Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis '06 and Judge Zahid N. Quraishi `00
Two trailblazing Rutgers Law alumni will deliver the Commencement addresses at the law school ceremonies next month. Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis ’06, the first Black woman to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court, will deliver Camden’s address on May 16 at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion. Judge Zahid N. Quraishi ’00, the first Muslim American to serve as an Article III judge in the United States, will give Newark’s address on May 24 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Both ceremonies will be livestreamed.
Justice Fabiana Pierre-Louis '06
Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in Irvington, New Jersey, Justice Pierre-Louis is the daughter of Haitian immigrants. She received a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick in 2002 and a law degree from Rutgers Law School in Camden in 2006.
She was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on June 5, 2020 and was sworn in as an associate justice to the New Jersey Supreme Court on Sept. 1, 2020. At the time of her appointment, Justice Pierre-Louis was a partner at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads where she worked in the white collar and government investigations practice group. She focused her practice on complex commercial litigation, white collar crime, and government investigations.
Prior to that, Justice Pierre-Louis was an Assistant United States Attorney at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where she served as the Attorney-in-Charge of the Trenton and Camden branches and was the first woman of color to hold both positions. Justice Pierre-Louis also worked in the Newark office in the general crimes and organized crime and gang units.
Justice Pierre-Louis began her legal career as a law clerk to New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice John E. Wallace Jr., whose seat she now occupies.
Judge Zahid N. Quraishi `00
Born in New York City and raised in Fanwood, New Jersey, Judge Zahid N. Quraishi is of Pakistani ancestry. He was appointed as a United States District Judge on June 23, 2021. He previously served as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey in the Trenton Vicinage since 2019 where he was the first Asian-American to serve on the federal court in New Jersey.
Prior to his appointments to the federal bench, he was Chair of Riker Danzig’s White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigations Group and his firm's first Chief Diversity Officer. His practice focused on white collar criminal defense, internal corporate investigations, and complex civil litigation. Before joining Riker, Judge Quraishi served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey for over five years.
He previously represented the United States as an Assistant Chief Counsel and trial attorney with the Department of Homeland Security. He also served as a military prosecutor and achieved the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. In the Army, Judge Quraishi was assigned to the First Infantry Division stationed in Germany and deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004 and 2006 before he was honorably discharged.
Judge Quraishi received his law degree in 2000 from Rutgers Law School in Newark where he was the Managing Business Editor of the Rutgers Computer and Technology Law Journal and a member of the Rutgers Moot Court Board.
- Power of Attorney Podcast featuring Hon. Zahid Quraishi