Associate Justice John E. Wallace Jr.

Justice Wallace was nominated to serve on the Supreme Court by Governor James E. McGreevey on April 12, 2003. He was confirmed by the Senate May 19, 2003, and was sworn as an associate justice by Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz at a private ceremony the following day. On June 4, 2003, he reaffirmed the oath of office in a public ceremony at Rowan University in Glassboro. He served on the Court until May 19, 2010.

At the time of his nomination, Justice Wallace was a Superior Court judge, sitting in the Appellate Division. Appointed to the Superior Court in 1984, he was promoted to the Appellate Division in 1992. As a trial judge, he heard criminal, civil and family matters.

Justice Wallace is a former partner in the law firm of Atkinson, Myers, Archie and Wallace. He was also an associate at the Philadelphia law firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker and Rhodes, and an attorney for the trustees of the Penn Central Transportation Company. He is also a former municipal judge for Washington Township in Gloucester County.

Justice Wallace was born in March 13, 1942, in Pitman. He received a B.A. from the University of Delaware in 1964 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1967. He served in the United States Army from 1968 to 1970, attaining the rank of captain. Justice Wallace is a member of the Gloucester and Camden County Bar Associations, the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the New Jersey State Bar Association, and the Garden State Bar Association.

He has also 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 Litigation, and the Appellate Division Rules Committee, and was chairman of the Supreme Court Ad Hoc Committee on Admissions.

Justice Wallace and his wife, Barbara, have five children. Justice Wallace has coached Little League Baseball since 1970, and since the early 1990s has volunteered on the football coaching staff at Washington Township High School.