Nicholas M. Gess is a principal in Bingham Consulting and of counsel at Bingham. Prior to joining the firm, he served as a member of Attorney General Janet Reno’s senior staff and as an associate deputy attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice. He brings considerable experience in assessing impending government enforcement and regulatory actions and their impact on the business community. He advises corporate clients how to achieve results with governmental agencies and how to manage the risks of government action, particularly in the current environment where state enforcement authorities combine with congressional investigators and state legislatures to form a triple threat.
As an associate deputy attorney general, director of intergovernmental affairs, and counsel to the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, Nick was a senior adviser to former Attorney General Janet Reno and Deputy Attorneys General Eric H. Holder, Jr. and Jamie Gorelick, and he was the Department of Justice official responsible for building and maintaining their relationships with state and local elected officials, law enforcement, and the advocacy groups which represent them, particularly the state attorneys general. He served as the Justice Department’s primary liaison with the White House Domestic Policy Council, and he has also worked extensively on significant legislative and appropriations matters.
From 1987 to 1994, Nick served as an assistant United States attorney in Portland, Maine, where he supervised many significant and complicated criminal investigations and tried many complex cases in federal court. During his time at the Department of Justice, Nick served as an instructor for the Department’s Office of Legal Education and spoke widely on criminal justice topics, including significant on-the-record media experience with national, elite and local media.
Prior to his appointment as an assistant United States attorney, he was the first Maine prosecutor appointed to head a joint federal-state-local task force by former Maine Attorney General James E. Tierney and former Maine U.S. Attorney Richard S. Cohen. From 1983 to 1986, Nick was an assistant attorney general in the Maine Office of the Attorney General where he was responsible for complex criminal cases involving homicide, fraud and other criminal matters and served as general counsel of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. From 1981 to 1983, Nick served as an assistant district attorney in Cumberland County (Portland), Maine, where he tried criminal cases and handled matters on appeal.
Nick is a member of the Core Group of the Columbia Law School State Attorney General program.
