Hon. Jaclyn Medina is a judge for the Vicinage 2 Superior Court in Bergen County in New Jersey. She was appointed to the bench by Governor Phil Murphy in 2019.
During her judicial tenure, Medina has held an assignment in the Family Division in Bergen County.
At the time of her appointment, she was the first assistant deputy public defender in the Bergen Criminal Trial Region of the State of New Jersey Office of the Public Defender.
She also taught for several years as an adjunct professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University
Medina received a B.S. from Seton Hall University, School of Diplomacy and International Relations. She went on to complete a J.D. at Rutgers Law School. While a law student, Medina received the Chief Justice Richard J. Hughes Award for Excellence in Lawyering. In addition, she served as president of Alianza, vice president of the Law Student Division of the Hispanic National Bar Association, and public relations editor of the Journal of Law and Urban Policy.
Before joining the Office of the Public Defender, Medina worked as a law clerk to the Hon. Lois Lipton in the Law Division of the New Jersey Superior Court.
Her memberships have included the Hispanic Bar Association of New Jersey (former vice president).
Medina has sat as a member of the Office of the Public Defender’s Statewide Continuing Legal Education Committee and Ethics and Professionalism Committee (co-chair) as well as the New Jersey Supreme Court’s District Ethics Committee and Minority Concerns Committee.
She received the New Leaders of the Bar Award from the New Jersey Law Journal (2016) and was named the Top Attorney Under 40 by the Hispanic National Bar Association (2018).
Medina is the daughter of political refugees from Cuba.