John W. Bartlett

John W. Bartlett is a Partner in Murphy Orlando LLC. His practice includes complex commercial and estate litigation, appellate litigation, election and campaign finance law, and litigation and counseling for tax exempt organizations. His work has been recognized, including in 2010 when the New Jersey Law Journal selected him among its “Forty Under 40” promising young attorneys, and in 2018 when the New Jersey Globe named him Campaign Lawyer Of The Year for his successes in voting rights litigation.

Mr. Bartlett’s experience as a trial attorney touches a broad range of litigation areas, including corporate governance and fiduciary duties, cannabis law and other state regulatory matters, tort claims, business divorce, and estate litigation. He has achieved key successes in appeals from New Jersey agencies and lower Courts, including in the areas of medical marijuana regulation and in complicated appeals for public entities and businesses. Trusted for his judgment, John has been appointed by the Court to administer a contested estate in a complex, multi-national probate matter, and is frequently retained to provide New Jersey local counsel and litigation support for corporations across the United States. He advises numerous non-profit boards and executives, including in the fields of higher education, health care, and international charitable giving, on governance and institutional asset management, and has assisted diverse faith communities, including temples, mosques, and religious schools, in board control litigation, internal investigations, and disputes with employees and donors.

Mr. Bartlett served on the legal team for the Democratic National Committee against the Republican National Committee in the nation’s longest-running Voting Rights Act litigation, successfully protecting a court-ordered ban on racially-targeted voter suppression activities. He has advised labor unions and advocacy organizations active in New Jersey political and policy campaigns, and represented community organizations and people with disabilities in other high-profile voting rights litigation. He has also provided New Jersey compliance counsel for a 2020 Democratic Presidential primary campaign, the re-election campaigns of a U.S. Senator, and numerous county and local candidates and party organizations.

Mr. Bartlett is a graduate of Harvard Law School and Brown University. Prior to law school, he was a Raoul Wallenberg Scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wrote for The Associated Press in Israel, and served as communications director for the national anti-crime organization Fight Crime: Invest in Kids in Washington, D.C. His prior legal experience includes litigation roles at Lowenstein Sandler PC and Genova Burns LLC, as well as a year as Legal & Policy Counsel at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.

Now in his fourth term, John Bartlett was first elected to the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders (now County Commissioners) in November 2012. As a Passaic County Commissioner, he jointly oversees an annual budget in excess of $450 million, providing a wide range of government services to the county’s 525,000+ residents. In 2022-2023, he serves as Chairman of the Board of the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA), which is responsible for prioritizing and allocating more than $1 billion per year in federal transit funding. John is a trustee and past president of the Harvard Law School Association of New Jersey, and a Fellow of LeadNJ (formerly Leadership New Jersey), class of 2007.