By Terry Wright/Hunterdon County Democrat

FLEMINGTON — The county has agreed to a $1.3 million settlement of a lawsuit filed against the Prosecutor’s Office by Katharine Errickson, a former assistant prosecutor who claimed that former Prosecutor J. Patrick Barnes head-butted one employee, threw a cell phone at another, mismanaged the office and often behaved erratically.  READ MORE at NJ.COM.

Best Lawyers, the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, has named Nancy Erika Smith as the “Newark Best Lawyers Employment Law - Individuals Lawyer of the Year” for 2012.

After more than a quarter of a century in publication, Best Lawyers is designating “Lawyers of the Year” in high-profile legal specialties in large legal communities. Only a single lawyer in each specialty in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.”

Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers. The current, 18th edition of The Best Lawyers in America (2012) is based on more than 3.9 million detailed evaluations of lawyers by other lawyers.

The lawyers being honored as “Lawyers of the Year” have received particularly high ratings in our surveys by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism, and integrity.

Steven Naifeh, President of Best Lawyers, says, “We continue to believe – as we have believed for more than 25 years – that recognition by one’s peers is the most meaningful form of praise in the legal profession. We would like to congratulate Nancy Erika Smith on being selected as the ‘Newark Best Lawyers Employment Law - Individuals Lawyer of the Year’ for 2012.”