MORRIS COUNTY — The Morris County Bar Association (MCBA) hosted their 2018 Professionalism Day program at the Morris County Administration Building. The program, attended by approximately 120 attorneys, included various continuing legal educational panels broken up into three blocks of time. Attendees had the option to choose to attend one out of the three seminars during the first two portions of the afternoon. These included “The Implications of the Legalization of Marijuana on Employment Law”, “Navigating New Jersey’s Developing Marijuana Laws”, “An Overview of the Heroin and Opioid Epidemic”, “Addiction Issues in Family Litigation”, “The Future of Low Level Marijuana Offenses in Municipal Court”, and “Dealing with the Addictive Client”.
All attendees joined Keynote speakers Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp, Sussex County Bar Association (SCBA) President Janine Cerra, and former Morris County Bar Association President and lecturer for Continuing Legal Education Seminars, Robert McAndrew, Esq. for their presentation titled “The Opioid Crisis and Its Impact on the Law”.
Throughout his tenure as Morris County Prosecutor, Prosecutor Knapp has placed an emphasis on combating the Opioid and Heroin Epidemic. His panel with Ms. Cerra and Mr. McAndrew provided the attorneys in attendance the opportunity to hear from some of the leading combatants of the Opioid Crisis throughout the State of New Jersey. The approximately one and a half hour panel discussion focused on how law enforcement agencies throughout the state continue to adapt in combatting this epidemic and the impact the epidemic has had on the criminal defense bar and their clients.
Morris County Assignment Judge Stuart Minkowitz and Superior Court Judge James Demarzo also delivered remarks concerning the Morris-Sussex Vicinage Drug Court Program, which has been the most successful in the state of New Jersey.
Morris County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Bradford Seabury provided a presentation titled, “An Opioid Primer: An Overview of the Heroin and Opioid Epidemic”. He was joined by Emily Monks and Barbara Kaufman of Morris County Prevention is Key. Their panel provided those in attendance with a basic overview of how the Heroin and Opioid Epidemic has affected communities across the State of New Jersey, especially Morris County.
Prosecutor Fredric Knapp stated, “I would like to thank the Morris County Bar Association for organizing this important event. I am honored to have been invited to join some of the best legal minds in the State of New Jersey to discuss the horrific effects that the Heroin and Opioid Epidemic has had on our society. I am hopeful that the information provided at this excellent program was beneficial to the attorneys in attendance”.
