Dominic R. Massaro is one of only a dozen Americans of Italian descent to hold Italy’s highest decoration – – Cav. di Gran Croce della Repubblica Italiana. He enjoys a half century career filled with prominent public service as a member of the bar, jurist, author and lecturer. A “highly qualified” nominee to the judiciary by Governor Mario Cuomo in 1986, he has since presided as a Justice in the Supreme Court of New York. Justice Massaro is a central personality in the organized Italian American community; he holds the highest accolades of all of the national Italian American organizations. Time and again, he has been credited for success vis-a-vis issues of importance to our community.

An NYU man, Justice Massaro previously saw seven years service as a New York City, then New York State human rights commissioner. The holder of four earned and numerous honorary doctoral degrees, he is equally at home in Washington or Rome. Published in legal and scholastic circles, he lectures annually on both sides of the Atlantic. On three separate occasions, the Journal of the American Bar Association credited him with “trends in the law.” A trustee of La Scuola d’Italia in New York and of the American University of Rome, he holds the rank of “Academic” at the Tiberian Academy there. A Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, he is listed in Who’s Who in American Law and The American Bench. His treatise, “Cesare Beccaria, The Father of Criminal Justice: His Impact on Anglo American Jurisprudence” earned Italy’s International Dorso Prize.

Accorded respect and esteem as a sitting jurist, his impeccable credentials combine with sterling rectitude to see him annually on every list of influential Americans of Italian descent. “President Emeritus” of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, he is long-time Historian of NIAF. He is the recipient of ten score awards, honors and citations presented over the years for professional and civic accomplishment, more recently the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award. Justice Massaro’s chivalric conferrals are impressive, including The Vatican’s Pontifical Knight of the Grand Cross of St. Gregory the Great and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta’s Knight of the Grand Cross of Merit. By wide acclamation he served three terms as president of the prestigious American Society of the Italian Legions of Merit. He is completing 15 years as Principal Representative of the American Judges Association (NGO) at the U.N.