With Jerome B. Simandle, the state's chief federal judge, moving to senior status, New Jersey this month will see its first Hispanic chief judge.
CAMDEN--There will be a passing of the gavel of sorts in the federal courts for New Jersey later this month.
Chief Judge Jerome B. Simandle, 68, is assuming "senior status," a form of semi-retirement that allows a judge to continue working at a reduced case level. He will be succeeded by U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares, 63, who sits in Newark, who will become the first Hispanic chief federal judge in New Jersey.
Simandle said in addition to a ceremonial handing over of the gavel, he will offer a bottle of Excedrin to his successor--who will assume responsibility for a district that has 15 active judges, 7 senior judges, and courthouses in Trenton, Camden and Newark.
"It's one of the busiest federal courts in the country," he explained.
The weighted caseload per active judge in New Jersey last year was 545 compared with the national average of 487--a number expected to grow with unfilled vacancies on the court.
Once the youngest federal judge in New Jersey, Simandle first became a federal magistrate in 1983 and has served as a district judge since 1992. He has been chief judge of the U.S. District Court since January 2012. His move to senior status will create another judicial vacancy in New Jersey, which is already down two judges.
A graduate of Princeton University, Simandle was born in Binghamton, N.Y., and did not grow up thinking about going into law. He was more interested in urban planning.
Even after becoming a magistrate, his neighbors were more likely to see him working on his house and garden. When federal agents launched the customary background check after his nomination as a federal judge, Simandle recounted how one neighbor who had watched him replace his roof that year seemed confused at the questions. "He's a roofer," he apparently told the investigator. "Why are you asking?"
He studied engineering at Princeton University, where he was recruited by Ralph Nader's Center for the Study of Responsive Law, working with lawyers on issues of aviation safety and the regulation of airlines.
"It got very interesting," Simandle recalled in an interview. "I had probably never met a lawyer, but the people who were making things happen, happened to be lawyers. It kind of opened my eyes."
After graduating from Princeton, he went on to the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia for a law degree, later clerking for Chief Judge John F. Gerry, who would swear him in as a federal judge at the courthouse in Camden nearly 20 years later.
He joined the U.S. Attorney's Office after law school, where he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Newark and Trenton. Among the cases he handled was a developer's challenge to the protection of the state's ecologically fragile Pinelands. Inspired by Gerry, he said he applied to become a magistrate judge in Camden.
Magistrate judges handle duties in both civil and criminal cases, hearing pre-trial motions, settlement and pretrial conferences in civil matters, and presiding over arraignments and initial appearances of a defendant in criminal cases.
"You see a lot more people as a magistrate judge," he said. "Everyone that's been arrested. Search warrants and arrest warrants. You never know what any day is going to bring."
He served as a magistrate judge for nine years before he was nominated by President George Bush in 1992 as a federal district judge. A far more political process than that of the appointment of a magistrate judge, his nomination was supported by the state's two Democratic senators at the time, Sen. Bill Bradley and the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who both accompanied him to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
The chief judge of the district is based on seniority, and is not an appointed position. While it comes with far more administrative duties, Simandle continued to preside over a full docket of cases from his courtroom in Camden, including a civil trial this week involving tanning salons, the alleged transfer of assets from a failed business, and the default of a lease. As chief judge, he was also responsible for overseeing the court's budget and internal financial controls, and overseeing court staff and operations with the assistance of the clerk of court and other court executives.
The chief judge of a district is often thought of as a "first among equals," said a spokeswoman for the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, calling meetings, setting agendas, appointing committees, and executing long-range plans.
"When a chief judge acts, it is assumed he or she is doing so on behalf of the court as a whole," said Jackie Koszczuk.
Moving to senior status, Simandle will join 451 senior district judges nationwide who handle about 15 percent of the federal courts' annual workload. He said he will gradually work down the cases on his docket in hopes of eventually not having to take home a full briefcase each night.
"It's frustrating to have a shore house and only spend a few days there," he remarked.
The new chief judge, meanwhile, might have to get a larger briefcase.
"I am getting to realize the magnitude of the administrative responsibilities," said Linares in an interview. "But I'm looking forward to doing this. It's an honor for me."
Linares has presided over some of the highest-profile political corruption cases in the state from his fifth floor courtroom in the U.S. Courthouse in Newark. The Havana-born judge, who fled Cuba with his family as a boy, became a state Superior Court judge in Essex County in 2000, and was nominated to the federal bench by President George W. Bush in 2002.
Noting the historic component for the Hispanic community of his becoming chief judge, he said that it was good the court is starting to look the way it does.
"If you told me this was going to happen--look, just becoming a federal judge was unimaginable," he said.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL. Facebook: @TedSherman.reporter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.