About Melissa A.
Melissa A. Gertz built her career on public interest work and civil rights law. She graduated from Rutgers School of Law–Newark in 2002, where her studies emphasized civil rights and public interest issues. That year marked the end of her formal legal education and the start of a career rooted in community-centered practice.
Early in her career she joined the Community Health Law Project as a staff lawyer in 2005. There she handled matters that intersected health care access and legal advocacy, representing clients whose legal needs were tied to broader social services. Her work at the Project gave her hands-on experience in casework and community outreach, and it informed the management roles she would later take on.
By 2009 she moved into nonprofit leadership as Executive Director of the Community Justice Center. In that position she managed program development and organizational operations while maintaining an attorney’s view of the legal problems the center handled. The shift from staff attorney to executive director broadened her responsibilities. It also required balancing legal strategy with fundraising and administrative priorities.
Gertz has been active in bar and advocacy organizations. Since 2002 she has served as New Jersey Chair of the National Lawyers Guild, a role she continued to hold as of 2026. That long tenure reflects steady involvement in legal organizing and in coordinating lawyers around public interest projects. Her work in the Guild has involved mentoring newer attorneys and participating in events that connect legal practice to civic and political questions.
She is licensed to practice in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. That dual admission allows her to take on matters that cross state lines and to advise clients whose issues touch both jurisdictions. Her background combines courtroom and administrative work, nonprofit leadership, and community lawyering.
Colleagues describe her practice as grounded in public interest values and informed by years of service in nonprofit law offices. She has remained connected to the kinds of cases she handled early in her career while also directing programs that support broader access to justice. As of 2026, she continues to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and maintains an active role in public interest legal work.
