Jill Mayer squatted on a Superior Court judgeship for three years as she fought a legal battle to keep her $127,200-a-year state pension while earning a judicial salary. After a state appellate court ruled that she could, Mayer changed her mind and took a better-paying job in the private sector.
But the position at The Cigna Group, a managed health care and insurance company, didn’t work out, and she separated in May after just eight months on the job.
After being out of work for about six months, Mayer landed a new gig as a compliance attorney at Deborah Heart and Lung last month.
The Senate unanimously confirmed a former Camden County Prosecutor, Mayer in January 2022, but by October 2024, she had still not taken the oath of office. That’s because she was looking for a way to take her pension that came from nearly 27 years in the attorney general’s office while also receiving a $175,000-per-year judicial salary.
The state Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) turned Mayer down three times, telling her she can’t collect a government pension and a judicial salary at the same time. She hired William Tambussi, a well-connected Camden County attorney, to challenge the decision in court.
Mayer knew about the pension issue before her Senate confirmation, but chose to proceed anyway. When the governor’s office and Senate leadership pushed her nomination through the Senate, they were unaware that they were confirming someone who had no immediate intention of becoming a judge — at least not immediately.
In the meantime, Mayer joined a politically powerful South Jersey law firm, Parker McCay, while squatting on a judgeship the state judiciary no longer considers to be vacant.
There is no apparent requirement for how long Mayer must wait before she takes her seat on the Superior Court, and the clock on her initial seven-year term begins with the oath of office. But when Mayer was finally able to join the bench, she chose not to.
In May, Murphy withdrew the nomination of Pearl Minato, the former director of the Division of Criminal Justice, for a Superior Court judgeship. Minato had been nominated in late 2023, but her ties to the embattled Office of Public Integrity and Accountability made her unconfirmable by the State Senate.
Mayer did not respond to a message left on her cell phone on Sunday.
