Judge Ferencz is Of Counsel to the firm and focuses his practice on alternative dispute resolution including mediation and arbitration of civil and family cases. During his more than 40 years combined as a litigator and a judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Judge Ferencz has tried hundreds of cases to verdict and facilitated the resolution of countless disputes.
Appointed to the bench in 1997, Judge Ferencz sat in every division of the Superior Court including civil, family, and criminal. Upon retiring in 2016 he was the Presiding Judge of the Criminal Part in Middlesex County, a role in which he presided over numerous high-profile criminal cases.
Prior to his judicial appointment Judge Ferencz served as the Deputy Public Defender for Middlesex County, overseeing a staff of 20 lawyers in an office that represented over 90 percent of the criminal defendants in Middlesex County.
Judge Ferencz is well-known among lawyers, judges, and litigants to be affable, smart, fair, and practical. These traits have aided in his successful resolution of complex medical and legal malpractice cases, family law disputes, environmental and toxic tort cases, contract and coverage issues, as well as personal injury cases, commercial disputes, and employment matters.
Following his lengthy service on the bench, Judge Ferencz has been appointed a discovery master and hearing officer, and before joining Blick Law was a private mediator and arbitrator for another prestigious law firm.
In 1993 Judge Ferencz was awarded the Lawyer Achievement Award (later renamed the Arthur Miller Lawyer Achievement Award) by the Middlesex County Bar Association for his achievement as a practicing attorney. In 2016 he became the only attorney to have received this honor twice when he received the same award for his work as a third-party neutral. That same year, Judge Ferencz was ranked second Best Individual Mediator in the New Jersey Law Journal’s The Best of 2016.
Judge Ferencz is very active in the bar. He is a past president of the Middlesex County Bar Association, and frequently serves as a moderator and lecturer at various continuing legal education lectures for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the Middlesex County Bar Association, and the New Jersey Judicial College. He has presented multiple lectures on subject matter including motion practice, discovery issues, criminal sentencing, and family law.
He is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, a board member of the Middlesex County Bar Association, and a trustee of the Middlesex County Bar Foundation. Judge Ferencz serves as co-Chair of the Middlesex County Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, and has served on the Middlesex County District VIII Ethics Committee. He has been certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey and the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He has been a member of the New Jersey Association of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and in 2014 completed a course of study in mediation at Columbia University School of Law.
Judge Ferencz is a member of the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators, approved for both civil and family matters. He also serves on the organization’s governing board as Director for the 2018-2019 term. He is one of the few mediators approved by the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts who is authorized to mediate economic family issues where an outstanding domestic violence restraining order is in place.
He has published three articles in the Middlesex County Bar Advocate on mediation-related topics and given lectures on trial techniques and strategy to the NJDA and their young lawyers committee. Together with several other attorneys and judges, Judge Ferencz is one of the original members of the Aldona Appleton Family Inn of Court.
He was a member of the faculty for the 2017 and 2018 Harris-Martin Mass Torts presentation as well as a faculty member and presenter for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s July 27, 2017 seminar on Family Law and recent developments in New Jersey law.
On October 9, 2017, Judge Ferencz delivered a presentation on the use and value of mediation at the 2017 Institute for Continuing Legal Education tort law conference and moderated a seminar on memory and recollection in December 2017.
On April 8, 2018 he ran an Institute for Continuing Legal Education workshop with Maria Riboli, an actress and acting and theater coach on courtroom performance and demeanor - How to Try a Case, Be Trusted and Listened To.
Judge Ferencz has served as the Executive Vice President of the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM) and has served as a hearing officer for multiple government entities including Woodbridge, Rahway, North Plainfield, and New Brunswick. In these roles he has presided over testimonial hearings, reviewed investigative findings, and provided detailed findings and recommendations for each entity’s appropriate course of action.
On multiple occasions Princeton University has selected Judge Ferencz to sit as the Presiding Judge of the University’s three member panel tasked with the responsibility of determining the validity of allegations related to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) and violations of Title IX within the University. The panel takes live testimony, reviews written witness statements, and reviews extensive investigator’s reports. Following these proceedings, as the Presiding Panel Judge has written and submitted detailed written opinions summarizing his findings and conclusions to the University.
As an adjunct professor since 2020 at Rutgers School of Law - Newark, Judge Ferencz has developed and has taught the school’s mediation practicum. Most recently he was selected and sat on the final two rounds as a judge for the schools negotiation competition.
Judge Ferencz’s experience, knowledge, and congenial personality make him an incredible asset to Blick Law and those who have the pleasure of working with him.
