COURT HOUSE –– Two local judges were nominated for reappointment to the Superior Court bench earlier this month.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine Oct. 2 submitted the names of judges Steven Perskie and Susan Maven along with six other judges to the Senate for reappointment to the state courts.

Both judges work in the Vicinage I court system of Atlantic and Cape May counties. Perskie presides over civil cases in Atlantic County, while Maven hears criminal cases in Cape May County.

Both judges were originally nominated by acting Gov. Donald Difrancesco in 2001.

This is Perskie’s second stint on the Superior Court bench. Perskie, of Margate, also served from 1982 to 1989 after spending 10 years as a state legislator in both the Senate and Assembly.

As an assemblyman, Perskie sponsored a constitutional amendment that legalized casinos in Atlantic City and sponsored an act that established the Casino Control Commission (CCC) and the regulations that govern casino operations.

Perskie left the legislature to work for James Florio’s gubernatorial campaign and was selected as chief of staff when Florio became governor.

In 1990, Florio named Perskie to serve as chairman of the CCC, the same entity he helped create years earlier.

Prior to being the first black woman named to the Atlantic County bench, Maven also served as a commissioner on the CCC from 1998 to 2001. Before that she was the in-house counsel for the Atlantic County Improvement Authority from 1990 to 1998.

As a young lawyer in 1993, New Jersey Perspective News Magazine named Maven the Outstanding Black Woman of South Jersey. In 2002, she was inducted into the Atlantic County Women’s Hall of Fame for her outstanding public service.

Born and raised in Long Island, N.Y., Maven graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 and Temple University Law School in 1987. She currently resides in Absecon.

On April 25, 2008, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner ordered that Judge Maven be reassigned to Cape May County effective May 12. She was sent to help out Judge Raymond Batten who had been hearing all the county’s criminal cases by himself since Judge Carmen Alvarez was elevated to the Appellate Division in August 2007.

Maven had been hearing Family Court cases prior to her reassignment.

Contact Hart at (609) 886-8600 Ext 35 or at: jhart@cmcherald.com