Charles J. Sciarra
Charles J. Sciarra was born and raised in Jersey City (at least that’s what the paperwork says.) After giving headaches to the nuns in grade school he graduated from Saint Peter’s Prep., Ramapo College and Seton Hall Law.
He clerked for former General Counsel to the Commission on Human Rights in New York City, where he developed a background in employment litigation. Upon graduation from law school he joined the Hudson County Prosecutor’s office prosecuting criminal matters on behalf of the State. He later joined one of the State’s premier employee-side labor firms before opening his own practice in November, 1999.
Sciarra focuses on employment and criminal matters, with a large portion of his work concentrated on representing sworn law enforcement officers. He appears regularly in Administrative, Superior, Appellate and Federal Courts. He has successfully tried numerous matters including criminal cases ranging from charges of Official Misconduct to Murder and civil employment matters relating to claims of discrimination, free speech violations, and whistle-blower retaliation. Through his career to this point, Sciarra has spent nearly two thousand days in court including over 80 weeks on jury trials securing numerous not-guilty verdicts, millions of dollars in damage awards through verdict or settlement and saving scores of careers.
He is married to the beautiful and talented world class half marathon-runner Jennifer Sciarra and they have three extremely well-behaved children. They reside in an undisclosed location in Northern New Jersey. When he is not engaged in family or legal matters, he can usually be found hunting down rare Springsteen bootlegs.
Jeffrey D. Catrambone
Jeffrey D. Catrambone is admitted to practice law in State Court in both New Jersey and New York. He is admitted to practice Federal District Court in the District of New Jersey, the Southern District of New York, and the Eastern District of New York. Catrambone practices in the areas of labor and employment wherein he specializes in discrimination, whistle-blower and other civil rights matters brought on behalf of both public and private sector employees. He also handles disciplinary matters on behalf of public employees and general litigation. He has spent approximately thirty weeks trying jury cases and he has obtained several million dollars in jury verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients.
Catrambone has been a partner with the firm since 2002. He is a 1996 Graduate of Seton Hall Law School where he earned his J.D., with honors. He is a 1993 Graduate of Boston College, where he received his B.A.
Upon graduation from law school he was a Law Clerk to the Honorable Patricia K. Costello in New Jersey Superior Court, Civil Division, Hudson County. After his clerkship Catrambone was an Associate with a large Princeton firm. He subsequently served as a Deputy Attorney General with the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice where he prosecuted criminal fraud cases.
When he is not working on cases for the firm, Catrambone spends the majority of his time with his wife and his three college-aged sons. He spends any additional downtime at the beach and attending Giants football games, following their off-season acquisitions, watching the NFL Network’s coverage of the NFL combine, and reminiscing about Super Bowls XXI, XXV, XLII, and XLVI but not Super Bowl XXXV, which never happened.
Matthew R. Curran
Matthew R. Curran graduated from Boston College with a B.A. in History. In 2005, he graduated magna cum laude from Seton Hall University School of Law. Following law school, he served a one year clerkship with the Honorable Donald Merkelbach in New Jersey Superior Court in Essex County.
Curran initially worked for the firm as a summer associate. As a full-time associate with the firm since 2006 and as a partner since 2012, Curran has assisted in every aspect of litigating employment matters from the initiation of lawsuits to appellate briefing and argument. In addition to civil litigation, Curran has engaged in criminal trial work, municipal court matters, the firm’s administrative practice before the Office of Administrative Law, and representing businesses with general litigation as well as collections matters. Curran has been both lead trial counsel and second seat to both Mr. Sciarra and Mr. Catrambone on numerous successful civil and criminal jury trials. He is admitted to the New Jersey State Bar and the Federal District Court of New Jersey.
Curran married his college sweetheart, Bree, in 2007 at a ceremony in Newport, Rhode Island. He spends his free time snowboarding in exotic locales and, to date, he has only once needed the services of an orthopedic surgeon.
Christopher A. Gray
Christopher A. Gray, a Partner at the firm, was born and raised in the state of South Jersey. He is a graduate of Villanova University, three time national champions (1985, 2016, 2018) where he earned a B.A. in political science. After Villanova, he received a J.D. from Widener University in 2007.
