The 2022 NJBIZ Power 100

Sills Cummis Managing Partner Max Crane and Member Jerry Zaro are included in this special NJBIZ “Power 100” issue, which ranks the 100 most powerful people in New Jersey.

NJBIZ had this to say about Crane and Zaro.

Max Crane
“Crane’s been managing partner at Sills Cummis & Gross in Newark for more than a decade, and he has not slowed down. Profits per partner grew more than 20% over the last year. Fiscal year 2021 turned out to be one of the most profitable years in the firm’s 50-year history; and the firm is growing in numbers. Six members joined in the last year alongside 20 associates and of counsel. The whole group’s been busy: litigation work never stopped and transactional work — corporate and real estate — also increased over the past year.  The firm’s bankruptcy attorneys continue to handle matters across the U.S. – and they have developed a niche in health care insolvency related work.”

Jerry Zaro
“Zaro is commissioner and former chairman of the Gateway Program Development Corp., and he chairs the Banking and Real Estate Services Department at Sills Cummis & Gross PC. He has routinely made the case to repair and replace the 108-year-old Hudson River rail tunnels that connect New Jersey and New York City, and the 110-year-old Portal Bridge in New Jersey. Now, after years of the project being stalled, the state is beginning to see the light at the end of the, well, tunnel. The environmental impact statement for the Hudson Tunnel Project was approved last May. In January, its priority was updated to medium-high by the Federal Transit Administration; a move that could make a combined $23 billion available for the project. Transit officials expect construction to start in 2023. Meanwhile, NJ Transit approved a $1.59 billion contract for the replacement of the Portal North bridge in October. Zaro and other supporters of the Gateway project note that 20% of the American economy depends on the Hudson River tunnels carrying trains between Washington, D.C., New York City and Boston. ‘The thing I think he did really better than anyone … as chairman was delivering the message and spreading the message of the importance and urgency of the project to lots of different audiences,’ a source who works closely with him told NJBIZ. ‘He was very committed to being out publicly at a time when the projects themselves hit significant roadblocks. We needed to keep stakeholders, elected officials, and everybody else motivated and on board and rowing together for the project. Jerry did a great job with being out there and being an advocate for them and an evangelist to keep people’s motivation and interest up.’”