N.J. Stat. § 56:6-11
The commissioner may appoint an assistant or a deputy to administer this act, and such other assistants as he may deem necessary, and may establish, equip and maintain one office at such place in this State as he shall determine, subject always to the appropriations provided therefor. The assistant or deputy appointed under this act and not more than three employees assigned to special and confidential duties in connection therewith or whose duties require them to be attorneys shall be in the unclassified civil service; provided, however, that when any person employed as one of the said three employees has served or shall have served continuously in said employment for thirty months, said person shall hold and thereafter continue to hold his said employment within and as a part of the classified service of the State, in accordance with the provisions of Title 11 of the Revised Statutes. In case an employee in the classified service is appointed as assistant or deputy, he shall continue to have such rights of tenure in the classified service as he formerly possessed.
N.J.S. § 56:6-11