About the firm
A New Jersey legal team serving businesses, individuals, labor unions, and nonprofit organizations.
Part of the community
Our office at Forsgate Commons occupies the former Jamesburg High School—a connection to the community’s past that we’re proud to share.
Jamesburg is next door, and it has more history than a town its size has any right to. Settlers arrived in the late 1600s. It takes its name from James Buckelew, whose 1847 school became known as the “James B.,” and it became an independent borough on April 27, 1896. The first canned tomatoes in the country were canned there in 1847. The Downs and Finch Shirt Factory, the largest of its kind in the world, ran from 1870 until it burned in 1900. Two rail lines and a roundhouse once met in the middle of it.
A few minutes away is Thompson Park, 678 acres spread across Monroe Township and Jamesburg and the largest developed park in the county system. The county began buying the land in 1955. At its center is Lake Manalapan, thirty acres of it, still stocked with fish by the state.
We value the history of this area and the people who call it home. To us, being a good neighbor means listening carefully, treating people with respect, and helping them move forward with confidence.
Daniel J. Zirrith opened this firm in October 2014, after twenty years practicing labor and employment law in New Jersey. The idea was straightforward: a practice small enough that the attorney you meet is the attorney who handles your matter, and deep enough in one area of law that it never has to guess.
The bench today runs deeper than the size suggests. Our attorneys were admitted to practice in 1994, 1998, 1999, 1999 and 2004. Between them they are licensed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York, and before the federal courts of New Jersey and the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York.
Most labor and employment firms pick a side and stay on it. We represent businesses, labor unions, nonprofit organizations and individuals, which means we have sat in every chair in the room — drafting the agreement and challenging it, running the disciplinary hearing and defending it, negotiating the contract from both ends of the table.
That is not a slogan about balance. It is practical. When we advise an employer on a termination, we know how the case looks to the lawyer who will bring it. When we take a member’s grievance to arbitration, we know how the other side prepares. Clients get counsel shaped by both perspectives rather than one.
The work happens where these disputes are actually decided: state and federal court, the Public Employment Relations Commission, the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, the pension boards of PERS, PFRS and TPAF, grievance arbitration, and the negotiating table.
The firm
Four things worth knowing about how the firm works.
Labor and employment law is what the firm was built around. That means a case gets more than one lawyer’s judgment without leaving the office — whistleblower claims under CEPA, discrimination under the Law Against Discrimination, ADA and family-leave disputes, severance and noncompete agreements, discipline and discharge.
Public employment runs on rules private employment does not: civil service protection, collective bargaining obligations, administrative procedure, and pensions. We appear before the Public Employment Relations Commission and the Civil Service Commission, and on pension matters before the boards of PERS, PFRS and TPAF. Edward H. Kerwin has served as Public Defender for Avon since 2012.
Daniel J. Zirrith wrote on the Americans with Disabilities Act for New Jersey Lawyer in 1995 and on drafting restrictive covenants for the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education in 1997, and spoke on the labor side of civil service discipline at the 2016 Administrative Law Forum. Greg Busch has long served on the panel of the Middlesex County Early Settlement Program.
Where a matter calls for it we bring in of-counsel attorneys rather than hand the client on. Bryan H. Mintz, who has tried personal-injury cases for more than twenty-five years and has been named to the New Jersey Super Lawyers list every year since 2014, is of counsel to the firm, as is Greg Busch on family, estate and probate matters.
Our team
Behind every matter is a group of people you may never appear in court with. They answer the telephone, keep the accounts straight, and look after the systems that hold your file.
Legal Secretary & Office Manager
Tina is the firm’s Legal Secretary and Office Manager, and brings more than ten years of experience to the role. She oversees the daily operations of the office while providing administrative and organizational support to the attorneys and their clients.
Known for her attention to detail and for keeping things running smoothly, she assists with case management, scheduling, correspondence, court-related matters and client communication. She is often one of the first points of contact at the firm, and takes care that clients feel comfortable and informed throughout the legal process.
Tina values the relationships she has built with clients and colleagues over the years, and enjoys being part of a team dedicated to dependable, responsive service.
Legal Assistant & Bookkeeper
Laura has served as the firm’s bookkeeper, and as legal assistant to Daniel J. Zirrith, since the firm was established in October 2014.
She has more than thirty years of experience in the legal profession, including labor and unemployment law, real estate, and family law. She is also a local real estate agent with New Jersey Realty in Monroe Township, serving Middlesex County and the surrounding counties, with thirty years in that field as well.
Laura strives to balance her personal and professional life while maintaining a strong work ethic, and consistently delivers high-quality work to the firm and to her New Jersey Realty clients.
We are here to help
Consultations are free and confidential. Call the office, or send a message and an attorney will follow up.
(732) 521-5900Monday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Eastern
