Top NJ Judge Joins 2—Yes, 2—Family Firms
When it came time to retire from the bench and return to law practice, former New Jersey Chief Justice James Zazzali had a hard time making a choice between two family law firms.
So he didn’t. Zazzali is now counsel at both a Newark, N.J., law firm started by his father in 1925, and another Newark firm at which his daughter is an associate, reports the New Jersey Law Journal.
The firms are Gibbons, a 220-attorney law shop headed by John Gibbons, former chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Zazzali, Fagella, Nowak, Kleinbaum and Friedman, where the former chief justice practiced with his brother, Andrew, before he was appointed to the state supreme court seven years ago. Zazzoli’s daughter, Mara Hogan-Zazzali, is a senior litigation associate at Gibbons.
While the unusual dual affiliation obviously raises the issue of potential conflicts between the two firms, this reportedly proved not to be a major difficulty. For one thing, there isn’t much overlap between the two firms’ practices.
“Zazzali Fagella is best known for representing unions and employees in labor, discrimination, civil rights and wage matters,” the New Jersey Law Journal reports. “Most of Gibbons’ clients are corporations, but it does not have a management labor practice.”
