LGBTQ Rights Annual Update 2023

Presenters

Jodi A. Argentino, Esq.

Offit Kurman, PA, Hackensack

Zachary Berliner, Esq.

Zachary Berliner, Esq., Montclair

Lisa R. Burke

Administrative Office of the Courts

Leslie A. Farber, Esq.

Leslie A. Farber LLC, Montclair

Robyn B. Gigl, Esq.

Dilworth Paxson LLP

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.
n
nMs. 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.
n
nCo-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.
n
nMs. 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.

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.
n
nA 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.
n
nA 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.
n
nMs. 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.

Jamie Zug, Esq.

Law Office of Jamie M. Zug, Chesterfield