Best Lawyers in America for Criminal Defense: General Practice
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Richard Kaplan is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Richard, who practices law in Los Angeles, California, has been recognized since 2023. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Richard is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Derek Byrd was born and raised in Sarasota . He graduated from Florida State University in 1990 with a B. A. in Criminology. He earned his Juris Doctorate Degree from Quinnipiac College of Law in Hamden, Connecticut in 1995 graduating cum laude. After being admitted to the Florida Bar in early 1996, Derek went to work for the Public Defender’s Office in Sarasota, where he gained extensive and valuable trial experience. He opened The Byrd Law Firm in 1998. Mr. Byrd is Board Certified in ...
Mike is the President at O’Connell and Aronowitz. He handles plaintiff’s personal injury cases and criminal defense at our firm. He has handled or supervised over three dozen homicide prosecutions, trying many of those cases to verdict, and he is a court-appointed special prosecutor in homicide cases in Albany and Rensselaer counties. While in law school, Mike was an Associate Editor of the Albany Law Review. Upon graduation, he entered the Albany County District Attorney’s ...
Fred Winocur specializes in the defense of white collar and economic crimes for both corporate and individual clients spanning a broad range of industries. He has successfully defended clients at all stages of the investigative and enforcement process, through all manner of criminal, regulatory, and civil actions including securities violations, financial fraud, healthcare fraud, mail and wire fraud, environmental crimes, consumer protection violations, public corruption, and antitrust violat...
Larry Zukerman is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Larry, who practices law in Cleveland, Ohio, has been recognized since 2024. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Larry is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Law Practice J. Bruce Maffeo is the co-chair of the Criminal Defense law practice in the New York City office of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C. Mr. Maffeo joined the firm as a member in January 2007 and represents individuals and organizations charged with crimes and regulatory offenses before the state and federal courts. He has litigated cases involving public corruption, securities fraud, tax evasion, and RICO. Among other matters, he successfully argued to limit the use of the f...
Dave Thomas is a partner in Taft’s Compliance, Investigations, and White Collar Defense practice. He advises and represents companies, executives, public officials, health care providers, and other professionals who are the subject of state and federal investigations and prosecutions involving the United States Department of Justice and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, as well as county prosecutors throughout the state. He has defended clients in complex matters involving feder...
Lionel S. Lofton was born and raised in McClellanville, South Carolina, where he still resides. In 1963, he graduated from McClellanville High School, where his mother taught school. During his senior year, he was named to the Post and Courier's All-Star Basketball Team, which he still talks about to this day. Following graduation, Mr. Lofton enrolled a the University of Georgia to study forestry. Following a year at UGA, he transferred to Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, w...
Anthony L. “Tony” Farese is 55 years of age and is the President of the firm of Farese, Farese & Farese, P.A. in Ashland, Mississippi. He received a B.PA. from the University of Mississippi in 1983 and his J.D. degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1985. He was a member of the Moot Court Board and Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity. He has practiced law for 31 years with the family firm in Ashland. He is licensed to practice law in the states of Mississippi an...
Mr. Hille focuses his practice in litigation, with a particular emphasis on trial advocacy. His areas of concentration include insurance, healthcare law, professional liability and ethics, and white-collar criminal matters, including those related to professional ethics. Mr. Hille has extensive trial expertise that encompasses insurance defense and coverage cases, healthcare disputes, professional liability defense, fraud and abuse, and regulatory issues. Mr. Hille’s white-collar experi...
Mary Frances Palisano is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Mary Frances, who practices law in Newark, New Jersey, has been recognized since 2020. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Mary Frances is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Bill is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers—an honor limited to the top 1% of lawyers in the State and a Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. He was named as one of the Best Lawyers in America for White Collar Criminal Defense and also named as one of the Top 10 Lawyers in Minnesota. He has been selected as a Super Lawyer by Minnesota Law & Politics every year since 1991. Mr. Mauzy is certified by the Minnesota State Bar Association as a Criminal Trial Spe...
Amy Bradley is passionate about seeking justice for her clients. Ms. Bradley zealously protects her clients interests while guiding them through the legal process with a compassionate and relatable approach. She works closely with her clients to strategize and achieve the best possible outcomes. Ms. Bradley’s experience includes more than 100 bench and jury trials. In personal injury matters, she represents clients who have sustained life-altering injuries from the negligence or unlawfu...
Paul McCormick is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Criminal Defense: General Practice and Criminal Defense: White-Collar. Paul, who practices law in Boulder, Colorado, has been recognized since 1993. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Paul is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Shawn Holley is a partner at Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLP, a boutique entertainment and business litigation firm in Santa Monica. She began her career as a Los Angeles County Public Defender, handling hundreds of serious criminal cases from inception to trial. She was the Managing Partner of the Los Angeles office of The Cochran Firm and the head of its national Criminal Defense Section. With more than sixty trials to her credit, Ms. Holley is the rare trial attorney who pra...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.