“Lorraine Gerson, the stylish and eloquent grand matron of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey, stood before her colleagues on Thursday and said she wanted one more thing for her 80th birthday. “I want to be able to sing,” she said. “And the song that I wish I was able to sing is, ‘You Make Me Feel So Young.'”
That snip is from a 2009 article in the Star Ledger. Gerson will speak at the ORANJ Plenary on April 20.
After describing her background, the Ledger briefly describes her work: “Gerson has worked mostly on financial and fraud cases. In the 1990s, she successfully prosecuted more than a dozen people involved in bribing U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials and importing contaminated cheese and fish. Several years ago, she took down two men who raked in about $20 million selling fake health insurance plans. With her silver hair and matronly smile, Gerson sometimes takes defendants by surprise. When she walked into a courtroom once, a man leaned over to his lawyer and asked: “Who is that old lady?” … Despite her charm, Gerson has a knack for tormenting defense lawyers, said acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra. Some those lawyers, Marra said, have confided they are eager for her tenure to end.”