John E. Wallace, Jr.

John E. Wallace Jr. is a former Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Wallace was born on March 13, 1942 in Pitman, New Jersey. He received a B.A. from the University of Delaware in 1964, where he was initiated as a brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity, and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1967. He served in the United States Army from 1968 and reached the rank of Captain before leaving the army in 1970.

Wallace was a member of many bars, including the Gloucester and Camden County Bar Associations, the New Jersey State Bar Association, the Garden State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and the National Bar Association. He has also 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 Litigation, and the Appellate Division Rules Committee. He chaired the Supreme Court Ad Hoc Committee on Admissions.

Wallace was a partner in the law firm of Atkinson, Myers, Archie & Wallace. He also served in that time period as the Municipal Judge for Washington Township. When he was nominated, Wallace's career was as a New Jersey Superior Court Judge (Appellate Division), a position which he held since 1984.

Wallace was nominated by Governor of New Jersey James E. McGreevey on April 12, 2003, to serve as a justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court. He was confirmed by the New Jersey Senate on May 19, 2003. He was sworn in as an Associate Justice by the Chief Justice, Deborah T. Poritz, in a private ceremony held on May 20, 2003. According to The New York Times, Wallace was "a sound jurist and political moderate who was the court’s only African-American."

...
Wikipedia