Robert D. Lipscher, a respected court official who served as the director of the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts from 1979 to 1996 during the tenure of Chief Justice Robert N. Wilentz, died on January 13. He was 92.
Lipscher devoted his career to fair and independent judicial systems in New Jersey and across the world.
Wilentz and Lipscher worked to create the state’s first Family Division within the Superior Court. New Jersey became one of the first states to put all domestic law matters within a separate section of the judiciary. Lipscher oversaw over 10,000 employees and over a million cases. Together, Wilentz and Lipscher initiated requirements for lawyers to do pro bono legal work, and supervision of formerly incarcerated individuals on probation.
Lipscher, then a Fair Lawn resident, was serving his seventh year as director of the federal courts for the Second Circuit, which included New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, when Wilentz hired him for the New Jersey post. He replaced Arthur J. Simpson, Jr., who then returned to his post as a Superior Court Judge. Simpson held the post for six years under three chief justices.
The appointment of Lipscher was, at the time, widely viewed as a signal by Wilentz that the state court system was headed toward a significant overhaul. That turned out to be accurate.
Unlike many of his predecessors and successors, Lipscher was trained in court administration. He had been the Passaic County trial court administrator before moving to the Second Circuit.
Prior to Wilentz’s death in 1996, Lipscher announced his intention to retire. The new Chief Justice, Deborah Poritz, tapped First Assistant Attorney General James Ciancia to replace him.
Lipscher was a graduate of Brandeis University and Harvard Law School. He was a member of the first graduating class of the Institute for Court Management in 1970; the program was founded at the urging of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger.
In retirement, Lipscher was a successful judicial consultant and worked with the United Nations, the World Bank, and foreign countries.