Life & Resilience
Sometimes the greatest thing that can happen to a soaring political career is a devastating loss. In this episode of Uncorked Wine, Business, and Life, Bill Green and Jerrold Colton sit down with recently retired New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Lee Solomon to explore his winding journey from local politics to the highest court in the state. Listeners will discover how to reframe personal failures into stepping stones for success while learning the critical difference between accepting fate and shaping your own destiny.
Over glasses of Saddlehill Pinot Noir and a rare 1982 Mouton Rothschild Bordeaux, Justice Solomon reflects on his dynamic legal career, including his deeply fulfilling tenure as Camden County Prosecutor and the technology-driven polarization of modern public service. He shares a chilling behind-the-scenes look at how artificial intelligence and deepfakes are already challenging the judicial system, but the most profound moment of the conversation shifts to a deeply personal family battle. You will hear the gripping story of his son’s harrowing fight with opioid addiction and the miraculous, split-second turning point in an airport van that changed their family's trajectory forever.
Episode Resources:
Introduction of Justice Lee Solomon
Bill Green:
Hi, I'm Bill Green. Welcome to Uncorked Wine, Business, and Life. Today we are at Saddlehill, my winery that I'm very proud of here in Voorhees, New Jersey.
We have a very special guest. I would like my co-host, Jerrold Colton, to introduce a guy that we've both known for a lot of years, a community guy, a Cherry Hill guy. We know him in very different facets. Take it away, Jerrold.
Jerrold Colton:
Thanks, Bill. We switched things up a little today. This is a gentleman who's been a very important person in my life as both a mentor, a friend, and someone I just respect so much and look up to as a phenomenal mind and person. I really want to welcome recently retired New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Lee Solomon.
Lee Solomon:
Thanks, Jerrold. Thanks, Bill. I'm very flattered. I'm always frightened when somebody says I'm a mentor or somebody that they're trying to follow or emulate. It always scares the heck out of me, but I'll do my best here today. It's nice to be here.
Jerrold Colton:
Well, I want to take you through a really interesting and varied legal and professional career. You start off as an attorney, never were a big firm guy necessarily, and then got into politics, which was a big part of your career and your life.
You were one of the last, if not the last, highly elected Republican officials in Camden County. It took you to our state legislature as an assemblyman. You started in local and county politics and ultimately became the prosecutor for all of Camden County, serving as the lead law officer and attorney for that office.
Then you made your way to the bench, swerved again, and became the U.S. Attorney assigned to the Camden and Trenton vicinages. That was a huge appointment from Chris Christie, who most people know became the governor and almost president.
Then you found your way to the New Jersey Supreme Court along the way. In there, you got back to the Camden County bench and just had a whole interesting track where everyone you have come in contact with has great things to say. At least the ones I know. There are probably some people who appeared before you that might not, or some people you prosecuted, but in general, everyone loves Lee Solomon.
Bill Green:
Except the guys you threw in jail.
Jerrold Colton:
That's what I'm saying. There might be some people.
Lee Solomon:
Most people related to me may feel differently. I always say I never stayed anywhere long enough for people to realize I didn't know what I was doing. I got out before they could tell people I was a bad guy.
Jerrold Colton:
You could say you couldn't keep a job, but you kept rising along the way to some pretty prestigious positions. As you look back on your career, there's no way you designed it that way.
Reflections on Fate, Destiny, and Defeat
Lee Solomon:
No, life's what happens when you're making plans, and it's not a straight line. I have these theories in life. My first one is there's fate and there's destiny.
Fate is what happens that you have no control over. Destiny is what you do with what fate has dealt you. We all have ups and downs. I took a very circuitous route in my life, but I ended up in a place I never thought I could get to.
I never even really thought I had earned it. We all have that imposter syndrome where we think people will discover I'm not as good as they think I am. To some extent, for me, and I think for most lawyers, that drives you.
