Roberto A. Rivera-Soto

As the first Hispanic American to serve on the Supreme Court of New Jersey, Justice Rivera-Soto authored 192 opinions, including 92 majority opinions. One case in which he dissented, J. McIntyre Machinery Ltd. v. Nicastro, was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, and two other cases in which he dissented were reversed by acts of the New Jersey Legislature, which upheld his position in each instance.

During his term on the court, Justice Rivera-Soto served as the long-term liaison to the courts Disciplinary Oversight Committee, New Jersey Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection, and IOLTA Fund. He also was the initial Chair of the New Jersey Board on Continuing Legal Education, which was credited with implementing, for the first time, continuing legal education requirements for attorneys in New Jersey.

Justice Rivera-Soto's abilities and experience also are acknowledged and recognized in our federal courts. In September 2017, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey appointed Justice Rivera-Soto as special master in a long-running case, Williams, et al. v. BASF Catalysts, LLC., et al., Civil Action No. 11-1754. As described by the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the plaintiffs in Williams, a putative class action, allege that "BASF Catalysts LLC and Cahill Gordon & Reindel conspired to prevent thousands of asbestos-injury victims from obtaining fair tort recoveries for their injuries."

The Williams plaintiffs also allege that "[d]ecades ago, BASF's predecessor, Engelhard Corp, discovered that its talc products contained disease-causing asbestos" and that "rather than confront the consequences of this discovery, Engelhard, with the help of its attorneys from Cahill, elected to pursue a strategy of denial and deceit. According to the complaint, Engelhard and Cahill collected the tests and reports that documented the presence of asbestos in Engelhard talc and they destroyed or hid them; when new plaintiffs focused on Engelhard's talc as a possible cause of their disease, Engelhard represented that its talc did not contain asbestos and that no tests had ever said otherwise."

The Third Circuit summarized the Williams lawsuit as one concerning "years of purported deceit by Engelhard and Cahill[,]" explaining that "[t]he crux of [plaintiffs'] complaint is that BASF and Cahill defrauded them in their initial lawsuits and caused them to settle or dismiss claims that they would otherwise have pursued." Williams v. BASF Catalysts, LLC, 765 F.3d 306, 310-11 (3rd Cir. 2014). BASF and Cahill vigorously have denied those allegations. Since his September 2017 appointment as special master in Williams, Justice Rivera-Soto has presided over and/or decided more than forty motions, established both fact and expert discovery deadlines, as well a timetable for class certification. Williams recently was settled for an aggregate sum in excess of $100 million.

Before joining the court, Justice Rivera-Soto was an attorney in private practice and served as a certified mediator in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. He has hands-on experience in a range of matters involving mortgage-related litigation; class action defense; commercial and real estate related litigation; compliance and licensing; sales, accounting and transactional fraud; antitrust and unfair competition; insurance claims; claims against governmental entities; and a panoply of litigation in federal and state courts nationwide.

Gaming

Justice Rivera-Soto is the former Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary of Caesars World, Inc., in Las Vegas (responsible for the legal affairs of all Caesars and Sheraton casinos worldwide) and the Sands Hotel & Casino, in Atlantic City (responsible for the Sands in Atlantic City and the Hollywood Casinos in Mississippi and Illinois). While so engaged, he was responsible for all legal matters applicable to the expansion of gaming opportunities worldwide, including the development and/or expansion of gaming facilities both in the United States and abroad.

Other Experience

Justice Rivera-Soto is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. His experience included cases involving prosecutions for mail fraud, narcotics importation and distribution, smuggling, and violations of the Neutrality Act (conspiracy to export firearms unlawfully).