The NJSBA Fall Conference – A Special One-Day Virtual Event!

Presenters

Hon. Louis F. Locascio, JSC (Ret.)

Andrew S. Blumer LLC

Wanda M. Akin, Esq.

Wanda M. Akin & Associates, Newark

Jodi A. Argentino, Esq.

Offit Kurman, PA, Hackensack

Heather Joy Baker

Clerk of the Court, The Supreme Court of New Jersey

Robert A. Bianchi, Esq.

Former Morris County Prosecutor and Certified Trial Attorney
The Bianchi Law Group, LLC, Parsippany

David J. Bruno, Esq.

The Bianchi Law Group, LLC, Parsippany

Yolanda Ciccone

Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office, New Brunswick

Brad S. Cohen, Esq.

Lex Nova Law, LLC

Russell J. Fishkind, Esq.

Saul Ewing LLP, Newark

Norberto A. Garcia, Esq.

Certified By the Supreme Court of New Jersey As a Civil Trial Attorney
Blume Forte Fried Zerres & Molinari

Robyn B. Gigl, Esq.

Author of the Erin McCabe Series
Dilworth Paxson LLP, Freehold

is a Partner in Dilworth Paxson LLP in the firm’s Freehold, New Jersey, office. She handles complex litigation including employment law, commercial and business litigation, and white-collar criminal defense, and has more than 30 years of experience in representing clients in state and federal courts in New Jersey.

Ms. Gigl is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of New Jersey and before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She is Past Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association LGBT Rights Section, former Vice Chair of the NJSBA Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments Committee, and has been a member of the Association’s Women in the Profession Section and Diversity Committee. Appointed to the New Jersey Transgender Equality Task Force, she has served on the Executive Board of Garden State Equality and the Trans Affirming Alliance, and has been a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Committee on Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement.

Co-author of the chapter “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964” in Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation in the Workplace (BNA, 2014), Ms. Gigl has contributed articles to New Jersey Lawyer and the newsletters of the LGBT Rights Section and the Diversity Committee. She has lectured on LGBT employment and discrimination issues for ICLE, the New Jersey Judicial College, the EEOC, the New Jersey State Bar Association, the New Jersey Judicial College, Rutgers University, Kean University and other organizations, and has been interviewed on NPR. Ms. Gigl has been honored by the ACLU-NJ and Pride Network for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ community, and is the recipient of several other honors. Her first novel, By Way of Sorrow, was released in March of 2021 and her second novel, Survivor’s Guilt, in January 2022.

Ms. Gigl is a graduate of Stonehill College and received her J.D. from Villanova University School of Law, where she was a member and Associate Editor of the Villanova Law Review.

Debra E. Guston, Esq.

Past President, Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys
Guston & Guston, LLP, Glen Rock

is a Partner in Guston & Guston, L.L.P. in Glen Rock, New Jersey. She concentrates her practice in family formation through adoption and assisted reproduction, and family protection through estate planning, estate litigation administration and guardianship for elders and special needs children. She also represents non-profit organizations in formation and governance issues.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys, Ms. Guston is Past President of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, serves as the Academy’s Adoption Director, and is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Family Law Executive Committee, for which she has served as Chair of the Adoption and Reproductive Rights Subcommittee. She has served as President of the Board of Trustees of ACLU-NJ, where she has been Chair of the Nominating Committee, and has been a member of the Legal Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Ms. Guston is Past President of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Greater New York, a former Regional Board member and Board Secretary of the National Gay and Lesbian Bar Association, and has been a member of the National LGBT Association’s Family Law Institute. Past Chair of the NJSBA LGBT Rights Section, she has also been a member of the American, Bergen County and Passaic County Bar Associations and Women Lawyers in Bergen County. Ms. Guston has served as New Jersey local counsel for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and worked on legislative issues involving the New Jersey Gestational Carrier Act, which was signed into law in 2018. She is a member of the Legal Professional Group of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and a volunteer advocate for RESOLVE, the National Fertility Association. She has been appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to the Family Practice Committee, which evaluates rule changes and other issues for referral to the high court, and has also been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Access and Fairness, and Judiciary Working Group on Pro Bono Assignments.

A lecturer at Rutgers School of Law, Ms. Guston is a contributing editor to West Group’s Sexual Orientation and the Law and author of a portion of the Family Court Rules in LexisNexis’s New Jersey Court Rules Annotated 2008-2009. She is a frequent lecturer for community and professional groups, and has been an Associate Managing Editor of the New Jersey Lawyer. A CCAI Angel in Adoption recipient in 2017, she is the recipient of several other honors, including ICLE’s Distinguished Service Award, the E. Nathaniel Gates Award from the Cardozo School of Law, the Leading Practitioner Award bestowed by the National LGBT Bar Association and the Saul Tischler Award, the highest honor bestowed by the NJSBA Family Law Section for her work on behalf of families and service to the Bar.