You don't want to let anybody down. You don't want them to realize or think that you really don't know or you're not as good at what you're doing as they think you are. So you work that much harder to be as good as you possibly can be.
My life was just really a lot of different turns and twists. I also say I learned more from defeat than I ever learned from victory. People didn't realize when I became Camden County Prosecutor that all of a sudden, everybody loves you.
You're doing all this incredible stuff, you're in the newspaper, and you're on the news. They think everything you do is great. Nobody remembers that I ran for and lost elections. And it's devastating.
When you put your whole life on the line and the majority of people in the public that you work with, deal with, and serve tell you they don't think you're that hot, that's tough. Yet every defeat, every loss, and every failure turned out to be maybe the most important thing in my life.
I still remember when I lost in politics because I lost an election. Because I lost that election, I ended up changing direction. I ended up being nominated by Governor Whitman at the time to be Camden County Prosecutor. My life took off from there. It was an incredible change. Thereafter, everything went in a different and, I think, a correct direction for me.
Jerrold Colton:
Bill, the election he's talking about was for the Assembly back in '94, I guess it was.
Lee Solomon:
That was my last. But the election that really changed my life was when I ran for Congress in 1992. Rob Andrews beat me like a drum. I was doing okay at the beginning, but things went south for Republicans.
George Bush's numbers tanked—that was the elder—and I kind of went with them. To this day, I tell Rob that the greatest thing that ever happened to me was him beating me. It changed my life. He saved my life.
I was heading in that direction that so many people head in when they're involved in politics; they're consumed with it. It's their life and their identity. They think they're going to do such great things, and most of them end up destroying their lives in one way or the other, even in successful ways.
Jerrold Colton:
Lee, it's amazing. You saved me. Because in 1994, during your election for assembly where your partner, John Rocco, and you both had served the citizens really well—John was a terrific guy—I don't know whether to thank you or blame you, but you kind of got me into that election, if you recall.
I was young and idealistic at the time and really wanted to serve and help. With your nudging and all the way up to Christie Whitman, I ran for mayor of Cherry Hill. Obviously, I never became mayor of Cherry Hill.
Bill Green:
And you got beaten like a drum, too.
Jerrold Colton:
It was a drubbing. No, but this is really...
Bill Green:
Jerrold, this is... So I meet Jerrold in 1995 and he's just about to start running. Everybody's like, "You're crazy, right?" Susan was best then, strong. I said, "Come on, Jerrold, we're going to go out this afternoon. We're going to knock on doors in Woodcrest or wherever we were going." He said, "No, let's go play nine."
Jerrold Colton:
So it was. And you know what? Knocking on doors would not have mattered. Playing nine was more interesting.
Transitioning to Private Practice and Family Life
But Lee, it's funny you say how you look back at that as a changing point. It took you from being on trains to Washington and days down there. I know Rob Andrews did that, and other people that I knew were in Congress.
Even more lately, a great congressman from this area, John Runyon, who had been a former Eagle star, realized as much as he wanted to help and serve, it really wasn't what he thought it was going to be. So I changed, and clearly what you were trying to do back then shifted your whole career. Now, you still stayed in the public sector though.
Lee Solomon:
Sort of. I'm in private practice now. I work with the firm Archer & Greiner. I'm in business litigation with all kinds of litigation and other things. I'm not really in the public eye, and I frankly don't really want to be.
I did my time, did my service, and learned a lot. I have three grandkids and love them to death. Diane has stuck with me. I don't know why or how. I'd like to enjoy my family now. I gave up so much. They lost a lot because of the time I spent in government and politics.
Jerrold Colton:
I know your family some. I don't know your daughter real well, but I know your sons and have known your wife for years. They seem to really enjoy the ride as well. Not that they had benefits from it per se, but everyone in the Lee Solomon groundswell has made great contributions to this region.
Lee Solomon:
They did. Diane was involved in public service and had a very interesting life and career. She went from being a tennis referee to working for a private firm as a paralegal looking for heirs of property.
