After studying at Seton Hall, I was afforded the additional honor of serving a full year internship as legal assistant to the Honorable Peter Ciolino, one of the most talented and respected Superior Court Judges in the great history of New Jersey's now internationally renowned system of justice.
As such, I was privileged to enjoy the invaluable experience of witnessing and assisting one of New Jersey 's finest jurists in action as His Honor presided over a wide variety of trials, hearings, applications and conferences with one objective always in mind: the fair and impartial administration of justice for every client and counselor who appeared in his courtroom.
In the process, Judge
Ciolino tried to teach me, by the priceless
power of his good example, that the search
for justice requires much more than merely
grasping the law and the facts. It requires
a real grasp of people, and their very real
problems, of patience, and above all, compassion.
After more than 25 years, these are lessons
I'm still learning today, which is one of
the reasons why we call our profession "the
practice" of
law.....