Rick Collins, a Founding Partner at Collins Gann McCloskey & Barry, will be installed as Vice President of the Nassau County Bar Association at a ceremony at the Nassau County Bar Association on June 13th. An active member of the NCBA for more than 25 years, Rick had previously been serving as NCBA Treasurer, and prior to that in the role of Secretary.
The 2017 Installation of Nassau County Bar Association and Nassau Academy of Law Officers and Directors will take place on Tuesday, June 13th at the Nassau County Bar Association’s headquarters in Mineola. The full list of officers being installed at the Nassau County Bar Association ceremony are as follows: Steven G. Leventhal, President; Elena Karabatos, President-Elect; Richard D. Collins, Vice President; Dorian R. Glover, Treasurer; and Gregory S. Lisi, Secretary
Rick has been serving as a Director of the NCBA since 2011, and in 2001 was honored with the NCBA’s President’s Award. In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the We Care Fund, part of the NCBA charitable arm which helps raise funds to improve the quality of life for children, the elderly and others in need throughout Nassau County. He is a past president of the Criminal Courts Bar Association of Nassau County and the Former Assistant District Attorneys of Nassau County, as well as an officer or member of numerous other state and national professional organizations including the New York State Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the New York State Defenders Association. In addition, he is an annual faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and is on the Adjunct Faculty of Hofstra University Law School.
Rick, a former Nassau County Assistant District Attorney, is an internationally-recognized legal authority on the non-medical use/abuse of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances, and has built an active national law practice catering to clients in the bodybuilding, fitness and dietary supplement communities. He spearheads the firm’s growing bi-coastal dietary supplements division to provide legal counsel to the supplement industry, and serves as the official legal advisor to the International Federation of Bodybuilding and as General Counsel to the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
For nearly a decade, Rick has also been a legal trailblazer in advocating for a change in state law to allow for criminal record sealing in New York, and was instrumental in helping to make criminal record sealing a reality in New York. He served as co-chairman of the New York State Bar Association Criminal Justice Section Sealing Committee and the co-author of the committee’s Report and Recommendations to conditionally seal certain low-level criminal convictions in New York. His committee’s report was adopted by the New York State Bar Association and the Nassau County Bar Association, and endorsed by Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice. The bill which was passed by the Legislature in April 2017 evolved from the report, making history by changing the law on sealing criminal records in New York State. In addition, in March 2013 Mr. Collins was appointed by New York State Bar Association President Seymour W. James, Jr. to serve on a New York State Bar Association Special Committee created to address the issue of prisoner re-entry, examining problems that formerly incarcerated individuals face upon release from prison or jail and the kind of services needed to help them lead productive lives.
Rick has been named to the list of New York Metro Super Lawyers, recognized by Long Island Business News as one of Long Island’s “50 Around 50” and was selected as a recipient of the 2013 “Leadership in Law” award. The author of two best-selling books, he has contributed chapters to two texts on sports nutrition and co-authored a chapter on adolescent use of performance-enhancing drugs. He frequently writes for various fitness and bodybuilding publications on issues where health and fitness overlap with law and policy, and has been a monthly columnist for the nationally circulated Muscular Development magazine and a member of their Advisory Board since 2001. He is also currently a blogger for the Huffington Post Crime section.