She was a very good tennis player, and then she became a commissioner on the Board of Public Utilities. I was president of the Board of Public Utilities for a brief period of time for Governor Christie, and then she was the acting president.
She was a commissioner again and spent 10 years doing that. Now she's retired and enjoying the grandchildren, playing canasta, and playing pickleball now, not tennis. She's a good enough pickleball player that I'll never take up the sport. I couldn't anymore.
The Drive for Public Service
Bill Green:
What drove you early in your career? You're a lawyer and the sky's the limit on where you can go from there. What makes you make that decision in your life that you're going to be in public service?
Lee Solomon:
I was always fascinated by public service and civics. Even as a kid, I remember reading Philadelphia magazine about Richardson Dilworth or this Senator or that Congressman. I remember handing out pickle pins for John Heinz when he was running for election.
I just was fascinated. It goes back to my time as a young man at Central High School in Philadelphia, studying about the American Revolution in depth and being amazed that there were people at the time who were landed gentry, who had everything in life and were willing to sacrifice money, life, and prestige for an idea called freedom.
What they did and how they did it is so fascinating. I had such incredible respect for anybody willing to do that. I thought it was almost an obligation to serve the community in some way. Look what they've done. Look what the soldiers in World War II did.
I got to travel with Diane to Normandy a few years ago. It just amazes me. People willing to sacrifice their lives for others and for freedom is just always fascinating.
Jerrold Colton:
He mentions Normandy in France, and I think it's a great time to introduce our first wine.
Bill Green:
Well, it's not from France. Our third wine is from France. We're going to do the Saddlehill Reserve Chardonnay [16 Munchen]. I can't even make that sound French.
Jerrold Colton:
What's Chardonnay?
Bill Green:
You know what they call a wine in a horse-themed winery? You know what they call it, right? Chardonnay!
Career Highlights in Local and County Government
Jerrold Colton:
To you, Lee. As you look back at your career—and I don't want you to look back too much because you're still going forward—talk about some of the real highlights. The things that you treasure and how they made you feel regarding the difference you were able to make.
Lee Solomon:
I think you'd have to ask the people I worked with and served. But I do remember enjoying being a local councilman very much. We lived in Haddon Heights and my children were born there.
I served as a councilman for nine years. Before that, I was solicitor to the planning board. I still remember talking to my wife about the fact that I think I made about 20 cents an hour because we were paid so little.
Here I am, a practicing lawyer. I always worked for a small firm or for myself and was paid so little we didn't qualify for the pension. But it was interesting. I met a lot of people and dealt with a lot of issues, like the development of a historic district ordinance.
I got to know everybody in town and handled everything from police contract issues to trash pickup and street paving. You got involved in anything and everything that affected everybody's lives. That was probably the most rewarding thing I ever did, besides one other position. That was running for freeholder and getting elected as a Republican.
Jerrold Colton:
For those who don't know what a freeholder is, they are now called county commissioners. They changed the old name.
Lee Solomon:
You were in charge of the whole county budget and all the county roads, development, and economic development. It's a really hard thing to run for, especially if you're a Republican in Camden County.
I remember I ran once and lost in November of '87. Then they wanted me to run again because somebody on the board decided not to. I said, "All right, I'll do it," convinced that when I lost the second time, that would be the end of my political career.
I figured I'd practice law and try to make a living to support my family. By that time, I was a solo practitioner and I had two kids. And we won. It was a miracle. I remember the exhilaration of winning that election and getting the opportunity to do that job, which was fairly high profile at that time.
There were a couple of reporters for the Inquirer that actually won an award for their coverage of Camden County. It was a different world back then. Local government meant a lot and people paid attention to it.
The issues were significant. They were environmental. The Camden County Utilities Authority was a big issue. Solid waste and transportation were big issues. There were some management issues, too. I loved it. I was fascinated by it and amazed that I won. That was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life.
