PARSIPPANY — Mandelbaum Salsburg, a full service law firm in Roseland, is proud to announce that its Member, Casey Gocel, has been named as one of NJBIZ’s Forty Under 40. Winners were chosen based on their commitment to business growth, professional excellence and community service. According to NJBiz, these up-and-coming stars of the New Jersey business community have achieved professional excellence at a young age, representing the future of their industries and the state as a whole. Gocel was one of five winners in the legal category for this year’s awards. NJ Biz awarded within eight different major industries including Law, Accounting, Marketing, Banking, Real Estate, Technology and Entrepreneurship.
Gocel joined Mandelbaum Salsburg in May 2008 and has been the firm’s youngest Member since January 2016. She serves clients in two key practice areas: corporate transactions and estate planning. Specifically, Gocel focuses her practice on business mergers and acquisitions, start-ups, corporate governance, sophisticated estate and family wealth transfer planning and asset protection planning. As a result of her focus in this area, she also advises clients on special needs planning and works with exempt organizations. She regularly shares her expertise with owners of family-owned and closely-held businesses on strategic tax planning, choice of entity, general commercial relationships, complex buy-sell arrangements and succession planning. Gocel often serves as outside general counsel to her clients. She also assists in structuring medical and dental practices and related transactions.
One of Gocel’s most significant professional accomplishment was her work with TUMI, a New Jersey-based luggage company. Gocel was instrumental in completing TUMI’s IPO in 2011. Since 2008, Gocel has helped to develop standardized contracts that are now used by TUMI and its 11 subsidiary entities in over 75 countries.
Mandelbaum Salsburg Co-CEO’s Barry Mandelbaum and William Barrett agreed that, “Casey has been an integral part of the firm from her first day as an Associate and she has continued to grow and surpass expectations in everything that she does. We are both so proud of all that she has accomplished and this award is well deserved.”
Gocel serves as an important role model for her colleagues at the firm. Since 2008, she has served on the firm’s Pro Bono Committee, which focuses on promoting free legal assistance to indigent clients. In 2014, she was elected the committee’s chair and in doing so became the first associate in the firm to chair a committee.
In 2015, Gocel founded “Team Mandelbaum”, which consists of attorneys and staff members committed to walking/running for the benefit of various charitable organizations. Under her leadership as chair, Team Mandelbaum has raised and donated thousands of dollars to worthy charities throughout the state. Casey’s community involvement and philanthropic efforts run deep and have had a significant and positive influence inside and outside of the firm. Gocel was selected in 2016 as a “New Leader of the Bar” by New Jersey Law Journal. She was also included by Super Lawyers, New Jersey among one of its “Rising Stars”* in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Gocel lives in Parsippany with her husband and one year old daughter, Denali. She received her Political Science B.A. in 2002 from the State University of New York in Albany before continuing on to Whittier Law School where she served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Whittier Law Review. She received her J.D., Magna cum laude in 2007. Additionally Gocel holds an LL.M. in Taxation from The New York University School of Law.
