Rachel Wainer Apter

Rachel Wainer Apter (born July 22, 1980) is an American lawyer who serves as a justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and received her Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, graduating in 2007.

Career After law school, Wainer Apter clerked for Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and then for Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. She then became counsel to the Attorney General of New Jersey and then director of the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.

On March 15, 2021, Governor Phil Murphy nominated Wainer Apter to be a justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. In January 2022, Schepisi suggested she may be open to supporting Wainer Apter's nomination. On January 11, 2022, Governor Murphy renominated Wainer Apter. On October 13, 2022, her nomination was voted out of committee by an 8–3 vote, after Republicans voiced their concern over her time with her time as a director of the civil rights division of the New Jersey Attorney General's office and staff attorney for the ACLU. On October 17, 2022, her nomination was confirmed by a 23–14 vote. She was sworn into office on October 21, 2022.

Personal life A resident of Englewood, New Jersey, Wainer Apter and her husband have three children.