Attorneys
Justin T. Loughry, Esq.
Member, Loughry and Lindsay, LLC
Justin T. Loughry, Esq., is a Certified Criminal Trial Attorney (New Jersey), and was admitted to the Bar of New Jersey in 1985. He is also admitted to the Bars of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1984), the Federal District Courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania (1984), the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York (2000), and Federal Courts of Appeal in the Second and Third Circuits. He regularly appears in state and federal courts in criminal and civil matters, and before administrative agencies and professional licensing boards.
Mr. Loughry has been designated for many years as a “Super Lawyer” in criminal defense in New Jersey by the Thomson-Reuters Lawyers Rating Service. He is a past President of the Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ), a current trustee of the Camden County Bar Association, and a current member of the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Panel for the United States District Court of New Jersey. In 2008 Mr. Loughry received a New Jersey State Bar Association Professional Lawyer of the Year Award, nominated by both the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ) and the Camden County Bar Association. In 2017, he received ACDL-NJ’s Lawrence A. Whipple Memorial Award, which honors exemplary professionalism, dedication to and passion for the law.
Mr. Loughry has successfully defended clients in a wide variety of matters including homicide, conspiracy, sexual assault, aggravated assault and drug trafficking cases, as well as various white collar crimes and domestic violence allegations. In civil matters, he has won verdicts in civil rights, business and chancery court matters.
In the landmark case of State v. Nunez-Valdez, 200 N.J. 129 (2009), Mr. Loughry was counsel at the Post-Conviction Relief trial level, before the New Jersey Appellate Division, and in the New Jersey Supreme Court, establishing that criminal defense counsel’s failure to give accurate advice on immigration consequences of a guilty plea constituted ineffective assistance of counsel under the New Jersey State Constitution.
Mr. Loughry was co-counsel in both the trial and appellate phases of State v. Soto, 324 N.J. Super 66 (Law Div.1996), a seven-month long suppression hearing in which the defense proved the existence of a de facto policy of racial profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike. The Soto court dismissed numerous indictments as a result. In 2001, Mr. Loughry received an American Civil Liberties Union Award for this work against discrimination.
Mr. Loughry and his partner Lawrence Lindsay, Esq. were co-counsel in Gormley v. Wood El, 218 N.J. 72 (2014) in which they persuaded the New Jersey Supreme Court to recognize the substantive due process right to be free of state-created dangers.
Beginning in 1997, along with a team of lawyers, Mr. Loughry and Mr. Lindsay challenged a pattern of excessive use of force during a state prison lockdown. In over a decade of litigation, the team won jury verdicts for individual inmates along with several punitive damage awards, multiple special master hearing awards to individual inmates, and a judicial determination of supervisory liability by administrators of the New Jersey Department of Corrections. In Re: Bayside Litigation, USDC NJ Civil No. 97-5127; 157 Fed App. 545 (3rd Cir. 2005); 190 F.Supp. 2nd 755 (2002), 2007 US Dist. Lexis 7096 (2007).
Mr. Loughry has taught as an Adjunct Instructor at Drexel University’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law and Rutgers-Camden Law School in the areas of professional responsibility-legal ethics, and criminal defense litigation strategy. He has lectured on criminal practice, ethics, experts, and evidence for New Jersey’s Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE), the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, and other continuing legal education programs. He has also been qualified as an expert in civil litigation.
Mr. Loughry was born in Boston, Massachusetts and is a graduate of Williams College (B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, 1978) and New York University Law School (J.D. cum laude, 1981), where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar and a member of the Order of the Coif. Following a two-year clerkship for the Honorable John F. Gerry of the United States District Court of New Jersey, he practiced as a litigation associate at Montgomery, McCracken, et al. in Philadelphia, PA, as a New Jersey state public defender in Camden, NJ and as a litigation associate and eventually as a partner at Tomar, Simonoff, et al. in Haddonfield, NJ before co-founding Loughry and Lindsay, LLC in the year 2000.
Mr. Loughry is fluent in Spanish.
Contact Justin T. Loughry, Esq: JTLoughry@loughryandlindsay.com
Lawrence W. Lindsay, Esq.
Member, Loughry and Lindsay, LLC
Lawrence W. Lindsay, Esq has over 37 years of experience in a wide range of legal areas, including complex civil litigation, land use law, real estate, condemnation law, civil rights, consumer fraud, elder law, estate litigation, construction law, administrative law, business formation, commercial law, condominium law, personal injury, and appellate work. He is a member of the Bar in the State of New Jersey (1980), the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1980), the Federal District Courts in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania (1980) and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1982), and is admitted, but inactive, in the State of New Mexico.
