Freda L. Wolfson

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The Honorable Freda L. Wolfson (ret.) rejoined Lowenstein Sandler after a decades long career in the federal judiciary, including as Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

Her practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, special master appointments in federal and state courts, including multidistrict litigations (MDL), serving as an expert, monitorships, internal investigations, and presiding over mock trials and oral arguments.

Judge Wolfson leads the firm’s ADR practice, leveraging her judicial experience managing complex commercial cases to help clients achieve satisfactory resolutions on a wide variety of civil and regulatory issues. Since joining Lowenstein, Judge Wolfson has frequently served as a special master and mediator in federal and state civil actions, which typically involve high-stakes disputes, including, among others, data breaches, corporate divorces and securities matters; pre-litigation and pre-arbitration matters; and mass consumer mediations. Judge Wolfson also represents and consults pharmaceutical clients in patent-related matters.  Additionally, Judge Wolfson has served as a mock judge for parties in high profile cases involving patents and pharmaceutical product liability.

Judge Wolfson was nominated to the District Court in 2002, ascending to the Chief Judge post in 2019. Prior to her appointment, she served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for over 16 years, one of the few women and one of the youngest members of the district court in the nation. In 2014, she was appointed by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to represent the Third Circuit on the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Magistrate Judge System; she then served as Third Circuit District Judge Representative on the Judicial Conference of the United States.

During her 36-year judicial tenure, Judge Wolfson authored thousands of opinions on issues such as securities litigations, shareholder derivative lawsuits, products liability, commercial transactions and financial fraud, civil rights, and constitutionality of federal and state statutes. She presided over a multitude of civil and criminal trials, including Hatch Waxman ANDA patent infringement cases; one of the largest excessive fees litigations associated with securities and mutual funds; employment discrimination matters; civil rights claims under section 1983; and white collar criminal cases.

Judge Wolfson was also appointed by the Multidistrict Litigation (MDL) Panel to oversee some of the nation’s largest MDLs, including In re Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Prods. Mktg. Sales Practices & Prods. Liab. Litig., the second largest MDL in the country. She has extensive experience in complex discovery matters and has successfully facilitated hundreds of settlements.

Frequently recognized as a leader of the bar, Judge Wolfson has received such honors as the 2022 Donald A. Robinson Meritorious Service Award, the 2016 Rutgers University Law Review Distinguished Alumni Award and the, 2002 Outstanding Alumnus Award from Rutgers University School of Law, the 2012 Inductee of the Associate Alumni of Douglas College--Society of Excellence, the 2013 Women in the Profession Section’s Justice Marie L. Garibaldi Award for Distinguished Service and Excellence, and the 2008 Women’s Initiative & Leaders in Law Platinum Award from New Jersey Women Lawyers Association. Additionally, Judge Wolfson was selected as an American Bar Foundation Fellow.

Upon her graduation from law school, Judge Wolfson initially practiced litigation at Lowenstein.