Helen E. Hoens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Helen E. Hoens (born July 31, 1954) is an Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. She was nominated to the Supreme Court by Governor Jon S. Corzine on Sept. 21, 2006. She was confirmed by the Senate on October 23 and sworn into office on October 26, 2006.
[edit] Biography
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on July 31, 1954, Justice Hoens attended public schools in Maplewood. She holds a B.A. in government from the College of William and Mary, graduating with high honors, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. While at Georgetown, she served on the Georgetown Law Journal, first as a member of the staff and then as the editor of the journal’s annual volume devoted to developments in criminal procedure in the federal circuit courts. Upon graduation, she served as a law clerk to Judge John J. Gibbons during his service on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit before embarking on a career in private practice.
After her clerkship, Justice Hoens worked in private practice, first at Dewey, Ballantine and with the Law Office of Russel H. Beatie, Jr. in New York. She moved to New Jersey to practice with Pitney, Harden and later with Lum, Hoens, Conant Danzis & Kleinberg, where her father, Charles H. Hoens Jr., was a founding partner.
Justice Hoens was appointed to the Superior Court in 1994 by Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and reappointed by Governor Donald DiFrancesco in 2001. She was elevated to the Appellate Division in August, 2002 by Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz.
In 2006 she was appointed to fill the anticipated vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the elevation of then-Associate Justice James R. Zazzali to replace Poritz as Chief Justice.
