Lefcourt, Gerald B.

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Gerald B. Lefcourt has spent his legal career practicing principally in the areas of criminal law and complex civil litigation.  He is recognized as one of the country's foremost trial attorneys and is frequently called upon to represent individuals and corporations charged with the most serious crimes.  In his forty years practicing law, his clients have spanned the spectrum, from Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman and Black Panther Party leaders to Drexel Burnham Lambert securities trader Bruce Newberg, real estate mogul Harry Helmsley, actor Russell Crowe, New York State Assembly Speaker Mel Miller, New York State Assemblyman and Brooklyn Democratic Leader Vito Lopez and hip hop music promoter and Murder Inc. record label head Irv Gotti.  Among his current clients are the campaign treasurer of former New York mayoral candidate John Liu as well as the former wife of a noted hedge fund manager who has accused her former husband of defrauding her in their divorce.

Mr. Lefcourt recently completed over 20 years of service as the Speaker of the N.Y.S. Assembly’s designee to the statewide Commission on Judicial Nomination, which committee recommends to the Governor a slate of candidates for the New York Court of Appeals. He currently serves on the Magistrate Selection Committee of the Southern District of New York.  In the past he has been a member of numerous other governmental committees, as well.

He is a recent past president of the Foundation for Criminal Justice of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, with which organization he has long been associated. Mr. Lefcourt has been program co-chair of the annual White Collar Crime Conference sponsored by the NACDL since the conference’s inception in 2004, and has served each year on the program faculty, as well.  

Mr. Lefcourt served for several years as the Chair of the Criminal Advocacy Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and other committees. He is past president of the National Association of Criminal Lawyers; a founder of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; and founder and past president of the New York Criminal Bar Association. He has been recognized in New York Magazine's survey of Outstanding Practitioners and in both Who's Who in the Criminal Defense Bar and in the International Who’s Who of Business Crime Defense. He is AV rated.

Mr. Lefcourt also serves on the Board of Editors of the White Collar Crime Litigation Reporter.

Mr. Lefcourt has also been recognized by fellow practitioners as an outstanding lawyer, including by receipt of the Robert C. Heeney Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; New York State Bar Association's Outstanding Practitioner Award; and New York University School of Law's Milton S. Gould Award for Outstanding Oral Advocacy. He was recently the Guest of Honor at a luncheon sponsored by the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, where he received the Norman Ostrow Award in recognition of "the distinction and commitment [he has] brought as an advocate for the rights of criminal defendants."

He has also been recognized by Super Lawyers every year since 2006 as among New York City's Best Criminal Lawyers.

He has been named as one of the New York Area's Best Lawyers in the categories of both Criminal Defense: White-Collar, and Criminal Defense: Non White-Collar.

Mr. Lefcourt is a graduate of New York University (B.A. Political Science 1964); Brooklyn Law School (J.D. 1967); and New York University School of Law (L.L.M. Tax 1968). He is admitted to practice in New York, the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and numerous Circuit Courts of Appeals.