Experts - Brendan Ruane, NAGTRI

 

Brendan Ruane is a professional development consultant and lead instructor for the National Attorneys General Training and Research Institute (“NAGTRI”).  Brendan joined NAGTRI after 25 years of government service, primarily with the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.  Prior to retiring, Brendan served as the Director of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute, which is responsible for providing approximately 170 professional development programs annually to the nearly 700 members of the Attorney General’s Office, members of county prosecutors’ offices, and other government attorneys throughout New Jersey.  Prior to becoming Director, Brendan served in a number of staff and supervisory capacities within the office, most recently as Chief of the Division of Law's Debt Recovery Section where he led a staff of 30 responsible for enforcing civil judgments entered on behalf of the State, as well as pursuing affirmative debt recovery actions for various state agencies, which recoveries totaled approximately $20 million annually.  During his career, Brendan prosecuted criminal cases, investigated organized crime in New Jersey’s solid waste industry, and defended various State agencies and their employees in tort, employment and civil rights matters.  Most of Brendan's practice, however, involved representing the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in complex environmental enforcement, cost recovery and natural resource damages cases, which included numerous matters resulting in multi-million dollar recoveries and remediations for the State.  Brendan has participated as a faculty member for various NITA and NITA-style programs throughout the country, including for NAGTRI, and was selected as NAGTRI’s Faculty Member of the Year for 2010.  A member of Law Review and holder of an M.A. in International Relations, Brendan has also served as an adjunct professor in public administration and political science, and is United States Army and Army National Guard veteran.