The Role of Camden County Prosecutor
But the job in my life that I loved the most—and most people who had this job will tell you it's the best job they've ever had—was Camden County Prosecutor. When I lost that last assembly race you were talking about and decided I had enough of elected politics, Governor Whitman nominated me for Camden County Prosecutor.
I wasn't confirmed until a year later. That was a political issue. But I remember my first day. I was always interested in that end of public service. I was involved in it when I was in the legislature, serving on the Judiciary Committee and handling juvenile justice issues.
I remember coming home from my first day of work late. I'd been meeting with all the section chiefs, talking about all the high-profile cases and what I had to know. My wife asked how it was. I dropped my fork, looked up at her and said, "Diane, I was born to do this job."
I spent six years at it. I think that was the one job where you got up in the morning and you had a list of things you wanted to accomplish. Yes, they were interrupted by events like a homicide or a fire, but you had the ability and the authority to go do them. We had a tremendous impact on the city and county of Camden. I loved every minute of it.
Jerrold Colton:
My first job out of law school at Rutgers Camden in 1987 was with Samuel Asbell as a prosecutor. He hired me as a young assistant prosecutor along with Leon Rose. As you look back as the guy in charge, I can say for me it was an incredible first job.
The people I worked with and the real good you were doing felt unbelievable. Back then, you’d do about three years and get out to learn to try cases. Now people stay for their whole careers. I love that office and I can imagine how great it was to be the guy.
Lee Solomon:
I was there six years and they were an incredible six years. At each stage of my life, each job I had was the right job at the time. I expended so much energy in that job. It was literally 24/7.
I remember driving into Camden in the middle of the night to deal with an incident, being up all night, coming home at five o'clock in the morning, and then leaving for a school ski trip with my children and my wife.
While I was there, I was on the phone all the time dealing with issues, but I had so much energy and goodwill. I didn't have that same energy when that job ended and I went to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Jerrold Colton:
Which is federal level and a very different type of prosecution.
Lee Solomon:
Very different. It's white-collar prosecution versus blue-collar prosecution, and I was always a blue-collar lawyer.
Jerrold Colton:
Let's toast the prosecutors. This is our second wine, our Saddlehill Pinot Noir.
Lee Solomon:
I do like Pinot. We'll enjoy Bill's Pinot Noir from Saddlehill. I like it a lot.
Bill Green:
It's actually funny because when we started planting, Amy said, "No Pinot Noir." I said we don't drink Pinot Noir. She said, "Well, just lately I've been starting." I said, "Wait a minute, I'm 15 acres into a 27-acre plan and now you're telling me I need Pinot Noir?" That's life.
Lee Solomon:
It's what happens when you're making plans.
The Evolution of Politics and Technology
Jerrold Colton:
Exactly. Lee, I want to touch on another aspect. I've always found you to be the person who has the best grip on politics. Once you took that role as prosecutor, you really weren't actively involved, but I know it remained a passion.
Since you left the assembly in 1994, politics have changed a lot in this country. You were basically the last highly elected Republican official in Camden County. I found in my own experience running for office that party ideology on the local level isn't what people think it is on the national level.
That party ideology has gotten completely lost on both sides. it's way more polarized than it ever was. The things you were able to do required working in concert with Democrats. That doesn't happen now. As we sit here in 2025, how do you look at the world of politics?
Lee Solomon:
Everything that's happened is affected by technology and the way we communicate. We no longer talk to each other; we send emails. Instead of knocking on doors, you have social media where you can hit millions of people in one click.
The character of what we say and how we say it has changed dramatically. The lack of those interpersonal relationships and the use of technology to foment hostility has changed things. It’s all clickbait.
I think Lee Atwater is the one who said it: our job is not to get 51 percent to love us, it's to get 51 percent to hate the other guy. It's a lot easier to do now if you have the right message delivered in the right way. It doesn't have to be true or ethical.
