Bayville Attorney Robert Nigro Named Administrator for Nassau County Assigned Counsel Defender Plan

Robert M. Nigro of Bayville, former chief of the Civil Forfeiture Bureau of the , has been named the new administrator of the Nassau County Assigned Counsel Defender Plan (18B), President Marc Gann announced. The Administrator oversees more than 260 attorneys who are assigned by the courts to represent clients in criminal cases when they cannot afford an attorney. The office oversees more than 6,000 cases a year and is based at the Nassau County Bar Association headquarters in Mineola.

Nigro retired from the position of Chief of the Civil Forfeiture Bureau of the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office last year. He had been a Co-chair of the Forfeiture Law Advisory Group (FLAG) of the NYS District Attorney’s Association from 1997 until 2007, and is presently the Association’s outgoing Treasurer.

Nigro was an Assistant in the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office from 1976 to 1982 and worked in the Rackets Bureau, the District Court Bureau and the Appeals Bureau. From 1982 to 1987, he was Principal Law Clerk to the Honorable Abbey L. Boklan, Nassau County Court Judge. After a short sojourn in private practice, Nigro returned to the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office in 1989 to work in the County Court Trial Bureau, and later to head the Civil Forfeiture Bureau. 

Nigro lectures on forfeiture at numerous state and local bar association programs in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, has participated as both a lecturer and panelist in numerous FLAG and the New York State Prosecutors’ Training Institute (NYPTI) seminars from 1993 to the present, and has lectured to both local and state police agencies and the State Division of Criminal Justice Services. He was invited as a speaker and panelist at the Ontario Attorney General’s Conference on Organized Crime in Toronto and appeared before the Provincial Legislature to speak in support of proposed forfeiture legislation in Canada. 

Nigro received his BA from Fordham College and his JD degree from Fordham Law School. He has taught at Hofstra Law School as a Special Professor of Law and in the Criminal Justice Program at Nassau Community College. The Bayville resident replaces Patrick McCloskey, who retired in December.