Christopher has been an annual lecturer at the New Jersey State Policeman’s Benevolent Association’s collective bargaining seminar in the subject area of law enforcement officer’s rights and disability pensions through the Police and Firemen’s Retirement System. He practices in labor negotiations, unfair practices, representation petitions, grievances, and discipline through the PBA Legal Protection Plan. He also represents all NJ state workers before the Division of Pensions and Benefits for accidental disability applications, ordinary disability applications, involuntary pensions, and honorable service issues. He has been known to try a Civil Rights, LAD, CEPA or criminal case too.
He is an Eagles, Super Bowl LII Champs (41-33), fan in an office full of Giants fans. He is a Phillies fan in an office full of Mets fans. He attends weekly partner mandated therapy to suppress his Philadelphia sports fan urges. It doesn’t work.
He is married to the wonderful Leslie Gray and father to an amazing daughter who continues to impress with her new talents she learns every week. Christopher is an avid golfer and curler who enjoys throwing rocks at houses. (https://www.buckscountycurlingclub.org/).
Deborah Masker Edwards
Deborah Masker Edwards is admitted to the New Jersey State Bar, Federal District Court of New Jersey and the New York State Bar. Edwards attended New York Law School and was a member and Notes and Comments Editor of the New York Law School Law Review. She graduated with honors from New York Law School in 1991.
Following law school, she served a one year clerkship with the late Honorable Paul Bangiola in New Jersey Superior Court, Law Division, in Morris County. Shortly thereafter, she opened her own firm in Hoboken, New Jersey which she maintained for many years.
In 2009 she joined the firm of Sciarra & Catrambone, LLC where she is engaged in all areas of criminal trial work, civil litigation, administrative law, municipal, and appellate practice.
She has been married to a great guy for over thirty three years. They have two fabulous kids, a daughter who works in healthcare consulting and a son who works in the sustainability sector. An energetic Shih Tzu rounds out their family unit.
When not working, she enjoys spending time with her family. She aspires to play pickleball.
Frank C. Cioffi
After serving in many positions with the firm such as legal clerk and office assistant, Frank was hired as the firm’s associate attorney in June of 2017. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and a Master’s degree from Montclair State in 2011, Frank would attend Seton Hall University where he would earn his JD in May 2017.
It was baptism by fire when Frank when joined Sciarra and Catrambone working on all areas of the firm’s practice including police disciplinary cases, criminal defense, and labor contract negotiations. Today Frank’s focus has primarily shifted to the firm’s disciplinary cases, pension litigation, and serving the interests of the local police unions the firm represents.
Outside of the firm, after welcoming their son, Mason, in 2020, Frank and his lovely wife Jaime left their apartment in Hoboken and moved to the suburbs of Essex County. With no longer easy access to Andrea’s Salumeria or Fiore’s, Frank is still on quest to find the best fresh mozzarella in Essex County.
Along with enjoying the time he spends with his wife and son, Frank also enjoys attempting to play golf watching and screaming about his local sports teams the Yankees and the Giants.
Support Staff
Rose Cioffi is the firm’s Office Manager/Bookkeeper. Our Secretary/Receptionist, Michele Ferdinando, joined the firm in 2005. Michele’s abilities to multi-task and her patience are an asset to the firm.
However, the true backbone of the office is our hot beverage machine (pictured to the right). Time and again, we have received glowing reviews from all of our clients and especially our Police Officer and Fire Fighter clients who partake in its piping hot, freshly brewed (and free) cups of coffee, cappuccino, café mocha, French vanilla and hot chocolate. There is a good reason why the coffee machine has been voted the firm’s employee of the month every consecutive month since it joined the firm in August 2005 (When the big flood finally comes, if there is room in the life boat for either Rose or the machine, Rose will need to quickly learn to swim).
(please be advised that this posting dates back to the original web site- Michele and Rose still work for the firm and coffee machine, which passed away in 2014 due to lack of obtainable parts and service,, is now on display on-site in the firm museum)