The Honorable Garry S. Rothstadt (Ret.) joins Cole Schotz as Of Counsel, after proudly serving for twenty-one years as a judge in the Superior Court of New Jersey. 

Experience

During his last nine years with the court, Judge Rothstadt was assigned to the court’s Appellate Division, deciding appeals from all of the state’s trial courts and administrative agencies. While sitting in the Appellate Division, the judge authored hundreds of opinions, addressing all areas of the law, some of which were published by the court.

Prior to his service in the Appellate Division, Judge Rothstadt sat as a trial judge in Passaic County, serving three years in the court’s Criminal Division, three years in the Family Division, and six years in the Civil Division. The judge was also called upon to handle cases assigned to General Equity and the court’s Probate Part.

Networks & Affiliations

Before his appointment to the bench, Judge Rothstadt graduated from Rutgers Law School-Newark, where he was a co-recipient of the school’s award for most promising trial attorney.  He then served as a law clerk to Hon. Joseph L. Conn in both the family and civil parts of the Superior Court.  Afterward, he became an associate with Cole, Geaney, Yamner and Byrne, in Paterson, where he primarily worked on business and family cases, as well as real estate matters.  The judge left that practice with others in 1987 to form a new firm that eventually became Bray, Chiocca, Rothstadt & Miller, with offices first in Wayne and then Parsippany, NJ.  While a member of that firm, Judge Rothstadt focused his practice on business litigation, including trying cases throughout the state.

While an attorney, Judge Rothstadt was an active member of the Passaic County Bar Association and was elected president of that organization in 1997.  In addition to being a member of the county bar association, Judge Rothstadt has maintained his membership in the American Bar Association and New Jersey State Bar Association.  Judge Rothstadt was active in Passaic County Democratic politics, having served as a County Committee member.  He was also appointed as chairman of the county’s first ethics committee.

In addition to his positions as an attorney and a member of the judiciary, Judge Rothstadt is a visiting instructor at Rutgers Law School-Newark.  For the past fifteen years, he has assisted in teaching a course in trial presentation.  The judge has also served as a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Evidence and Special Civil Part Committees.  Over the years, he has also been an instructor for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education and other professional organizations.

Judge Rothstadt was born in Paterson and grew up in Elmwood Park.  His parents, survivors of the Holocaust, owned a classic luncheonette/corner candy store in Fair Lawn.  He and his wife Sandy have been together for over fifty years (married 43 years).  After living in Wayne for almost thirty years, they now reside in Montville.  They have two children and one grandchild.