Anne Picker

In 2019, Anne joined DeCosmo Law as Of-Counsel. Anne has been practicing law for over 30 years. She was employed by the State office of the Public Defender for 32 years (recently retiring) and has tried over 60 cases. She has represented both adults and juveniles in her many years in the Public Defender's Office. In 1997, she was asked, along with a limited number of other widely respected attorneys, to begin work as part of a statewide committee which was tasked with training newly hired attorneys for the Public Defender's Office. As a result, she attended several trainings thorough NITA (the National Institute of Trial Advocacy) and organized two three-day intensive trainings for all new hired attorneys.

In 2001, based in part on her prior experience, she was asked to assist in the creation of, and work in, the PCR Unit, a specialized unit in the Office of the Public Defender tasked with representing people on issues defined under the rules of Post Conviction Relief. As a result of that assignment, she became well versed in issues contributing to the ineffective assistance of counsel and conducted numerous in-house trainings on ways to avoid such issues.

In part as a result of the PCR assignment, coupled with a family relationship with the International Rescue Committee and her own family's history, she became interested in immigration and well versed in the convergence of immigration and criminal law. In 2011, in response to Padilla v. Kentucky, was asked to take on the additional role of one of the 2 in-house immigration specialists tasked with advising all 900+ state public defenders on how best to assist their immigrant clients with navigating the criminal justice system. In 2014, as a result of staffing changes, she became the sole person tasked with this responsibility. From this assignment, she developed working relationships with many pro bono immigration organizations, and numerous immigration attorneys.

Anne is also a 13+ year District IV Ethics Committee veteran. She has served (twice) as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Supreme Court of New Jersey District IV Ethics Committee as well as both prosecuting (presenting) and judging (serving as panel chair) for numerous ethics investigations and hearings. She is also a trained and certified mediator.

She also has familiarity with the French legal system and has worked with an attorney in Lyon, France. She was also invited to lecture on the American Legal System at a symposium sponsored by the Bar Association in Lyon, France.

When not working, she is an avid traveler, loves ancient history and archaeology and works with Hadassah US, the American non-profit organization which supports Hadassah Hospital, a research hospital in Jerusalem, Israel, known for its many breakthrough scientific discoveries and charitable contributions to both Israeli and Palestinian societies.