Daniel O'Hern serves as Special Counsel to Becker Meisel and is a member of the firm's litigation department. Mr. O'Hern devotes his practice to the areas of appellate practice, trial practice, alternative dispute resolution and mediation.

Mr. O'Hern is a former Associate Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Governor Brendan Byrne nominated him for the Supreme Court on April 20, 1981. In 1988, Governor Thomas Kean nominated him to a second term. He served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court until his retirement in 2000.

Mr. O'Hern has a long history of public service both locally and statewide. He served as councilman and mayor of Red Bank between 1962 and 1978. In 1978, Governor Byrne appointed Mr. O'Hern as Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Governor Byrne later named him as Counsel to the Governor.

Mr. O'Hern served as chair of the Judicial Salary and Pensions Committee, was appointed by the late Chief Justice Robert Wilentz as an advisor to the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law and chaired the Court's Family Practice Committee and Committee on Environmental Litigation. In recognition of his commitment and expertise in the area of professionalism and ethics, Governor McGreevey appointed him to the two-person panel formed to advise Governor McGreevey on matters relating to the interpretation and enforcement of the recently adopted Official Code of Governor's Ethics.

In 2007, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation presented Mr. O'Hern with its Medal of Honor Award for his longstanding dedication to the New Jersey legal system.

Frequently asked to speak about his rich history of public service, Mr. O'Hern recently served as a key speaker at the “New Jersey Governors and the State Supreme Court Program,” which was sponsored by the Rutgers Program on the Governor in cooperation with the Eagleton Institute of Politics and the New Jersey State Bar Association. In addition, he spoke at the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education’s (NJICLE) seminar on "Appellate Advocacy" as well as the "Seminar on Leadership and Public Ethics" that was co-sponsored by Monmouth University and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.

In 1930, Mr. O'Hern was born in Red Bank. He graduated from Fordham College in 1951, served in the US Navy from 1951 to 1954 and graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1957.