DUI Lawyers in Morris Plains, NJ

West Morris Mendham Mock Trial Team Honored; Latino Legal Pioneers Exhibit Unveiled

The West Morris Mendham High School mock trial team, winners of the Morris County Mock Trial Competition for an unprecedented 20th consecutive year, were honored yesterday in the historic courtroom of the Morris County Courthouse for placing second out of 216 teams in the 2024-25 statewide Vincent J. Apruzzese High School Mock Trial Competition hosted by the New Jersey State Bar Foundation.

The team will represent New Jersey next week at the National High School Mock Trial Championship, taking place May 7-10 in Phoenix, stepping in after state champion Mainland Regional High School was unable to attend.

View More Photos from the 2025 Morris County Law Day Ceremony

Morris County Commissioners Douglas Cabana and Thomas Mastrangelo congratulated the team and presented certificates of honor, alongside Morris County Bar Foundation President Linda Mainenti Walsh, who also recognized and presented awards to each student.

“This program teaches students how to debate with discipline, think strategically and build logical arguments. Today, we have the privilege of celebrating these promising young leaders who have embraced and excelled in these skills,” said Commissioner Cabana.

The West Morris Mendham team included Nathan Acheampong, Anthony Khakhiashvili, Tess Kutlu, Kira Mandel, Olivia Piacenti, Cole Smith, Ryan Smith, Julia Sun, Francesca Voyles and Caroline Ziegler. The team was coached by teacher Eric Heditsch, in his 26th year, and attorney William Connelly, who has volunteered for 22 years.

Julia Sun also took first place in the courtroom artist competition. Nikki Knarr of Vernon Township High School earned an honorable mention, and Joana Jayanth of Chatham High School placed second in the court reporter contest.

The 2025 Law Day theme, “The Constitution’s Promise: Out of Many, One,” inspired the program. Morris/Sussex Vicinage Assignment Judge Stuart A. Minkowitz opened the ceremony.

“Law Day reminds us to rededicate ourselves to shared national ideals of liberty, justice and equality under the law. The Constitution enshrines our collective responsibility to one another, and the 2025 Law Day theme urges us to take pride in a constitution that bridges our differences to bring us together as a united nation,” said Judge Minkowitz.

In his keynote address, New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Michael Noriega, reflected on the unifying power of the words “We the People.”

“This courtroom belongs to all of us,” said Justice Noriega. “Justice must not only be done but must also be seen to be done. Courts are open to the public, which keeps the system honest and accountable. If you can’t see how decisions are made, it’s difficult to know that you can trust them.”

The event opened and closed with performances by the chorus ensemble of the Mayo Performing Arts Center, a group of talented, audition-based teens who sang the national anthem and other selections. The Morris County Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard presented the colors, and Susan Chait, trial court administrator for the Morris/Sussex Vicinage, led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Following the ceremony, attendees gathered in the jury assembly room for the opening of the “Hispanic/Latino Pioneers in the Law” exhibit, celebrating the contributions of Hispanic legal professionals, including Appellate Division Judge Martiza Berdote Byrne and former Morris County Bar Association President John Paul Velez. The exhibit, featuring news articles, photographs and artifacts, will remain on display until Aug. 15.

The 2025 Law Day event was sponsored by the Superior Court of New Jersey, Morris/Sussex Vicinage, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Vicinage Advisory Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement, in collaboration with the Morris and Sussex County Bar Associations, the Morris County Bar Foundation and the Hispanic Bar Association.

Among those attending in person and virtually were Morris County Sheriff James Gannon, State Sen. Anthony Bucco, Morris County Prosecutor Robert Carroll, Morris County Deputy Public Defender Susan McCoy, Morris County Surrogate Heather Darling and Morris County Clerk Ann Grossi.

Law Day, celebrated annually on May 1, was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958 as a day of national dedication to the principles of government under law.