If you have a way to deliver it, you can convince people in a way you never could before. That toothpaste has not gone back in the tube. I don't know that you can ever heal what's been broken. It's going to take a lot of time.
It's not the same as when we were involved. I knocked on every door in Haddon Heights and every door in a certain region of Camden County when I ran for freeholder. If it were today, I don't know that I ever would have gotten involved, Jerrold.
Getting involved just for civic reasons today, you're ripe for disappointment. Thank God there are good people that still want to get involved, but because of the damage it would do to my family and my life, I don't know that I would do it today.
Jerrold Colton:
Is it fixable? Can we have hope?
Lee Solomon:
We always have hope. I look back historically to when I was younger. My parents had been through World War II and the Depression. They had an attitude that we were going to be okay.
What disturbs me now is that I'm much older, and it's going to take a long time for things to get righted. It really is going to take a long time to heal. I think it's beginning to change with Gen Z.
Gen Zers, and I see this in my son's generation too, tend to be much more independent and suspicious in a good way. They don't believe everything they see on TV. They look into things and have their own sources; they're not just in a bubble.
Because of their sophistication with technology, it's changing. My upset is just that I'm a lot older now. I want to know that when my grandkids get older, it's going to be okay. I'm afraid I won't be around to see it because it's going to take that long.
Artificial Intelligence and Judicial Challenges
Bill Green:
To your point, Lee, today you don't even know if what you're seeing is real because of AI.
Lee Solomon:
I'll tell you how scary it is. When I was on the bench, we had something called judicial college. During a presentation on artificial intelligence, the Chief Justice, Stu Rabner, spoke to introduce an expert.
Then we saw a screen where the Chief was repeating his speech to us in Italian. His lips were moving properly with the right cadence and voice. Then he did it in Korean and then in French.
He got back on and said, "You know, the only language I speak is English." It was unbelievable. It was hard to distinguish from reality. That's why I think the Millennials and Gen Zers are so sophisticated; they look at things with the appropriate level of skepticism. It’s okay to be cynical, you just cannot lose hope.
Jerrold Colton:
Great. All right, so we've got something that we can all have hope from.
Bill Green:
I'm really excited about this one. We're in a much different price range now. This is a 1982 Mouton Rothschild Bordeaux.
Lee Solomon:
I've heard of it.
Bill Green:
It was the last wine, in 1973, that was brought into what's called the first growths of Bordeaux.
Lee Solomon:
I've heard of Rothschild.
Bill Green:
Oh, yeah. You know their cousin, Lafite.
Jerold Colton:
To hope. Savor that, Lee. Bill, that actually sells for about $2,500.
Lee Solomon:
$2,500?
A Family Journey Through Addiction and Recovery
Jerrold Colton:
Yeah, so savor it. I reached out to you recently and got a text from Diane. You were in France at the time. You were over there for something involving your son, AJ, right?
Lee Solomon:
He was the best man at the wedding of his CEO. AJ is a miracle. All my kids are miracles. I tell my oldest, Eric, he's the bravest kid I ever met for what he's overcome.
Jerrold Colton:
And you've had to deal with a lot with your children.
Lee Solomon:
My daughter has the highest social IQ of anybody I've ever met. She's in business too and very successful. AJ went through a real bout. He is recovering from addiction. He has a story that is amazing.
AJ was seriously addicted to opioids. I had a very bad bicycling accident, and Oxy was in the house while I was recovering. That's what started it for him and a classmate in high school. He graduated to heroin and failed a number of outpatient treatments.
I had been a prosecutor and was then criminal presiding judge in Camden County dealing with drug court. In fact, as prosecutor, we started the first drug court in the state. Carmen Messano, who is a retired appellate division judge, was the prosecutor of Hudson then, and we were two prosecutors willing to take a chance.
So I had dealt with that, and now my own son was in full-blown addiction. I remember telling him one day that he had two choices: he could go to inpatient treatment, or he was out on the street. I told him his stuff would be on the sidewalk and we'd change the locks.
