Gibbons Director Receives State Bar Foundation’s Medal of Honor

On Oct 2, 2023

The New Jersey State Bar Foundation (NJSBF) conferred its highest award, the Medal of Honor, on Lawrence S. Lustberg, co-chair of the Gibbons P.C. White Collar & Investigations Group and longtime director of the Gibbons Fellowship. The award was presented at the foundation’s annual awards dinner, held on September 26 at the Park Chateau in East Brunswick.

The NJSBF annually awards its Medal of Honor to professionals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of the justice system or the betterment of the legal profession in New Jersey, and who have attained professional excellence in the law or service to the profession and the community. Joining Lustberg as a 2023 Medal of Honor recipient was Justice Barry T. Albin (ret.) of Lowenstein Sandler LLP.

“I feel so honored to be a recipient of the Bar Foundation Medal of Honor, particularly alongside my longtime friend and a giant of the legal community, Justice Barry Albin. I am grateful not only for the award, but even more so for the opportunity that the profession, including the Bar Association, has provided me to work on some of the greatest issues of our time, from racial equality to criminal justice reform and beyond,” Lustberg said.

Throughout his career, Lustberg has argued groundbreaking cases before federal and state courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and he is known for his extensive criminal defense, public interest, and pro bono work. He is an authority in constitutional and criminal law and procedure, responsible for many seminal federal and state court decisions in a broad range of cases.

After serving a pivotal role in the historic 2013 overturning of New Jersey’s ban on same-sex marriage, Lustberg was named the state’s “Lawyer of the Year” by the New Jersey Law Journal, which also presented him with one of its first Lifetime Achievement Awards in 2016.

He is the former president of both the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey and Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey, each of which has awarded him its highest honor – the William J. Brennan, Jr. Award and Honorable Lawrence A. Whipple Memorial Award, respectively.

Lustberg has earned numerous other accolades, from such organizations as the Lawyers Alliance for New York, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, ACLU of New Jersey, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Legal Services of New Jersey, Garden State Equality, Partners for Women and Justice, Trial Attorneys of New Jersey, and Essex County Bar Association, among many others. He has long been listed in Thomson Reuters New Jersey Super Lawyers, Woodward/White Best Lawyers®, and the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

“As a lawyer, husband, father, grandfather, mentor, friend, role model, and leader, Larry has continually demonstrated the qualities and attributes worthy of his receiving the Medal of Honor,” noted Peter. J. Torcicollo, managing director of the firm. “All of us at the firm congratulate him on this honor.”

“Larry’s work on behalf of clients and his contributions to public interest law inspire all of us here at Gibbons, and we are extremely proud to see Larry recognized for his efforts,” said Patrick C. Dunican Jr., the firm’s executive chairperson.

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