With an intellectual depth and enthusiasm for the law that hasn't waned in nearly 30 years of practice, Bob Bonney is one of the leading practitioners of criminal-defense law and "business divorce" litigation in New Jersey. His broad range of knowledge and his decades of courtroom experience place him among the top trial attorneys in the region, particularly in Monmouth County, where his practice has been based for the last 22 years. He knew he wanted to be a lawyer from the time he graduated Ocean Township High School. Whether it was E.G. Marshall's TV show "The Defenders" or his close involvement with a family friend who was a lawyer that fueled an early interest in the law, "I went away to Roanoke College (Va.) knowing what I had to do to reach my goal." Graduating with honors, he went on attend Washington & Lee University Law School in historic Lexington, Virginia, where he captained a National Moot Court team that won a regional competition. Though tempted after law school to remain a transplanted Southerner, he returned to serve a 14-month clerkship with United States District Judge Clarkson S. Fisher, Sr., in Trenton. After watching and learning in the clerkship, Bonney cut his teeth on criminal defense cases as an Assistant Deputy Public Defender in Elizabeth, Union County. He tried cases ranging from juvenile street crimes to armed bank robberies. He was then sworn in as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey and changed roles from defender to federal prosecutor. Assigned to the fraud unit, Bonney took on health care and complex commercial fraud cases, such as the fast-food franchise fraud case of Wild Bill's Family Restaurants (featured on 60 Minutes), whose principals were convicted. "Every case was factually complex and challenging - it was professionally exciting to work them." In 1982, Bonney left the public sector and began private practice with a firm in Red Bank focusing on commercial litigation and criminal defense law. With his exacting and articulate approach (" I am a 'detail' guy"), he is always well prepared, peers say, and he has built a reputation as a forceful courtroom presence and skilled negotiator, facing prosecutors and business-dispute adversaries alike. He has represented clients in such high-profile matters as the Glen Ridge sexual assault case and, most recently prevailed on critical statutory defense issues before the Superior Court Appellate Division in the Spring Lake kidnapping case. He recently argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court as amicus curiae on an important issue concerning the ethical obligations of a criminal defense attorney to disclose facts to a court. His civil practice is primarily in the area of "business divorces," as he calls them. "These cases let me employ the same skills as a white collar prosecutor in ferreting out the corporate financial abuses." A true citizen of the community, Bonney often provides pro bono representation to Red Bank youths facing juvenile charges. Among his few indulgences are golf and coaching his kids' soccer and baseball teams over the years. He lives in Ocean Township with his wife - Maureen Hinchliffe Bonney, herself an accomplished trial and appellate attorney with the N.J. Attorney General's Office -- and their three children.