A. Thomas Levin

A. Thomas Levin is a Shareholder (and former General Counsel) of the law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C. located in Garden City, N.Y. He is Chair of the firm’s practice groups for Local Government and Land Use, and Professional Responsibility. Mr. Levin represents private and public sector clients in the fields of local government law, land use regulation, environmental review compliance, cable television franchising, municipal and commercial litigation and appeals, and matters relating to professional responsibility, ethics and disciplinary proceedings.

Notable experience includes:

• Village Attorney for Great Neck Estates, North Hills, Rockville Centre, and Thomaston. Former Village Attorney for the villages of Hewlett Bay Park, Hewlett Neck, Kensington, Laurel Hollow, Lawrence, Mastic Beach, Oyster Bay Cove, Saddle Rock and Woodsburgh

• Present or former special counsel to numerous municipalities and school districts, including Nassau County; the cities of Long Beach and Glen Cove; the towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead, Brookhaven, and Southampton; the villages of Baxter Estates, Brookville, East Williston, Freeport, Flower Hill, Garden City, Great Neck, Great Neck Plaza, Kensington, Kings Point, Lake Success, Laurel Hollow, Lawrence, Manorhaven, Mastic Beach, Munsey Park, Old Brookville, Old Westbury, Oyster Bay Cove, Plandome, Plandome Heights, Plandome Manor, Port Jefferson, Port Washington North, Roslyn, Roslyn Harbor, Russell Gardens; Saddle Rock, Sea Cliff, Westbury, Williston Park and Woodsburgh; Bay Shore, Copiague, Hempstead, Hewlett-Woodmere, Jericho, Ossining and Rockville Centre school districts; Nassau Community College; Old Westbury Gardens; Western Suffolk Board of Cooperative Education, Great Neck/North Shore Cable Commission and The Public Access Television Corporation

• Prosecutor for Village of Rockville Centre; Special Prosecutor for the Village of North Hills and the Village of Great Neck Estates

• Former Senior Deputy Nassau County Attorney for Appeals; former Counsel to the Nassau County Planning Commission

• Former Law Secretary to New York State Supreme Court Justice

For several years, most recently in 2023, Mr. Levin served as faculty panelist for the Suffolk County Academy of Law's annual Allen I. Sak Municipal Law program, co-presenting on Ethical Issues in the Public Domain. From June 2003 to June 2004, Mr. Levin was President of the 78,000 member New York State Bar Association, and he is a Life Member of that Association’s House of Delegates. He served in various capacities as a member of the NYSBA Executive Committee from 1995 to 2005. He is currently a member of the Executive Committees of the NYSBA Local and State Government Law Section, International Section and 50+ Section. Mr. Levin also serves or formerly served, as Chair, member or Executive Committee Liaison to many committees of that Association, including the Law, Youth & Citizenship Committee, Special Committee on Law Firm Structure and Operations (MDP), Bylaws Committee, Nominating Committee, Committee on Legislative Policy, President’s Special Committee on Access to Justice, Special Committee on Court Structure and Judicial Selection, Special Committee on Legal Issues Affecting Same Sex Couples, Special Committee on Youth Courts, Task Force on the US Territories, and Task Force on Public Sector Ethics and Lawyering. Mr. Levin also served as New York State Bar Association representative on the New York State Independent Judicial Qualification Commission for the Tenth Judicial District.

Mr. Levin currently serves as Trustee, and Counsel, for the Historical Society of the New York Courts. He is a former Trustee of the New York State Bar Foundation, and is a Sustaining Fellow of that organization and the American Bar Foundation. Formerly a member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates, Mr. Levin also is a former President of the Nassau County Bar Association (1991-1992), and is a Life Member of that Association’s Board of Directors. He previously served as President and Trustee of the Nassau County Bar Foundation, and was a co-founder and former Vice President of the Nassau Bar Tech Center, Inc. He also has served as President of the National Caucus of State Bar Associations, Chair of the New York State Conference of Bar Leaders, member of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Bar Presidents, Governor of the Brown University Alumni Association, and President of the Brown University Club of Long Island, Inc. He is former Trustee, Secretary and General Counsel of, the Nassau Land Trust.

From 1971 to 2019, Mr. Levin was Editor or Senior Editor of the “Bench Book for Trial Judges,” first published by the New York State Judicial Conference and the Office of Court Administration, and now published by Thomson-Reuters. He is the author of numerous other legal articles, and a frequent lecturer on legal topics including commercial litigation, zoning and land use, civil rights law, municipal law, environmental quality review compliance, professional ethics and current professional issues.

In the public service field, Mr. Levin also has been Counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the New York State Assembly and the Joint Legislative Committee on the State’s Economy. Long active in community and charitable organizations, he has served as a Trustee of the Long Island Community Foundation, Central Synagogue of Nassau County, and the Nassau Symphony Orchestra. He also served on the Board of the Nassau County Legal Aid Society, the Advisory Board of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School, and the Land Use Law Center Conference Board at Pace Law School. He is a member and former Chair of the Advisory Council of Legal Services of Long Island (formerly Nassau/Suffolk Law Services, Inc.), and currently serves as a founding member of the Advisory Board of the Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Institute at Touro Law School. For more than fifty years, he has been pro bono general counsel to Rosa Lee Young Childhood Center, and previously was pro bono general counsel to the Child Care Council of Nassau. He currently represents many not-for-profit and religious organizations.

In 2019, Mr. Levin was recognized as one of the Long Island Herald’s Top Lawyers of Long Island. Mr. Levin has been recognized by Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the East and Who’s Who in the World. In 2013, Mr. Levin was named an Access to Justice Champion by the Nassau County Bar Association for his dedication in providing legal representation on a pro bono basis. He was recognized by American Lawyer & Corporate Counsel Magazine as a “2013 Top Rated Lawyer for Energy, Environmental and Natural Resources”, and in 2013 and 2014 as “Top Rated Lawyer – Land Use and Zoning”. In 2013 he also received the International Municipal Lawyers Association James H. Epps III Award for Service to Municipal Clients (2013).

Mr. Levin has been named to the New York Super Lawyers list as one of the top attorneys in New York annually, from 2012-2024. He also received the Long Island Business News 2011 Leadership in Law Award and 2016 and 2022 Lifetime Achievement Awards, and in 2012 received the Vanguard in Diversity Award from the Metropolitan Black Bar Association for his accomplishments in promoting diversity in the legal profession. Mr. Levin is rated “AV Preeminent” by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest level in professional excellence, and was recognized by Long Island Pulse Magazine from 2010-2014 as one of the region’s “Top Legal Eagles”. In 2006 he was awarded the “Public Interest Attorney of the Year” from Touro Law Center. Mr. Levin was the May 2003 Alumnus of the Month for New York University School of Law. He was also the recipient of the “Commitment to Justice” Award presented by the Legal Services of Long Island (formerly Nassau/Suffolk Law Services, Inc.) in 2002, and has been recognized as an “Empire State Counsel” by the New York State Bar Association annually since 2006 for the strong support he has given to pro bono services, his outstanding leadership in the legal community, and his devotion to improving the justice system on Long Island.