A highly regarded former justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and a lawyer who has devoted his career to serving the underserved and promoting ethics in the legal profession will receive the New Jersey State Bar Foundation’s highest award.

Retired Justice John E. Wallace Jr., only the second African-American member of the Court, and David H. Dugan III, are this year’s recipients of the Medal of Honor. The award is given each year to one or two individuals who have made significant contributions to improving the justice system.

The Medal of Honor Awards Reception will take place June 13, at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick. The state bar foundation is the educational and philanthropic arm of the New Jersey Star Bar Association (NJSBA).

Devotion to the Rule of Law, a Passion for Rights

Justice Wallace’s nearly 30 years on the bench, marked by his thoughtful opinions geared to protecting the rights of all New Jerseyans, earned him admiration and respect throughout the legal community.

“Justice Wallace is a transformative leader who leads people, by his example of integrity and service, to do better or to be better than they might have been,” said Newark attorney Kenneth Sharperson, who nominated him for the award. As Justice Wallace’s law clerk in the appellate court, Sharperson “saw him digest bench memos and understand issues that would make any lawyer’s head spin….He is a great man, as anyone who had contact with him can immediately sense.”

Fellow nominator and past NJSBA president Allen Etish, of Archer & Greiner in Haddonfield, cited the justice’s “long, distinguished career as a jurist” whose “opinions were always concise, well reasoned and spoke to the common man….No jurist or lawyer has been more deserving of the Medal of Honor Award.”

Added Stuart Lederman, president of the bar foundation, “Justice Wallace’s career as a jurist, spanning three decades and every level of our state Judicial system, is almost unparalleled in the history of New Jersey. His years of public service and his thoughtful opinions evidence a devotion to the rule of law and the protection of the rights of both individual and corporate citizens of the state of New Jersey. The qualities of Justice Wallace are emblematic of the qualities we all should aspire to and set as the standard for future Medal of Honor recipients. I look forward to presenting him with the foundation’s highest award.”

Wallace expressed his appreciation with characteristic modesty.

“I am deeply honored to be one of this year’s recipients of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation’s Medal of Honor,” said Justice Wallace. “The foundation is extremely important in the many nonprofit efforts it supports.”

Appointed to the superior court of New Jersey for Gloucester County in 1984, Justice Wallace was elevated to the Appellate Division in 1992. In 2003, he was confirmed as a justice of the state Supreme Court, where he served through 2010.

He chaired the Supreme Court Ad Hoc Committee on Admissions and actively served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Task Force for Minority Concerns, the New Jersey Ethics Commission, the Judiciary Advisory Committee on Americans with Disabilities Act, the Supreme Court Special Committee on Matrimonial Legislation and the Appellate Division Rules Committee. In addition, he is a member of numerous legal groups, including the Gloucester and Camden county bar associations, the NJSBA, the Garden State Bar Association, the American Bar Association and the National Bar Association. He is a member of the board of Legal Services of New Jersey.

Justice Wallace has received many honors from respected civic and legal organizations, including the William J. Brennan Jr. Citation for Justice from Legal Services of New Jersey, the Lawyer of the Year Award from the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law, the Judge John F. Gerry Award of the Camden County Bar Association, the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey Award, the Orient of New Jersey Dedicated Service Award from the Valley of Camden, the Washington Township Board of Education Appreciation Award, the Van J. Clinton Award from the Garden State Bar Association, and the Law and Justice Distinguished Contribution Award from Rider University. He was honored by the NJSBA in 2010 for his “dedication to the people of New Jersey and his years of distinguished service as a justice, judge, lawyer and citizen.”

Born in Pitman, Wallace earned his bachelor’s degree in 1964 from the University of Delaware and his J.D. three years later from Harvard Law School. The future justice then served in the United States Army for two years, attaining the rank of captain. Before becoming a Superior Court judge, he worked as an attorney for the trustees of the Penn Central Transportation Company and as an associate of the law firm Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhodes. He was then appointed municipal judge for Washington Township, and at the same time became a partner of the law firm Atkinson, Myers, Archie & Wallace.

