For over 30 years, Bruce Matez has a built a reputation as a Southern New Jersey divorce and family law attorney and mediator. Both as a litigator and a mediator, he has experience handling all types of family law matters, including, but not limited to, divorce (including complex divorce litigation), custody and parenting time (visitation), child support, alimony/spousal support, adoption, domestic violence, equitable distribution of marital property, equitable allocation of marital debt, child abuse and neglect (formerly DYFS, now called the DCP&P) matters, and same sex marriages, Civil Unions, and Domestic Partnerships. He has experience in negotiating, drafting, and reviewing pre-marital agreements, cohabitation agreements, and divorce settlement agreements.
The main focus of Bruce’s current practice is mediating divorces and other family law disputes for divorcing couples, those experiencing post-divorce disputes, parents involved in custody and parenting time disputes, and others. He has been mediating for over 25 years and is often appointed by the court or chosen by his colleagues to mediate or arbitrate divorces and family law issues. As a mediator, Bruce is recognized for his ability to help parties resolve disputes in a non-adversarial, mutual problem-solving, respectful, manner using creativity and “outside-the-box” solutions. As an attorney and mediator, Bruce focuses on assuring that his clients are well educated in the law relating to their own case and making sure his clients reach a comfort level to be able to move forward with their lives and realize their personal goals, without significantly negatively impacting themselves and their families financially and emotionally. Clients truly value his ability to understand the convergence of their financial, personal, and emotional issues. He conducts mediations in person at his office in Cherry Hill and via Zoom, which offers clients from all over New Jersey and those living in other states to utilize his mediation skills.
In addition to his mediation practice, Bruce is a trained Collaborative Divorce Law practitioner and founding member of the South Jersey Collaborative Divorce Professionals (BetterWayDivorce.com), the first of its kind in Southern New Jersey.As an alternative to litigation through the court (a trial), mediation, and the collaborative divorce process, Bruce is also often appointed as an arbitrator and has been appointed by the court and chosen by colleagues to serve as a Parenting Coordinator and a Guardian ad Litem for children who are embroiled in a custody or parenting time dispute between their parents.
Since October 2021, Bruce has served as President of the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM). He is also a member of the Academy of Professional Family Mediators (APFM), the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ), the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA), the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals (IACP), local county Bar Associations, and the Justice Marie Garibaldi American Inn of Court for Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Bruce was a founding member of the Thomas S. Forkin Family Law American Inn of Court. He served on the Executive Committee from 1997-2009 and now is a Master Emeritus. In June 2018, the Inn of Court presented Bruce with the Honorable Joseph M. Nardi, Jr Award. This prestigious award is presented to a member of the South Jersey family law community whose commitment to the practice of law encourages and exemplifies civility, humility, compassion and a moral/ethical obligation to the welfare of children and families, in general and is further evidenced by participation in continuing legal education, whether formally or informally, and a willingness to act as an advisor/mentor to less experienced attorneys. In July 2022, Bruce was also awarded the prestigious Richard K. Jeydel Award by the Justice Marie Garibaldi American Inn of Court for Alternative Dispute Resolution in recognition of his demonstrated civility, professionalism, ethics, and excellence in and service to alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Maryland (1986), Bruce received his J.D. from Villanova University School of Law (now the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law) in 1989. He has taught Family Law Motion Practice and Family Law Mediation courses at Rutgers Law School in Camden, New Jersey.
Having experienced divorce himself and having raised a son as a divorced parent, Bruce is proud and grateful to have maintained healthy, respectful, and caring relationship with his son’s mother and her husband, and tries to model and coach good co-parenting skills for his clients.