Herbert Jay Stern (born November 8, 1936) is a trial lawyer, with a national practice in civil and criminal litigation, as well as mediation and arbitration.

He was part of the team that successfully handled several major corruption and organized crime trials in New Jersey.

Stern served from 1962 to 1965 as an assistant district attorney, New York County, assigned to the Homicide Bureau during which conducted the grand jury investigation of the assassination of Malcolm X.

He conducted a Special Grand Jury and uncovered corruption and other wrongdoing both in municipal government, including the then Mayor of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, and the trade union movement.

227 (D. Berlin 1979), Stern held that even though the case involved prosecution of German citizens in an unusual forum outside the United States, the defendants were still parties to an American criminal proceeding and entitled to the United States Constitution's guarantee of trial by jury.