Jennifer Phillips Smith Named Co-Chair of Gibbons Real Property Group

Gibbons P.C. is pleased to announce that Jennifer Phillips Smith has been named Co-Chair of the firm’s Real Property Group, effective February 1, 2022. She joins Co-Chair Douglas J. Janacek, who has been a leader of the Real Property Group for over a dozen years.

Ms. Smith is lead land use attorney on several of New Jersey’s largest, most high-profile development and redevelopment projects, which garner extensive media coverage. Examples include a $2.5 billion redevelopment, which is being called the “largest mixed-use development site in New Jersey’s history,” the transformation of the Asbury Park Waterfront, and the repositioning of a former manufacturing and office site, named “Mixed-Use Deal of the Year” by the leading statewide commercial real estate development association. As Co-Chair of the Real Property Group, she will work with Mr. Janacek in overseeing the work of group attorneys and managing group activities and workload, including fees and billings, matter management, case staffing, associate training and broader professional development, client relations, and business development.

In her legal practice, Ms. Smith helps businesses in New Jersey expand and optimize the reach of their markets and operations through the development and redevelopment of real property for their facilities, directing project and case strategies, guiding teams, and serving as primary Gibbons contact broadly responsible for these client relationships. An Equity Director since 2018, she counsels clients on real estate matters ranging from redevelopment projects spanning hundreds of acres to issues impacting small business owners. She represents clients in connection with mixed use, industrial, restaurant, residential, retail, office, financial, medical, educational, and senior living projects, and in redevelopment areas and land use litigation. She also has a particular niche in liquor licensing and alcoholic beverage control.

Ms. Smith has been featured on the NJBIZ “Power 100” list of the most influential people in New Jersey business, as well as its “Law Power 50” list. ROI-NJ just this week named her among New Jersey’s “ROI Influencers: Real Estate,” in the Service Provider category. She was previously named one of the New Jersey Law Journal’s “New Leaders of the Bar.”