Beginning in 1997, along with a team of lawyers, Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Loughry challenged a pattern of excessive use of force during a state prison lockdown. In over a decade of litigation, the team won jury verdicts for individual inmates along with several punitive damage awards, multiple special master hearing awards to individual inmates, and a judicial determination of supervisory liability by administrators of the New Jersey Department of Corrections. In Re: Bayside Litigation, USDC NJ Civil No. 97-5127; 157 Fed App. 545 (3rd Cir. 2005); 190 F.Supp. 2nd 755 (2002), 2007 US Dist. Lexis 7096 (2007).
Mr. Lindsay and his partner Justin T. Loughry, Esq. were co-counsel in Gormley v. Wood El, 218 N.J. 72 (2014) in which they persuaded the New Jersey Supreme Court to recognize the substantive due process right to be free of state-created dangers.
Between 2011 and 2013, in cases which became identified as the Camden Police cases, In Re: Camden Police cases, U.S.D.C. New Jersey Master Docket# 11cv 1315, Mr. Lindsay, in cooperation with the ACLU of New Jersey and other attorneys, successfully represented numerous individuals against the City of Camden Police Department and several corrupt individual officers who wrongfully planted evidence on suspects, falsely arrested them, and then perjuriously pursued prosecutions resulting in wrongful convictions and incarcerations of the falsely accused individuals.
Mr. Lindsay’s current practice concentrates on the areas of land use law and civil rights litigation and includes a variety of other basic legal services common to the representation of individuals and small businesses.
His land use practice includes the zoning and planning process at the hearing level and on appeal. Concentrating primarily in the urban area in and around Camden, he has represented small entrepreneurs seeking to appropriately develop sometimes contaminated urban property. He has represented protestants individually, and in groups opposing developments threatening open space, or adversely impacting the quality of life in residential neighborhoods.
Born in Austin, Texas, and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mr. Lindsay earned his bachelor’s degree in History from Indiana University in 1975, and graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 1980. He began his legal career at Camden Regional Legal Services Inc., and then the Community Health Law Project Inc., in Camden, New Jersey. In 1983, Mr. Lindsay relocated to Paris France, where he studied Private International Law at the University of Paris II, receiving a Diplome Superieur de l’Universite in 1984. Upon his return from France in 1984, Mr. Lindsay served as Managing Attorney for the Senior Citizen Judicare Project (now Senior LAWCenter) in Philadelphia, until joining the City of Philadelphia Law Department in 1986. Seven years later, he joined the firm of Tomar, Simonoff, Adourian, and O’Brien in Haddonfield, New Jersey, as an associate.
In 2000, Mr. Lindsay and his partner, Justin Loughry established Loughry and Lindsay, LLC, which became one of the first law firms to move back into downtown Camden. Together in 2002, they purchased and renovated the Camden Law Building which houses their offices. Mr. Lindsay supervised the renovations of the historically certified structure which garnered several awards from local, state, and regional historic preservation entities.
For many years, Mr. Lindsay taught the business law section of the Entrepreneurial Training Program of LAEDA (the Latin American Entrepreneurial Training Association) and was awarded their distinguished service award in 2012. Mr. Lindsay was a founding member of the Camden Credit Union (now a part of South Jersey Federal Credit Union), served on the Board of Trustees for Camden Regional Legal Services, and for one year on the Board of Trustees for the Camden Empowerment Zone.
In his neighborhood in Philadelphia, Mr. Lindsay served for many years on the Zoning Committee of the Bella Vista Neighbors Association, and is a founding member of the Bel Arbor Community Garden and the Friends of Bardascino Park. He sat for a time on the Neighborhood Gardens Association (now the Neighborhood Gardens Trust) Board of Directors, an urban land trust.
He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in French.
Contact Lawrence W. Lindsay, Esq: LWLindsay@loughryandlindsay.com
Of Counsel to Loughry and Lindsay, LLC
Leah McGarry Morris, Esq.
Leah McGarry Morris, Esq. is a veteran criminal defense attorney and educator who is now Of Counsel to the law firm Loughry and Lindsay, LLC in Camden, New Jersey, where she specializes in criminal defense and civil rights matters.
A 39-year now retired veteran of the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender (NJOPD), she began her career there as a trial attorney in the Camden Trial Region and eventually rose through the management ranks of the agency to become an Assistant Public Defender for the State of New Jersey and its Director of Training, a role originated by her. Under her guidance, the NJOPD greatly expanded all of its training programs, including its Continuing Legal Education (CLE) programs. As a result of her leadership, the NJOPD became a Certified Provider of Continuing Legal Education for both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Ms. Morris also served as NJOPD’s Ethics Liaison Officer.
