The Highly Contested Land Use Application

Presenters

Hon. Marlene L. Lynch Ford

Keefe Law Firm, Seaside Park

is Of Counsel to Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, P.A. in the firm’s Red Bank, New Jersey, office. A retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge, she is available for internal investigations and special master assignments, and provides mediation services to parties in civil and family matters.
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nIn 2007, Judge Ford was appointed Ocean County Prosecutor by Governor Jon S. Corzine—a position she held until March 2013 when Governor Chris Christie appointed her to the Superior Court. As a Superior Court Judge, she served in the Civil Division for ten years and the Family Division for seven years, including serving as Presiding Judge. Chief Justice Rabner appointed her Assignment Judge in July 2015, the chief judicial officer of the Ocean Vicinage, a position she held until her retirement in February 2023. During Judge Ford’s tenure on the bench, she served on multiple Supreme Court Committees, including serving as Chair of the Model Civil Jury Charge Committee, the Committee on Outside Activities of Judicial Employees and the Statewide Domestic Violence Working Group.
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nJudge Ford is admitted to practice in New Jersey and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey. Prior to her service on the bench, constituents elected her to serve two terms as Assemblywoman representing New Jersey’s 10th Legislative District. While in the Assembly, Judge Ford served as a member of the Joint Appropriations Committee and as Chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, and chaired special legislative committees investigating missing, abused and neglected children. She also spearheaded a special investigation into the environmental contamination of federal military installations.
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nJudge Ford received her B.A. from Georgian Court University and her J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.
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Robert S. Baranowski, Jr., Esq.

Hyland Levin Shapiro LLP, Marlton

is a Partner in Hyland Levin Shapiro LLP in Marlton, New Jersey, and concentrates his practice in environmental and land use matters. He represents clients in connection with development applications, zoning and land use litigation, appellate matters, redevelopment, eminent domain and inverse condemnation actions.
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nAdmitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, Mr. Baranowski is Past Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Land Use Section Board of Directors and has been a member of the Burlington County Bar Association and the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey. He has also been a member of the Builders League of South Jersey, the Urban Land Institute and the Environmental Law Institute. Mr. Baranowski formerly served as Deputy Attorney General with the State of New Jersey, Division of Law, where he represented the Department of Environmental Protection. A lecturer at a number of ICLE seminars, he has also lectured on land use and environmental topics for ALI-ABA, DRI, the National Business Institute and the Camden County Bar Association.
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nMr. Baranowski received his B.A. from Rutgers University and his J.D. from Seton Hall Law School.
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Gary S. Forshner, Esq.

Law Offices of Gary Forshner, South Amboy

is the founder and Principal of the Law Offices of Gary S. Forshner in South Amboy, New Jersey, after previously serving as the Co-Chair of the Redevelopment and Land Use Department of one of New Jersey’s most prestigious law firms. He concentrates his practice in land use, zoning and real estate development and redevelopment, and represents local, national and international developers, property owners and other business clients engaged in mixed use, residential, industrial, office, retail and affordable housing development projects. Mr. Forshner provides sophisticated counsel and guidance across all phases of the project life cycle, including land use planning and approvals; permits and variances; appearances before municipal, county and state boards and agencies; and appeals of unfavorable land use decisions. He has also served as special land use counsel to municipalities and the New Jersey Builders Association (NJBA).
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nAdmitted to practice in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Mr. Forshner is Past Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Land Use Law Section and a member of the Mercer County Bar Association. He is a Director of the NJBA, has been Chair of the Association’s Master Sponsor Committee and has served on or chaired several other committees. Mr. Forshner has been a Trustee of the Shore and New Jersey Builders Political Action Committees as well as the Shore Builders Association of Central New Jersey. He has been a member of the Builders League of South Jersey, the National Association of Home Builders and the Legislative Affairs Committee of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties-New Jersey (NAIOP-NJ), and has served on several committees of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).
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nMr. Forshner has lectured on zoning and planning, sustainable energy land use, eminent domain, real estate transactions, financing and leasing, and attorney and government ethics topics for organizations including ICLE, the NJBA and ICSC, and is the author and co-author of articles which have appeared in the New Jersey Lawyer, the New Jersey Law Journal and other publications. He is the 2008 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Political Action and the 2013 Builders’ Choice Award, both bestowed by the New Jersey Builders Association, and several other honors. He is also a frequent contributor to the New Jersey Law Blog.
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nMr. Forshner received his B.S. from Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law.
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F. Clifford Gibbons, Esq.

Dolan & Dolan, PA, Princeton

is the owner and Managing Member of F. Clifford Gibbons, Attorney at Law, LLC in Princeton, New Jersey, and is Of Counsel to Dolan and Dolan, P.A. in Newton and Blairstown, New Jersey. He concentrates his practice in land use matters on behalf of municipal planning/zoning boards, developers, property owners and citizen organizations throughout New Jersey, and has been involved in several reported cases. He has been appointed by the New Jersey Superior Court as a Hearing Officer in affordable housing litigation.
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nAdmitted to practice in New Jersey and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court, Mr. Gibbons is Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association Local Government Law Section, a Trustee of the New Jersey Institute of Local Government Attorneys and a member of the Mercer County, Sussex County and Princeton Bar Associations (and an Trustee emeritus of the latter) and the New Jersey Institute of Municipal Attorneys. He is Assistant Counsel to the New Jersey Planning Officials and Associate Counsel to the New Jersey League of Municipalities, for which he chairs the League’s Municipal Land Use Law Technical Review Committee. He is also General Counsel to the New Jersey Association of Planning and Zoning Administrators.
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nAn adjunct instructor for Rutgers University, Mr. Gibbons is co-author of the New Jersey Casebook on Zoning, Planning and Land Use Law and was for many years co-author, with William M. Cox, of New Jersey Zoning and Land Use Administration (Gann Law Books). He has authored numerous articles on zoning, planning, legal ethics and other topics which have appeared in the New Jersey Lawyer, New Jersey Planner and the Municipal Law Review. Mr. Gibbons is the recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award in Banking Law and Regulation and a two-time recipient of the New Jersey Planning Officials’ Achievement in Planning Award. In 2018 he was the recipient of the William M. Cox Award bestowed by the New Jersey Institute of Local Government Attorneys, which recognizes an attorney or judge distinguished in land use law.
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nMr. Gibbons received his A.B. from Colgate University and J.D. from Penn State University, Dickinson School of Law.
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Robert F. Simon, Esq.

Herold Law, PA, Warren

is a Shareholder in and Co-Managing Director of Herold Law, P.A. in Warren, New Jersey. He focuses his practice in land use regulation before local zoning and planning boards; real estate-related litigation including land use, tenancy, tax appeals, condemnation and title actions; and commercial and residential real estate transactions. Mr. Simon has been qualified as an expert witness in both Superior Court and District Court in legal malpractice and mortgage fraud matters. He has been Board Attorney for the Township of Tewksbury Land Use Board, Special Land Use Counsel for the Borough of Wallington as to Affordable Housing and land use litigation, and Board Attorney for the Township of Millburn Zoning Board of Adjustment.
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nAdmitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second and Third Circuits, Mr. Simon is a member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Land Use Law Section and has been Chair of the District XIII (Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren Counties) and District VB Fee Arbitration Committees. He has been a member of the NJSBA Real Estate Law Section and has lectured for ICLE and Lorman Education Services.
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nMr. Simon received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and his J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, where he served as a member of the Editorial Board of the New Europe Law Review. He was a judicial law clerk to the Honorable R. Benjamin Cohen, J.S.C.
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