Northwestern ADA honored at annual prosecutors conference

Northwestern Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Atallah was among 11 prosecutors across the state to be honored with the Massachusetts District Attorney Association Spotlight Award at the MDAA’s annual prosecutors conference in Boston on Friday.

Atallah, an Amherst native who graduated from Amherst Regional High School in2004, has worked at the Northwestern DA’s office for eight years. Atallah, 36 recently earned a promotion to work in Hampshire and Franklin Superior Courts on complex criminal cases including serious financial crimes and sexually dangerous person litigation. Prior to the promotion he worked in each of the four district courts in Northampton, Greenfield, Belchertown and Orange. In the district courts, he tried more cases than any other prosecutor over the past five years. He also served as the desigated domestic violence prosecutor while assigned to the Northampton District Court.

He graduated from Tufts University in 2008, earned his law degree at Duke University in 2014, and joined the NWDA in December 2014.

The MDAA is an independent state agency that supports the state’s 11 elected district attorneys and the 785 prosecutors and 260 victim witness advocates who work in those offices. At the MDAA’s annual conference, each district attorney’s office selects one prosecutor for the Spotlight Award bestowed to prosecutors for outstanding service, spirit and professionalism.

Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne presented Atallah with the award at the Friday morning session of the conference, saying: “Nick has become one of the leaders on our staff because he never backs down from whatever challenge his caseload has in store for him.”

Previous NWDA Spotlight honorees include Assistant District Attorneys Ryan Scott, Andrew Covington, Jennifer Suhl (now Deputy District Attorney), Elizabeth Mulcahy, Michael Russo, Matthew Thomas and Cynthia Von Flatern.