ALC&H - Key Persons
A founding member of Adams, Lattiboudere, Croot & Herman, LLC, Cherie L. Adams has over 39 years of legal experience devoted to the representation of management in education and labor and employment matters. Prior to starting the ALC&H firm, Ms. Adams was with Sills Cummis & Gross, one of New Jersey's largest firms, for over 15 years.
Adam S. Herman is a partner with Adams, Lattiboudere, Croot & Herman. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Herman served as senior associate counsel for the Newark Public Schools' Office of the General Counsel. Prior to his service at the Newark Public Schools, Mr. Herman worked as an associate in a firm specializing in the representation of school districts and municipalities in labor and employment law, and a firm specializing in litigation and insurance defense.
For the firm, Mr. Herman handles a broad spectrum of legal matters and cases, including labor and employment, tenure arbitrations, civil service, withholding of increment, student discipline, public contracts, construction, and public procurement and bidding. Mr. Herman also has extensive experience with real estate transactions on behalf of the firm's clients, including the sale and lease of buildings, and has negotiated leases with various landlords and property managers, including the Archdiocese of Newark.
Mr. Herman routinely appears before arbitrators, the Public Employment Relations Commission, the Office of Administrative Law, the New Jersey Superior Court and the United States District Court. He has also successfully handled matters in the New Jersey Appellate Division and briefed and successfully argued a No Child Left Behind case in Federal District Court and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
After graduation from law school, Mr. Herman clerked for the Honorable Frank A. Buczynski, Jr., J.S.C. in Ocean County. Mr. Herman earned a Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, from Towson State University in 1995 and a Juris Doctor, with honors, from Rutgers University School of Law-Camden in 1998. He is admitted to practice in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the United States District Court of New Jersey, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has been admitted to practice in the State of New Jersey since 1998.
Job Titles:
- Partner at the Firm of Adams
Audra Pondish, Partner at the firm of Adams, Lattiboudere, Croot & Herman, has been practicing law for over 16 years. A graduate of Rowan University with a Juris Doctor from the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law, Ms. Pondish has dedicated much of her legal career to the representation of school districts in New Jersey.
She commenced her career as a Special Education Law Clerk for the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law in Trenton and obtained invaluable experience with a wide range of educational issues with matters under the Federal and State laws governing individuals with disabilities. After her work with the Office of Administrative Law, Ms. Pondish entered private practice where she dedicated herself to the representation of public-school districts. She has handled matters before the Public Employment Relations Commission, the Office of Administrative Law, as well as State and Federal Courts. She has represented school districts in matters involving the Open Public Records Act, grievance arbitrations, and labor and employment matters. Ms. Pondish also has extensive experience in representing municipalities in labor and employment matters related to police officers. Ms. Pondish also has experience in litigating matters dealing with the Open Public Records Act before the Appellate Division, Business Law, Collection Matters, Family Law including Domestic Violence matters, Landlord/Tenant, Municipal Court matters, Expungements and Personal Injury.
Mr. Wohlgemuth is a consultant to Adams, Lattiboudere, Croot & Herman with over 30 years of experience representing management in employment litigation. He is a former partner at Apruzzese McDermott Mastro & Murphy, one of the leading employment law firms in New Jersey, and was Of Counsel to the employment law departments at Sills Cummis & Gross and Drinker Biddle & Reath. Before moving to New Jersey, Mr. Wohlgemuth served for eight years as appellate litigation counsel for the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., where he represented the Board before the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals throughout the country.
Mr. Wohlgemuth concentrates his practice on defending management in both state and federal court in all aspects of employment law litigation including discrimination, wrongful discharge, whistleblowing, sexual harassment and employment tort claims. He also has extensive appellate experience preparing briefs and presenting oral arguments before the state and federal courts of appeals and the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Mr. Wohlgemuth was a long-term member of the Editorial Board of the New Jersey Labor & Employment Law Quarterly, a publication sponsored by the Employment Law Section of the New Jersey Bar Association. He received his undergraduate degree in Labor Relations from Cornell University, where he was a member of the Dean's List, and his law degree from Catholic University, where he was on Law Review.
Mr. Wohlgemuth is admitted to practice in both New Jersey and New York, before the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Ninth, Tenth and D.C. Circuits, and before the United States District Courts for the District of New Jersey and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
John E. Croot, Jr., a partner in the firm, has over 35 years of experience representing public school districts as Board Counsel or Special Counsel.
Mr. Croot counsels clients in all aspects of school law and related fields, including issues related to: tenure and seniority, FMLA and NJFLA, contract negotiation and interpretation, public bidding, student discipline, HIB, student residency, the Open Public Meetings Act, the Open Public Records Act, lease and purchase of school facilities, and the review and drafting of policies and by-laws. Mr. Croot also has extensive experience representing public sector clients in labor negotiations.
Mr. Croot is the Immediate Past President of the New Jersey Association of School Attorneys, having served as President from 2020 to 2022. He is rated AV Preeminent by Martindale Hubbell.
Mr. Croot is admitted to the bars of New Jersey and New York, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
He is a graduate of the Fordham University School of Law and Rutgers College.
Kelly Samuels Thomas is an associate with Adams, Lattiboudere, Croot & Herman. She is an experienced litigator in representing clients in the areas of personal injury, commercial, employment discrimination, civil rights, professional liability, consumer protection, and workers' compensation law. She represents clients in cases regarding slip and fall accidents, auto accidents, and breach of contract claims. She defends clients against claims of discrimination based upon race, color, religion, national origin, age, disability, and gender. With her extensive experience, Mrs. Thomas utilizes her legal knowledge to represent school districts with issues that arise in these practice areas. Mrs. Thomas has significant experience litigating insurance defense cases.
She has served as a Deputy Attorney General for the New Jersey Attorney General's Office, where she represented State entities and employees in litigation matters and with claims filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.
Mrs. Thomas clerked for the Hon. M. Christine Allen-Jackson, J.S.C. (ret.), after law school. She graduated from Cornell University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. She graduated from the William & Mary School of Law in 2009 with a Juris Doctorate degree. She is admitted to practice in New Jersey, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Perry L. Lattiboudere, a founding member of Adams, Lattiboudere, Croot & Herman, has been practicing before federal and State courts for thirty years. Prior to the founding of ALC&H, Mr. Lattiboudere served as the Chief Legal Counsel to New Jersey's largest school district, the Newark Public Schools, a position he held for almost seven years. He was responsible for all legal matters involving the District and counseled the Superintendent, administrative staff, the Advisory Board of Education and District managers on a wide variety of legal issues. These included litigation matters, employee discipline and discrimination complaints, budgetary matters, collective bargaining, grievance and arbitrations, labor and employee relations, contract drafting and review, bidding issues, special education, tenure and civil service compliance. Mr. Lattiboudere also served as President of the New Jersey Association of School Attorneys and is currently the Treasurer of that organization.
Prior to his service as General Counsel for the Newark schools, Mr. Lattiboudere served as Senior Staff Counsel at the Hertz Corporation and as an Associate with the firm Sills Cummis Epstein & Gross in the education, employment, and labor relations group. His career began with his service at the New Jersey Division of Law where he represented state agencies and managers in employment matters as a Deputy Attorney General. Mr. Lattiboudere's legal experience is supplemented by his prior experience as an adjunct professor of education law and policy at Fordham University and at Kean University.