First Asian-American in New Jersey appointed judge on federal bench

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The Morristown, N.J.-based law firm of Riker Danzig Scherer Hyland & Perretti LLP announced June 3, that partner Zahid N. Quraishi was installed as a United States Magistrate Judge for the District of New Jersey, Trenton vicinage.

Quraishi, who is of Pakistani ancestry, becomes the first Asian-American to sit on the federal bench in New Jersey’s history, according to Riker Danzig, the firm he joined in 2013, and where he was named a partner in 2016, and this year became the chair of its White Collar Criminal Defense and Investigations Group.

Quraishi has been deeply involved in Riker Danzig’s diversity initiatives, serving on its Diversity Committee, Riker Danzig said in the press release.

In 2019, Riker Danzig appointed Quraishi as its first Chief Diversity Officer.  In addition to these roles, he was a member of the firm’s Management and Hiring Committees.

This June 13, 2019, Quraishi is slated to receive the Professional Achievement Award by the Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association at its annual gala.

Before joining Riker Danzig, Quraishi served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for more than five years in Newark, N.J., where he tried numerous federal criminal cases involving public corruption, financial fraud, perjury, firearms and narcotics offenses within the Special Prosecutions Division and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and Government Fraud Units of the Criminal Division.

Prior to that, Quraishi represented the United States as an Assistant Chief Counsel and trial attorney with the Department of Homeland Security, and was a military prosecutor with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, where he achieved the rank of Captain.

Quraishi was assigned to the First Infantry Division stationed in Germany and deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004 and 2006 before he was honorably discharged.

“Quraishi continues Riker’s long and noted tradition of public service by many current and former attorneys who have served on the state and federal bench and held other public offices,” Riker Danzig said in the press release.