Public Advocate

Ronald K. Chen, 50, became the first Public Advocate of New Jersey in 13 years when the Department of the Public Advocate was restored in 2006. As a member of the Governor’s Cabinet, he is charged with providing advocacy for a number of specific constituencies, including elder citizens, persons with disabilities, mental health consumers, and ratepayers, and is generally given standing to represent the public interest in legal proceedings.

Prior to becoming the Public Advocate, Chen was the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Rutgers University Law School where he was responsible for overall academic and curricular operations and policy. Previously, he was Acting Director of the Minority Student Program, Director of Financial Aid and an Assistant Professor of Law. Through all these jobs, he has maintained a busy schedule as a law professor, teaching contracts, federal courts, constitutional law and church-state relations. In addition to his teaching schedule, Chen provided pro bono legal representation to a host of clients on a range of civil rights and constitutional law cases.

Chen was an active lay leader of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He first served as a Trustee on the New Jersey affiliate board from 1989 to 2002, and then was elected to ACLU’s national board. In 2002, he was elected by the national board to serve on the National Executive Committee. Upon becoming Public Advocate, Chen resigned all his leadership positions with the ACLU.

Chen earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Dartmouth College in 1980 and graduated from Rutgers University Law School with high honors in 1983, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. He served on the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Professional Ethics from 1996-2006 (the last year as Vice-Chair), served on the New Jersey Law Journal Editorial Board from 1996-2006, chaired the New Jersey State Bar Association Committee on Legal Education from 2003-2006, and chaired the Third Circuit Lawyers Advisory Committee from 2002-2003.

He was named the New Jersey Law Journal’s “Lawyer of the Year” for 2007, in large part because of his work in utilizing state constitutional principles to prevent eminent domain abuse. His other areas of focus as Public Advocate have included voter’s rights, affordable housing, childhood lead poisoning prevention, deinstitutionalization of persons with developmental disabilities and mental health consumers, and affordable energy for ratepayers.

A child of Chinese immigrants who came to this country after World War II, Chen has lived most of his life in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. Among his other duties as Public Advocate, Chen has been named by Governor Corzine as Chair of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigrant Policy, which is charged with making recommendations to the Governor on how state government can best assist immigrants to integrate into the New Jersey community.