John Joseph Gibbons

John Joseph Gibbons (December 8, 1924 – December 9, 2018) was an American jurist who served as a federal appellate judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1969 to 1990, during which time he served as its chief judge from 1987 to 1990.

Early life and education Gibbons was born in Newark, New Jersey, on December 8, 1924, and was raised in nearby Belleville.

After his naval service, Gibbons graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Science in 1947. As an undergraduate at Holy Cross, he wrote a senior thesis titled, "Federal control of narcotic drugs." He then entered Harvard Law School, graduating with his Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), cum laude, in 1950. While at Harvard, he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review for two years.

Early career After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1950, Gibbons was admitted to the New Jersey bar and joined the Newark law firm of Crummy & Consodine, a predecessor of the firm now known as Gibbons P.C. He became a partner in 1954, after which the firm was renamed Crummy, Consodine & Gibbons. Although the firm developed a substantial commercial practice, particularly in corporate and bankruptcy law, Gibbons later described his own work between 1950 and 1970 as encompassing both civil and criminal litigation in state and federal courts.

Alongside his private practice, Gibbons was an early member of the faculty of Seton Hall University School of Law, which opened in Newark in 1951. He was among the youngest practicing lawyers recruited to teach at the new law school, and remained there for six years. He was one of the founding members of its law faculty and taught constitutional law and federal courts while still in private practice.

New Jersey Bar Association (1960–1968) In 1960, the Supreme Court of New Jersey appointed Gibbons to the New Jersey Board of Bar Examiners, and he became chairman of the board in 1963. By the summer of 1967, he was serving as president of the state bar association. His firm dispatched attorneys to local courthouses to accelerate the processing of bail applications and help reduce overcrowding in the jails.

In August 1967, Governor Richard J. Hughes established the ten-member Governor's Select Commission on Civil Disorder to investigate the cause of the unrest in Newark and other New Jersey cities and appointed Gibbons as one of its members. In 1968, Hughes also appointed Gibbons to the New Jersey Council Against Crime and to the council of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. He also taught constitutional law at Seton Hall University School of Law until 1997. Gibbons was involved in defending 660 of the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

He also worked as a mediator and arbitrator in commercial disputes between large corporations and in litigation in the fields of antitrust, intellectual property law and securities regulation.