Deborah T. Poritz is the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Justice Poritz was born on October 26, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from Brooklyn College in 1958. She became a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in English and American Literature at Columbia University.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1977, Poritz became a Deputy Attorney General in the New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety. In 1981, she was named as the Assistant Chief of the Environmental Protection Section. She later served as Deputy Attorney General in Charge of Appeals, Chief of the Banking, Insurance and Public Securities Section, and Director of the Division of Law, and finally was the Chief Counsel to Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean. From 1990 to 1994, Poritz was a partner in the Princeton law firm of Jamieson, Moore, Peskin & Spicer.

Poritz was the first woman to serve as Attorney General of New Jersey. She was nominated to the position by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman in January 1994. As Attorney General, she oversaw the divisions of Law, Criminal Justice, Gaming Enforcement, Motor Vehicles, Consumer Affairs, Civil Rights and the New Jersey State Police. She served as attorney general until she took office as chief justice.

Poritz was nominated to be Chief Justice by Governor Whitman on June 20, 1996 and was confirmed on June 27, 1996. She was officially sworn in as the first female Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court on July 10, 1996.

Chief Justice Poritz and her husband have two sons, Jonathan and Mark Poritz.

External link

• Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz

1936 births | American lawyers | American politicians | Living people | New Jersey Supreme Court justices | New Jersey politicians | People from New Jersey | State cabinet secretaries of New Jersey | U.S. State Attorneys General | Women lawyers