RETIRED JUDGE REAPPOINTED TRUSTEE OF

NEW JERSEY STATE BAR FOUNDATION

 

            C. Judson Hamlin, a retired judge of the state Superior Court of New Jersey, has been reappointed as a trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting law-related education and giving all New Jersey residents a basic understanding of the legal system.

 

            After earning a B.A. from Providence College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law, he began his legal career in 1963 with a judicial clerkship with the Hon. David D. Furman of the Superior Court. Following his clerkship, Mr. Hamlin engaged in an active civil trial practice in tort, contract and land use matters. He served as counsel for the East Brunswick Planning Board and became a partner at Hicks, Kuhlthau, Nagle and Hamlin, New Brunswick, where he appeared in banking matters before the New Jersey Department of Banking and the United States Controller of Currency. In 1967 he was appointed to lead the first public defender program in Middlesex County. As Deputy Public Defender in that office, he tried more than 40 criminal cases to conclusion including seven first-degree homicide indictments. In 1971 he was appointed First Assistant Prosecutor of Middlesex County and was named Prosecutor in 1974, serving in that capacity through 1978. His duties included conducting major public corruption probes.

 

            In 1978 he was appointed to the Superior Court by Gov. Brendan Byrne, serving in both the Criminal and Civil Divisions.  He concluded his judicial service as Presiding Judge of the Civil Division of Middlesex County for two and a half years and as Presiding Judge of the Chancery Division for two years. During his tenure on the bench Judge Hamlin had statewide responsibility for complex mass tort and class action matters. The author of several published opinions, he sat on several New Jersey Supreme Court committees.

 

            Following his retirement from the bench in 1998, he joined the Bedminster law firm of Purcell, Mulcahy, O'Neill and Hawkins, where he has engaged in a broad spectrum of private civil practice as well as Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).  The following year he was also appointed to administer the National Diet Drug Class Action Settlement Trust, which had 400,000 claimants; and in 2002 was appointed Compliance Master by the Superior Court for the $2 billion Cooper Tire national class action settlement. That same year New Jersey's attorney general selected him to oversee the New Jersey Pension Fund's efforts to recoup its multimillion-dollar losses. Those efforts included six national class action filings. At the conclusion of his assignment four years later, the class actions were settled for sums exceeding $2.2 billion.

      

Judge Hamlin is an active member of local, state and national bar associations and has lectured extensively on a broad range of civil and criminal topics.  A former trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) and currently a trustee of the Middlesex County Bar Association and the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey, he received the 2006 Middlesex County Bar Association Lawyers Achievement Award, the 2007 NJSBA Civil Practice Professionalism Award and the 2007 Trial Attorneys of New Jersey Special Recognition Award.

 

Founded in 1958, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation is the educational and philanthropic arm of the New Jersey State Bar Association. The Bar Foundation's mission is to promote public understanding of the law through a free, comprehensive public education program. Among its activities, the Foundation conducts seminars and conflict resolution training, publishes materials, operates a videotape loan library and speakers bureau, and coordinates elementary, middle and high school mock trial competitions. For more information about the Foundation's programs and publications, visit us online at www.njsbf.org or call 1-800-FREE-LAW.

 

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