attorneys, Edward J. O’Donnell and Terryann K. Bradley, in a private adoption case for a client of Legal Services of Northwest Jersey, the birth mother was given the benefit of due process and the opportunity to be heard, with the result that her child will grow up knowing his birth family. Located in Morristown, with a second office in Short Hills, the firm specializes in the practice of matrimonial and family law.

This small firm, with offices in Morristown and Stanhope, supported the commitment of many hours of pro bono service by two of its attorneys, Vincent P. Celli and Holly M. Friedland, to a private adoption case for a client of Legal Services of Northwest Jersey. By stepping up and representing the paternal aunt in this case, they helped provide the pivotal element in securing its ultimate settlement and a positive outcome for the birth family.

Central Jersey Legal Services

The attorneys in the Princeton office of this major national firm are honored for their extensive pro bono contributions. Every attorney in the office participated in an effort that involved monthly visits to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen to provide outreach to the visitors there on the wide variety of legal problems they face. Working in partnership with the staff of Central Jersey Legal Services, they have assisted with matters involving domestic violence, landlord/tenant disputes, employment, benefits and more. They have helped many visitors regain their driver’s licenses or enroll the children they were caring for in school. In addition, Dechert attorneys have handled more than thirty cases referred by the Central Jersey Legal Services pro bono program.

Legal Services of New Jersey

A full-time volunteer attorney for Legal Services of New Jersey for several months, Mr. Bjelopoljak is honored in particular for his significant contributions to the work of LSNJ’s Domestic Violence Representation Project, helping to obtain Final Restraining Orders for two clients, and working on two very important legal memos that will assist all domestic violence practitioners. A native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Bjelopoljak earned a law degree at the University of Sarajevo and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School. Before emigrating to the United States, he served as an attorney and public information officer for the Registry of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.