Walk into Jeralyn L. Lawrence’s law firm, through the lobby with her name emblazoned in silver lettering, and you’ll find a conference room that doubles as a trophy case.
The awards line the room like wallpaper. Plaques recognizing the annual lists of Super Lawyers, New Jersey’s Best, the Top 50 Women Attorneys in the state. Just one would highlight any attorney’s career.
But for all the adulation, the Watchung family law attorney has a quick response when asked about her proudest professional accomplishment.
“Becoming the New Jersey State Bar Association president,” Lawrence said.
“I love being a lawyer. It’s an incredible honor to lead an organization of lawyers and help make the practice better.”
Inside that conference room is a separate collection of keepsakes that trace her history with the NJSBA. Lawrence will add to the mantle Thursday when she takes the reins as president of the NJSBA. Her tenure comes at a time when the world unwinds from a pandemic that left an indelible mark on the profession, with the expansion of remote work, virtual courtrooms and new ways to interface with clients.
It’s unclear what trends are bound to become the new normal. But for those who know Lawrence best, all agree that no one is better suited to lead the Association at this time. She’s driven, ambitious and pragmatic, according to Jeffrey Fiorello, a family law attorney at Cohn Lifland Pearlman Herrmann & Knopf in Saddle Brook, who’s known Lawrence since elementary school. And in a world that moves at breakneck speed, Lawrence is always ahead, he said.
“Jeralyn has a way to juggle and keep a balance with everything. With her life, her law firm, with the NJSBA,” Fiorello said. “She doesn’t do any of it less than 100% and she makes it look effortless.”
NJSBA First Vice President Timothy F. McGoughran, a fellow family law attorney who is on track to become president after Lawrence’s term ends, said it’s a continuous theme that he is always a few steps behind her, literally and figuratively. Her work ethic is almost preternatural, he said. Indeed, anytime he reaches out for advice or to bounce around ideas about family law, she’ll “always pick up the phone and give me however long it takes.”
“She’s going to work as hard as anybody who’s ever been in the job. She cares about lawyers, she cares about lawyer well-being, and she loves helping people,” McGoughran said.
Deep Roots in the Organized Bar
Lawrence’s roots with the NJSBA run deep. At the insistence of former Superior Court Judge Herbert Glickman, who she clerked for after law school, she joined the NJSBA and almost immediately started volunteering in the Family Law Section. Now, it’s hard to find a section or committee she hasn’t served on. Currently she is involved with the sections for Women in the Profession, Solo and Small-Firm and Family Law. She’s also on the Finance and Operations, Insurance Benefits, Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments, Meeting Arrangements and Program Committees, and Pandemic Task Force.
As chair of the Family Law Section, she and other members worked with the state Legislature and governor in 2014 to change New Jersey’s alimony statute, which amended the circumstances for someone to request and receive a modification or termination of alimony. She was also the driving force behind the Family Collaborative Law Act, a 2014 statute that made collaborative divorce one of the official ways to divorce in the New Jersey.
“I realized the NJSBA is in a unique position. The organization is filled with talented people who can effectuate real change if they collaborate on a cause they believe in,” Lawrence said. “That’s what really led me to put my name in to become president.”
She is a past president of the Somerset County Bar Association. And for a brief time this year she will head two large legal organizations simultaneously—the NJSBA and the state chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, until her term there expires in June. But it’s the NJSBA that shaped her career the most, she said.
“I attribute much of my career and the relationships I’ve built to the NJSBA. I wouldn’t have my own firm without it,” Lawrence said.
Lawrence spent two decades at Norris McLaughlin in Bridgewater before founding her own firm in 2019, a mile from her house in Watchung. She rose through the ranks at Norris McLaughlin and became the firm’s top biller, but opening her own shop was a longtime dream, she said.
“It’s a lot of work. You can’t do it alone,” Lawrence said of running her own firm. “No job is off the table, whether it’s taking out garbage, filling up water tanks, or negotiating enormous divorce deals. You wear many hats. But who you surround yourself with remains the most critical piece to personal and professional success.”
Many on Lawrence’s team are her longtime colleagues. One of them is Amy Shimalla, who met her future boss at an NJSBA event when Lawrence was a young attorney. At points they were adversaries on cases, Shimalla said. Other times Lawrence asked her to serve as a mediator. Shimalla described Lawrence as passionate and resolution-oriented problem solver who develops a level of trust with her clients and colleagues. And overall, she is someone who is tough as nails.
“She looks at the big picture. You can’t win every battle; you have to look at the big picture and the outcome you want to achieve for your client,” Shimalla said. “She’s able to go down that path and get the client to the best place possible.”
Emily R. Urrico considers herself a protégé of Lawrence’s. She started as her legal assistant at Norris McLaughlin, where Lawrence promoted her to paralegal. Eventually, Lawrence floated the idea that she should look into attending law school.
