For Immediate Release
October 22, 2015
Contact: Kate Coscarelli
Senior Managing Director Communications
732-937-7548
Morristown’s Thomas R. Curtin to receive Daniel J. O’Hern Award
Dozens of attorneys from around the state will be honored next week for their contributions to improving the legal community.
The New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law will bestow Professional Lawyer of the Year Awards upon attorneys from every county and specialty bar association at a lunch scheduled for noon on Thursday, Oct. 29 in Somerset. Retired Federal District Court Magistrate Judge Joel Rosen will deliver keynote remarks at the gathering. Reporters and photographers are welcome to cover the event.
The commission’s highest honor, the Daniel J. O’Hern Award, will go to Thomas R. Curtin for lifetime achievements and commitment to the highest ideals of the profession. Curtin, a co-founder of Graham Curtin in Morristown, has given generously of his time to improve the legal profession and to support causes he believes in. In the New Jersey legal community, he is held up as a role model for young attorneys.
“Tom personifies what’s the very best in our profession,” said NJSBA Second Vice President John E. Keefe Jr., a partner at Keefe Bartels LLC in Red Bank. Keefe was one of several attorneys to nominate Curtin for the prestigious Daniel J. O’Hern Award, given annually in memory of the esteemed state Supreme Court justice.
Added Curtin: “I admired and respected Justice O’Hern, who was kind and always sought out lawyers to talk with them and solve problems for the benefit of the profession. Justice O’Hern was a consummate professional, and for me to get an award in his name is very meaningful to me.”
In addition to the O’Hern Award presentation, this year’s event also marks the first time the Charles J. Hollenbeck Award will be presented in honor of the longtime executive director of the commission who retired last year. The recipient is Diane K. Smith, a trustee of the association who is also executive director of Legal Services of Northwest New Jersey.
Here is a list of this year’s honorees:
Daniel J. O’Hern Award -- Thomas R. Curtin
Charles J. Hollenbeck Award -- Diane K. Smith
Atlantic County Bar Association -- Donna Michaels-Ziereis
Bergen County Bar Association -- Richard H. Weiner
Burlington County Bar Association -- Francis J. Hartman
Camden County Bar Association -- Michael S. Berger
Cape May County Bar Association -- Frederick A. Mick
Cumberland County Bar Association -- Kevin P. McCann
Essex County Bar Association -- Thomas P. Scrivo
Gloucester County Bar Association -- Roger C. Mattson
Hudson County Bar Association -- John J. Hughes
Hunterdon County Bar Association -- Dawn M. Solar
Mercer County Bar Association -- Carol M. Henderson
Middlesex County Bar Association -- Willard C. Shih
Monmouth Bar Association -- John Peter Duggan
Morris County Bar Association -- Sheldon M. Simon
Ocean County Bar Association -- Honorable Vincent J. Grasso
Passaic County Bar Association -- Alfred V. Acquaviva
Salem County Bar Association -- John T. Lenahan
Somerset County Bar Association -- Michael McLaughlin
Union County Bar Association -- Kenneth S. Javerbaum
Warren County Bar Association -- Grace E. Kelly
Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association -- Moly K. Hung
Association of Black Women Lawyers -- Nina Bonner
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers -- Joseph D. Rotella
Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey -- Paul H. Zoubek
Garden State Bar Association -- Ronni M. Bright
Hispanic Bar Association -- Anna Maria Tejada
New Jersey Association for Justice -- E. Drew Britcher
New Jersey Defense Association -- Edward J. Fanning Jr.
New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association -- Ehsan F. Chowdhry
New Jersey State Bar Association -- David H. Dugan III
New Jersey Women Lawyers Association -- Loren L. Pierce
Trial Attorneys of New Jersey -- Thaddeus J. Hubert III