Bressler’s Thomas Weisenbeck was quoted in the New Jersey Law Journal’s second installment of the series looking at judges’ post-bench careers. Weisenbeck rejoined the firm in June 2015 after serving on the bench as the Assignment Judge for the Morris/Sussex Vicinage of the Superior Court.
Seeing a desire for an alternative to costly litigation, many retired judges, including Weisenbeck, have returned to private practice to build an alternative dispute resolution practice.
Weisenbeck said, "All my friends [who are] retired judges say it takes time"—six months to a year on average to build a practice in earnest, which "I found to be fairly accurate” and now eight months after rejoining the firm and focusing his practice in handling family, probate and civil mediation, he notes that the “workflow is increasing.”
Eight months after rejoining Bressler Amery, where he practiced for 13 years prior to taking a judgeship, "the workflow is increasing," Weisenbeck said, noting that he's handled family, probate and civil mediation, and served as a hearing officer in a disciplinary matter.
He credits much of his workflow to word-of-mouth and referrals and expects any former judge’s success as a mediator will be based on “how the judge conducted himself or herself [on the bench].” “The bar – the attorneys who are considering whether to use a particular [mediator] –is going to take into account…how reliable that jurist was in his decision making.”
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