A lawyer who previously worked for a Gloucester County municipality has filed a lawsuit accusing the township of terminating his contract because he’s Jewish.
Stuart Platt filed suit in state Superior Court earlier this month, accusing Franklin Township, two current township committee members and a former committeemen of violating New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination.
The suit alleged that the defendants made antisemitic remarks about Platt, including one who referred to the lawyer as “Stew the Jew.”
The suit named township committee members John “Jake” Bruno, who currently serves as mayor, and Timothy Doyle, current deputy mayor, as defendants, along with former committeeman David Deegan.
Township officials declined to comment on the allegations.
“Franklin Township and the named current and former officials are not going to make any statements concerning the allegations as alleged in the lawsuit,” said Franklin Township Administrator Matthew Finley. “We are going to vigorously defend the allegations in the lawsuit.”
The township hired Platt as special counsel in 2016 to provide representation and advice on issues including affordable housing, the suit said. He was appointed to serve as township solicitor the following year, and then conflict township solicitor and special project solicitor in 2018.
A continuing resolution approved on Jan. 1, 2019, said he would remain in those roles for the next year, according to the suit.
However, the township committee passed a resolution in late February 2019 that said no additional work would be sent to Platt or his firm without authorization from the committee. The resolution, approved 3-2, cited “incompatibility,” the suit said.
Platt said he asked for an explanation for the decision to discontinue his services, but never received one.
It was not until January of this year that Platt learned discrimination was behind his termination, according to the suit.
Last year, attorney and former Franklin Township official Nancy Kennedy filed a written response to an ethics complaint made against her regarding her time with the township, Platt’s suit said.
In her response, she described the township’s discrimination against Platt and antisemitic remarks the defendants allegedly made about him, according to Platt.
An investigative reporter read Kennedy’s statements in the ethics case and contacted Platt, the suit said. The reporter was not named.
“It was on February 5, 2025, that Kennedy for the first time disclosed to Plaintiff Platt the existence of the egregious, malicious, and intentional anti-Semitic discrimination to which he and his law firm had been subjected, and which resulted in a cessation of his contractual relationship with Franklin,” according to Platt’s suit.
Kennedy told Platt she heard Deegan and Bruno use antisemitic language when referring to Platt beginning in 2017, the lawsuit said.
She also described comments allegedly made by Doyle prior to him joining the committee.
In late 2017, Deegan told Kennedy that Doyle, a “prominent Republican donor in the township,” was promised “that Jew” and “Stew the Jew” would no longer be solicitor for the township, according to Kennedy’s account.
“Kennedy advised that she had also heard Mr. Bruno reference conversations with Tim Doyle in which Doyle purportedly referred to Plaintiff as ‘the Jew’ and ‘Stew the Jew,’ and at which he insisted that Platt be given no more work with the Township,” the lawsuit said.
In February 2020, Kennedy said she overheard Doyle, who joined the committee in January of that year, reference Platt when he remarked to Deegan, “At least the Jew was a good lawyer,” according to the suit.
Kennedy told Platt that members of the township committee never expressed dissatisfaction with his work, the suit said.
Platt has suffered economic and non-economic losses as a result of this discrimination, his suit stated. He’s seeking damages and court-mandated remedies.
He wants the court to issue an order directing Franklin Township to never again discriminate in its hiring and firing practices, and an order requiring township elected and appointed leaders to undergo non-discrimination training.
Reached for comment, Kennedy vowed to support Platt in his lawsuit.
“It will be an honor if I’m permitted to testify on his behalf. He did a phenomenal job for the township, and the way that he was treated was an abomination. It’s something that no one should stand for,” Kennedy said.
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