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NJ State Bar
Foundation kicks off
$9 million capital campaign
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From The New
Jersey Lawyer, April 18, 2008
By Dana E. Sullivan
When Jon S. Corzine was running for governor and sought the best
possible layperson's view of legal issues in the state, he turned to
the New Jersey State Bar Foundation.
The foundation publishes a series of educational booklets on a wide
variety of legal subjects, and then-U.S. Sen. Corzine had no aversion
to a little homework.
The occasion for this recollection was his appearance at a New
Jersey Law Center event marking the 50th anniversary of the foundation
and the kickoff of a capital fund drive for improvements to the Law
Center. Part of the program focused on an appeal to lawyers and law
firms to join others statewide that have contributed generously to the
fund, which so far has raised half its $9 million target.
Corzine took the opportunity to reaffirm his commitment to
diversity on the bench, a pledge he made during his first year but that
didn't seem to be achieved even at the end of his second year.
But that's turned around recently with a flurry of judicial nominations of women and minorities during February and March.
Generally, about one-third of Corzine's bench choices have been women and some 20 percent black and Hispanic.
Addressing the hundreds of lawyers and judges in the audience at
the Law Center, he said of his efforts to bring increased diversity to
the bench, "I hope people will notice."
Corzine also praised the foundation's parent organization, the New
Jersey State Bar Association, for its role in shaping the judiciary.
Two years ago, Corzine renewed the nearly 50-year-old "Hughes
compact," by which governors give the state's largest lawyer
organization the opportunity to review their possible state bench and
prosecutorial choices. The vetting also includes background checks, and
Corzine has formalized the practice of having retired Supreme Court
justices also review potential nominees.
"It's a process that sometimes confounds an old bond trader," said the former CEO of the New York investment firm Goldman Sachs.
Chief Justice Stuart J. Rabner praised the foundation's educational efforts, especially its mock trial programs.
He said when he was a judge in mock trials, he enjoyed walking into
the Essex County Courthouse at night and seeing a hubbub of young
people rehearsing their speeches or prepping witnesses, and some
pointedly relaxing before their arguments.
"It looked exactly like it did during the day," he said.
Rabner reported his ninth-grade daughter could hardly contain her
excitement at her own participation on her school's team, this year as
an assistant, next year perhaps as a witness.
And, he said, she told him, "With any luck I could be a lawyer the following year!"
Not a bad line for a roomful of attorneys.
Halfway there
The foundation's fund drive goal is $9 million for the 20-year-old Law Center off Ryder's Lane in New Brunswick.
The first $6 million is for renovating and modernizing the
building; the remainder for a permanent endowment fund for future
fixes.
Morristown attorney Thomas R. Curtin, chairman of the campaign
committee, reported $4.7 million had been raised during the initial
"private" phase.
The two biggest portions of that amount were a $500,000 pledge from
the Gibbons firm in Newark and a $l million donation from the Hess
Foundation.
Norma Hess, president of the foundation, is the daughter of former
Attorney General David T. Wilentz and the sister of Warren Wilentz of
Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer in Woodbridge and the late Chief Justice
Robert N. Wilentz.
The renovated auditorium at the Law Center will bear the Wilentz name in honor of her father and brothers.
Patrick C. Dunican Jr., managing director of Gibbons, said, "We want to memorialize the firm through this contribution."
One of two first-floor conference facilities will be designated the
Gibbons Conference Room in tribute to the firm's partners - John J.
Gibbons, Ralph N. Del Deo, John T. Dolan, Michael R. Griffinger and
Frank J. Vecchione.
"It is our way of looking toward the future while remembering the past," said Dunican.
He said the gift also is a recognition of the foundation's "wonderful public service."
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