Mark Neary, who has served as Clerk of the Supreme Court for over nine years, will retire in November of this year. A search is on for his replacement.
A graduate of Princeton University and Rutgers-Newark School of Law (Class of 1985), Mark worked in private practice until he joined the staff of the Casino Control Commission, where he served as Assistant Counsel. He moved to the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office in 1991, where was a staff attorney for eighteen years. He was appointed Clerk of the Supreme Court effective May 1, 2009.
Mark had big shoes to fill. His predecessor, Stephen W. Townsend, had been the Clerk for 31 years. But in announcing Mark’s appointment, Chief Justice Rabner rightly noted Mark’s “wealth of experience on matters of the Court’s operations, as well as solid legal and managerial skills.” As expected, therefore, he has served with distinction in the multiple roles that the Supreme Court Clerk takes on.
As the posted job description states, the Clerk “is responsible for the overall management decisions of the Supreme Court Clerk’s Office, including personnel actions, the use of information technology, budgeting and purchasing. Assigned tasks include ensuring the efficient processing of litigated matters, attorney and judicial disciplinary matters, bar admissions applications, and miscellaneous applications such as petitions for review of decisions and opinions of Supreme Court Committees. The Clerk is responsible for establishing the Court’s conference agenda, scheduling oral arguments, memorializing Court action, drafting orders, filing Court opinions, and undertaking such other tasks as may be assigned by the Chief Justice and the Administrative Director. The Clerk also supervises high-level managers responsible for the licensing, discipline, and regulation of New Jersey attorneys.” In short, the Clerk does everything but sweep up, and sometimes probably even that too.
Mark Neary has handled all those functions with skill, grace, professionalism, and good humor. His successor too will have very big shoes to fill.