Ms. Morris has been a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Minority Concerns, a member of its Executive Committee, and Chair of its Subcommittee on Minority Concerns and the Criminal Defendant. She also served as a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Women. She is a past trustee of the Camden County Bar Association, a past trustee of the Camden Regional Legal Services Board, and served for many years as a trustee of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey. Ms. Morris was instrumental in the development of Drug Courts in New Jersey. In addition, she has served on the New Jersey State Bar Association Committee on Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments, the Camden County Bar Association Due Diligence Committee on Judicial Appointments, the District IV Ethics Committee, and the District IV Fee Arbitration Committee.
Ms. Morris was a recipient of the Camden County Martin Luther King Freedom Medal (2005), the recipient of a special recognition award from the NJOPD for superior performance as its Director of Training (2005), the recipient of Leadership New Jersey’s 15th Anniversary Government Leadership Award (2001), and a recipient of the “Women Who Have Made a Difference” Award from the Camden County Freeholders and the Camden County Commission on Women (1996). Ms. Morris has been active for many years and served in leadership roles in various bar associations and on various local, county and statewide bodies concerned with Youth Services, Human Relations, Drug Courts, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. She and her husband, Justin Loughry, Esq., have co-taught a criminal justice seminar on “Profiles, Stereotypes and Criminal Justice Policy” at Rutgers-Camden University.
Ms. Morris received her A.B. from Bryn Mawr College and her J.D. from Temple University’s School of Law. She is a New Jersey Certified Public Manager, has been certified by the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts as a trained mediator, and serves as a volunteer mediator in the Haddonfield, New Jersey Municipal Court. She has also been certified by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute as a NITA (National Institute of Trial Advocacy) – style trainer. She is admitted to the bars of Pennsylvania (1975) and New Jersey (1976), and the Federal District Courts of Pennsylvania (1975) and New Jersey (1976).
Contact Leah McGarry Morris, Esq: LMMorris@loughryandlindsay.com
Jonathan D. Bennett, Esq., R.F.
Jonathan D. Bennett, Esq., R.F. has over 30 years of experience advising and representing a wide variety of public and private clients facing a broad spectrum of high-stakes legal controversies and operational risks. His experience spans complex commercial litigation as well as multifaceted strategic planning, serving as an advisor to senior management. Representative clients have included pharmaceutical companies, physicians, publishing companies, distributors, manufacturers, banks, condominium associations, builders, engineering firms and insurance executives.
Mr. Bennett is the first attorney in the United States to be certified as a RIMS Fellow by the Global Risk Management Institute, Inc. in affiliation with the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. He has written for The Risk Report published by the International Risk Management Institute, Inc. (IRMI) and The National Law Journal, and has taught for the Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS). Mr. Bennett has provided prophylactic risk counseling, strategic and operational advice to a host of clients regarding litigation avoidance, compliance issues, corporate operations, contractual negotiations, employee relations, policy creation and oversight of outside counsel.
Mr. Bennett has prepared and successfully negotiated employment, restrictive covenant, nondisclosure, joint venture, licensing and IT agreements, as well as other commercial agreements, and, when necessary, enforced the same. He has frequently navigated corporate clients through highly charged negotiations to resolve difficult business disputes without costly or protracted litigation, and has also achieved million and multi-million dollar settlements and verdicts on behalf of his clients. For example, over a ten-year period he advised a major commercial client in the management of its business affairs and the reduction of its litigation docket, while serving as external General Counsel to its Executive Board. He also extricated a corporate client from purported obligations to an IT vendor under a non-performing, seven figure contract, with no additional expenditures made beyond what had been already paid.
Mr. Bennett has also taught about the art of negotiation and has developed legal and risk training materials for senior executives.
A member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and a Fellow of the Academy of Advocacy, Mr. Bennett is admitted to practice law in the state courts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the federal courts in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California and Virginia. He is an honors graduate of the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University and received his law degree from the Beasley School of Law at Temple University. A past partner and associate in various national and regional law firms, Mr. Bennett now provides strategic counseling and risk consulting services at Loughry and Lindsay, LLC.
Mr. Bennett has served as a member of the board of a number of non-profit entities, including the South Jersey Performing Arts Center, the Harry B. Kellman Academy, the Dean’s Advisory Board of Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business and Administration, and the Drexel University Alumni Board of Governors.
Contact Jonathan Bennett, Esq: Strategyman1@verizon.net