On Anna Vikse’s third day as Village Attorney, she found herself representing the Village of Westbury in Nassu County Supreme Court in a lawsuit against Nassau Regional Off-Track Betting’s proposal to put a video lottery terminal in the Fortunoff’s building.
“I kind of hit the ground running,” said Vikse with a laugh. “It was kind of inspiring to see all those different politicians and groups of people come together. To help draft those papers was very exciting.”
Vikse took over the position after longtime village attorney Dwight Kraemer retired late last year. The Staten Island native graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 2005 and was most recently employed at Cullen and Dykman LLP, where she was an associate attorney for seven years focusing on municipal and labor law.
Village mayor Peter Cavallaro says Vikse’s experience is what made her stand out.
“Dwight Kraemer was our village attorney for so long that it was very hard to find the right person to replace him,” Cavallaro said. “But Anna has a tremendous amount of municipal law experience, having represented a number of other villages as an attorney at one of Nassau’s top law firms. She has a lot of substantive first-hand experience in all of the aspects of the job. The combination of her background and prior experience make her ideal to replace Dwight.”
Things have slowed down a bit since her first week on the job. Now about a month into the position, Vikse is currently getting up to speed with the different issues facing the village, such funding for various projects and tax certiorari cases.
“In the village court we’re trying to uphold our housing standard to keep people safe. That’s an issue that I think we’re addressing on an ongoing basis,” said Vikse.
She said she’s looking forward to working with the administration and residents, and that talking to people and helping them is her favorite part of being an attorney.
“This village is great,” said Vikse. “I’m excited to be working on the village initiatives like having a livable, walkable downtown.”
When she’s not working, the Long Beach resident enjoys spending time with her family, running, skiing and reading.
