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Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma

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Principal attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma is a criminal defense lawyer in New York City. He has experience with criminal matters ranging from high-profile federal trials to simple prosecutions in New York City Criminal Court.

New York City Criminal Defense Lawyer

Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma has won significant criminal cases such as the 2014 release of Antonio Yarbough, who was imprisoned for nearly 22 years for a triple homicide he did not commit; the exoneration of Felipe Rodriguez in 2019; the first-ever successful appeal of a N.Y. Sex Offender Registration Act (Megan’s Law) redetermination hearing; and numerous acquittals, dismissals and reversals for clients accused of fraud, larceny, weapons possession, drug trafficking, child pornography, civil rights violations, terrorism, and other crimes.

After graduating from New York University School of Law, Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma worked as a law clerk in the United States District Court for 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.

Prior to law school, Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma worked for seven years as a journalist in New York City, New Orleans, California, Mexico and Guatemala. 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 Articles and Decisions). He worked as a reporter for three daily newspapers in New York and Mexico, including the New York Daily News. He attended college at Columbia University in the City of New York.

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Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma provides legal services to indigent clients in federal cases as a member of the Criminal Justice Act (“CJA”) panels for both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma regularly tries cases in the federal courts in New York. He represents doctors, lawyers, musicians, bankers, writers, artists, government officials and others accused of serious crimes.

Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma has defended people before juries in trials for bank fraud, health care fraud, drug trafficking, official misconduct, sex crimes, obstruction of justice, and other crimes. 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 a weapons charge against a Northwest Airlines pilot accused of carrying a handgun onto his plane. Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma represented individuals involved in the Martha Stewart trial, the Adelphia investigation, the Enron prosecution, and 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), a subway sex abuse case in Manhattan, and a sex trafficking case in the Southern District of New York.

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, false arrest and malicious prosecution. 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. 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. In 2009, he won a $1 million jury verdict for a former prisoner injured at Rikers Island. In 2012, after three years of unyielding litigation, he won an extraordinarily lenient sentence for a Malian man falsely accused of having ties to Al Qaeda. Prior outcomes do not guarantee future results.

Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma is fluent in Spanish and licensed as a notary public in the state of New York. He is a life member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, where he was named vice chair of the sentencing committee in 2015. He is a longtime active 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 and a subcommittee of the Criminal Law Committee looking at the issue of false convictions in Brooklyn in 2014. He is a past member of the Criminal Advocacy Committee, the Professional Responsibility Committee and the Criminal Courts Committee. He is also a member of the New York State Defenders Association, the Federal Bar Council and the New York State Bar Association. Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma sits on the Joint Rules Committee of the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, led by U.S. Magistrate Judges Steven Gold and Andrew Peck. He has been named to the Super Lawyers New York Metro list every year since 2013.

Mr. Margulis-Ohnuma has more than 1,800 connections and numerous reviews and endorsements from colleagues and former clients on LinkedIn. Members of LinkedIn can review lengthy testimonials from clients detailing his work, which 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.

Bar Admissions
  • New York State Courts, March 2000
  • United States District Court, Southern District of New York, July 2000
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, May 2003
  • United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, March 2004
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, March 2005
  • United States District Court for the Northern District of New York, February 2009
  • United States Supreme Court, October 2010
  • United States District Court for the Western District of New York, November 2018
Educational Background

Law School
New York University, J.D., 1999

Graduate School
U. C. Berkeley, Masters of Journalism, 1992

College
Columbia College, New York, B.A., 1989

High School
The Roxbury Latin School, Boston, 1985

Credentials
  • Sample Cross-Examination
  • Published Articles
  • Just Who is the Victim Here?
  • Types of Proceedings
  • Bar Admissions
  • Educational Background
  • Tony Yarbough Freed
ZMO Law PLLC Attorneys
  • Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma
  • Tess Cohen
  • Shane Finn
Contact ZMO Law
Latest Blogs by Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma
  • A Little Drug Relief?
  • Welcoming attorney Shane Finn to ZMO Law
  • Is Matt Gaetz a sex trafficker?

ZMO Law In the News

June 18, 2025
The Nation: ZMO client Shujun Wang is a “bad example” of Chinese transnational repression
In a fascinating critical analysis of the Shujun Wang trial and the media coverage of it, the storied liberal newsweekly The Nation took on 60 Minutes, the FBI, and the federal prosecutors who pursued ZMO client Shujun Wang for the better part of a decade. “Prosecutors likened Wang’s work to that of a John LeCarré ...
May 30, 2025
Buffalo News: Prosecutors in retrial of 1993 homicide want to keep motions secret
Any ruling that blocks the release of the defense motions would “impose a prior restraint on Mr. Pugh and this office’s right to free speech and free expression,” defense attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma wrote in a letter to the judge. Margulis-Ohnuma also said he saw no basis for keeping sealed the people’s request to block the ...
May 21, 2025
ZMO explains to 60 Minutes why his client was spared prison time in Chinese spying case
China’s spies are everywhere, according to a the season finale of 60 Minutes that aired last Friday. But ZMO Law PLLC client Shujun Wang, a 74-year-old Chinese-born American historian based in Queens, was not sent to prison even after he was convicted of violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act. Attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma explained the weaknesses ...
May 6, 2025
Margulis-Ohnuma questions case against Sean Combs
According to Reuters, Diddy’s lawyers face an uphill battle to undermine his accusers. But the case charges both sex trafficking and racketeering–known as RICO. “The fact that he had a fight with his girlfriend seems like a thin reed to charge RICO,” Margulis-Ohnuma said, referring to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
April 28, 2025
ZMO on Diddy trial: Both sides want a jury without strong opinions
Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, a New York-based defense lawyer, said Combs’s panel would likely consist ultimately of people without firm convictions about issues of consent and sexual abuse. “One side or the other will figure out a way to get rid of the ones who do have strong opinions,” Margulis-Ohnuma said.

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