Gary Stein (judge)

Gary S. Stein (born June 13, 1933) is an American attorney and former Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, He served on New Jersey's Supreme Court for 17 years where he wrote over 365 published opinions. From 1982 until 1985, he served as the Director of the New Jersey Governor’s Office of Policy and Planning. He also served as the Paramus Borough Attorney and serves on the boards of Trustees of The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey and Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

Born in Newark, New Jersey on June 13, 1933, Stein grew up in nearby Irvington, New Jersey and graduated from Irvington High School in 1950. He attended and graduated with a B.A. from Duke University in 1954 and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1956.

In 1964, Stein lost the race for mayor of Paramus, where he had moved following his marriage in 1956.

Stein had met Tom Kean in the 1950s while both were serving in the New Jersey National Guard and became active in statewide politics when he supported Kean's gubernatorial efforts in both 1977 (when Kean unsuccessfully ran in the Republican primary) and when he was elected as Governor of New Jersey in the 1981 race.

Stein, a resident of Upper Saddle River, was nominated to the Supreme Court by Kean to succeed Sidney M. Schreiber, who had reached the required retirement age of 70 after serving on the court since 1975. Despite criticism that Stein was working in government as an aide to Kean, had never been a judge and was not actively practicing law at the time, Kean cited Stein's "depth of knowledge and experience" as being a benefit to the court.

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