Jerrold Colton:
I know you and Diane, and that had to be the hardest thing you could do as a parent.
Lee Solomon:
It was incredibly difficult, and Diane suffered greatly. But to this day, he'll tell you that was one of the most important things that ever happened to him.
He went to a place in Florida but eventually relapsed. Then they sent him to a place in Prescott, Arizona, called A Sober Way Home. It had a totally different 12-step philosophy. He struggled in recovery. Your brain doesn't get straight for many, many months.
After struggling to survive, he decided he was going to leave. He got a van to the airport in Prescott to come home and end it. Diane got a hold of all of his friends and told them not to help him or give him money. We cut off his credit cards.
He got to the airport but couldn't get a ticket. He couldn't even get a cab back. But one friend asked to talk to him. They had shared a crib together as infants. Jackson Train called him. About half an hour later, I got a call from AJ. He said, "I'm going back. I talked to Jackson."
Jackson had said to him, "You can't do this to me. You promised me we would go through everything together." That touched a nerve. We gave the van driver a credit card number over the phone to take him back to the facility.
AJ told me later that his brain was fried, and he was on this van with other people. He saw a young lady who reminded him of the girl he was dating. He totally lost it. He fell to his knees on the van and said, "God, save me or let me die. I can't take this anymore."
He said, "Dad, at that moment, I felt a physical weight lifted from my shoulders and I've never used again." I'm getting goosebumps telling you this story. That moment led him back to treatment and eventually to starting his own licensed facility.
He had an investor from Prescott who helped him open a treatment facility in Gloucester Township. It took off from there. He found his place in this world. He once said in a speech, "There's a part of me that's glad I was an addict because it pointed me in the direction my life took."
I'm proud of all of them. My daughter is still the glue that holds the family together. AJ is married now with two children, Abel and Kira. My daughter has a little boy, Lincoln. So we have an Abe and a Lincoln, consistent with my Republican roots.
Jerrold Colton:
He is impacting and saving lives in a real way daily.
Lee Solomon:
He is also a very successful businessman. I don't know where he or my daughter Rachel got that business acumen. They certainly didn't get it from me. He really has an instinct for spreadsheets and markets. He found his place.
Looking Forward and Managing Pressure
Jerrold Colton:
As we wind down, what's ahead for you? You are now of counsel with Archer & Greiner?
Lee Solomon:
I'm with Archer & Greiner. I do what they need me to do. I have a lot of experience in different areas. I want to enjoy travel with my wife and time with my grandkids.
There are so many days that I missed, although I never let my fascination with government get in the way of everything. I coached my daughter's softball team and went to my son's hockey games.
But there was an awful lot of time I missed, getting up at six o'clock in the morning and coming home at two. We were young and could do that then. Diane supported me through all of it. I'm a lucky man.
Bill Green:
You’ve got a lot ahead of you and it sounds like you plan on enjoying it.
Lee Solomon:
I would like to.
Jerrold Colton:
One thing from the outward standpoint, Lee, you always handled stress so well. You never let us see you sweat.
Lee Solomon:
That was my motto: never let them see you sweat. I handled it better when I was younger; things rolled off my back. I remember being in a freeholder debate in Gloucester Township. The room was packed with press and cameras.
I remember how nervous I was. I thought my hand was shaking when I picked up a glass of water. I thought my voice would crack. Afterward, we watched the video. I remembered how scared and jittery I felt, but on the screen, I looked cool as a cucumber.
I never forgot that. I think a lot of that is just the ability to focus.
Jerrold Colton:
You've made such an impact on this community. Thank you for joining us and sharing your stories.
Bill Green:
Lee Solomon, thank you so much. On behalf of my co-host, Jerrold Colton, I'm Bill Green. Thanks for joining us on Uncorked.
Lee Solomon:
Thanks for having me, really. And thanks for the wine.
