Donald J. Farinacci
Donald J. Farinacci concentrates his practice on Surrogate’s Court and other estate litigation, estate planning, estate administration, and elder law. He is an active participant on the Surrogate’s Court, Estates and Trusts Committee of the Nassau County Bar Association, and he was Chairman of the Committee from 1990 to 1992; he also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association from 1994 to 1997. He is past Chair of the Association’s Committee on the Profession and Courts, and former Articles Editor of the Nassau Lawyer. He is also an active member of the Association’s Military Law Committee.
Mr. Farinacci’s professional activities have also included membership on the Board of Directors of the Estate Planning Council of Nassau County (served as President for the 1999-2000 term; writing on estates and trust topics for the Nassau Lawyer, the New York Law Journal and Long Island Business News; and serving as a frequent lecturer for the Nassau Academy of Law, the New York State Bar Association and the National Business Institute. In 1995, Mr. Farinacci was elected as a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. In 2007 he was listed among the top attorneys in the New York metropolitan area by New York Super Lawyers, Metro Edition, 2007.
From 1993 until 2003, Mr. Farinacci headed up the trusts and estates department of McMillan, Rather, Bennett & Rigano, P.C., a mid-sized Long Island law firm. From 2003 to 2005 he held the same position with the Manhattan and Long Island firm, Fischbein Badillo Wagner Harding. From 2005 to 2007 he was head of the trusts & estates department of the midtown Manhattan office of Cozen O’Connor, a national law firm. He became the head of the newly-created estates and trusts department of Bee Ready Fishbein Hatter & Donovan, LLP, when he joined that Long Island firm in July of 2007 as its first trusts & estates partner.
Mr. Farinacci began his career in 1969 as a staff attorney for the Appeals Bureau of the Nassau County Legal Aid Society. Subsequently, he was Assistant Counsel to the New York State Commission to Evaluate the Drug Laws. He then served as a legislative counsel to New York State Senator John R. Dunne, and as counsel to the New York State Senate Committee on Crime and Correction.
Mr. Farinacci received his Juris Doctor degree in 1966 from Fordham University School of Law. Immediately upon graduation, he entered the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War and served overseas for more than two years. Upon his discharge from the military, he was awarded the U.S. National Defense Service Medal.
Mr. Farinacci is the author of two published books, When One Stood Alone, John J. Sirica’s Battle Against the Watergate Conspiracy and Last Full Measure of Devotion, A Tribute to America’s Heroes of the Vietnam War.
