Marguerite M. "Peg" Schaffer

Marguerite M. "Peg" Schaffer, who specializes in commercial litigation, banking, land use and real estate law, is a Co-Managing Partner of Shain Schaffer.

Ms. Schaffer received her law degree, cum laude, from Seton Hall University and was Editor of its Legislative Journal. She also earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Philosophy at the University of Dayton. She holds a Teacher’s Certification in Secondary English from the State of New Jersey and prior to law school taught in an inner city high school.

Ms. Schaffer served as an Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall Law School where she taught legal writing, and at Fairleigh Dickinson University where she taught commercial law. She was the Assistant Counsel and Municipal Prosecutor, City of East Orange, NJ; Counsel and Secretary to the Board of Adjustment, City of East Orange, NJ; Counsel to the Planning Board, City of East Orange; and Counsel to and Member of the Board of Directors of Mountain Ridge State Bank. She currently serves as Counsel to the Borough of Lake Como, and Special Counsel to the Township of South Brunswick and the Boroughs of Roselle and Watchung.

Ms. Schaffer acts as Special Counsel to a number of domestic and foreign commercial banks. She is an expert in the burgeoning field of Cannabis Law and represents a number of out-of-state entities anxious to do business in New Jersey when legislation permits.

Ms. Schaffer is a past President of Executive Women of New Jersey, the State’s premier organization for Professional Women, and a member of its Board of Directors. She serves on the Advisory Committee of the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers. She holds memberships in the Somerset County, New Jersey State and American Bar Associations. For ten years Ms. Schaffer was on the Board of Directors of the New Jersey State Bar Association, Banking Law Section, served as its Chair, and is presently a Director Emeritus.

Professional memberships held by Ms. Schaffer include: Committee on the Judiciary Budget and the Supreme Court Ethics Committees of both Essex and Morris Districts; Land Use Section of the American Bar Association. She was a Founding Member and Secretary of the Essex County Women Lawyers Association.

Ms. Schaffer was honored as a “Woman of Distinction” by Somerset Hills Girls Scouts and named to Business New Jersey’s Top 500 Leaders List. In 2006, she received the Eleanor Roosevelt Distinguished Service Award from the Somerset County Federation of Democratic Women. Ms. Schaffer, who currently serves as Chair of the Somerset County Democratic Committee, was elected as a Delegate to the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Democratic National Conventions. She was appointed Interim Vice Chair of the New Jersey State Democratic Committee in 2019. She has been named a Super Lawyer by New Jersey Monthly Magazine since 2014.

Contact Ms. Schaffer at mschaffer@shainlaw.com