Sussex County attorneys become president and first VP of state bar

Thomas H Prol, an associate at Laddey Clark & Ryan LLP. of Sparta was sworn in on May 12 as first vice president of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Attorney Paris Elidades will be sworn in on May 15 as president, making him the second Sussex County president in 118 years.

Tom Prol practices in the firm’s environmental and government affairs groups and handles business litigation in addition to representing municipal entities. He serves as environmental counsel to the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority in Lafayette and was previously an adjunct professor at New York law School where he taught legal reasoning and writing as well as appellate advocacy.

“Our association is a major force for positive change in New Jersey and it stands up and speaks out on important issues before the courts and Legislature. I am honored to be a part of the state bar leadership and I look forward to continuing the important work we do,” Prol said. “As attorneys, we hold keys to the courthouse door for so many and help people access justice and pursue their rights. I am proud to be a part of this great, noble tradition.”

Prol, the first openly gay officer in NJSBA’s history, has served the association extensively and has been a vocal advocate on civil rights issues including marriage equality and the NJ Anti-bullying Bill of Rights. During his tenure as an NJSBA trustee, Prol represented the association before various New Jersey courts, tribunals and legislative bodies and served on multiple committees and sections in the Association. Prol serves as vice chairman of the association’s Amicus Curiae Committee and sits on the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Board on Mandatory Continuing Legal Education. He was selected as NJSBA’s Young Lawyer of the Year in 2004 and lauded as one of the state’s “magnificent seven” attorneys of the year by the New Jersey Lawyer newspaper for that same year.

Prol will be on track to become the third Sussex County President of the state bar in 2016.

Prol, a graduate of New York Law School, holds both a Master of Public Health degree and a Bachelor’s degree from Emory University. The son of a medical secretary and a World War II Navy veteran who worked nearly five decades as a bricklayer, he was raised in Sussex County and resides in the county as well.