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The basics:

• Attorney General Davenport, former AG Porrino hold fireside chat at NJ bar convention
• Discussion blends criminal justice policy, personal stories
• Davenport reflects on public service, career path from DEA to attorney general
• Covered policy issues including criminal justice, human trafficking

New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport mixed policy, personal stories and lighthearted banter with former Attorney General Christopher Porrino during a wide-ranging fireside chat May 13 at the New Jersey State Bar Association‘s 2026 Annual Meeting and Convention in Atlantic City.

The discussion offered an inside look at Davenport’s path to the state’s top law enforcement role in the Sherrill administration and the priorities shaping her tenure.

Porrino served as the 60th attorney general of New Jersey and currently chairs the litigation department at Lowenstein Sandler LLP. He frequently shifted the discussion between serious conversations on criminal justice reform, human trafficking and federal litigation to humorous exchanges that underscored the longstanding relationship between the two.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill nominated Davenport for the AG post in December. The state Senate unanimously confirmed her Feb. 24.

“Everyone knows a little bit about the job that you now have, but I don’t think many folks really know much about you as a person,” said Porrino. “I’ve got you up here on the stage trapped for an hour.”

From Fantasy to reality

Actually, Davenport’s early endeavors pointed toward the stage.

“I had more talent than I actually have,” said Davenport, later adding, “I went to college originally for theater and dance. I thought that’s what I wanted to do.”

She explained her parents encouraged her to attend a liberal arts school as a fallback plan. It proved wise almost immediately, after she realized balancing athletics and performing arts was unrealistic.

Still, Davenport recalled growing up dancing, acting and singing in productions before eventually pivoting toward criminal justice studies and, ultimately, federal law enforcement.

The conversation explored Davenport’s upbringing in Wildwood, where her family owned the Fantasy Motel. The mid-century shore property shaped much of her childhood.

“What’s going on at the Fantasy Motel?” joked Porrino after introducing the topic.

“Well, it’s gone now. It’s a brewery,” said Davenport. “But yeah, it’s a motel that was built in the ’50s.”

Davenport said she spent virtually every summer of her childhood working at the motel after her parents purchased it while her mother was pregnant with her. The family later sold it when Davenport was in eighth grade.

“I worked there,” said Davenport. “I got fired from every job that I had.”

My job was to clean the puke … and everything from the cribs and the strollers that were rented. Then they would make me a tuna sandwich, and then I would walk back to the motel.
– Jennifer Davenport, now NJ attorney general, describing one of her first jobs

She described a childhood immersed in seasonal shore life, spending summers around the motel pool with friends who only came to Wildwood during the summer months.

Porrino also asked Davenport about another memorable childhood job, working at a Wildwood crib rental business.

“My job was to clean the puke and like the Cheerios and everything from the cribs and the strollers that were rented,” Davenport said, drawing laughter from the audience. “Then they would make me a tuna sandwich, and then I would walk back to the motel.”

Balancing act

Davenport eventually joined the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1998. At the DEA, she worked as an intelligence analyst before attending law school at night at Seton Hall University.

“The evening of 9/11 we were asked by the FBI for help because they needed more people to come over and help them figure out work with the telephone,” said Davenport. She highlighted how the analyst work at the time focused heavily on telephone exploitation methods used by criminals. “We spent six months on what they called the Pent Bomb Task Force.”

She explained that the assignment involved tracing links between hijackers, funding sources and broader terrorist networks while simultaneously trying to continue law school.

“How is it possible to work on an investigation that’s that important, and then go to school at night?” Porrino asked.

“I didn’t really go to school very often that first semester – school had just started,” Davenport joked. “I didn’t go as often as I should have probably then; I think I made it to the required number of classes, to be able to get to the next step.”

Davenport discussed the balancing act of school work while taking part in such an important, complex investigation. One night, she told one of the special agents in charge she had to go to class.

“He said, ‘Oh, what do you have, like constitutional law or something?’” recalled Davenport. “And I said, ‘I have Shakespeare in the law, which is an awesome class.’ So, I got a hard time about that.”

Public and personal priorities

After law school, Davenport clerked in federal court before entering private practice at Latham & Watkins LLP and later Squire Patton Boggs. She eventually joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey during the tenure of former Gov. Chris Christie, then serving as U.S. attorney. While there, Davenport prosecuted cases in Trenton, rising through the ranks to leadership positions.

“Gov. Christie hired me,” said Davenport. “They said they needed somebody in Trenton who was kind of tough. At the time there were no women in the Trenton office.”

Davenport later served as deputy chief and then chief of the General Crimes Unit before leaving for a leadership role with the Drug Enforcement Administration as division counsel. She eventually returned to state government as first assistant attorney general. In that role, she helped oversee major criminal justice and public safety initiatives during a period that included the COVID-19 pandemic, police reform efforts and statewide public safety challenges.

The conversation repeatedly highlighted Davenport’s deep roots in public service and the personal sacrifices tied to that work.

She became emotional recounting advice she received years ago from former U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson while struggling to balance motherhood with the demands of being a federal prosecutor. Davenport has two daughters. At that point in her career, she had just one, who was a baby at time.

“I said, ‘It just really sucks. How do you do this?’” recalled Davenport “How does my kid feel like they’re going to have a summer?”

“She’ll feel it,” recalled Davenport about the judge’s advice. “You’ll eat at dinner outside.”

“You were trying to help me through something by just giving me one very small thing that I could do to make it feel more special,” said Davenport, getting choked up as she recounted.

