About Melanie Szuba
Melanie Szuba Appleby graduated from Rutgers University–Newark in 1986 with a B.A. in biochemistry and biology. She stayed in the Rutgers system for law school and earned her J.D. from Rutgers School of Law–Camden in 1994. Her academic background pairs a scientific undergraduate training with a traditional law degree, a combination that shaped an early analytical approach to practice.
After law school, Appleby entered private practice. She began as an associate in 1995 at the Law Office of Stephen E. Gertler. Two years later she joined Gilmore & Monahan, where she handled litigation and client counseling on matters typical of a general civil practice. By the late 2000s she had become known locally not only as a lawyer but as someone involved in municipal affairs.
In 2008 she was elected to a council at-large seat in Toms River Township. The position placed her in the day-to-day of local government and public policy, expanding the range of experience she drew on as an attorney. A few years later she moved into the judiciary. In 2011 Appleby served on the Superior Court of New Jersey in the Ocean County vicinage, where she presided over cases that required careful legal analysis and courtroom management.
That same year she maintained a private practice identity as the principal of the Law Office of Melanie Donohue Appleby, LLC. Her practice history shows movement between public service, the bench, and private practice, and reflects the kinds of transitions common among lawyers who balance courtroom work and community roles.
Appleby has been an active member of local and state bar organizations since the mid-1990s. She joined the Ocean County Bar Association and the New Jersey Bar Association in 1994. In 2016 she added membership in the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators, indicating involvement in alternative dispute resolution alongside litigation experience.
Her professional path has included private practice, municipal office, and a period on the Superior Court bench. Those roles have given her experience in litigation strategy, municipal law matters, and dispute resolution. She is associated with the firm Carluccio, Leone, Dimon, Doyle & Sacks, LLC, and continues to maintain ties in Ocean County legal circles. Her current practice concentrates on civil litigation and dispute resolution in New Jersey.
