In an Order dated October 16, but released late yesterday, Chief Justice Rabner announced that Heather Baker is being appointed as Clerk of the Supreme Court, effective as of November 29. She replaces Mark Neary who, as discussed here, has served as the Clerk since 2009.
Heather Baker, a resident of Readington, is a graduate of Rutgers University and Rutgers-Newark School of Law. She has a lengthy heritage with the Supreme Court, beginning with a clerkship for Justice LaVecchia. After several years in private practice, she rejoined the Court as a supervising staff attorney in 2014, and became chief counsel for the Court in 2016.
The position of Supreme Court Clerk is a multi-faceted one. It includes not only duties relating to the Court’s caseload, but also roles in connection with arms of the Court such as the Board of Bar Examiners, the Committee on Character, and other bodies.
Heather Baker will be the sixth Clerk of the Supreme Court in the modern era. She joins a distinguished lineage of Clerks, including Mark Neary and his predecessor, Stephen W. Townsend, who ably held the position for 31 years. No doubt Heather Baker will live up to the high standards of her predecessors. A warm welcome to Heather Baker!
[Note: The original version of this post erroneously stated that Heather Baker had clerked for Justice LaVecchia. The post has now been corrected to state that she in fact clerked for Justice Rivera-Soto. My apologies for that error.]
[Further note: After I posted the correction above, I was advised by a caller from the Supreme Court that the original post was correct: the Clerk designee, Heather Baker, did in fact clerk for Justice LaVecchia. The information that I received about Heather Baker having clerked for Justice Rivera-Soto related to a different Heather Baker, who also has a role in the courts. So this post once again states that the “right” Heather Baker clerked for Justice LaVecchia. My thanks to the caller for the correct information.]