Ms. Guston received her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College, her M.A. from Emerson College and her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Michael Kane

Director of Security
Caesars Atlantic City Hotel and Casino

Daniel Kramer

Officer, Atlantic City Police Department

Donald M. Lomurro, Esq.

Lomurro Munson, LLC, Freehold

Jennifer Mara, Esq.

Baldassare & Mara, LLC, Roseland

Michael T. McCormick, Esq.

Director and Counsel, The Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection, Trenton

Richard E. McKelvey, Esq.

Executive Assistant Prosecutor, Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office, Mays Landing

Brian J. Neary, Esq.

Law Offices of Brian J Neary, Hackensack

Gigio K. Ninan, Esq.

Shankar Ninan & Co., LLP, New York

Dhara Patel, JD

William E. Reynolds, Esq.

Prosecutor, Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office, Mays Landing

Kim D. Ringler, Esq.

The Ringler Law Firm, Waldwick

Kathleen E. Robinson, Esq.

Chief Assistant Prosecutor, Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office, Mays Landing

Lisa W. Spiegel, Esq.

Associate Executive Director, Continuing Legal Education
New Jersey State Bar Association

Lisa Westerman Spiegel is a New Jersey lawyer and the Associate Executive Director, Continuing Legal Education for the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA). The position entails financial strategy, creativity and an ability to read trends in the law.

She has worked with the very best of the New Jersey legal community to educate tens of thousands of lawyers and judges throughout the state, and to bring to light important, up-to-the-minute issues. She believes that it is vital for the New Jersey legal community to have a solid grasp of ever-evolving technology as a means for improving the lives of New Jersey citizens. This is especially true of blockchain technology, which she views as an idea as revolutionary as the light bulb. Her article entitled “Blockchain Technology – Transforming the Practice of Law and Society as a Whole” that she co-wrote with a colleague was published in New Jersey Lawyer Magazine in June 2020. She is a former member of CompTIA’s Blockchain Council, a member of NYSAE and a member of The New Jersey and Middlesex County Bar Associations.

Lisa has been dedicated to education throughout her life. She currently partners with judges, legislators and other attorneys to present civics lessons to college classes and community groups. She also partners with a colleague to present continuing legal education seminars in technology. In 2022, they were invited to speak at the prestigious New Jersey Judicial College.

In 2006, she co-authored “No Parent Left Behind – A Guide to Working with Your Child’s School” with Pamela Petrosino. The book’s purpose was to demystify the school system and educational jargon so that all parents could be active partners in helping their children receive the best possible education. The book was inspired by hers and Ms. Petrosino’s children, who were very different learners.

Lisa speaks Hebrew and Spanish in addition to English and is an expert needle pointer. When not working, she enjoys community theatre and boogie boarding. She lives in Metuchen with her husband Dan. She is the proud mother of Matthew and Bobbi Spiegel and the proud daughter of Joyce Westerman and S. Thomas Westerman, MD, a retired prominent physician, inventor and expert witness. Her grandfather Morris Westerman was one of the longest-serving members of the Monmouth County Bar Association.

Christina Vassiliou Harvey, Esq.

Lomurro Munson, LLC, Freehold

is a Partner in Lomurro, Munson, Comer, Brown & Schottland, LLC (Lomurro Law) in Freehold, New Jersey. She focuses her practice in appellate matters, personal injury litigation, disability matters, attorney ethics and horseracing law, and has experience litigating personal injury case for both the plaintiff and defense sides, medical malpractice cases for plaintiffs, commercial disputes, and prosecuting and defending insurance brokers and attorneys in claims of professional negligence.

Ms. Harvey is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania at the trial and appellate levels, and before administrative agencies. A former Trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Association, she has been a member of the New Jersey Law Journal’s Young Lawyer Advisory Board and is Past Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division. Having served as President of the Mercer County Women Lawyers Caucus, she is a founding board member of the Community Justice Center, a non-profit organization that assists disabled veterans in obtaining disability benefits.

Ms. Harvey has authored articles for the New Jersey Lawyer newspaper, NJ Esq., The Affiliate, The Young Lawyer and the New Jersey State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Newsletter. She has lectured for ICLE on professional responsibility as part of the Skills and Methods course and for the NJSBA and other organizations on ethics, collections and client relations. She has received three "Star of the Quarter" awards and one “Star of the Year” award for her work in the American Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division and was the recipient of the Service to the Bar Award in 2009 and the Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award in 2013 from the NJSBA-Young Lawyers Division.

Ms. Harvey received her B.A. from Douglass College, Rutgers University. She was a contract specialist for the United States Navy before attending Rutgers University School of Law and receiving her J.D. She served as a law clerk to the Honorable Dorothea O’C. Wefing, Presiding Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Alessandra Whitney, M.A., LPC

Wellness Counseling, Montclair

Ashley Willcott

Judge, Trial Attorney, Mediator, Legal Analyst
Court TV