Attorney Profile

Attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma is a criminal defense trial lawyer in New York City. He has experience with a vast variety of criminal matters, ranging from high-profile federal trials to simple prosecutions in New York City Criminal Court. He has won significant criminal cases, such as the first-ever successful appeal of a N.Y. Sex Offender Registration Act (Megan's Law) redetermination hearing. He has obtained favorable results for clients accused of insurance fraud, Medicaid fraud, larceny, weapons possession, drug trafficking, and many other crimes. He recently obtained a $1 million jury verdict for a client injured in jail on Rikers Island. In 2007, he represented journalists Jerry Capeci and Tom Robbins in connection with the disclosure of tapes leading to the exoneration of FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio, who had been accused of murder.

After graduating from the New York University School of Law, Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma went on to a judicial clerkship in the Southern District of New York. After that, he worked in the litigation department of the Manhattan office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a large corporate law firm. Starting in 2002, he practiced at the noted white-collar criminal defense boutique firm of Hafetz & Necheles, where he worked with trial attorneys Frederick P. Hafetz and Susan R. Necheles. Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma established his own practice in 2004.

For seven years after graduating with a B.A. in anthropology from Columbia College, Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma worked as a journalist in New Orleans, California; Mexico, Guatemala; and New York City. He has written on both legal and non-legal topics in publications such as Wired Magazine, the New York Times, and the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics (see Publications). He worked as a reporter for three daily newspapers in New York and Mexico, including the New York Daily News.

Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma is a member of the Criminal Justice Act ("CJA") panels for the Eastern District of New York, providing indigent defense for people accused of multi-defendant federal crimes in New York City (including Manhattan and the Bronx), Westchester County, Brooklyn and Queens.  Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma regularly tries civil and criminal cases in the federal courts in New York. He has represented doctors, lawyers, musicians, bankers, writers, artists, government officials and others accused of serious crimes.

He has tried cases to juries concerning drug trafficking, fraud and obstruction of justice. In an appeal decided in 2007, Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma won a new trial for an attorney accused of insurance fraud, in a decision that established the principle that the government may not offer opinion testimony of a cooperating witness to prove the defendant's state of mind.  In one high-profile case, he helped persuade the Queens District Attorney to drop weapons charge against a Northwest Airlines pilot accused of carrying a handgun onto his plane.  Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma has participated in representing individuals involved in the Martha Stewart trial, the Adelphia investigation, the Enron prosecution, and many other significant white-collar criminal cases. His trial victories include a gun possession case in Brooklyn (in which Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma's client was shot from behind by the police) and a subway sex abuse case in Manhattan (prior outcomes are no guarantee of future results).  Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma also has experience in civil rights litigation, criminal immigration issues, commercial litigation and criminal appeals. He handles carefully selected cases for victims of serious civil rights abuses, including excessive force by the police and false arrest. In 2003, Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma won an argument before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that the United States District Courts have habeas corpus jurisdiction to hear appeals from administrative findings under the Convention Against Torture.

Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma is fluent in Spanish and licensed as a notary public in the state of New York. He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he organized an annual training seminar for other lawyers on federal sentencing from 2005 through 2008. He is also a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the New York State Bar Association. Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma's work is distinguished by a strong sense of professionalism, attention to detail, relentless advocacy, courtesy to both clients and adversaries, and a deep understanding of the problems faced by those who are accused of crimes.