Avraham (“Avi”) Moskowitz, a 1980 graduate of Columbia Law School and a former Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York (1985-1991), focuses on criminal defense and commercial litigation matters.
His criminal defense cases have run the gamut from securities fraud and public corruption to capital murder and racketeering and virtually every type of case in between. He has successfully represented clients in white-collar investigations and prosecutions in the federal courts in New York, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania, as well as the state courts in New York.
Equally important, he has helped clients under investigation to avoid indictment by providing sound advice and effectively advocating on behalf of his clients before prosecuting and regulatory authorities.
In addition to his white-collar criminal practice, Avi is one of only a handful of attorneys to have tried a federal capital case to verdict in New York, helping his client avoid the death penalty in United States v. Quinones and Rodriguez . In the past thirty years, Avi has successfully represented more than fifty clients charged with capital crimes in the federal courts of New York.
In his civil practice, Avi has handled all types of cases including civil RICO, breach of contract, employment discrimination, insurance coverage, products liability and intellectual property matters. He also represents institutions and individuals in litigation brought under the New York State Child Victims Act.
During his tenure as Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Avi tried twenty-four cases to verdict, and successfully argued numerous appeals before the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. As a defense lawyer, Avi has tried more than twenty-five cases in the federal and state courts in New York.
Since 1991, Avi has been an adjunct professor of Trial Advocacy at New York Law School. He has also taught trial advocacy to lawyers as a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA).
Avi’s superior skills and integrity have been recognized by his peers who have given him an AV rating, the highest peer rating in the Martindale-Hubbell ratings system. In 2011, Avi was elected by his peers as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, in recognition of his outstanding skills as a trial lawyer. Avi has also been recognized by his peers as a “Super Lawyer” and as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for the past fifteen years.
Professional Affiliations:
- Adjunct Professor of Trial Advocacy-1991-present
- Fellow-American College of Trial Lawyers
- New York Council of Defense Lawyers
- New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
- American Bar Association-White Collar Section
- Super Lawyers
- Best Lawyers in America
Representative Matters:
- Earned an acquittal at trial for a medical professional charged with Medicare Fraud
- Successfully argued for a non-custodial sentence for a client who pled guilty to conspiring to defraud a charitable organization that was organizing a benefit concert
- Convinced the Government to drop robbery and weapons charges filed against a client whose brother and his friends conspired to rob a drug dealer
- Convinced government to accept a plea to misprision of a felony from a corporate executive facing charges of securities fraud involving accounting irregularities at a publicly traded company
- Achieved a life sentence in a capital prosecution in which client was convicted of the torture murder of a police informant
- Negotiated a non-prosecution agreement for business owner who was alleged to have participated in a conspiracy to illegally dump waste materials at dump sites in the NY area
- Achieved non-custodial sentence for a client accused of evading taxes on millions of dollars of unreported income
- Convinced the Government to dismiss extortion charges against a corporate executive charged in a multi-defendant organized crime indictment
- Won multi-million dollar summary judgment in favor of a pharmaceutical company that was suing its excess insurer in a coverage dispute
- Won a substantial verdict for an employee of a car dealership who was fired for rejecting sexual advances made by her boss