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Alexander Shalom

Partner
Chair, Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest

New Jersey
T: +1 862.926.2029 F: +1 973.597.2400 ashalom@lowenstein.com
  • BIO
  • EXPERIENCE
  • HONORS & AWARDS
  • NEWS & INSIGHTS

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Alexander Shalom leads the Lowenstein Center for Public Interest, bringing strategic focus to the firm's pro bono efforts and strengthening partnerships with leading nonprofit and community organizations across the country and within the firm's local communities, while maintaining an active litigation docket. 

Alex joins the firm after over 13 years at the ACLU-NJ, most recently as Director of Supreme Court Advocacy; his primary focus was on litigating cases involving issues that disproportionately impact people of color. In his time at the ACLU-NJ, he developed and litigated a series of groundbreaking cases challenging death-in-prison sentences for young people, seeking release of vulnerable people from prisons, jails, and detention centers during the COVID-19 pandemic, challenging the use of solitary confinement in prisons, jails, and Juvenile Justice Commission facilities, and representing undocumented children, college students, and law school graduates to ensure access to education, financial aid, and professional licensure. While at the ACLU-NJ, he appeared frequently before appellate courts in New Jersey, arguing 100 times before the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Additionally, Alex has extensive experience in policy advocacy, having served on committees formed by the Judiciary, the Attorney General, and the Governor to address issues including bail reform, youth justice, jury selection, and wrongful convictions. He worked with lawmakers and frequently appeared in the media in support of pioneering legislation to reform New Jersey’s money bail system, to limit the use of solitary confinement, and to facilitate the release from prison for thousands of people during the public health emergency.

Before joining the ACLU-NJ, Alex worked as an Assistant Deputy Public Defender in Essex County and as Capital Cases Clerk for Hon. Deborah J. Poritz, the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

In 2017, Alex was honored as the New Jersey Law Journal’s “Attorney of the Year.” He is a fellow at the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a member of the Police Training Commission.

The below matters were completed before June 2024, prior to joining Lowenstein Sandler:

  • Argued more than 100 times before the Supreme Court of New Jersey including in:
    • State v. A.M., 252 N.J. 432 (2023) (applying New Jersey’s Compassionate Release Act for the first time)
    • State v. Zarate, 249 N.J. 259 (2022) (establishing opportunity for young people sentenced to long prison terms to demonstrate their maturation and development)
    • State v. Nyema and Myers, 249 N.J. 509 (2022) (rejecting as unconstitutional a automobile stop that relied on a vague racial description)
    • State v. Melvin, 248 N.J. 321 (2021) (prohibiting, under the New Jersey Constitution, sentences based on acquitted conduct)
    • Matter of Request to Modify Prison Sentences, 242 N.J. 357 (2020) (Order to Show Cause seeking release of some incarcerated people during Covid pandemic)
    • State v. Mercedes, 233 N.J 152 (2018) (addressing conflict between presumption of release and recommendations of the decision-making framework under the Criminal Justice Reform Act)
    • North Jersey Media Grp., Inc. v. Township of Lyndhurst, 229 N.J. 541 (2017) (examining access to dashboard camera recordings and use of force reports under the Open Public Records Act and the common law)
    • State v. Robinson, 229 N.J. 44 (2017) (addressing discovery obligations under the Criminal Justice Reform Act)
    • State v. Zuber, 227 N.J. 422 (2017) (prohibiting sentences that are the functional equivalent of life without parole for young people without extraordinary findings)
    • State v. Witt, 223 N.J. 409 (2015) (reexamining New Jersey’s automobile exception to the warrant requirement)

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No aspect of these advertisements has been approved by the highest court of any state.

Education

  • New York University School of Law (J.D. 2004), cum laude

    Tufts University (B.A. 1999), summa cum laude

Affiliations

  • Police Training Commission, citizen member
  • American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, fellow
  • Taskforce for the Continued Transformation of Youth Justice (2018-2022)
  • Supreme Court of New Jersey, Joint Committee on Criminal Justice (2013-2015, 2023)

Admissions

  • New York
  • New Jersey