Familiar name has place in Manalapan courtroom
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

Nicole Sonnenblick

MANALAPAN - Given that law is a family legacy, Nicole Sonnenblick knew when she graduated from Manalapan High School in 1989 that she wanted to be an attorney.

Her father, Gerald Sonnenblick, of the firm Sonnenblick, Parker, Selvers, of Freehold Township, is a former township attorney in Manalapan and familiar figure who represents applicants at planning and zoning board hearings in western Monmouth County municipalities.

Nicole Sonnenblick was recently appointed to serve as Manalapan's municipal prosecutor and will now have her own presence in town hall on days when municipal court is in session. Her term will run until the end of 2007.

Sonnenblick has also been appointed to a term as municipal prosecutor in Freehold Township.

Manalapan's former municipal prosecutor, Teresa Kondrup-Coyle, has been appointed as a state Superior Court judge.

Sonnenblick graduated from Manal-apan High School in 1989 and went on to earn a law degree at Rutgers University. She began her career as a law clerk for Superior Court Judge Alexander D. Lehrer and also clerked for Superior Court Judge James J. McGann.

"Working as a clerk for Judge Lehrer was the best experience of my life. I loved working for him," Sonnenblick said.

She went to work for the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office in 1999 and remained on staff until 2002 when she left to give birth to twins.

Now in the process of building her own law practice, Sonnenblick, a native of Manalapan, said working in the town where she grew up is a bonus since she knows many of the police officers and municipal court Judge James Newman.

Sonnenblick is married to Peter Licata, an attorney who works in her father's law firm.

She said although her father certainly would have loved the idea, she never went to work in his firm because, she said, "I wanted the opportunity to establish myself independent of my dad."