Lori Grifa

Prior to joining Archer & Greiner’s Hackensack office, Lori served in Governor Chris Christie’s Cabinet as the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs from 2010 to 2012. During her tenure, Lori also chaired the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, the New Jersey Redevelopment Agency, the New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing and the New Jersey Housing Mortgage Finance Agency. In addition to creating approximately 3,000 units of affordable housing during this period, she managed 2,200 annual grant programs involving nearly $500 million.

Lori handles matters involving administrative and regulatory law, as well as government affairs, before the New Jersey Departments of Banking and Insurance, Education, Environmental Protection, Labor, Transportation and Treasury, as well as the state’s professional licensing boards. Even before serving in Governor Christie’s Cabinet, Lori applied her deep experience in both the public and private sectors to her law practice at the firm; she continues to use that knowledge and insight to craft solutions to the problems faced by licensed and regulated businesses.

From 2002-2003, Lori served as chief of staff to New Jersey Attorney General David Samson. In that capacity, she was responsible for managing the New Jersey Department of Law & Public Safety, a department then comprised of more than 9,500 employees (including 800 attorneys), as well as for the civil representation of the State of New Jersey and overseeing the state’s criminal prosecution efforts.

She was a special assistant district attorney in the Homicide Investigation Unit of the New York County District Attorney’s Office for two years and a senior assistant district attorney in the office of the Brooklyn District Attorney from 1989-1997, where she specialized in homicide and gang-related prosecutions.

Lori has received appointments by the Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court to a number of important attorney committees, including the Committee for Women and the Courts and the State Domestic Violence Working Group. She also served as a member of the District V Attorney Ethics Committee from 2008 to 2010.

She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the area of Administrative Law. She has twice been named by NJBIZ as one of New Jersey’s “50 Most Powerful People in Real Estate,” and in 2008 she was named by NJBIZ as one of New Jersey’s “Best 50 Women in Business.” Recently, she was selected as one of ‘New Jersey’s Women Leaders in the Law’ based on her AV® rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest ranking of both ethical standards and legal ability that Martindale awards.

A graduate of Boston College School of Law, Lori served as law clerk to Judge Elbert Tuttle of the Superior Court of Massachusetts. She earned her B.A., cum laude, from Rutgers University, where she was a Henry Rutgers Thesis Scholar and member of Phi Beta Kappa.