Newark, NJ – A nationally respected health and civil rights law expert and scholar, John V. Jacobi, professor of law at Seton Hall University School of Law, has been selected by Governor Jon Corzine to serve as Senior Associate Counsel to the Governor.

Jacobi, a resident of Westfield, will assume his new position on January 2. As Senior Associate Counsel to the Governor, he will be responsible for advising the governor on health law and regulatory issues affecting New Jersey and its residents, along with other policy matters.

“I’m excited and honored to have been asked to work with an administration that is committed to pursing progressive ideas and solutions in the areas of health and health care,” said Jacobi. “I look forward to this opportunity to assist New Jersey on matters that have been a focus of my scholarship and teaching for years.”

Since 1995, Jacobi has served as associate director of the Seton Hall Health Law & Policy Program, and since 2001 the Seton Hall Institute of Law & Mental Health. His recent and current scholarly projects include examining strategies for expanding the availability of health coverage, the obligations of government to provide services to people with serious mental illness, and the clash of disability rights and public health interests. From 1986-1991, he served as Special Assistant to the Commissioner for the New Jersey Department of the Public Advocate, where he worked on health, civil rights and disability issues. In addition, he has served on the Governor’s Task Force on Mental Health, on the Board of Advisors of the New Jersey Office of Child Advocacy, the New Jersey Olmstead Advisory Council on disability rights, the Board of Directors of NJCRI, an HIV advocacy group, and on other government and nonprofit boards and committees.

As Senior Associate Counsel, Jacobi will join the office of Kenneth Zimmerman, Chief Counsel to the Governor. “I’m particularly looking forward to working with Ken Zimmerman, with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working on public policy issues,” said Jacobi.

A native of Buffalo, NY, Jacobi received his B.A. from the State University College of New York at Buffalo and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. He joined the Seton Hall Law faculty in 1993, after working as a Gibbons Fellow in Public Interest and Constitutional Law at Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, where he focused on health, prisoners’ rights and disability issues.




The only private law school in New Jersey, Seton Hall University School of Law was founded in 1951, and is located in the city of Newark. Seton Hall Law School offers both day and evening programs leading to the Juris Doctor (J.D.), Master of Laws (LL.M.) and Master of Science in Jurisprudence (M.S.J.) degrees. For more information on Seton Hall Law School, visit law.shu.edu.