Zazzali is the seventh Chief Justice to lead the New Jersey Supreme Court since the 1947 Constitution. He was nominated by Gov. Jon S. Corzine and sworn into office in October 2006. He was first named to the Court by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in May 2000.
A graduate of Georgetown Law Center, Zazzali clerked with the Honorable Lawrence A. Whipple. He served as chief of the Appeals Division of the Office of the Essex County Prosecutor, general counsel to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, receiver for Bloomfield College, chairman of the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, vice-chairman of the Disciplinary Review Board, and as New Jersey Attorney General. He was appointed by the U.S. District Court as Special Master for the county jails in Essex, Monmouth, and Bergen counties. He also served, at the request of the U.S. State Department, on delegations to the United Nations conferences. He practiced law in Newark and Trenton in the firm founded by his late father and his brother Zazzali, Fagella & Nowak.
Other speakers at the ceremony will include Marvin Chirelstein, Visiting Alan V. Lowenstein Professor in Corporate and Business Law, as the faculty speaker and Antonio Gutirrez, Class of 2007, as the student speaker.