Bergen Vicinage to Hold Law Day Celebration

The Bergen Vicinage, in partnership with Bergen County, the Bergen County Bar Association, and the Bergen Vicinage Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Community Engagement, will celebrate Law Day on Monday, May 1 at 3 p.m. on the steps of the rotunda of the Bergen County Justice Center, 10 Main St., Hackensack. 

This year’s theme is “Cornerstones of Democracy: Civics, Civility and Collaboration.” 

Retired Appellate Division Presiding Judge Ellen L. Koblitz will give the keynote address. The program will begin with a presentation of colors by the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office Honor Guard. Superior Court Judge James J. Guida, chair of the Bergen Vicinage Law Day Committee, will give welcoming remarks and Undersheriff Orestes Alvarez will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. The Bergen County Academies’ chamber choir, under the direction of Louis Spinelli, will sing the national anthem and “God Bless America.” 

Assignment Judge Carol Novey Catuogno will administer the oath of citizenship to 30 new citizens from 19 countries of origin and will give remarks. Bergen County Executive James J. Tedesco, Bergen County Bar Association President William I. Strasser, and Trial Court Administrator Kerri Lynn Walsh-Wood also will speak. 

The bar association will acknowledge winners of the mock trial competitions for 2021, 2022, and 2023. Bergen County Clerk John S. Hogan, Bergen County Surrogate Michael Dressler, and Alvarez will present awards to the winners of the election calendar poster contest. 

Established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1958, Law Day was designated as “a day of national dedication to the principles of government under law.”