It may not be the glitziest kind of law, but when businesses and individuals on Long Island and even upstate needed to appeal their property-tax bills, attorney Mickey Martone was their man.

"He was one of the giants among the lawyers who practiced real estate tax assessment law," known as certiorari, said Rockville Centre’s Donald Leistman, a partner in the long-standing Mineola firm Koeppel, Sommer, Martone and Leistman, which later merged with Uniondale and Hauppauge’s Forchelli Deegan Terrana. "Mickey was also particularly adept at eminent domain — he was the chief litigator for Nassau County on those cases."

That was just one of the many hats Martone — who died of natural causes at age 90 at his Glen Cove home on June 25 — wore as a public servant in the 1960s and ‘70s before entering private practice.

A sampling of his positions includes senior deputy Nassau County attorney in charge of condemnation and tax certiorari and real estate, and, for Glen Cove: commissioner of public safety; special attorney for the Office of Urban Renewal; chairperson of the Community Development Advisory Committee; legal adviser and member of the Glen Cove Charter Revision Commission.

"Mickey Martone was a great friend, a wonderful public servant and just a genuinely all-around great guy," Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), a former Glen Cove mayor and Nassau County executive, told Newsday. The two had known each other most of their lives, with Martone’s father, the late contractor and Glen Cove Democratic leader Angelo Martone, being Suozzi’s godfather.

"He retired only maybe five years ago," said Martone’s daughter, Virginia "Gigi" Banks, of Glen Cove. As an attorney, "He was always lending an ear, lending support." As a father and grandfather, "He was always very supportive of anything I wanted to do, and what my kids wanted to do. We took fabulous trips — I think starting when my son was in third grade, we would go to Europe." Martone, who grew up an only child, "just really enjoyed being around people."

Michael Robert "Mickey" Martone was born Sept. 27, 1934, in Glen Cove — decades later serving as board secretary for his birthplace, the Community Hospital at Glen Cove, now Glen Cove Hospital. His father, Angelo James Martone, was a building inspector and later a contractor whose projects included a mid-1960s addition to the Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow. His mother, Virginia E. Martino Martone, was a homemaker.

After graduating from Glen Cove High School, Mickey Martone earned an engineering degree in 1956 from Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, before shifting gears and obtaining an  LLB degree — a bachelor of law — from New York Law School in 1959. He passed the New York State Bar exam that same year, and in May 1960 married Joanne Josephine Ceriello. Additionally, he served in the Army National Guard of New York State through 1962.

Martone would go on to obtain a  JD — a doctorate of law — in 1968, and through the years join the bars of Florida, Washington, D.C., the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern districts of New York and the U.S. Tax Court.

Tax certiorari, commented his daughter, "is the most boring field of law that's possibly out there. And that's why he liked it, because he never had to get up and fight with anybody. It wasn't messy like divorce court."

A 64-year member of the Brookville Country Club, where he, his wife and daughter indulged their love of golf, Martone was active in his community as a member of the Board of Advisors for the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU Post. An art collector who favored the Russian-American social-realist painter Raphael Soyer, he was a supporter of the Nassau County Museum of Art.

In addition to Banks, Martone is survived by his wife and two grandchildren. A son, Michael R. Martone Jr., died in 2003.

Visitation was held June 29-30 at Dodge-Thomas Funeral Home in Glen Cove. Following a Mass at the Church of St. Rocco, also in Glen Cove, on July 1, Martone was buried at Saint Patrick Cemetery in Brookville. Donations may be made to the Nosh Delivers! nonprofit food pantry.