Attorney Profiles

Don Robinson, a graduate of Columbia Law School, for many years has been certified and re-certified as a Certified Civil Trial Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey Board on Trial Attorney Certification. In addition to his active litigation practice in the Federal and State courts, he serves as an arbitrator, a mediator and Special Master in the Federal Courts in New Jersey as well as the State Superior Court. He has served on and chaired numerous statutory Merit Selection Committees for the selection of Federal Magistrate Judges. He chaired a Judicial-Bar group that extensively revised the Local Rules of the Federal District Court. He is a member of the Local Patent Rules Committee that developed and continues to monitor those rules. He chaired the Federal Court's Lawyers Advisory Committee for 14 years and now is a permanent member of that group advising the Court. He served on the Federal Court's Civil Justice Expense and Delay Reduction Advisory Committee and is a former Chair of the Third Circuit's Lawyers Advisory Committee. Don is a founder of the Historical Society of the Federal Court of which he was President for 15 years and now is Chairman of the Board. And the Federal Court has appointed him as the Trustee/Receiver to dissolve a forfeited law firm, as a discovery master and as a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute lawyer disciplinary cases.

Don's work has included many quasi-judicial appointments from the Federal and State Courts. He has been a Special Discovery Master; a Hearing Officer conducting weeks of evidential Hearings before issuing a binding decision; a Special Master supervising the distribution of a restitution fund to over 60,000 claimants; and while serving as a Special Master, ruling on discovery issues. He also has been retained by lawyers and law firms to file with courts his expert opinions regarding fee applications and other legal issues.

Don's Bar work has included his election, twice, as President of the Association of the Federal Bar where he is an active member of its Board of Advisors. The Federal Court gave him its Certificate of Appreciation for his years of service on the Court's Civil Justice Expense and Delay Reduction Advisory Committee. He is a member of the President's Council of the Essex County Bar Association. The Trial Attorneys of New Jersey honored him with its annual award. He was the first recipient of the Judge John F. Gerry Award of the Camden County Bar Association for his outstanding contribution to the Judiciary and the Bar. In 2001, he was the first recipient of an annual award presented by the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law and he received that award again in 2009 as the Federal Court Lawyer of the Year. In 2003 he received the Justice William J. Brennan Annual Award from the Association of the Federal Bar for his service to the Bench and Bar. Included in the recent plaudits he has received is a Federal Judge's written opinion that Don is a "pre-eminent federal trial attorney." His peers have selected him for many years to be listed as one of New Jersey's Top Lawyers in New Jersey Monthly Magazine, and in the April 2010 edition of Super Lawyers. The Best Lawyers in America publication has listed him for the past 20 years. The Rutgers University Journalism Resources Institute presented him with a distinguished service award for his invaluable assistance in the press, Bar and Bench projects of the Institute.