Thomas H. Prol is the Immediate Past President of the NJ State Bar Association and a partner with Laddey, Clark & Ryan, LLP.  He concentrates his legal practice in litigation, environmental law, public entity representation and real property (purchase, tax & assessments, community association, and land use/development) matters.

Licensed to practice law in New Jersey and New York and before numerous federal courts, Mr. Prol is a member of the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates and was elected by his peers as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, an honor bestowed on less than one per cent of the attorneys admitted in each jurisdiction.   He has been selected for inclusion on the NJ Super Lawyers & Rising Stars list since 2011 and the national Super Lawyers Business Edition list for environmental law since 2015. In 2017, Mr. Prol was one of three finalists for 2017 NJ Attorney of the Year, and in 2004, Mr. Prol was named the NJ “Young Lawyer of the Year” by the state bar and was lauded as one of the “magnificent seven” attorneys of the year in the state by New Jersey Lawyer newspaper.

Mr. Prol is legal counsel to the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority, a position he has held for over a decade; Special Sussex County Counsel for environmental enforcement; property tax counsel to Byram, Green, Sparta, and Stillwater Townships; planning board attorney to Andover Borough; and, previously, municipal attorney to the Borough of Franklin (Sussex County).  He also served as Associate General Counsel & Agency Chief Contracting Officer at NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, overseeing the City’s extensive sidewalk café and business & vendor licensing systems, administrative code litigation, NYC Code interpretations, and employee discipline.

He is an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University School of Law and a frequent lecturer for the NJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education and at NJ Judicial College, and was previously an adjunct professor at NY Law School and Rutgers University.  He worked as an environmental scientist and enforcement officer for the US Environmental Protection Agency for nearly five years, and served two years as a volunteer in the US Peace Corps in Nepal.  He has also held externships with the US Attorney’s Office (EDNY), NYC Commission on Human Rights, CNN, and Carter Presidential Center.

Mr. Prol has appeared and has authored/co-authored numerous briefs over the past decade before the NJ Supreme & Superior Courts, NJ Council on Local Mandates, and the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals.  He has been a vocal advocate for civil rights including marriage equality, legal services for the poor and judicial independence, and he argued the legal defense of NJ’s landmark Anti-bullying Bill of Rights and Criminal Justice Reform statutes.

Please visit this link for a video highlighting Mr. Prol’s year as New Jersey State Bar Association President and click here for an interview with Mr. Prol about his distinguished career by Emmy Award winning broadcaster Dr. Steve Adubato.

 Awards:  Social Justice Award by the NJ Women’s Political Caucus, Diverse Attorneys of the Year by NJ Law Journal