Since retiring from the bench, he has become counsel to the law firm of Brown & Connery in Woodbury, concentrating in mediation, arbitration and complex litigation.

A former outstanding college athlete, Wallace is included on the University of Delaware Wall of Fame, and is a member of its board of trustees. He continues to enjoy his decades-long coaching of Little League baseball and high school football. He is a member of several sports halls of fame, including Gloucester County, Pitman High School, Washington Township High School and that township’s baseball hall of fame.
He and his wife make their home in Sewell. They have five children.


 David Dugan

Serving Those in Need, Ethics Above All

A commitment to integrity and fairness has been the hallmark of Medford attorney David Dugan’s legal career.

The Wheaton College graduate obtained his law degree from Yale Law School in 1962. Serving in the United States Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, he attained the rank of captain. Following two years as an associate in law practice at McCarter & English, he became executive director of South Jersey Legal Services—then known as Camden Regional Legal Services—a nonprofit organization created to provide quality legal representation and advocacy to low-income individuals. While he held the leadership position from 1968 to 1972, he continues his involvement today as a trustee. Legal Services of New Jersey awarded him its Equal Justice Medal in 1987, and an Outstanding Board Service Award in 2010.

In 1972, Dugan established a solo practice, which for the past 10 years has been limited to matters of legal ethics. As a consultant, he provides ethics counsel to other attorneys. He also serves as an expert witness in legal malpractice and lawyer discipline cases, and represents lawyers who face disciplinary charges.

He was humble about the foundation’s honor, given in recognition of his longstanding commitment to fostering ethics in the practice of law.

“Surely there are many other lawyers who are more worthy of this honor than I,” said Dugan. “However, I am very pleased to have been chosen, especially since the award carries with it the great prestige of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation.”

Dugan represented the state as an amicus curiae before the New Jersey Supreme Court in a high-visibility 2008 case, Brundage v. Estate of Carambio, which dealt with the rules of attorney professional conduct. He successfully argued for the NJSBA that the attorney in question was fulfilling his obligation of representing the best interests of his client. In recognition of his efforts in Brundage, Dugan received the NJSBA’s Amicus Curiae Award later that year. An NJSBA member emeritus, he has been active in the association since 1968. He is the former chair of its Professional Responsibility and Unlawful Practice Committee, as well as the Ethics Diversionary Program.

“The New Jersey State Bar Foundation is proud to bestow its highest honor on Mr. Dugan for his distinguished career and outstanding efforts on behalf of the underserved residents of New Jersey as well as his commitment to ethics in the profession of law,” said Lederman. “From the beginning of his career as a member of the Judge Advocate General Corps, he has promoted professional responsibility. His dedication to serving the Institute for Continuing Legal Education has ennobled our profession. He personifies the qualities a Medal of Honor recipient should possess.”

The author of the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s (ICLE) Manual on Legal Ethics, which he also updates annually, Dugan served from 1992 to 2001 as a special ethics master by appointment of the New Jersey Supreme Court. He has been a moderator or a presenter in more than 100 ethics seminars for NJICLE, New Jersey Association for Justice and other organizations. NJICLE awarded him a Distinguished Service Award in 2001.

He was a member of the first trustee board of the IOLTA Fund of the Bar of New Jersey and chaired the board in 1992. He also served as a national trustee of the Christian Legal Society and was its president from 1992 to 1994, and belongs to the Burlington County Bar Association.

Another of Dugan’s accomplishments is a relationship any in-law would savor: His daughter-in-law for the past 23 years—and his legal secretary for the past decade—thinks so highly of him that she nominated him for the Medal of Honor, citing his strength of character. “He is an outstanding person,” said Tracie Wendell Dugan, “a man of great integrity,” who has enhanced the state of legal ethics in New Jersey.

He and his wife reside in Evesham and have two children and five grandchildren. The couple will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in September.