Urrico said she was hesitant at first, but started taking night classes at Seton Hall Law School while working full-time. If she needed flexibility, Lawrence obliged, she said. Urrico finished law school in 2020. After graduation, she had an associate position waiting at Lawrence’s firm and Lawrence even staged an elaborate graduation ceremony at the offices since the pandemic precluded an official ceremony The NJSBA membership will get a tireless leader in Lawrence, she said.
“She was all about seeing me through to the next point in my career. …She allows you to cultivate a skill and develop it,” Urrico said. “She made the practice of law seem very enjoyable, and that’s tough. Especially doing family law with people at their emotional lows. She made me feel that what she was doing was getting people from one chapter in life to the next. She wears many hats, and she wears them so effortlessly."
From athlete to attorney
Lawrence grew up in Wayne as the middle child in a family of seven. Her dad, Jerry, was a local police officer, while her mom drove a school bus and ran a consignment shop in town.
“Being one of five is a battle to the death at times,” Lawrence said.
Wayne didn’t have a girls soccer team while growing up, so she played with the boys, Lawrence said. At the time of her graduation from Wayne Hills High School, she held the record for earning the most varsity letters—one for soccer, basketball, softball, and a fourth as the football team’s stat keeper. She went on to play basketball at Kean College of New Jersey, now Kean University.
“Jeralyn was a team player. She was not an aggressive shooter. She was the one passing the ball to the girl who would score,” recalled her mother Carol Lawrence.
The teamwork and tenacity she learned during athletics has translated to her professional life, say those who know her best.
“It’s definitely what’s driven her to succeed in her profession,” Alice Napolitano, who played basketball with Lawrence in college, said of her competitive spirit. “Jeralyn values being part of a team and supporting every member. That is one of her greatest attributes. She believed everybody is important and valuable…. Her confidence seeps into those around her. She makes you a better person.”
The law has provided an outlet for her to compete, though she’s had an eye on the profession since her childhood. As a sixth grader, Lawrence remembers writing down ”lawyer” on a questionnaire of what she wanted to do as an adult.
She points to her father’s police work, and the stories he would tell, as an inspiration.
“The two of them always had a great connection,” Cindy Contella, Lawrence’s sister, said. “I remember they would sit for hours in the family room and talk about my father’s day.”
Family law piqued her interest after she took part in a clinic on the specialty while at Seton Hall Law School, Lawrence said. That, and watching the film The Burning Bed with Farrah Fawcett—based on the true story of a battered wife’s case in Michigan from the 1970s—gave the law a sense of purpose, she said. Family law allows her to represent and advocate for victims in a meaningful way.
“You have the ability to really help people,” Lawrence said. “Sometimes you deal with people who can’t even get through a consultation because they’re so emotional. And then two years later they’re totally reborn in a way. They’ve made it to the other side and are on a different path. It’s rewarding to shepherd clients through that.”
Her closest friends say she applies those same skills of providing guidance to every aspect of her life.
“She looks at all of what she does from a 360-degree view. She is not judgmental. She listens. She takes it in and provides direction that is manageable and practical,” said Caren Fiore, her best friend. “Sometimes I don’t like what I hear from her, but it is always spot-on.”
Despite plenty of professional success, some of her most rewarding moments have come through volunteer and pro bono work, Lawrence said. She’s argued before the state Supreme Court twice on family law matters.
“Each time I was nervous. The time and preparation it takes to make those arguments is incredible. You really have to know everything about your issue,” Lawrence said. “But if you had told me years ago that one day I’d be arguing before the Supreme Court, I would say no way.”
Putting lawyers first
For an attorney with Lawrence’s ambition, the NJSBA members shouldn’t expect anything less than an ambitious agenda for the upcoming year. The philosophy for her term will be “Putting Lawyers First,” a platform that aims to make life in the field better for attorneys.
Lawrence said she wants to provide attorneys the tools they need to survive and thrive in the ever-changing legal landscape. Some of the issues she wants the Association to examine are how to help attorneys navigate the world of working ethically in a virtual environment, looking at roadblocks attorneys face in seeking payment for their work, finding creative ways to engage new members of the profession, as well as solo and small-firm attorneys, and help those with families not be left out of leadership and advancement opportunities in their firms and the profession. She also plans to continue to play a significant role in amicus and legislative advocacy to codify the laws, rules and cases that affect the practice of law. Part of the mantra means practicing wellness to address stress, anxiety and depression in the profession, Lawrence said.
Key among the issues is focusing on ethics. She hopes to reinforce the critical role lawyers play in the system and propose solutions to issues their colleagues face, from providing more information and resources to help attorneys understand their ethical obligations, especially related to trust accounts, to ensuring the ethics system maintains the critical balance of upholding the public trust in the profession and a disciplinary system that is not overly punitive.
“When the NJSBA mobilizes and puts their weight behind an issue, it’s very powerful,” Lawrence said. “If you tap all of the resources in our organization, you can really bring change. There is much work to do and it is my privilege and pleasure to do it.”