Photo: Front row (l-r) Sheriff James Gannon, Olivia Piacenti, New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Michael Noriega, Caroline Ziegler, Kira Mandel, Commissioners Thomas Mastrangelo and Douglas Cabana. Back row (l-r) Attorney-coach William Connelly, Teacher-coach Eric Heditsch, Julia Sun, Nathan Acheampong, Tess Kutlu, Anthony Khakhiashvili, Morris/Sussex Vicinage Judge Stuart A. Minkowitz, Ryan Smith, New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Anne M. Patterson and Morris County Bar Foundation President Linda Mainenti Walsh.

One of the larger new industrial parks in Morris County is about to open for business in one of its smallest towns.

The Lincoln Equities Group on Tuesday announced the "unveiling" of Lincoln Logistics Morris Plains, comprised of nearly 500,000 square feet of space divided between two warehouses off Tabor Road (Route 53).

The project, more than a decade in the making, replaces a business campus that was once part of Big Pharma's sizeable corporate presence in the county. The buildings demolished there were most recently owned by Johnson & Johnson, and before that by Pfizer and Warner-Lambert, part of a history that dates back to the 1950s.

"It's been quite a while and we're excited to welcome them to the community," said Morris Plains Mayor Jason Karr.

Representatives of Lincoln Equities, a developer based in East Rutherford, could not be reached on Wednesday. Karr was unaware whether any leases had been signed for the property to date, but he said construction was complete and "they received their certificate of occupancy."

Inside Lincoln Logistics Morris Plains

The two rectangular buildings now dominate the stretch of Route 53 connecting Route 10 to Speedwell Avenue and downtown Morris Plains. The 66-acre parcel also includes a newer office building, built in 2006, at 185 Tabor Road.

PCCP LLC and Vision Real Estate Partners acquired the properties in 2018 for an undisclosed sum. Plans that year to build a fragrance factory at the location were abandoned after fierce opposition from the public flooded planning board meetings with protesting crowds.

The new park includes two facilities, one covering about 225,000 square feet and the other 270,000. Each building features 40-foot clear ceiling heights, two drive-in doors, 35 dock doors (facing each other) and parking for cars and trailers.

“Our vision was to deliver a state-of-the-art industrial park that will set a new standard for design, efficiency and connectivity in the region,” Lincoln Equities CEO Lance Bergstein said in the announcement. "With its strategic location and best-in-class infrastructure, this project is well positioned to support the evolving needs of a wide range of users across e-commerce, manufacturing and logistics.”

Too much warehouse space?

The Morris Plains site is opening after a boom in warehouse building in New Jersey and amid signs the need for such space may have already peaked., at least for now

The share of unused capacity in Garden State warehouses reached its highest level in more than a decade last year, thanks to a surge in construction combined with economic uncertainty over the impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs. After a pickup in online shopping, demand for shipping and storage has also slipped back toward pre-COVID levels, experts said.

The real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield said in an early January report that the warehouse vacancy rate in northern and central New Jersey at the end of last year was 9%, the highest since the first quarter of 2013.

The firm noted a “surge in new supply” of 13.1 million square feet of “mostly vacant" warehouse space.

But Thomas Monahan of CBRE, the exclusive leasing agent for Lincoln Logistics Morris Plains, said in the announcement: "We're seeing significant demand for modern, scalable industrial space in the Tri-state area.

“With its exceptional power capabilities, superior design and proximity to key transportation routes, this development checks all the boxes for top-tier industrial users," Monahan said.

Development in Morris County

Three more warehouses are approved in neighboring Parsippany and more warehouse projects are in progress throughout Morris County, including a 585,000 square foot facility replacing the former BASF headquarters building along Route 80 in Mount Olive. The same developer is building another 200,000-square-foot warehouse nearby.

Still, applications for warehouse space also fell significantly in Morris County last year 2024, according to a report by the county Planning Department in April. It was the second straight yearly decline for warehouse proposals, county planners found.

Warehouse projects peaked in 2022, including an application to build 2.5 million square feet on the site of the former Hercules munitions plant in Roxbury, according to the county. That plan was withdrawn after more than a year of presentations to the Roxbury Planning Board did not generate the rezoning approvals needed.

Overall, warehouse applications thinned from just over 2 million square feet in 2023 to about 726,000 last year, according to the county report.