More than half of the 25 attorneys to receive first lifetime achievement awards are Rutgers law alums or professors

John Farmer Jr.
John Farmer Jr. is among 13 attorneys connected with Rutgers law schools to receive the New Jersey Law Journal's first-ever Lifetime Achievement Awards.

The New Jersey Law Journal is honoring several New Jersey attorneys with ties to Rutgers law schools as its first Lifetime Achievement Award winners, including Professor John J. Farmer Jr., who also serves as special counsel to Rutgers University President Robert Barchi.

“Our focus in selecting this group of noteworthy individuals was to represent the figures who have helped to shape the law in New Jersey, whether through their work on the bench, assisting those in need of legal services, building a firm or any other means,” the New Jersey Law Journal announced. More than half of the 25 honored share a Rutgers connection.

The former dean of the Rutgers School of Law-Newark, Farmer was senior counsel and team leader for the 9/11 Commission (formally known as the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States) and was the principal author of the commission’s final report. He served as New Jersey attorney general from 1999-2002, and his many accomplishments include creating the Office of Inspector General to investigate allegations of official impropriety and corruption.

Among the winners also are two Rutgers Law–Camden graduatesKathryn Flicker, the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice Director since 2000, and Stephen Orlofsky, a Blank Rome partner and former federal judge. Flicker served for 10 years as the division’s deputy attorney general. As chief trial attorney for southern New Jersey, she prosecuted several high-profile criminal cases, including the murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka. Orlofsky served as one of three federal judges on a 13-person Judicial Assessment Team sent to Iraq in 2003 to help the country rebuild its court system. To learn more, read this interview with Orlofsky.

Rutgers School of Law-Newark is well represented with 11 alumni. Among the first-ever award winners:

  • Frank Askin — Distinguished professor and founder and director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic
  • Deborah T. Poritz — retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey who taught classes at both laws schools as Visiting Jurist Emerita-in-Residence 
  • Richard J. Badolato ’65 — Connell Foley partner
  • Hon. Travis L. Francis, ’81 — Middlesex County Superior Court assignment judge
  • Hon. Greta Gooden Brown ’82 — Passaic County Superior Court judge
  • Michael Gordon ’79 — Gordon & Gordon senior partner
  • Hon. Nestor F. Guzman ’76 — retired Passaic County Superior Court judge
  • David Harris ’79 — Of Counsel, Lowenstein Sandler
  • Anita Hotchkiss ’75 -— Goldberg Segalla partner
  • Miguel Alexander Pozo, ‘98 — Lowenstein Sandler partner

Read more:

Rutgers Law–Camden Alumni Named Lifetime Achievement Award Winners by the New Jersey Law Journal

New Jersey Law Journal Lifetime Achievement Award-Winner, Proud Rutgers Law Alumnus