Founding and Managing Partner
At Fast Law, I usually try three or four criminal cases a year in New York state and federal courts, including the Southern District of New York. Having tried more than 25 cases to verdict, I have learned how much preparation goes into decisions that have to be made in seconds. The consequences of those decisions belong to the person sitting beside me at the defense table.
Our clients range from people accused of leading criminal organizations to everyday people who suddenly find themselves facing criminal charges. The allegations vary enormously. The responsibility I feel toward the person sitting beside me does not. Each client is trusting us with their freedom and their future, and each deserves the preparation, judgment and commitment that we bring to trial.
I never went to law school planning to become a criminal trial attorney. I attended part time while working full time for the U.S. Department of Labor, adding an internship at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office during my final two years. Back then, I was mostly trying to get through the week. After several rewarding years as a prosecutor in Brooklyn, my path led me to criminal defense.
Sometimes I am the lead attorney. Other times, I join an existing defense team for trial. The attorneys who bring me in know how thoroughly I prepare and how invested I become in the case. My fluency in Russian can also be useful. Whatever my role, I need to know the record and be ready to adjust my approach to the witness.
Preparing a criminal case for trial
Once a case is on our trial calendar, it becomes an obsession for me. I think about the evidence, the contradictions, the omissions in the police reports and the gaps in the government’s investigation. I turn over a cross-examination in my head long after I have left the office. I talk through the case with my colleagues, who are gifted trial attorneys and strategists. Our investigator reviews the materials alongside us, and I run the defense past him. We question each other’s assumptions and keep working through the details.
In a 2025 SDNY trial, I cross-examined the government’s lead cooperating witness for three days. The “grueling” cross-examination made the cover of the New York Post. The answers were extraordinary, and the defense was able to expose serious problems with the witness’s credibility.
Behind those questions were bank records, phone records, employment records and tax records. You name it, we had it. We had gone through the documents, compared them with the witness’s account and worked out how to put the contradictions before the jury. A question that took seconds to ask could rest on hours of work.
For every hour in court, I generally estimate about ten hours of thinking, strategy and preparation. With approximately 18 hours of testimony from that witness, the preparation alone probably approached 200 hours across the attorneys, trial paralegals and investigator.
Those hours gave us the records and the command of the facts to test the witness’s account in front of the jury. For the client, that means a defense built on details that might otherwise go unchallenged. We work to identify contradictions, expose gaps in the prosecution’s proof and make their significance clear to the jury.
Knowing which questions to leave unasked
In another trial, a witness unexpectedly left out part of the prosecution’s narrative during direct examination. I recognized the significance of the omission: the testimony had not established an element of one of the charged crimes.
I had to make a decision in the moment. Asking the witness about the crime itself could have opened the door for the prosecutor to return to that subject on redirect examination and establish the missing element. I kept my cross-examination away from that subject.
In that trial, the prosecutor could not repair the omission on redirect. Before the case went to verdict, the judge dismissed the charge because the required element had not been established. The dismissal came as a major surprise, and our client no longer faced that charge.
Preparation helps me recognize those moments. I need to listen to what a witness actually says, understand how it fits with the rest of the evidence and decide what the jury needs to hear. That sometimes means changing a cross-examination I have spent hours preparing. Knowing which question to leave unasked can be one of the most important decisions of the trial.
When choosing trial counsel, ask about the lawyer’s role in the cases they have tried, how they prepare witnesses and cross-examinations, and who will stand beside you in court. Ask how they assess the weaknesses in your case and explain the risks. Those conversations can tell you a great deal about how the lawyer approaches the responsibility of a trial.
What going to verdict means for our clients
Then the trial ends, and two weeks in a courtroom become an 800-word news story. The coverage focuses on the verdict or a particularly sensational piece of testimony. A complicated financial fraud case becomes a short report about the sentence. I understand why. But when I read those stories, I think about how much of the work disappears from view.
Behind those summaries are hours upon hours of preparation by defense attorneys, prosecutors, investigators and law enforcement. From our side of the courtroom, there is also the responsibility of knowing that the person sitting next to us has to live with the outcome.
Over the past two years, I have tried two rape cases, an attempted murder case, a murder-for-hire case with geopolitical implications, a large-scale narcotics conspiracy involving overdose deaths and a murder case. Each required us to learn a different set of facts and make difficult decisions about how to present the defense. Each became a substantial part of our lives while we were trying it.
We have two more trials on the calendar this year and several more in 2027. I know how much work those cases will require, and how completely I will become absorbed in them.
Sometimes the result is an acquittal. Sometimes it is a partial acquittal. Sometimes it is a conviction on every count. Whatever the verdict, I need to be able to look our client in the eye and know that we were overprepared, fought for them and left nothing on the table.
Each case takes a piece of me. I carry the testimony, the decisions we made and the people we represented long after the verdict is read. The work is tiring, and it is also incredibly rewarding. By the time we stand beside a client and hear the jury’s decision, we have put months of work and a great deal of ourselves into getting there.
Discuss Your Case With Fast Law
Whether your case is resolved through negotiation or goes to verdict, careful preparation matters. You deserve counsel who knows the record, explains the risks honestly and helps you make informed decisions about your future. At Fast Law, we take that responsibility seriously. If you are facing criminal charges in New York state or federal court, contact us to discuss your situation.