Lowenstein Sandler names Wishnia managing partner

The basics:

• Jonathan Wishnia to succeed Gary Wingens as managing partner at Lowenstein Sandler
• Wingens to remain chair, focusing on strategy, innovation and client relationships
• Wishnia to oversee Vision 2030 plan and new management committee
• Firm reported $442M in 2024 revenue, up 12% year over year

Jonathan Wishnia will serve as the next managing partner at Lowenstein Sandler LLP, succeeding longtime leader Gary Wingens.

The Roseland-based law firm announced the transition Feb. 13. An executive board member at Lowenstein, Wishnia has also served as hiring partner and helped to develop the firm’s  Vision 2030 strategic plan.

Wingens, a 2025 NJBIZ ICON Award winner, has served as chair and managing partner since 2008, when he took over for Michael Rodburg as part of a planned succession.

Lowenstein said Wingens will continue as chair, focusing on client relationships, strategic initiatives, external representation, and advancing innovation and culture priorities. Meanwhile, Wishnia will oversee day-to-day operations at the firm he joined in 2005. He will also continue to lead the firm’s Mortgage & Structured Finance practice. A firm spokesperson said he will be based in Lowenstein’s New Jersey and New York offices.

Additionally, Wishnia will lead talent strategy and execution of the Vision 2030 plan, as well as a new management committee.

Meet the new managing partner

NJBIZ caught up with Wishnia Friday to discuss his new role at the future-facing firm. When the strategic planning for Vision 2030 began in late 2023, he said succession was a critical component – though he couldn’t have known then how that planning would impact his own path.

As the transition in leadership takes hold, Wishnia said he sees the move as an evolution, not a revolution.

“We have seen how incredibly successful we can be on the client service side, on the success of the firm and our people,” he said. There’s no reason for that to change, and he doesn’t expect it to. “This is an opportunity to press down the accelerator a little more in a deliberate and thoughtful way.”

Wishnia highlighted the formation of the management committee as an important mechanism of and for that kind of change. He said the group will work to execute on the firm’s strategic plans. It will include Michael Caplan, who joined as chief operating officer in 2024, along with partners representing different areas and expertise within the firm.

The committee will focus on areas such as practice group management, cross-collaboration, strategic recruiting and growth initiatives, as well as internal and external risk considerations, he said. It will also empower individual partners with defined portfolios to make decisions and move initiatives forward.

Tech forward

As managing partner, Wingens also led Lowenstein to embrace and invest in new technology.

“And that’s a great example where the management committee can help organize the thought leadership within the firm,” Wishnia said. “Working with Maureen Naughton, our chief information and innovation officer, and then the practice groups to say: Here’s a new great idea in practice Group X. This might also work in practice groups X, Y, Z.”

He highlighted two of the firm’s core values: “entrepreneurial at heart” and “boldly innovative.”

“We’ve already been leaning incredibly in on technological lenses, generative and agentic AI and other technologies. That’s not going to change,” Wishnia said. He noted the firm is tracking attorney AI adoption — including which tools are used and for what purposes — to identify best practices and expand usage across teams.

The effort has generated strong support across the firm and generations.

That ranges from longtime professionals like former Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin sharing ideas about AI tools and usage during partner meetings to a fourth-year associate in an M&A practice explaining how new tools streamlined diligence memo preparation.

“At the end of the day, it saves clients time and allows attorneys to do more valuable work for them,” he said. “So when you talk about those things regularly, up and down the level of seniority, it absolutely brings excitement.”

Leaving a legacy

Wingens leaves some big shoes to fill. Since taking the helm, Lowenstein Sandler has tripled its revenues, quadrupled profits and expanded nationally, according to the firm. In 2024, revenue was up 12% year over year to $442 million while profits grew by 15%, according to the firm.

He began with Lowenstein as a summer associate in 1987, leading the firm through the global financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and a period of significant growth.

According to Wingens, one of his proudest achievements is the founding and growth of the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest. In 2024, the firm said it dedicated more than 29,000 hours to pro bono matters on behalf of 743 clients. Last year, the American Lawyer ranked Lowenstein 21st nationwide for its pro bono work.

In a statement, the firm chair described Wishnia as a trusted colleague and exceptional leader. “I look forward to partnering closely with him as he steps into the Managing Partner role,” Wingens said, citing his “judgment, integrity and strategic insight.”

Wishnia said he is committed to continuing the firm’s long tradition of pro bono service, “embodying the belief held by Alan Lowenstein that rendering services to the community is one of the greatest satisfactions in life.”

With additional offices in Palo Alto, Utah and Washington, D.C., Lowenstein Sandler ranks as the No. 1 law firm by number of attorneys in New Jersey according to the NJBIZ Leads & Data Center.