Ex-Supreme Court Justice joins Archer & Grenier

Former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Lee A. Solomon has joined Archer & Grenier as Of Counsel.

Solomon served as an associate justice of the state’s top court from 2014 until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 in August.  Prior to his retirement, Solomon served all three branches of state government as a legislator, cabinet member and jurist.

“We are honored to welcome Justice Solomon, a respected jurist known for his fair-mindedness, wisdom, legal insight, and breadth of knowledge,” said Christopher Gibson, the firm’s president. “Our clients will be well served by his invaluable experience on a wide range of cases as both a judge and trial lawyer.”

Deborah Hays, the Archer chair, said that Solomon’s record in public office will make him an enormous asset for our clients, and for the firm, and we look forward to working alongside him.”

Solomon’s departure left the seven-member Supreme Court without anyone who has run for public office or held a top political party position.

A throwback to the original State Supreme Court after the ratification of the 1947 New Jersey Constitution, Solomon is the justice with the strongest political resume: he started as a councilman in Haddon Heights, won a race for Camden County freeholder as a Republican, won a State Assembly seat in a 1992 special election convention in the 6th district, and ran for Congress against Rep. Rob Andrews later that year.

In 1995, Solomon lost his Assembly seat by 1,618 votes to Democrat Louis Greenwald (D-Voorhees), the current majority leader.

He later served as Camden County prosecutor and as a Superior Court Judge before then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie hired him as the Deputy U.S. Attorney in charge of the South Jersey office – a position Solomon’s current colleague, Fabiana Pierre-Louis, later held. As governor, Christie appointed Solomon to serve as a commissioner of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities before returning him to the bench in 2011.

”Archer is an outstanding firm and I’m excited to be joining them,” said Solomon. “I look forward to returning to the legal community from which I came and working with the people that I came to know well during my career.”