B-a-n-a-n-a-s

Throughout the discussion, Porrino repeatedly praised Davenport’s credentials, calling her “the most qualified attorney general that New Jersey has seen.”

Davenport returned the camaraderie with jokes about Porrino’s own tenure and the demands of the job. “Definitely harder than the job I have right now, at least so far,” said Davenport of her earlier position in the office, prompting laughter from the audience.

The pair also discussed Davenport’s transition from government into the private sector at Public Service Enterprise Group before her unexpected return to public office as attorney general.

“What is that like?” said Porrino, referring to the call informing her she would become New Jersey’s next attorney general.

“It’s bananas – it really is,” replied Davenport. “It still felt very like, really, can I do this?”

Porrino noted that Davenport did not lobby or campaign for the job. It found her.

Davenport said her mother worried about the workload because she witnessed the intensity of Davenport’s previous years in government during the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder.

“My mom was just like, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’” said Davenport. Meanwhile, “My dad was like, ‘Yeah, this is awesome,’” she said of her father’s reaction, who said “Go get ’em.”

Mission minded

“And you didn’t have a very close personal relationship with Gov. Sherrill?” said Porrino — who did have a pretty good relationship with Christie by the time he was nominated to serve as AG during that administration. “Just as an outside looking in, it seems like you are collaborating really effectively with the governor.”

“Public service is, obviously, her career as well,” said Davenport. “So, I think when you have people who really just think about all things from that lens, it’s easy to gel. We overlapped with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and worked on a little bit together.

“When it comes to just the mission, I really appreciate Gov. Sherrill’s ideas of we are client-focused. We are, how do we get to yes? A little different with the Department of Law and Public Safety. We’re not always getting to yes. But generally speaking, for the administration as a whole, it’s very much like, how do we make sure that we’re doing what we can to make it less bureaucratic?

[G]enerally speaking, for the administration as a whole, it’s very much like, how do we make sure that we’re doing what we can to make it less bureaucratic?

“I very much appreciate that as a general philosophy and then just priorities and what we want to accomplish. We’re very, very much in sync.”

‘It’s a Penalty’

The discussion later shifted toward policy priorities, particularly human trafficking ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 events coming to New Jersey.

Davenport said the state is expanding victim-centered initiatives and public awareness campaigns while coordinating with prosecutors, state police and local law enforcement.

“With any sporting event, we see this with the Super Bowl – it’s not unique – but just having so many people come into the state. We are going to be kicking off a campaign with ‘It’s a Penalty,’” said Davenport, referencing the global anti-human trafficking organization.

“We’re going to be doing that really soon, where anybody who comes through the area will know what kind of flags or signs to look for, and then were to call,” said Davenport, highlighting the goal of breaking up rings and saving victims. “And making sure that we’re working with our partners again with victim services to make sure that we can get folks immediately to help if they want it.”

Two-pronged approached

Another major topic involved the attorney general’s increasingly adversarial relationship with the federal government on certain issues – such as Gateway Tunnel funding, ICE and more – even while maintaining partnerships with federal agencies on criminal enforcement matters.

Porrino noted the contrast between Davenport suing the federal government in multistate actions while simultaneously collaborating with authorities on violent crime, guns and narcotics investigations.

“When it comes to a lot of the pushing back against the administration, it’s really when our funding is in jeopardy with law enforcement funding, victim funding, flood funding,” said Davenport. “We have a two-pronged approach. Is it unlawful, and is it harming New Jersey in some way? Then we’re either doing it alone or with a coalition of other states.”

She continued, “We work all the time with our federal partners – and I think it’s invaluable. Even if I maybe wasn’t somebody who had worked at DEA, and also at the (U.S.) Attorney’s Office, I think I would have thought that. But having seen it just from the benefit of task forces, of sharing intelligence, of the work the State Police does.

“We work all of the time across all topics.”

The audience portion of the event focused heavily on criminal justice reform and racial disparities in incarceration.

Back to work

A United States Court of Federal Claims judge dismissed most of a lawsuit tied to the Trump administration’s temporary freeze of funding for the Gateway rail tunnel project in March.

“Because the injunction we secured remains in place, the project is back on track and workers are back on the job,” New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said at the time.

“The way I look at public service is that if you’re not thinking about it from a fairness perspective, if you’re not thinking about it from a justice doesn’t mean winning, it means making sure that each and every outcome is really truly fair, then I don’t think we’re doing it right,” said Davenport when asked about racial disparities within New Jersey’s prison system.

She also highlighted investments in community-based violence intervention programs as part of a broader effort to address root causes and reduce cycles of violence and incarceration.

Safety first

The conversation closed with a question about Davenport’s greatest hope for New Jersey.

“All the things that I think about with the priorities that we’ve set are to just make New Jersey safe,” said Davenport. “I think about this from the seat that I sit in as chief law enforcement officer and chief legal officer. Everything we’re doing and everything we think about all day long is just to keep folks safe.

“That hope is that everybody can reach their full potential. Every kid can reach their full potential. We have the ability to just make it such that people can live in a very safe and fulfilling way, in whatever way they want to,” Davenport explained. “Chase whatever dreams they have.”

“That’s a great answer,” said Porrino. “And I hope that you stay in this job for a really long time.”

“Thank you – me too,” said Davenport.

The exchange drew warm laughter and applause from the audience, punctuating a conversation filled with personal stories, mutual admiration and the unmistakable rapport of two attorneys general whose shared experiences in public service made the discussion feel as much as a reunion as a fireside chat.