Michael A. Cedrone

Michael focuses his practice in administrative law, regulatory compliance and government contracts at the state and local levels. He has considerable experience in all aspects of public procurement — from initial review and evaluation of bid specifications, to advising clients in the preparation and submission of responsive and compliant bid proposals, and to pre- and post-award challenges. He has assisted corporate clients, large and small, in litigating numerous bid protests, both as challenger and defender, in state court and before state administrative agencies. His litigation practice is backed by extensive appellate experience, including both defending and prosecuting appeals, and pursuing applications for emergent relief. He also represents clients in connection with other competitively conferred rights, including most recently, cannabis licensing in New Jersey, both at the state and local levels. Several of these representations have resulted in published and unpublished opinions significant to New Jersey’s public procurement and cannabis licensing landscape.

Michael has extensive experience in matters pertaining to public records, including New Jersey’s freedom of information law, the Open Public Records Act, and the state’s common law right of access. He has litigated numerous denial of access disputes both in state trial and appellate courts and before state administrative agencies. He has served as counsel to Ewing Township, NJ, advising on a variety of municipal matters, including the review, analysis and response to records requests that can involve complicated and nuanced legal issues.

Additionally, Michael has a depth of litigation experience before state and federal courts assisting a wide variety of clients, including businesses, nonprofit religious institutions and joint provisional liquidators in cross-border bankruptcy proceedings.

Prior to private practice, Michael served as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Joseph L. Yannotti, Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

He is a regular contributor to the Appellate Law Center blog.

Representative Experience

• Represented bidder in successfully overturning award of $2 million ferry services contract to sole competitor in which the County relied on an ultra vires “hybrid procurement process” in making award that departed from the strict procedures of the state’s Local Public Contracts Law. (Port Imperial Ferry Corp., d/b/a NY Waterway v. Monmouth County, et al., A-0776-22 (App. Div. 2024))
• Represented Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) awarded a vertically integrated cannabis license in defending against appeals by unsuccessful bidders seeking to challenge both the award of the license award and their Treasury-issued WBE Certification. (Matter of Curio Holdings NJ, LLC, A-0947-21, (App. Div. 2023); Matter of AP NJ Health, LLC, A-0783-21, (App. Div. 2023))
• Represented adult-use cannabis retailer in successfully challenging the wrongful rejection of its licensing application. (Fresh Dispensary Eatontown LLC v. Borough of Eatontown, MON-L-0907-22 (Law. Div. 2023))
• Represented successful bidder awarded a bus transportation contract in defending against appeal by unsuccessful bidder seeking to stay implementation of the contract and overturn the award. (Matter of NJ Transit, 473 N.J. Super. 261, 263 (App. Div. 2022))
• In a case of first impression, represented successful bidder awarded a multimillion dollar contract for the comprehensive renovation and restoration of the New Jersey Executive State House in defending against appeal by unsuccessful bidder seeking to stay implementation of the contract and overturn the award. (In re Protest of Contract Award for Project A1150-08, N.J. Executive State House Comprehensive Renovation & Restoration, 466 N.J. Super. 244 (App. Div. 2021))
• Represented cannabis business in successfully overturning the State of New Jersey’s award of vertically integrated medicinal cannabis licenses for failure to adhere to tenets of administrative due process and also because the scoring of applicants was highly inconsistent and arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable. (In the Matter of the Application for Medicinal Marijuana Alternative Treatment Center for Harvest of New Jersey, LLC, 465 N.J. Super. 343 (App. Div. 2020))
• Ongoing representation of three insurance and financial services companies and one reinsurer based in Bermuda, on behalf of their Bermuda liquidators, in United States bankruptcy proceedings to recover more than $700 million of assets misappropriated by their former North Carolina-based owner.
• Represented municipality in matters before the New Jersey Superior Court, New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, and New Jersey Government Records Council involving the release of government records under the Open Public Records Act and the common law right of access.

Affiliations

• New Jersey Bar Association
• Princeton Bar Association

Recognition

• Named as a “Rising Star” honoree by NJBIZ in its 2025 Leaders in Law awards
• Recognized among the “Ones to Watch” by Best Lawyers in America, Administrative and Regulatory Law, New Jersey, 2023-Present
• Recognized as a “Rising Star” by New Jersey Super Lawyers, Administrative Law and Government Contracts Litigation, 2024

Education

• Rutgers University School of Law – Camden, J.D., cum laude
• The Pennsylvania State University, B.S.

Bar Admissions

• New Jersey
• Pennsylvania
• New York

Court Admissions

• U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York