He joined the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office in 1991 as a staff attorney
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
New Jersey Chief Justice Stuart Rabner has announced the appointment of Pennington resident Mark Neary as the clerk of the state Supreme Court.
The appointment, which was made by the Supreme Court, will become effective May 1, upon the retirement of Clerk Stephen W. Townsend.
Mr. Neary, 55, lives on East Welling Avenue with his wife, Allison, and their children, Fred and Liz.
”Mark has served the Supreme Court as an attorney in the Office of the Clerk for 18 years. He brings a wealth of experience on matters of the court’s operations, as well as solid legal and managerial skills to this appointment,” said Chief Justice Rabner. “I am confident he will do an outstanding job as he leads the staff in the clerk’s office through this transition and for years to come,” he added.
”I am honored and humbled by this appointment. The enormity of the task of succeeding Stephen Townsend and serving this court is a challenge I take on both with a deep respect for the traditions of the court and with a determination to continue the advances in technology and modernization already begun,” Mr. Neary said.
The transition of leadership in the clerk’s office will be the first in 31 years, court officials said. They added that, during the 60 years since the 1947 New Jersey Constitution that created the state’s current judicial system, only four others had served the Supreme Court as clerk before Mr. Townsend.
Mr. Neary joined the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office in 1991 as a staff attorney. He became a court executive in 2001. Before joining the judiciary, he was an attorney at the state Casino Control Commission. Prior to that, he was in private practice.
Mr. Neary received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and his law degree from Rutgers School of Law, Newark. He was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1985.
As the court’s chief executive for administration of Supreme Court operations, the clerk oversees the day-to-day business of processing the thousands of motions and petitions for certification presented to the court, as well as attorney and judicial disciplinary matters before the court, bar admissions matters, attorney certifications and other applications and petitions for review presented to the court.
In addition to those duties, the clerk oversees the functioning of the Board of Bar Examiners, the Committee on Character, and the Board on Attorney Certification and supervises the director of the Office of Attorney Ethics, the chief counsel to the Disciplinary Review Board and the executive director of the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection.