Michael Hammer spent the past 15 years as a magistrate judge learning to work in fragments. A criminal matter here, a civil conference there, a settlement session squeezed into whatever hour was left — each case getting only a slice of his attention before the calendar pushed him to the next one. That’s the nature of a federal docket: there’s always another matter waiting.
That won’t be his rhythm anymore.
Hammer joined Lowenstein Sandler on Sept. 1 as a partner in its Alternative Dispute Resolution practice — a move he describes not as leaving the bench, but as finally getting to do the part of the job he valued most.
“This is an opportunity for me to take the skills I’ve developed — mediating and running settlement conferences as a judge, managing complex cases, and earlier, investigating and trying major white-collar matters — and focus them on an ADR practice centered on larger, more complex disputes,” Hammer told BINJE.
“I’ll have the time to devote to those matters, and the resources to give each case the attention and care it needs for ADR to be done properly.”
For Hammer, that shift comes down to preparation — the part of the process a crowded docket never let him fully indulge.
“I’ve never found a better way to be effective than spending a lot of time preparing before the lawyers and parties even come in,” he said. “I want to know the case — its history, facts and issues — as closely as the lawyers and the parties do. They need to see that I have that understanding.”
The addition makes Lowenstein Sandler the only law firm with a New Jersey office to count a former federal magistrate judge, a former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (Chief Freda Wolfson), and a former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice (Justice Barry Albin) among its ranks.
Chris Porrino, the Chair of the Litigation Practice at Lowenstein Sandler, said the value of such a trio cannot be overstated.
“We really have all of the bases covered,” Porrino said, noting that magistrate judges like Hammer focus heavily on discovery and settlement work, while Albin brings appellate and complex state law experience, and Wolfson brings more than three decades on the federal bench.
Hammer, who will work out of the firm’s Roseland office, said his time on the bench — and his 13 as an Assistant U.S. Attorney — shaped his career.
“I wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything,” he said. “I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had those experiences, the skills, the knowledge I gained about being a better lawyer, being a better judge. They’re priceless.”
Hammer was first appointed magistrate judge in 2011. He was reappointed in 2019.
Porrino has known him far longer — or since they were at the Seton Hall School of Law together. He said he’s thrilled at the opportunity to team up with Hammer.
“There’s a reason why everybody loves and trusts him,” Porrino said. “He’s just a salt of the earth, really smart, really hardworking professional. And he is relentless in terms of his commitment to getting things right.”
Wolfson said his credibility as a neutral will carry over intact now that he’s traded the robe for a business card.
“Even though you don’t have the robe anymore, there’s a lot of credibility still that goes along because of the experience we come with,” she said. “Judge Hammer will be like that because he settled many cases, and lawyers really respected his views, and he’ll be able to draw upon that and use that.”
Wolfson added that his talent for the job itself is well established.
“Judge Hammer distinguished himself on the bench for consistently facilitating settlements in some of the most complex and contentious matters before him,” she said. “His talent for problem-solving and developing innovative and satisfactory resolutions to the most intricate challenges will be hugely valuable to our clients.”
Hammer said the firm’s commitment to pro bono work factored directly into his decision. For more than a decade, he served as one of the judges overseeing Newark’s ReNew Court, a federal reentry program that helps people transition back into their communities through education, job training and close supervision.
He also supported Danny’s Pantry, which provides groceries to at-risk participants in the court’s programs — and he intends to keep doing both.
“I still plan to stay deeply involved in ReNew Court, Danny’s Pantry, and the problem-solving courts,” Hammer said. “To have the support of Lowenstein to do that was a critical factor for me.”
Hammer earned his law degree from Seton Hall in 1993, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Seton Hall Law Review. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan.
Hammer began his legal career clerking for U.S. District Judges Stanley R. Chesler and Garrett E. Brown before entering private commercial litigation practice, then moving into government service.
