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Childhood experience with the law leads to distinguished careers for award recipients

By Paula Saha posted 10-17-2017 02:48 PM

  
One was just 13, and the other merely 11, but early exposure to the power of the law had a lasting impact on the two judges honored Wednesday at the association’s Diverse Judges’ Reception.

In a presentation at the New Jersey Law Center, U.S. District Chief Judge Jose L. Linares was recognized with the association’s Distinguished Judicial Service Award from the Federal Practice and Procedure Section of the NJSBA. Superior Court Judge Charles W. Dortch Jr. was honored with the Justice Thurgood Marshall Award from the Diversity Committee.

‘The law could make a positive change’

Dortch was 11 when he became one of the first African-American children to attend the just-desegregated elementary school in his hometown of South Hill, Va. He recalled hearing that this would be happening, and going to his mother.

“I asked my mom why were we going to school with the white kids—just as an innocent question—and my mom said to me there was a change in the law…I realized for the first time that the law could make a positive change because the law said that we should be treated equally, not just as separate and equal, but as equal. And, all the institutions in my community had to change because there was a change in the law. That was extremely powerful to me.”

Dortch went on to become a pioneer of diversity in the legal community and in the association. He has served on and recruited diverse attorneys to participate in the Minorities in the Profession Committee, which he helped create. He also played an active role in gaining approval from the association’s board of trustees to change the status of the committee to a section. He was the first African-American chair of the NJSBA Nominating Committee and is a former chair of the IOLTA Fund. In 2004, Judge Dortch was appointed to the New Jersey Superior Court and currently serves as the first African-American presiding judge of the Family Division in Camden County.

“I have always felt that in order to make change you have to be involved,” he said. “Life is about making changes that need to be made when they need to be made, by getting involved. And sometimes, that is tough. But, I also find that most people have more in common than differences, and once you get involved you tend to find that out.”

Before becoming a judge, Dortch was a partner in the law firm of Sumners, Council, George & Dortch, with offices in Camden and Trenton. The firm received the Urban League Business of the Year, City of Trenton Business of the Year and Mercer County Business of the Year awards. Today, all four partners of the firm are judges.

He is a past recipient of the Rutgers School of Law Martin Luther King Freedom Award and is a regular speaker at churches, youth centers and other civic and cultural organizations.

“I wanted to be a standard bearer for all those who went before me, not only people in the black community but well-meaning people of all colors who fought hard for equality, respect and dignity,” he said. “Growing up in the south, I saw how people were treated, particularly when I was younger before the schools were integrated, and how those people conducted themselves with dignity, with perseverance, with strength and with fortitude, knowing that although they themselves may not see fairness, someone like me would. I always want to honor the sacrifices of those who went before me and the opportunities that I have as a result of those sacrifices.”

‘I made up my mind to be a lawyer that day.’

At 13 years old, Linares was the oldest child of five brothers in a family of newcomers to America, from Cuba by way of Spain. The family got an apartment on Bloomfield Avenue in Verona, he remembered, above a real estate agency. The agency, however, did not appreciate the rambunctiousness of young children. They called the landlord, who evicted them.

“We were terrified,” Linares recalled, believing the landlord had the ability to banish them overnight. They went to legal aid in Newark and got help, and the teenage Linares was amazed to watch as the lawyer advocated on his family’s behalf, ultimately getting them extra time to find a new home. “I think I made up my mind to be a lawyer that day.”

Linares started his legal career as a lawyer investigating corruption cases at the New York City Department of Investigation. After some years as an associate at Horowitz, Bross & Sinins in Newark, he established his own law firm in Bloomfield. He has lectured extensively to law students and lawyers and served as president of both the New Jersey Hispanic Bar Association and the Bloomfield Lawyer’s Club. He was also chair of the Essex County Bench-Bar Committee.

Linares has served on the board of trustees of Immaculate Conception High School, the Job Haines Home for seniors in Bloomfield, the Essex County College, and the Cuban Lions Club. He volunteers in the Youth Athletic Program, lectures often at seminars on law related issues, and dedicates time mentoring young men and women interested in pursuing a career in law. He is an adjunct professor of law at Seton Hall Law School and a fellow of the American Bar.

He was appointed to the Essex County Superior Court bench in Dec. 2000 by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and to the federal District Court for the District of New Jersey by President George W. Bush in 2002. He is the first Hispanic chief judge in the New Jersey district and the first Cuban-born chief judge in any district in the country.

His idea of diversity, he said, is a policy of inclusion that “recognizes competency and rewards competency…regardless of where you come from.”

The last decade, he noted, has seen tremendous progress in that regard, from state to federal and even the Supreme Court. “When I started practicing law there were very few Hispanic attorneys that were practicing in federal court. Our view of what the court was like: it was an intimidating place and there weren’t too many of us around. The fact that I am a first carries with it a certain amount of responsibility, but is also a step forward in accessibility of our courts to all our citizens.”

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