NEW BRUNSWICK – Norberto A. Garcia was sworn in as first vice president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, the state’s largest professional organization of judges, lawyers and legal professionals. He was installed during the NJSBA 2024 Annual Meeting.
Garcia, a partner at Blume, Forte, Fried, Zerres & Molinari, is on track to become president in 2026. From 2019 to 2021, he was the first Latino president of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, an organization dedicated to promoting law-related education and giving all New Jersey residents a basic understanding of the legal system.
“It is an honor and a privilege to have this opportunity to give back to the legal profession that has given so much to me. I look forward to helping the NJSBA fulfill its mission,” Garcia said.
As a certified civil trial attorney and member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, he has represented clients in a broad spectrum of personal injury matters, including automobile accidents, construction cases, premises liability and medical malpractice. He has been named as a New Jersey Super Lawyer from 2013 through the present year.
His involvement in the organized bar is extensive. He is a former trustee of the NJSBA, a prior co-chair and current member of its Diversity Committee and a member of the Civil Trial Bar Section’s executive committee. Garcia is the past president of the Hudson County Bar Association, where he served as a trustee from 2000 through 2013, and chairs the Hudson County Civil Practice Committee.
He is a trustee of the Hudson County Bar Foundation. He has been active in the Hudson County Inns of Court program since 1996 and was a master in the program. He served as a president of the North Hudson Lawyers Club in 2003. Additionally, he served on the Supreme Court Office of Attorney Ethics, District VI Fee Arbitration Committee from 2004 through 2009, becoming its chair in 2009. From 2005 through 2008 he served on the Supreme Court Committee on Minority Affairs.
Garcia is currently a trustee of the New Jersey Fund for Client Protection. In 2021, he was appointed to the Character and Fitness Committee on the New Jersey Board of Bar Examiners.
Born in Camaguey, Cuba, he came to the United States with his parents as a young child and grew up in Hudson County. He graduated cum laude from Seton Hall University with a bachelor’s degree in history and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Garcia resides in Kinnelon with his wife and two sons.