Rabner picks Heidi Willis Currier as chief appellate judge to replace Sumners

Judge Heidi Willis Currier will become the next chief judge of New Jersey’s Appellate Division, taking over leadership of the state’s influential intermediate appellate court as Judge Thomas Sumners retires after three years at its helm.

Chief Justice Stuart Rabner announced today that Currier will assume the post on September 1.  As chief judge, Currier will oversee one of the nation’s busiest intermediate appellate courts.

The appellate division is the state’s court of last resort for thousands of appeals each year, hearing appeals from Superior Court, Tax Court, and state administrative agency decisions, issuing roughly 2,000 opinions and deciding about 7,000 motions annually.

Rabner also named Judge Hany Mawla to replace Currier as deputy presiding judge for administration, a post Currier held since 2023.

“Judge Currier and Judge Mawla are gifted, fair-minded, and diligent jurists,” Rabner stated. “I am confident they will capably lead New Jersey’s Appellate Division, which is widely regarded as one of the finest intermediate appellate courts in the nation.”

Currier has served on the Appellate Division since August 2015 and has been presiding judge of Part B since 2022.   Before joining the appellate bench, she spent more than a decade in the Middlesex Vicinage, serving in both the civil and family divisions after her appointment to the Superior Court by Gov. James E. McGreevey in 2004.

A graduate of Smith College and Rutgers School of Law-Camden, Currier began her legal career as a law clerk to Superior Court Judge Sidney H. Reiss before joining Connell Foley, where she rose from associate to partner.

“The Appellate Division is respected throughout the country for its excellence, which I have observed firsthand working with an outstanding group of judges, administrators, and staff the last 12 years,” she said.  “I am committed to maintaining the integrity and quality of this court’s work and continuing to provide the public with the high level of service it expects and routinely receives from the New Jersey Judiciary.”

Before joining the bench, Mawla was a partner at Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis. He earned his undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and his law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law.

Sumners, who has led the Appellate Division since 2023, will retire effective August 31 after eighteen years on the bench.