Gov. Jack Markell is tapping Collins J. “C.J.” Seitz, Jr. for a spot on the Delaware Supreme Court.
Markell announced his choice of the corporate lawyer Monday afternoon.
If confirmed by the state Senate, the 57-year old Seitz will replace retired Justice Henry duPont Ridgely, who stepped down January 31st.
Seitz is the founding partner of Seitz, Ross, Aronstam & Moritz law firm, and has specialized in corporate, commercial, and intellectual property cases for over 30 years.
In a statement, Markell said Seitz has “earned a reputation as brilliant attorney whose judgment, civility, and integrity are second to none.”
Seitz, in his own statement, thanked the state's Judicial Nominating Commission and Markell for then nomination. “If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed by the Senate, I will do my best to serve the people of Delaware as a Justice on the State's highest court,” said Seitz.
Seitz earned his law degree at the Villanova University and lives in New Castle.
Seitz’s father, Collins J. Seitz Sr., also served on Delaware’s Supreme Court, as well as the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. While a vice chancellor of Delaware's Court of Chancery in 1952, the elder Seitz handed down the order that desegrated Delaware's schools. It was one of the 5 cases combined into the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education, but Seitz Sr's order was the only one upheld, because he was the only in that group that ruled that separate was inherently unequal.
