Angelo J. Genova, a partner and firm co-founder, is a leading member of the New Jersey Bar in the practice areas of Labor and Employment Law, Election Law and Complex Litigation and Appeals.  He is based in the firm’s Newark, New Jersey, office.  As a labor lawyer, Mr. Genova has represented management for several decades in traditional Labor and Employment Law matters in the private and public sectors before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission.  Mr. Genova has served four New Jersey Governors (Florio, McGreevey, Codey, Corzine) as the State’s labor negotiator with the unions representing over 40,000 public workers.  Mr. Genova possesses special competence and experience in all aspects of employment law and litigation, having participated as defense counsel in a myriad of employment litigation, discrimination, whistleblower and wrongful termination trials and appeals.

Mr. Genova is a Fellow of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  He served a two-year term as Chairman of the Section on Labor and Employment Law of the New Jersey State Bar Association from 2007-2009.  He represents clients in a diverse array of industries, including construction, financial services, telecom, utilities, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, casino and hospitality sectors, among others, in collective bargaining, traditional labor law and employment litigation.

Complementing his substantial employment law practice, Mr. Genova is a noted advocate in Election Law matters.  He has successfully litigated many high profile and precedent setting cases, having served as counsel to the campaigns of numerous gubernatorial, and federal, state and local office holders and candidates.  In 2002, he represented the New Jersey Democratic Party in New Jersey Democratic Committee v. Samson, a case which drew national interest when a state political party sought to replace, in a hotly contested United States Senate race, a candidate who had withdrawn from the race shortly before the general election, and beyond the statutory time for doing so.  Mr. Genova served two terms as Chair of the Election Law Committee for the New Jersey State Bar Association in 1998 and 1999 and has been an active member since 2000.

As an appellate advocate, Mr. Genova has argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court and Appellate Courts numerous matters in a variety of practice disciplines, including employment law, labor law, municipal corporations, election law and business law resulting in several reported decisions.  Among the more significant cases are New Jersey Turnpike Authority v. Local 196, 190 N.J. 283 (2007); New Jersey Transit Bus Operations, Inc. v. Amalgamated Transit Union, 187 N.J. 546 (2006); Municipal Council of the City of Newark v. James, 183 N.J. 361 (2005);  Troise v. Extel Communications, Inc., 174 N.J. 375 (2002);   New Jersey Democratic Party, Inc. v. Samson, 175 N.J. 178 (2002);  Bergen Commercial Bank v. Sisler, 157 N.J. 188 (1999) and Sammarone v. Bovino, 395 N.J. Super. 132, (App.Div.2007), cert. denied, 193 N.J. 275 (2007).

Mr. Genova is actively involved in philanthropic and community activities, participating as a member of numerous boards in public and non-profit venues.  In 2004, he was appointed by the Governor of New Jersey as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, where he served for three years until July, 2007.  He is a Trustee of The Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark, the Newark Museum, the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, and a member of the Montclair State University Foundation. He also is a Trustee of the American Conference on Diversity, the Association of the Federal Bar of the State of New Jersey, The Legal Services Foundation of Essex County, the New Jersey Network Foundation, Volunteers of America: Delaware Valley and the New Jersey Italian and Italian American Heritage Commission Foundation.   He currently serves on the board of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Newark and is a board member and past President of The Center for Italian & Italian American Culture, Inc.  Mr. Genova served as Chair of the 2007 and 2008 Greater Newark Fresh Air Fund. 

Since 1987, Mr. Genova has been listed in Best Lawyers in the areas of Commercial Litigation (includes Business Litigation) and Labor and Employment Law.  Additionally, he has been recognized among the New Jersey Super Lawyers every year since 2005, and in 2008 was ranked "Top Vote Getter" as voted by his peers.  He has also been named to the 2007 Chambers USA Leading Lawyers for Business (Litigation and Labor & Employment Law) and the 2007 New Jersey Super Lawyer Top 100. He is rated AV® by Martindale Hubbell.

PUBLICATIONS:  Mr. Genova has served as a co-editor of New Jersey Labor and Employment Law, a publication of the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education, and previously served as a member of the Editorial Board of the New Jersey Lawyer.  He has contributed to How Arbitration Works (1988 Suppl., BNA, Elkouri & Elkouri), the Newsletters of the Subcontractors Trade Association of New York and the New Jersey Association of Counties, and Supervisory Management, a publication of the American Management Association.  Mr. Genova authored “The Hazards of Discharging an Employee,” published in The Brief (ABA Tort & Insurance Practice Section, July 1987).

He is co-author of “Recounts, Rechecks and Election Contests: Title 19 and the Post-Election Environment” (New Jersey Lawyer the Magazine, Aug. 2008), “The Right to Vote and Be Counted: A Liberty at Risk” (New Jersey Lawyer the Magazine, April 2005, Vol. No. 233), “In the Election of 2002, the Voters Were the Winners” 27 Seton Hall Legislative Journal 77 (2002), and “The Attorney’s Guide to Recount Procedures” (New Jersey Lawyer the Magazine, April 2001).

BAR ADMISSIONS:

• New York, 1979
• New Jersey, 1981
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Third Circuit, 1981
• U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, 1981
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York and Eastern District of New York, 2001
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 2003
• United States Supreme Court, 2004
• Pennsylvania, 2007

• Rutgers University School of Law, Newark, Juris Doctor, 1978
• Rutgers, The State University, M.A. (Industrial & Labor Relations), 1978
• Montclair State University, cum laude, 1975