ABOUT SUSAN C. WOLFE

With three decades of experience behind her, Susan fights to protect her clients against heavy handed federal and state prosecutors. With a focus on white collar criminal defense, she has represented clients charged with violating the securities laws, banking and public corruption laws, and criminal environmental laws. She has defended professionals in the real estate, financial, insurance and healthcare industries, and she has represented more than a few lawyers. She shepherds her clients through all stages of the criminal process, including trials, appeals, petitions for certiorari to the Supreme Court, habeas petitions and collateral licensing proceedings

An experienced and prolific appellate lawyer, she can ferret out issues and pursue legal angles that other lawyers miss, or that have never been argued before.

For each case, Susan spends countless hours analyzing how “to get into the heads” of judges and jurors. The goal is always to tell her client’s story in a compelling way that is never boring, prosaic or ordinary, and to show that the law requires her client’s vindication.

She has taught trial skills for the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program at Cardozo Law School, written practice commentaries for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, given CLE presentations on federal criminal jury instructions and sentencing, and authored an article for the New York Law Journal celebrating the joys of brief writing (“How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Brief”).

“If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.”

Mohammed Ali

QUALIFICATIONS

EXPERIENCE

Law Office of Susan C. Wolfe, 1700 Broadway, New York, NY
Founder of a firm solely devoted to the practice of the highest quality of criminal defense in the Federal and State Courts.

Blank Rome LLP, The Chrysler Building, New York, NY, Of Counsel
As a member of the White Collar Group, defended individuals charged with violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Insider Trading and municipal bond fraud, and conducted an internal investigation requested by the board of a public company.

Partner, Hoffman & Pollok, LLP, 260 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, Associate, 1985 to 2014
When Susan joined the firm of Hoffman & Pollok in the 1980’s, it was a wild west world of criminal defense. The firm represented old-school organized crime members and other clients that the government had targeted and was bearing down on. At the time, wiretapping was a newer investigative technology and she litigated the legality of the electronic surveillance statute. She also challenged the government’s newest darling, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The legal contours of the RICO statute, including its unprecedented forfeiture provisions, were on the cutting edge and Susan aggressively litigated every aspect of the statute.

Over time the world changed, the government’s focus shifted to white collar crime, and Hoffman & Pollok, where Susan quickly rose to partner, was again on the cutting edge. The firm represented all manner of professionals, including real estate and financial professionals, lawyers and doctors. The government typically added a count of money laundering to every indictment and prosecutors began to pursue criminal and civil forfeiture in every case. The law under these statutes was developing, and Susan cultivated a particular expertise in these areas.

“Sure the fight was fixed. I fixed it with a right hand.” –George Foreman

EDUCATION

Cornell University, College Scholar with distinction, concentration in English

Boston University School of Law, Juris Doctorate

National Criminal Defense College, Macon Ga.,

MEMBERSHIPS, PUBLICATIONS & TEACHINGS

Member: New York City Bar Association; New York Criminal Bar Associations, former member of the Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals of the New York City Bar Association

Author: NITA Practice Commentaries, author of Restitution and Forfeiture sections; New York Law Journal on brief writing

Teaching: Cardoza Intensive Trial Advocacy Program, Cardoza Law School, New York, NY; Yale Mock Trial Association; Lawline, Continuing Legal Education Presentations on Federal Criminal Jury Instructions and Sentencing

BAR ADMISSIONS

State of New York, First Department

Southern, Eastern and Northern Federal Districts of New York

Second Circuit Courts of Appeals

Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals

United States Supreme Court

SPECIAL INTERESTS

Special Interest:
Boxing; animal welfare, including many years of volunteer work with the New York City Animal Care and Control shelter

PRACTICE AREAS & NOTABLE CASES

SECURITIES FRAUD

Insider trading

International securities fraud charges against brokerage firm with offices in New York and London

Municipal bond fraud

Reversal of securities fraud conviction for Brady violations and dismissal of charges

CRIMINAL VIOLATION OF THE ENVIRONMANTAL LAWS (ASBESTOS)

Reversal of convictions of company and owner of a waste transit and hauling facility for conspiracy to commit criminal asbestos violations and obstruction of justice.

IMMIGRATON FRAUD (immigration attorney)

Reversal of conviction upon rare grant of en banc rehearing for exclusion of the public from jury selection

MORTGAGE FRAUD

BRIBERY AND PUBLIC CORRUPTION

LOAN FRAUD ON FEDERAL FARM SERVICES AGENCY

CAMPAIGN FINANCE FRAUD AND OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE

INTERNET GAMBLING

Litigation of New York State Gambling statute, including whether “bets were taken” offshore rather than in New York and, therefore, there was no illegal gambling in New York

OTHER:

Reversal of pre-trial detention order in forced labor case.

Reversal of Mann Act conviction where trial court refused to instruct the jury that it must find knowledge of interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution;

Recently, after filing her clients’ briefs in three cases in the Second Circuit, the government confessed error, requiring remand for resentencing.

ABOUT SUSAN C. WOLFE

QUALIFICATIONS

PRACTICE AREAS & NOTABLE CASES

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