New Jersey Law Journal Names Lawrence Lustberg 2013 New Jersey "Lawyer of the Year"

This attorney has been selected for the recognitions mentioned herein, which have been conferred by the corresponding publications and/or organizations noted. An overview of the award selection methodologies for these recognitions can be found at https://www.gibbonslaw.com/awards. Links to certain specific methodologies are embedded in individual entries. Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances. No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Lawrence S. Lustberg, Director of the John J. Gibbons Fellowship in Public Interest & Constitutional Law at Gibbons P.C., has been named the 2013 New Jersey “Lawyer of the Year” by New Jersey Law Journal.

Mr. Lustberg was recognized for his guidance of the Gibbons Fellowship in its cutting-edge work on behalf of LGBT rights and marriage equality, highlighted by his lead role in the successful constitutional challenge to the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage in New Jersey. Due in large part to his efforts, New Jersey became the fourteenth state in the nation to achieve marriage equality in October 2013.

Mr. Lustberg is the third Gibbons attorney over the past nine years to earn this honor from the New Jersey Law Journal, the premier publication covering the legal industry in the state. John Gibbons was named in 2004 for his work defending the rights of prisoners by successfully challenging the indefinite detention of foreign nationals at Guantanamo Bay, and Kevin McNulty, a former firm director and current judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, was named in 2008 for his work reversing the 2006 ban on New Jersey attorneys’ participation in Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers surveys.

“The fact that Gibbons has had three ‘Lawyers of the Year’ over the past nine years demonstrates the high stakes projects the firm is engaged in on behalf of clients,” stated Patrick C. Dunican Jr., Chairman and Managing Director of Gibbons. “We are extremely proud of Larry’s public interest and constitutional law work, and the ‘Lawyer of the Year’ honor is definitely well-deserved.”

In addition to directing the Gibbons Fellowship, Larry chairs the firm’s Criminal Defense Department. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College and cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, as well as a recipient of the International Graduate School Fellowship at the University of Stockholm. He clerked for the Honorable H. Lee Sarokin, United States District Judge, following which he served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of New Jersey for five years.

Larry is the former President of both the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey and Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey, the latter of which recently awarded him with its highest honor the Honorable Lawrence A. Whipple Memorial Award. He has served on and chaired numerous court and government committees and nonprofit and philanthropic boards, and has been a member of the law school faculties of Seton Hall, Rutgers, and New York Universities. Currently, he is the Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Fund for New Jersey and a Member of the New Jersey State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, for which he recently chaired a Subcommittee on Immigration. He is a recognized authority in constitutional and criminal law and procedure, responsible for many seminal federal and state court decisions in a broad range of cases, and is a Fellow of both the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is also a Lifetime Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Among the many organizations that have honored Larry over the course of his esteemed career are the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, ACLU of New Jersey, Legal Services of New Jersey, Garden State Equality, Partners for Women and Justice, and Essex County Bar Association.