Gerald H. Baker

Counsel

Gerald Baker 2023 Background scaled e1699456559347

Gerald Baker is one of the most experienced personal injury attorneys in the nation. Animated and possessing a great sense of purpose, he has deep roots in fighting for the legal rights of workers and victims of accidents. Son of the prominent, street-smart Hoboken attorney, Nathan Baker, Jerry’s father opened his office in 1921 to represent immigrants from Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Russia and Poland. He specialized in representing longshoremen and seamen and built a reputation as one of the nation’s leading admiralty lawyers.

Jerry has his own pedigree – he went to Cornell University and Yale Law School. (“It’s all I ever wanted to do,” says Baker about becoming a trial lawyer.) By 1982, Jerry had succeeded his father as managing partner of the firm. Over the years, his cases have included groundbreaking and high profile personal injury claims. He has represented the families of TWA Flight 800, Korean Airlines Flight 007 and EgyptAir Flight 990. These cases have led to seven-figure settlements and bolstered Baker‘s reputation as one of the nation’s leaders of personal injury law.

In 2002, he obtained a verdict of $53 million against Conrail in a wrongful death case representing the family of a conductor who was survived by a wife and two young children. At that time, this was the largest wrongful death verdict in the history of New Jersey and one of the top 50 verdicts in the United States*.

Baker is a frequent lecturer for the New Jersey Institute of Legal Education, the New Jersey State Bar Association and the New Jersey Association for justice on Automobile Insurance and Premises Liability. He is the author of an annual supplement for the New Jersey Law Journal on “Automobile Injury, A Look at No Fault”.

Jerry‘s colleagues have expressed their appreciation for his “service to the bar“. They have thanked him “for reading the law, analyzing it, commenting, advocating change, interpreting·, digesting it and then teaching it so the we can help our clients.“ “Your time and effort has made a big difference in so many lawyer‘s lives and their clients as well.”

Baker‘s wood-paneled office in Hoboken, cluttered with case files, looks out over the Hudson River and New York City. (On the morning of September 11, Jerry was on the last subway train to pass under the World Trade Center; he represented, at no charge, the families of six 9/11 victims.) Indeed, Baker is passionate about his profession’s abiding virtue: affecting civil justice and social change.

*Results may vary depending on your particular facts and legal circumstances.

Cornell University, 1964, B.A.
Yale Law School, 1967, J.D.

New Jersey State Bar
New York State Bar

Inaugural Gerald B. O’Connor Trial Award from NJAJ, 2015
Listed in Best Lawyers in America, 2007 to 2013*
American Trial Lawyers Association, Gold Medal, 1994
Hudson County Bar Association, Merit Award, 1998
New Jersey State Bar Association, Distinguished Legislative Service Award, 1998
Million Dollar Advocates Forum*, 1998
New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education, Alfred C. Clapp Laureate, 2000
American Bar Association
New Jersey State Bar Association, 1988 – 1992 (Board of Trustees)
New Jersey State Bar Association (Chair, Automobile Reparations Committee)
New York State Bar Association
Association of Trial Lawyers of New Jersey, 1985 – Present (Board of Governors)
Roscoe Pound Foundation
Hudson County Bar Association, 1970 – Present (Board of Trustees)
Hudson County Bar Association, 1983 (President)
Gerald H. Baker has been selected for inclusion in New Jersey Super Lawyers list in 2005 - 2022.*

*No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Click here for Award Methodology.

“Ethics for the NJ Criminal Attorney,” Lawline.com, December 27, 2012
Speaker, NJAJ Educational Foundation, “Ethics & Professionalism for Criminal Attorneys”, April 26, 2012
Co-Chair, NJAJ Educational Foundation, “Criminal Law Seminar”, April 26 & 27, 2012
Overcoming Ethical Dilemmas Facing Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys, New Jersey Association for Justice, scheduled for April 2011
Ethics and Professionalism for Criminal Practitioners, New Jersey Association for Justice, November 2010
Walk In Their Shoes: A Defense Attorney’s Advice for Prosecutors, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, October 2010
Handling a Criminal Case from Arrest to Sentencing, Essex County Bar Association, October 2010
Building Your Case at the Initial Stage, New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, September 2010
Advocating in a Modern World, Newark Academy Cum Laude Society, June 2010
Electronic Discovery in Civil and Criminal Matters, New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, April 2010
Do’s & Don’ts of Cross-Examination, New Jersey Association for Justice, April 2010
Pre-Indictment Strategies, New Jersey Association for Justice, November 2009
Blog On: How the Internet Has Changed Civil and Criminal Litigation Forever, Essex County Bar Association, October 2009
White Collar Crime, New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, September 2009
Discovering Unburied Treasure on Social Networking Web Sites, American Association for Justice, published May 2009
Evidentiary and Other Issues Arising in New Jersey Criminal Trials, New Jersey State Bar Association, November 2008
Grand Jury Practice, Union County Bar Association, May and February 2008
Criminal Trials, Essex County Bar Association, March 2008

Co-Sponsor of the Nathan Baker Clinical Professor of Law at Yale Law School
Sponsor of Nathan Baker Trial Competition at Rutgers Law School
Sponsor of Gerald Baker Trial Advocacy Program at Rutgers Law School

Gerald H. Baker

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