Oral History with Alan Medvin

Interview with Alan Medvin conducted by Kim Marks on April 3, 2023. Recorded at the Princeton Public Library.  Part of the Voices of Princeton partner project with the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Mercer County.

Alan moved to Princeton with his family in 1955 as he was about to enter 3 rd grade at the Nassau Street Elementary School. His family immediately became involved with the Princeton Jewish Center and was one of the families contributing to the construction of a new synagogue at its current location. After Alan and Harriet Kass married in 1976, they continued to stay involved with TJC, and were one of the 12 founding families of its nursery school. Alan served in several leadership roles at the Center, including President.
Alan retired in 2013 after a successful 41-year career as a New Jersey trial lawyer in private practice during which time he tried approximately 150 cases to verdict. In addition to trying cases in New Jersey, he tried cases to verdict in New York, Ohio and Wisconsin. In 1984 he was elected President of the New Jersey Chapter of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and in 2008 he was awarded its Gold Medal for Distinguished Service. He taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at the Rutgers University School of Law in Newark and for six years sat on the
Board of Governors of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, where he served as the Chair of the Professional Negligence Section, Chair of the Committee on Ethics and Discipline and Vice-Chair of the Torts Section. In New Jersey
After his retirement in 2013, Alan became the volunteer head coach of the Princeton University Mock Trial team until the Princeton administration eliminated the service of all volunteer staff positions in the summer of 2020. In late 2021 he reached out to Rider University in Lawrenceville about starting a mock trial program there, and after its administration agreed, he formed a team and let it to the National Semifinals in its first year of competition in 2022-23.
In addition to volunteering in the mock trial world, he volunteered for 10 years as a Case
Developer at Centurion, located in Princeton, the world’s first organization devoted to freeing men and women serving life in prison for crimes they did not commit, and also volunteers as a Wish Grantor at Make-A-Wish NJ.