The Honorable Deborah T. Poritz, who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey for 10 years before retiring last year, will deliver the 25th Annual Chief Justice Joseph Weintraub Lecture on Wednesday, April 18, at Rutgers School of Law–Newark. The lecture will begin at 6 pm. Justice Poritz will present “The New Jersey Supreme Court: A Leadership Court in Individual Rights.”

After stepping down from the Court in October 2006, Justice Poritz joined DrinkerBiddle, Princeton, as of counsel. She concentrates her practice in government and corporate investigations, mediation and arbitration, and appellate matters.

Justice Poritz was nominated to the Supreme Court by Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and was sworn in as the first female Chief Justice in 1996. At the time of her nomination, she was serving as the first woman Attorney General of New Jersey. Among her many accomplishments as Chief Justice were the unification of the courts into a single statewide system and increasing the diversity of the Judiciary workforce.

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Justice Poritz held positions in the Attorney General’s office as deputy attorney general, assistant chief of the environmental protection section, chief of the banking, insurance and public securities section, and director of the Division of Law; served as chief counsel to Gov. Thomas H. Kean; and was a partner in Jamieson, Moore, Peskin & Spicer.