Gov. Chris Christie on Monday nominated Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford to the Superior Court and named two lawyers in the county as workers' compensation judges.
For Ford, a 59-year-old Democrat from Toms River, this would be her second stint as a state court judge. Gov. Jim Florio appointed her in 1992, and she sat until Gov. Jon Corzine appointed her as county prosecutor in 2007.
Ford served two terms in the Assembly, first from 1984 to 1986 and again from 1990 to 1992. In between stints as lawmaker, she was general counsel for the Assembly Democrats.
In 1984 and 1988, Ford was a New Jersey delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
Ford is a 1976 graduate of Georgian Court University and a 1979 graduate of Seton Hall University School of Law.
Until her first term as a Superior Court judge, she was general counsel to H. Hovnanian Industries, the commercial and residential real estate developer.
The workers' compensation nominees are Russell Cherkos of Ocean Township and Salvatore Martino of Point Pleasant.
Cherkos, 59, is with Forked River's Dasti, Murphy, McGucken, Ulaky, Cherkos & Connors, where he concentrates in real estate, land-use regulation, municipal law, civil litigation and wills.
One of the partners at his firm is Republican Sen. Christopher Connors of Ocean County.
Cherkos is a 1976 graduate of the College of New Jersey and a 1980 graduate of Seton Hall School of Law.
Martino, a Democrat, has been a Lakewood solo since January 2009, concentrating in personal injury, workers' comp and municipal court cases.
He was earlier with Secare, Ryan & Hensel (1993-2009) and Stephen Kotzas' office in Toms River (1990-93). He also was a litigation attorney for the Market Transitional Fund of the Joint Underwriters Association and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority.
He has served as the municipal attorney for Lakewood, Toms River, Manchester, Seaside Heights, Barnegat, Pine Beach and Beach Haven.
Martino is a 1989 graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law and a 1986 graduate of Rutgers University in Newark.
Both Cherkos and Martino have been nominated to the workers' comp bench before. Martino's December 2009 nomination by Corzine died when the Senate did not act on it by the time that legislative session ended in January 2010. Cherkos was nominated by Christie in January 2012, but he did not advance.
All of the nominees must be vetted by the Senate Judiciary Committee and confirmed by the Senate.
