Mount Laurel resident to be nominated as the first black woman on NJ Supreme Court.

Mount Laurel resident Fabiana Pierre-Louis will be nominated as associate justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Friday.

"Upon confirmation by the state Senate, Fabiana would be the first black woman to serve on our state’s highest court, and only its third black jurist — and, the first in a decade," Murphy said in his morning announcement. "Our courts must reflect our state, in all its great diversity."

Thirty-three states in the nation do not have a woman of color serving on their highest courts, noted Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver. New Jersey will leave that list when Pierre-Louis' nomination is confirmed.

Pierre-Louis would fill the seat of Associate Justice Walter Timpone, who reaches mandatory retirement age of 70 in November. 

Pierre-Louis' parents — who were at the announcement event with her husband and children — were immigrants from Haiti. She was raised in Irvington and graduated with a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University in New Brunswick and received her law degree from Rutgers Law School in Camden with high honors.

"Many years ago my parents moved to the United States from Haiti with not much more than the clothes on their backs and the American dream in their hearts," Pierre-Louis said at the announcement. "I think they have achieved that dream beyond measure because my life is certainly not representative of the traditional trajectory of someone who would one day be nominated to sit on the Supreme Court of New Jersey."

Her father was a New York City cab driver and her mother worked in patient transport for a hospital. She was born here, but English was not her first language. She is fluent in Haitian Creole, according to her law firm biography.

She spent her early childhood in a "cramped two-bedroom apartment" in Brooklyn with seven family members until the family moved to Irvington.

Pierre-Louis now is a partner in the Cherry Hill office of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads. She spent nine years in the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey, serving as attorney-in-charge in Trenton and then as attorney-in-charge in Camden.

» MORE: Read Gov. Murphy's announcement speech about Pierre-Louis

» MORE: Watch Gov. Murphy make the announcement and Pierre-Louis speak

"She has been described glowingly as both a 'superstar' and 'a unique blend of intellect and humility.' To a person, everyone with whom I or my team talked to about Fabiana spoke about her humanity, her empathy, and her character. They spoke about the kind of person she is — the kind of person who always seeks to serve others and always carries with her the pride and perspective of her own past," Murphy said.