Meet the Judges: 6 Candidates Clear Senate Vote for Superior Court Bench

The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved five Superior Court nominees, though six candidates were subsequently confirmed by a Senate floor vote Friday.

Speaking on all nominees before the committee Friday, Senate President Nicholas P. Scutari called the group of candidates “outstanding,” and said he is looking forward to further reducing the number of judicial vacancies in the state.

“I am looking forward to continuing to move down on the number of vacancies we have in the state,” Scutari said. “We have achieved an amount that is no longer in a state of emergency, and I think that is in large part due to the work of this committee.”

The candidates were confirmed by a Senate floor vote Friday, bringing the number of vacancies down to 38, according to the latest numbers provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts.

The candidates include Charles F. Kenny, a principal with Kenny & Stinson; Adam Kenny, a partner with Kennedys; Jennifer McAndrew Vuotto, a founding partner of McAndrew Vuotto; Louis Charles Shapiro, a criminal defense attorney; Jude Anthony Tiscornia, an administrative law judge; and Amber Gibbs, a Middlesex County prosecutor.

Charles F. Kenny, who is also a Supreme Court-appointed special ethics master, who passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 13, was also confirmed in the floor vote on Friday.

Charles F. Kenny will serve as a judge on the Hudson County Superior Court bench. He will replace Judge Martha D. Lynes following her retirement. He holds both undergraduate and law degrees from Seton Hall University. In addition to being a certified civil trial attorney, he also serves as a trustee of the Hudson County Bar Association, and has served for 20 years as a special ethics master, according to his law firm bio.

Adam Kenny was nominated to succeed Judge Arthur Bergman on the Middlesex County Superior Court bench. His experience includes the defense of tort actions, including automobile negligence, premises liability, sovereign immunity, and civil rights. He has argued before the Superior Court of New Jersey, the Appellate Division, the New Jersey Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I have spent my entire career in litigation,” Adam Kenny said. “As an attorney who has practiced for 30-plus years in our superior courts, including, but not limited to, trying cases, I have seen firsthand how tirelessly and how well our judges work to deliver justice.”

Adam Kenny holds his undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law.

McAndrew Vuotto was nominated to succeed Judge Mary Gibbons Whipple, who retired from the Morris and Sussex Superior Court bench. According to her law firm bio, McAndrew Vuotto is experienced in prosecuting professional liability claims, personal injury, insurance coverage issues, and criminal defense in superior and municipal courts.

“I have spent my entire career practicing in Morris County, and it is a privilege to be nominated to be a member of their bench,” McAndrew Vuotto said. “I became a lawyer because I love the law, how it inspires us yet is always aspirational, pushing us to always consider, and try to achieve our most fundamental tenets that we believe in—equity, equality and justice.”

After earning her bachelor’s degree from The Catholic University of America and her law degree from Seton Hall Law School, McAndrew Vuotto clerked for Superior Court Judge John J. Harper. She then joined McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, where she handled numerous personal injury and general liability defense matters.

McAndrew Vuotto previously served as president of both the Morris County Bar Association and Foundation. As a New Jersey State Bar Association board of trustees member, she currently represents Morris County.

Shapiro was nominated to succeed Judge Richard J. Geiger on the Superior Court bench in Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem counties. Shapiro shared that he is a third-generation attorney.

“As a lawyer and a solo practitioner who has handled some of the most difficult and demanding criminal, family and civil cases, I wake up every day and know that I hold someone else’s life, liberty, family relationship, or economic security in my hands,” Shapiro said. “This is a recognition level that I take very seriously, and I would bring that same level of personal obligation to the bench.”

Shapiro holds degrees from Hamilton College, his law degree from Washington and Lee University School of Law, and an master’s in law from Temple University Beasley School of Law. He has served as a past president of the Cumberland County Bar Association.

Tiscornia was nominated to succeed Judge Mark A. Baber following his retirement from the Hudson County Superior Court bench.

“On a personal note, I would like to acknowledge that the seat, which I have been nominated to occupy, happens to be that of the late, great Judge Mark Baber, who is, coincidentally, the judge before whom I had my first trial as a young lawyer,” Tiscornia said.

Tiscornia previously ran as the Republican candidate for New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District seat but was defeated by Albio Sires in 2014. He also ran unsuccessfully for the New Jersey General Assembly in 2013.

Tiscornia earned his bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and his law degree from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. His professional experience includes working as an attorney for the Tiscornia Law Office and for Bogart Keane Ryan.

Gibbs, a Middlesex County prosecutor, appeared before the committee Friday on her nomination to succeed Judge Carlia M. Brady, who is retiring from the Middlesex County bench.

She thanked the late Judge Betty J. Lester, the first Black female presiding judge in Essex County, for giving her a clerkship. For the last two years, Gibbs served as an assistant prosecutor for Essex and Middlesex counties and as chief of the major crime section in Middlesex County.

Gibbs shared with the committee that she gave birth to a daughter at 19 and worked full time while earning her undergraduate degree before attending law school.

“If given this opportunity, I am ready to work with litigants, attorneys, and other professionals to give them their day in court and the opportunity to be heard, all with the respect and acknowledgment of the impact my decision has upon them,” Gibbs said.