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.
