Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Rutgers School of Law
 
Message from the Co-Deans
About the University
Rutgers Law School
Faculty and Administration
Ari Afilalo
Camille Andrews
Charles Auffant
Angela V. Baker
Carlos Ball
Bernard Bell
Vera Bergelson
Amy Bitterman
Cynthia A. Blum
Elise Boddie
Linda Bosniak
Hon. Dennis Braithwaite
Yvette Bravo-Weber
Michael T. Cahill
Esther Canty-Barnes
Michael A. Carrier
Victoria Chase
Ronald K. Chen
Jaydev Cholera
Roger S. Clark
Laura Cohen
Jean-Marc Coicaud
Jorge Contesse
Marjorie Crawford
Marcia Crnoevich
Sarah Dadush
Perry Dane
Donna Dennis
Stuart Deutsch
Jon Dubin
Douglas Eakeley
Katie Eyer
Wei Fang
John Farmer
Susan J. Feathers
Jay M. Feinman
Jack Feinstein
Gary Francione
David M. Frankford
Ann E. Freedman
Sally Freund
Steven F. Friedell
Jill Friedman
Linda Garbaccio
Matteo Gatti
Steve C. Gold
Sally F. Goldfarb
Carlos Gonzalez
Ellen P. Goodman
Joanne Gottesman
Barbara Gotthelf
Stuart Green
Anjum Gupta
Yuliya Guseva
Phoebe Haddon
Adil Haque
Philip Harvey
Stacy Hawkins
Taja-Nia Henderson
Christina Ho
Barbara Hoffman
Robert Holmes
Alan Hyde
Richard Hyland
Pam Jenoff
John Joergensen
Margo Kaplan
Alexis Karteron
John Kettle
Suzanne A. Kim
Dennis Kim-Prieto
Emily Kline
Donald Korobkin
Kathryn Kovacs
Rebecca Kunkel
Arthur Laby
John Leubsdorf
Ji Li
Michael A. Livingston
J. C. Lore III
Earl Maltz
Randi Mandelbaum
Valarie McDuffie
Elizabeth Moore
Kimberly Mutcherson
Alison Nissen
David L. Noll
John F.K. Oberdiek
Chrystin Ondersma
Craig N. Oren
Traci Overton
Brandon Paradise
Dennis M. Patterson
Twila L. Perry
James Pope
Louis Raveson
Sarah K. Regina
Ed Rentezelas
Stephanie Richman
Sarah E. Ricks
Ruth Anne Robbins
Rand E. Rosenblatt
Andrew Rossner
Andrew James Rothman
Jacob Hale Russell
Patrick J. Ryan
Tom Ryan
Sabrina Safrin
Adam Scales
Meredith Schalick
Charlotte Schneider
Phyllis Schultze
Diana Sclar
Fadi Shaheen
Sandra Simkins
Judith Simms
Lee Sims
Amy Soled
Rayman L. Solomon
Allan R. Stein
Robert Steinbaum
Beth Stephens
Rick Swedloff
Nancy Talley
George C. Thomas III
Robin Todd
David Dante Troutt
Genevieve Tung
Jennifer Rosen Valverde
Penny M. Venetis
Rebekah Verona
Alec Walen
Nicholas Wallace
Carol Wallinger
Anita Walton
Mark S. Weiner
Reid Kress Weisbord
Robert F. Williams
Caroline Young
Academics
Admissions
Real-World Experience
Career Development
Academic Policies and Procedures
Divisions of the University
Camden Newark New Brunswick/Piscataway
Catalogs
  Rutgers Law School 2017-2019 Faculty and Administration John Farmer  

John Farmer


John J. Farmer Jr. is the former attorney general for New Jersey, senior counsel for the 9/11 Commission, was an assistant U.S. Attorney, and worked at Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti LLP. He is the former law school dean, is currently special counsel to the president of Rutgers and on the faculty at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.

Farmer became dean of Rutgers School of Law-Newark in July 2009. From April 2013 until June 30, 2014, he was on a leave of absence to serve as senior vce president and university counsel. He returned to the faculty as university professor, effective July 1, 2014. He continues to hold an administrative post as special counsel to the president.

Professor Farmer received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he was a member of The Tax Lawyer and received first prize in the 1984 Lincoln and the Law Essay Contest. He received his B.A. from Georgetown University, with a major in English.  He began his career as a law clerk to Associate Justice Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court. He then worked for two years as a litigation associate at Riker, Danzig, Scherer, Hyland & Perretti LLP before joining the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Newark, where he prosecuted crimes ranging from kidnapping and arms dealing to bank fraud. In 1993 he received the U.S. Attorney General's Special Achievement Award for Sustained Performance.

Professor Farmer joined the administration of New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1994, serving as assistant counsel, deputy chief counsel, and then chief counsel. From 1999-2002 he was New Jersey attorney general. Among his noteworthy accomplishments, he argued school funding and criminal justice matters before the New Jersey Supreme Court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals; moved forward with reform of the New Jersey State Police, from eliminating racial profiling to increasing diversity in recruitment and promotion; created the Office of Inspector General to investigate allegations of official impropriety and/or corruption; and served as the first chairman of the New Jersey Domestic Preparedness Task Force, leading the coordination of the state's law enforcement and victim/witness response to the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

From 2003-2004 Professor Farmer served as senior counsel and team leader for the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (commonly known as the 9/11 Commission). In that position he led the investigation of the country's preparedness for and response to the terrorist attacks and was a principal author of the commission's final report. His book, The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of America Under Attack on 9/11, a reconsideration of the government's 9/11 response in light of its response to Hurricane Katrina, was published by Riverhead/Penguin Press.

Professor Farmer has received the highest peer-reviewed rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and has been named a New Jersey Super Lawyer, one of New York Magazine's Best Lawyers in the New York area, and one of the Best Lawyers in America. He was a partner in the white-collar crime and internal investigations group at K&L Gates and in 2007 became a founding partner of the law firm Arseneault, Whipple, Farmer, Fassett and Azzarello, LLP. In addition to his law practice, in 2008 he served as senior advisor to General James Jones, special envoy for Middle East Regional Security on development of the rule of law in the Palestinian Authority territory, and was invited by the U.S. Embassy in Armenia to assist that nation's legislative commission in investigating widespread violence and unrest following its elections.

Professor Farmer has been a frequent contributor to the Star-Ledger and the New York Times, with essays and opinion columns on legal and political issues, and has had articles published in the Rutgers Law Review, Seton Hall Law Review, and other journals. His article on the Patriot Act, "At Freedom's Edge," was part of a Star-Ledger series that was awarded the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award for outstanding legal reporting in 2006. He has also lectured extensively on post 9/11 safety and security issues, and spoken on panels at Harvard Law School, the University of Southern California, Williamette Law School, and Johns Hopkins University's Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

Professor Farmer is president of the board of trustees of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and a former member of the New Jersey Governor's Ethics Advisory Board.

 
For additional information, contact RU-info at 732-932-info (4636) or colonelhenry.rutgers.edu.
Comments and corrections to: Campus Information Services.

© 2017 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. All rights reserved.