Francis A. Nicolai

The Hon. Francis Nicolai, former Administrative Judge of New York State’s Ninth Judicial District, is now Senior Counsel to one of Westchester’s most prominent law firms.

Nicolai, a former Coast Guard officer who served in Greenland, Italy and Vietnam, is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and New York Law School.

He was admitted to the Bar in New York in 1971, and after retiring from the Coast Guard, was in private practice from 1973 to 1982 in Westchester and Rockland Counties.

Nicolai was appointed by Governor Hugh Carey to an interim County Court Judgeship in 1982 and again in 1983. Elected to a full term on the Court in 1984, he became a Justice of the State Supreme Court from the Ninth Judicial District in 1990, representing Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, and Westchester Counties.

In December of 1998, Nicolai was appointed the Administrative Judge of the Ninth Judicial District. From 2009 until his recent retirement, Judge Nicolai was the Presiding Justice of the Appellate Term for the Ninth and Tenth Judicial Districts.

A lifelong resident of Westchester County, he and his wife Allene have three children.