Sad isn't it? His career track is more newsworthy than his new book that says, "at some level of the government, at some point in time...there was an agreement not to tell the truth about what happened" with regards to the 9/11 attacks. - Jon

Source: nj.com

BY BRIAN WHITLEY
Star-Ledger Staff
Friday, April 17, 2009

Former state attorney general John Farmer Jr. will be named this morning as the new dean of the Rutgers School of Law in Newark, university president Richard McCormick said.

A decorated legal veteran whose career has crisscrossed private practice, government and education, Farmer assumes the post on July 1. He will replace Stuart Deutsch, a professor who was named dean in 1999 and will now return to the faculty.

"Rutgers is extremely pleased to announce John Farmer Jr. as the new dean for our distinguished law school in Newark," McCormick said in a statement. "As one of our state's most respected former public officials and attorneys, he brings outstanding leadership abilities that will most certainly translate into dynamic advocacy and advancement for the School of Law-Newark."

Farmer, a 51-year-old native of Jersey City, teaches two courses at the school and works as a founding partner at a Chatham law firm. A group of alumni contacted him about five months ago, he said, to encourage him to enter his name into consideration.

"My career trajectory hadn't been toward being a dean," he said. "As I thought more and more about it, I thought I could really help the school. I thought I'd enjoy the challenge of it. It would be something new."

After first talking with the search committee in December, the "involved" vetting process included an interview in New York, a day at the law school addressing faculty and students and meetings with McCormick and university Chancellor Steven Diner, Farmer said.

Farmer, whose father John is The Star-Ledger's Editorial Page editor, will earn $290,000 a year, about the same as his predecessor, according to the university. The Rutgers Board of Governors will meet this morning to finalize the appointment and approve his tenure, as the group does with all new deans, a university spokesperson said.

The Rutgers School of Law, ranked among the top 100 law schools in the country last year by U.S. News and World Report, educates 575 daytime students with a faculty of 62 tenure-track professors.

After graduating from Georgetown Law School in 1986, Farmer returned to New Jersey as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Alan Handler, becoming one of the first clerks in the country to deal mainly with the death penalty. He spent four years as an assistant U.S. Attorney before joining Gov. Christine Whitman's administration as assistant counsel and then chief counsel to the governor before being named Attorney General in 1999.

Some of Farmer's most memorable work as Attorney General included efforts by his office to reform the New Jersey State Police in the wake of racial profiling incidents. He also chaired a state task force that coordinated law enforcement agencies' response to the 9/11 attacks.

Defense attorney Joe Hayden, who graduated from Rutgers Law in 1969, was among those who pushed Farmer to become a candidate for the dean's post.

Hayden said it's rare for someone to excel as both a scholar and practicing lawyer and predicted the respect Farmer has achieved from the legal and academic worlds would propel the law school to a "a more active role in our legal community."

"The appointment is an inspired choice," Hayden said.

Others praised Farmer's work with nonprofits. He is president of the board of trustees for the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, where he's focused on work force development in Essex County.

Alfred Koeppe, the former CEO of Bell Atlantic New Jersey who also sits on the institute's board, called Farmer a "steady as a rock," pragmatic decision maker who has helped guide the institute through tough economic times.

"(Rutgers) is picking up someone with a great deal of intellectual capital," he said.