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*Editor's Note: This report has been updated to include additional judges who passed a Senate vote on Monday. 

The full Senate, convening on its final voting session before the new year, approved 11  reappointments of sitting superior court judges, as well as three new superior court judges and two administrative law judges.

The new superior court judges are:

  • Joseph Adam Levin, a criminal defense attorney who has been in private practice in Atlantic City since 2000, and managing partner of Levin Weinstock Levin in Atlantic City;
  • Lisa James-Beavers, an administrative law judge since 2007 and previously executive director of the state's School Ethics Commission and the former president of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation; and
  • Philip Degnan, the state comptroller since October 2015, first in an acting capacity before being confirmed by the Senate in April 2016, and before that the director of the State Commission of Investigation and a federal prosecutor.

According to Supreme Court orders issued Wednesday, Degnan will be assigned to the Family Part in Essex County; James-Beavers, to the Family Part in Burlington County; and Levin, to the Criminal Part in Cape May County.

Levin and five of the superior court judges up for reappointment recently received unanimous approvals by the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Dec. 12.

In addition to those five were six other sitting judges up for tenure. The Senate on Monday approved the reappointment of a total of 11 judges:

  • Monmouth County Superior Court Judges Katie Ann Gummer of Rumson and Joseph W. Oxley of Red Bank;
  • Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Christopher Damian Rafano of South River;
  • Hudson County Superior Court Judge Nesle Agustina Rodriguez of Jersey City; and
  • Camden County Superior Court Judge Thomas J. Shusted Jr. of Cherry Hill.
  • Camden County Superior Court Judge Donald Stein;
  • Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Joseph Randall Corman;
  • Somerset/Hunterdon County Superior Court Judge Michael F. O'Neill;
  • Essex County Superior Court Judge Peter Adam Bogaard;
  • Appellate Division  Judge Arnold L. Natali Jr.; and
  • Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Mara E. Zazzali-Hogan.

Also on Monday, Kim C. Belin of Delran and Sarah Surgent of Millstone Township won Senate approval for their nominations to become administrative law judges for a one-year tenure with reappointment to a four-year term if nominated by the governor.