Fernandez Garcia, LLC

Focus and practice areas

Fernandez Garcia, LLC works across two lines of legal practice that rarely sit under the same roof. One is criminal: white collar defense, DWI, traffic matters and restraining orders. The other is workplace and business: labor and employment law, business litigation, complex litigation.

The firm also handles corporate investigations and crisis management. Its client base includes executives, professionals and corporate clients, and the site names Essex, Morris and Union counties as the areas it serves.

That combination has a practical logic. An employment dispute inside a company can turn into an internal investigation. An investigation can produce criminal exposure. A firm carrying all three types of work can stay with a client as the matter changes shape.

Where the criminal side sits

Criminal defense at Fernandez Garcia covers the everyday municipal court end as well as the federal end. DWI and traffic charges sit at one edge. White collar defense sits at the other.

Restraining order work belongs to a third category again. These matters run in Family Court in New Jersey and carry consequences that reach into housing, custody and firearms rights. A firm listing this work is signalling it takes hearings that many general practices pass along.

How the team is built

Two attorneys founded the firm and both are named on the site: Juan C. Fernandez and Michael (Miguel) Garcia. Their backgrounds divide the work along clean lines.

Fernandez has 38 years of experience in labor and employment law and commercial litigation. He earned his J.D. at Creighton University School of Law and is admitted to the New Jersey state and federal bars.

His public service record is the substantial part of that biography. He has served as Essex County Counsel, as Assistant Union County Counsel and as Union Township Municipal Prosecutor. He was a member of the District Ethics Committee and of the New Jersey Educational Facilities Authority. He has tried bench trials, jury trials and matters before a binding arbitrator.

The government experience on the other side

Michael (Miguel) Garcia came to private practice from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, where he was an Assistant United States Attorney. Before founding this firm with Fernandez, he was Of Counsel to O'Toole Scrivo.

His practice covers insurance defense, mass tort, criminal defense and municipal work. He conducts corporate and municipal investigations into allegations of employee misconduct, harassment and discrimination. He took his J.D. at Syracuse University College of Law and holds bar admissions in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

In my opinion, the pairing of a former federal prosecutor with a former county counsel and municipal prosecutor gives the firm an unusual reach across New Jersey's court systems. Federal criminal practice and county-level civil work are separate worlds. Both are covered here by someone who has held a public role inside them.

Two offices and the counties they cover

Fernandez Garcia keeps offices in Morristown and in Elizabeth. Morristown is the Morris County seat and Elizabeth is the Union County seat. Both sit near the courthouses where much of the firm's work is heard.

The three counties named on the site, Essex, Morris and Union, contain some of the densest population in New Jersey. Essex includes Newark and the federal courthouse there. Union includes Elizabeth and a large share of the state's industrial and port employment.

Both attorneys are fluent in Spanish.Elizabeth has a sizable Spanish-speaking population by New Jersey standards, and the ability to conduct a criminal defense or employment consultation in a client's first language matters in exactly that setting.

What the record shows

The firm states it has served individuals and businesses in Morristown and Elizabeth for over three decades. Fernandez's 38 years in practice sits alongside that figure.

Both attorneys hold current New Jersey bar admissions. Garcia adds New York and Pennsylvania, so his admissions cover the tri-state corridor where many New Jersey business disputes have counterparts.

Corporate investigations deserve separate mention because they are a distinct service. A company facing an internal harassment complaint needs someone outside its management to gather facts, interview staff and produce findings. Garcia's prosecutorial background suits that assignment, and the firm offers it to municipal clients as well as corporate ones.

Crisis management as a listed service

Few firms of this size list crisis management on a practice areas page. The service usually means handling the period when a legal problem becomes a public one: press attention, regulatory notice, employee reaction.

Placing it next to white collar defense and corporate investigations reads as deliberate. Those three services describe one situation viewed from three angles, and executives are the clients most likely to face it.

Who this firm fits

As a reviewer, the clearest picture is of a two-partner firm built for clients who need trial-capable representation in more than one arena. A business owner charged with a driving offence and facing an employment claim would find both handled by the same two attorneys.

Individual clients are equally well served on the criminal side. DWI, traffic and restraining order matters are all listed, and these are the cases that bring most New Jersey residents into contact with a courtroom.

The evidence available on this firm is the professional record of its two founders, and that record is unusually detailed for a firm this size. County counsel, municipal prosecutor, federal prosecutor, District Ethics Committee, a state authority board seat. Those are verifiable public positions with defined responsibilities.

Fernandez Garcia, LLC operates from Morristown and Elizabeth, covers Essex, Morris and Union counties, and takes criminal, employment and business litigation matters in English and Spanish.