Deputy Chief of Staff

Nicole Verdi ’14 has always been a service-minded lawyer. Even so, her rise in the field has been remarkable -- and never more visibly so than last summer, when Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo appointed the former Adler Pollock & Sheehan associate as her Deputy Chief of Staff.

"It's been an adjustment!" Verdi said of the shift from private practice. "I really enjoyed working at AP&S; I couldn't have asked for a more impressive, intelligent, caring group of colleagues. But being Deputy Chief of Staff is challenging me in new and different ways. It's an exciting opportunity -- and I think it's already made me a better lawyer."

Verdi is nothing if not well prepared for the task. At AP&S, her work included land use, energy, environmental and public utility law; and she has represented clients before the Rhode Island Energy Facility Siting Board, the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission and the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities Commission, as well as various municipal zoning and planning boards and even the Rhode Island General Assembly. She has also served as a Women's Policy Institute fellow for the Women's Fund of Rhode Island, a commissioner on the Providence City Plan Commission, a member of the Rhode Island Chapter of the National Organization for Women (RINOW), and a co-chair on the board of Youth in Action.

Verdi got involved with Youth in Action, incidentally, while spending her days as a business lawyer at AP&S, “in part to make sure that I remained involved in the community and to try and make a difference,” she explained. "Helping businesses develop in Rhode Island extremely important – but it’s not quite the same.”

Before joining AP&S, Nicole worked as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Maureen McKenna Goldberg at the Rhode Island Supreme Court. While in law school, Nicole interned for the Honorable William E. Smith and the Honorable John J. McConnell, Jr. in the United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island, and worked as a summer associate at AP&S. Nicole earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Roger Williams University and her J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law, also summa cum laude. In addition, she is currently president of the RWU Law Alumni Association.

"RWU Law gave me an excellent legal education, a strong foundation for everything I've done since," she said. "The school is just so involved with the community in so many ways -- from the judiciary to public service, to private practice, to government, to nonprofits ..."

In fact, that's one of the things she's always liked best about Roger Williams -- and Rhode Island as a whole.

"If you want to, you can really make an impact here," she said.