Appellate Law
Defending people charged with crimes of all varieties at the trial and appellate levels has been a primary focus of David’s practice for over 30 years. Following his clerkship for a federal judge, David signed up for the federal Criminal Justice Act panel and for the state court appointed counsel list to get as much experience as possible as quickly as possible, taking on any and every criminal case that came his way.
David immediately began trying felony criminal cases in state and federal court, defending people charged with crimes that included robbery, rape, car theft, drug conspiracies, and capital murder. He also represented convicted defendants on appeal and developed a post-conviction practice which has achieved great success in some very difficult cases, including the complete reversal of the convictions in cases in which the defendant had been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
For anyone accused of a serious crime, it is essential to have an experienced federal criminal defense lawyer involved at the very early stages.
While the early cases were in both state and federal court, more recently, David’s criminal defense practice has been mostly in federal trial and appellate courts around the country.
He also has advised defendants charged with crimes overseas on matters of extradition or in connection with the actual defense of the case charged in the foreign country and he has handled several treaty transfer matters for foreign nationals convicted of a crime in the U.S.
For more than 30 years, David has represented defendants charged with the most serious of crimes, with much of the criminal defense practice based in federal courts in New York. David has defended many clients accused of having ties to organized crime and with being involved in racketeering related offenses.
David’s clients have included men accused of being the leader of various organized crime enterprises, motorcycle clubs, and other alleged criminal enterprises, and in many times the offenses are alleged to have transpired both in the United States and abroad. In one case, David successfully defended a man the government accused of being the most powerful Mafioso in the world, charged with three murders that had been the subject of a feature film.
In recent years, David’s criminal defense practice has been devoted primarily to the defense of white collar cases, defending those charged with securities related offenses, fraud, money laundering, and tax related charges. Please contact David I. Schoen, Attorney at Law for your federal criminal defense questions and concerns.