About Justice Worrall F. Mountain

New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice Worrall Frederick Mountain, for whom the Inn is named in honor, personified the highest standards of excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills embodied in the American Inns of Court's Professional Creed.

Born on June 28, 1909 in East Orange, Worrall Mountain became a pillar of the New Jersey bar. After graduating from Princeton University in 1931 and Harvard Law School in 1934, Mountain began his law career as an associate with the Newark firm of Pitney, Hardin & Skinner. In 1940, he left to form the law firm of Mills, Jeffers & Mountain in Morristown and then served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

Elevated to the bench in 1966, Judge Mountain served in the Superior Court and sat in the Appellate Division just one year from 1970-1971, until he was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor William T. Cahill. After his retirement from the bench in 1979, Justice Mountain returned to private practice until his death on August 24, 1992. His opinions are routinely quoted even today, but Worrall F. Mountain is probably best known for having participated in such landmark New Jersey Supreme Court cases as the discriminatory zoning matter of Southern Burlington County NAACP v. Mount Laurel in 1975, and the famous 1976 right-to-die decision, In re Karen Ann Quinlan.