The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, “We will all profit from a more diverse, inclusive society, understanding, accommodating, even celebrating our differences, while pulling together for the common good.”

One of my goals as president of NJAJ this year is to follow those words and work to make NJAJ a more diverse organization.

As I said in my installation speech, NJAJ needs to be open and welcoming to all in our profession who share our mission for a vibrant civil justice system and the goal of justice for all.

Too often, when people hear the word diversity, they immediately assume you are talking about race and react on that basis.

And while race is a component of diversity, the term is far more encompassing.

When I say NJAJ needs more diversity in its membership and leadership, I mean much more than race.

Like most of society, NJAJ is better when we have diversity in age, gender, political affiliation, sexual identity, race, ethnicity, ableism and more.

Our common purpose is to help NJAJ members better serve the clients we represent. Our clients come in all shapes and sizes and backgrounds. It is important that we as an organization reflect that reality.

NJAJ’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee continues to work hard to develop ways to make NJAJ a more diverse and welcoming organization. I have served on this committee and know from personal experience the effort and time its members put into this goal.

I am excited to support the work of this committee and put more of their recommendations into effect.

To help achieve this goal, I ask all of you to reach out to the trial lawyers you know who are not yet members of NJAJ and urge them to join.

If you are interested in becoming involved in the leadership of this organization, I ask you to reach out to me or members of the Executive Committee and let us know.

At its heart, NJAJ helps trial lawyers better represent clients.

We work to accomplish this purpose in a number of ways.

One of those is through education.

We may be in the heat of summer, but planning is well underway for the Meadowlands Seminar 2023, which takes place Wednesday – Friday, November 15 – 17, 2023.

As you can see elsewhere in this issue, we have a stellar array of programs on tap.

Another way we help attorneys represent clients is advocacy – both on legislation and in our amicus work.

NJAJ regularly is granted approval by the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Appellate Division  to appear as amicus curiae on a wide variety of cases.

On occasion, the justices have recognized that NJAJ provides a valuable perspective by requesting that we participate in various cases as amicus.

Thank you to all of the amicus advocates who volunteer their time and talent on behalf of all of us.

If you would like to join the ranks of the amicus advocates and take part in this important work, please send an email to info@nj-justice.org and let headquarters know.

I wish all of you a very enjoyable summer.

Until next month…