Judge C. Raymond Radigan, retired Nassau County surrogate, serves as counsel to the Trusts & Estates Department. He is chair of Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C.’s Mediation Solutions Group. His practice focuses on estate and trust litigation, estate administration and estate planning.
He served as the judge of the Nassau County Surrogate’s Court for 20 years after he was first elected in 1981. Previously, he served the Nassau Surrogate’s Court as chief clerk and deputy chief clerk, and as a law assistant to Surrogate John D. Bennett. As chair of the Advisory Committee to the Legislature on the Estates Powers and Trusts Law, and the Surrogate’s Court Procedure Act, he has been a driving force in the revision and update of trusts and estates law and practice in New York State.
C. Raymond was a special professor at Hofstra Law School, an adjunct professor at St. John’s University School of Law, and a former adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School and Touro College, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center. He has lectured extensively, delivering more than 100 lectures annually to a wide variety of organizations, including the Long Island Estate Planning Council, Cornell University Law School, New York Law School, Columbia Law School, Pace Law School, New York State Bar Association, City Bar of New York, the bar associations of Kings, Queens and Westchester counties, New York County Lawyers Association, and numerous other professional, business and social service organizations.
He is member of the American Bar Association, New York State Bar Association, Nassau County Bar Association and its Decedent Estate Committee, Long Island Lawyers Association, National College of Probate Judges, and New York State Bar Association Judicial Section where he served as president of the Judicial Council and as a former delegate to the House of Delegates. He is also former chair of the Executive Committee of the Surrogates Association, chair of the Advisory Committee to the Legislature on EPTL and SCPA and former chair of the Committee to Examine the Effectiveness of the Fiduciary Appointment Rule.
In addition, C. Raymond is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (“ACTEC”), member of Federal and New York Bar, Knight of Malta, a former president of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, a member of the New York State Guard, where he served as colonel, and editor of several trust and estate publications. He is also a Certified Arbitrator and Mediator by the American Arbitration Association. Due to the Pandemic and shortage of court staff, several Surrogates have referred matters for the Judge to mediate, or referee to hear and report or hear and determine.