Edward J O'Donnell

Mr. O’Donnell has been practicing family law for 30 years and is a recognized leader in the field.  He has been a member of the Family Law Executive Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association since 1995, serving as Chair of the Family Law Section in 2008-2009.  From 2005 through 2007, he was President of the Northern New Jersey Family Law Inn of Court (now the Barry I. Croland Family Law Inn of Court) where, as a Master, he continues to take an active role in developing the programs and syllabus for the organization.  He served as Trustee on the Board of Essex Newark Legal Services from 1996 through 1999.  He served as Chair of its Family Law Committee for many years, then as a Trustee and Officer of the association which he eventually led as its President in 2008-2009.   Mr. O’Donnell is also the Essex County Trustee to the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Mr. O’Donnell has been the recipient of several prestigious awards.  In 1998, he received the Essex County Bar Association Family Law Attorney Achievement Award.  In 2008, Legal Services of New Jersey recognized his pro bono service by awarding him the Equal Justice Medal.  Most recently, Mr. O’Donnell became the 2012 recipient of the prestigious Alfred C. Clapp Award, a distinction bestowed upon him by the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education for excellence in continuing legal education.  Indeed, Mr. O’Donnell is a prolific teacher, having lectured at more than 100 continuing legal education programs.

He is a litigator with substantial trial and appellate experience, as well as a mediator and arbitrator with considerable expertise in alternative dispute resolution. He is especially known for his participation in cases involving novel issues.  He co-authored the appellate and Supreme Court briefs on behalf of the guardian of an incompetent person in the first judicial opinion involving the removal of a feeding tube as an extraordinary life sustaining  modality Matter of Conroy, 98 N.J. 321 (1985).  Several years later, he co-authored the Supreme Court Brief in yet another case involving the cessation of extraordinary life sustaining measures (Matter of Jobes, 108 N.J. 394 (1987)).  As second chair, he was one of the architects of the legal theories advanced in Matter of Baby M, 109 N.J. 396 (1988), a case concerning assisted reproduction technologies.  Other cases of note having included his role as a guardian ad litem of a child whose parents disagreed upon whether their son should be circumcised, and controversies involving high profile sports and entertainment figures.  He is frequently sought after for his expertise in international custody disputes, the most well-known being Maqsudi v. Maqsudi, 363 N.J. Super. 53 (Ch. Div. 2002), involving the custody of the grandchildren of the President of Uzbekistan. 

He has authored many publications, most recently the Abritration Chapther in New Jersey Family Law Alternate Dispute Reolution, which was published by NJICLE in December 2015.