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Trenton,
NJ – Attorney General Anne Milgram
has appointed Ricardo Solano Jr., a former
federal prosecutor who was a director in
the criminal practice of the Gibbons law
firm in Newark, to be First Assistant Attorney
General.
Solano, 34, will succeed John Vazquez, who
is leaving the Attorney General’s
Office to return to private practice. Vazquez,
also a former federal prosecutor, has been
First Assistant for the last 15 months after
serving eight months as a special assistant
on criminal justice matters to former Attorney
General Stuart Rabner.
Solano served in the appeals division, the
terrorism unit of the criminal division,
and the special prosecutions division in
the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Newark
from August 2001 to October 2006. He was
a director at Gibbons since then, concentrating
on white-collar criminal, complex civil
and appellate law. Solano is scheduled to
take office as first assistant on Oct. 6.
“Ricardo
Solano will be a great addition to our team
at the Attorney General’s Office,
bringing experience and a great amount of
energy to the post of First Assistant,’’
Milgram said. “But at the same time,
I will miss John Vazquez’s counsel
and advice in helping me lead the Department
of Law and Public Safety and wish him well.’’
“I
am humbled by the confidence Attorney General
Milgram placed in me by asking me to join
the department, and I am excited at the
challenges ahead,’’ Solano said.
“I share the Attorney General’s
commitment to rooting out public corruption,
targeting violent criminals who traffic
in illegal guns and drugs, and protecting
consumer rights.”
Vazquez is joining Critchley & Kinum,
a Roseland firm specializing in civil and
white collar criminal litigation. He said,
“It has been an honor and a privilege
for me to serve as General Milgram’s
First Assistant for the last 15 months,
helping her to carry out the department’s
mission to protect the safety and security
of the people of New Jersey.’’
Solano
grew up in Paterson and attended New York
University, graduating in May 1995 with
a BA in philosophy and political science.
In May 1998, he received his law degree
summa cum laude from Seton Hall University
School of Law, where he was an editor of
the Seton Hall Law Review. He clerked for
former New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice
Deborah Poritz from September 1998 to August
1999 and clerked for U.S. District Circuit
Court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry from September
1999 to August 2000.
He
was an associate at the Gibbons law firm
for a year before joining the U.S. Attorney’s
Office in Newark in August 2001. During
his five-year career in the office, he argued
appeals before the Third Circuit Court of
Appeals, prosecuted one of the first cases
under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act
(U.S. v. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty),
and prosecuted mail and wire fraud cases,
bribery offenses, and tax evasion.
He
prosecuted the bribery and tax evasion case
against former State Sen. John Lynch in
2006 and also prosecuted Raymond O’Grady,
the former Middletown mayor and director
of the Monmouth County Motor Pool, on bribery
charges. O’Grady is serving 43 months
at Fort Dix.
Solano has been an adjunct professor at
Seton Hall, teaching a seminar on criminal
sentencing. He is a member of the Hispanic
Bar Association of New Jersey and he has
been a member of Attorney General Milgram’s
Advisory Group on the Use of Less Lethal
Ammunition.
As
the number two person in the Department
of Law and Public Safety, the first assistant
attorney general helps coordinate policies,
operations and investigations. The department
includes the Divisions of Criminal Justice,
Law, State Police, Consumer Affairs, Civil
Rights, Alcoholic Beverage Control, Highway
Traffic Safety, Gaming Enforcement, the
Racing Commission, the Juvenile Justice
Commission and the Victims of Violent Crimes
Office.
References:
Hon. Stuart J. Rabner, Chief Justice, New
Jersey Supreme Court
Lawrence S. Lustberg, Director, Gibbons
P.C.
Hon. Maryanne Trump Barry, U.S. Court of
Appeals, Third Circuit
Matthew Boxer, New Jersey State Comptroller
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