Edward Sapone, Esq.
Sapone & Petrillo, LLP https://www.saponelaw.com/attorney/sapone-edward-v/
About The Lecturer
Edward V. Sapone is a founding partner of Sapone & Petrillo, LLP. He concentrates his practice on federal criminal defense and white-collar litigation. Mr. Sapone has spent his entire career defending people and corporations accused of crimes.
For more than 20 years, Mr. Sapone has tried an extraordinary number of cases as lead trial counsel. He has gained acquittals in federal courts for clients indicted for the most serious crimes such as multi-million-dollar fraud, structuring financial transactions, conspiracies, large-scale narcotics trafficking, hostage-taking, kidnapping, alien smuggling, and other offenses.
He also has consistently won in state court—from the most severe murder cases to trials including the assault of CIA agents protecting Barbara and Jenna Bush, wife and daughter of U.S. President George W. Bush, and other crimes. Mr. Sapone also has negotiated hundreds of dismissals, deferred prosecutions, and other favorable resolutions for those clients who did not wish to proceed to trial.
Mr. Sapone also has been retained by civil firms, plaintiffs, and defendants to try their labor law cases. He has won millions of dollars in verdicts for plaintiffs and has prevented millions of dollars in verdicts for defendants.
Mr. Sapone has routinely represented high profile clients too. Some examples include a target of the federal NXIVM Sex Cult prosecution in the Brooklyn Federal courthouse (prevented prosecution); a lead defendant in the Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Felix Bronx Trinitarios machete homicide prosecution (relieved as counsel due to federal trial); and many multi-million dollar healthcare fraud and money laundering prosecutions in the Manhattan, Brooklyn and NJ federal courthouses.
Mr. Sapone represented Sou El Flotador, a Regatón music sensation (large-scale narcotics importation); a Yonkers City council member (public corruption); and the captain of a vessel that contained thousands of kilograms of cocaine captured by the U.S. Coastguard—all in the Manhattan federal courthouse, and all receiving drastic downward variances from the otherwise draconian federal sentencing guidelines.
Mr. Sapone is a Past-President of the New York Criminal Bar Association and the current Chair of its Sentencing Committee. He is criminal defense counsel to the Government of Mexico through its Consulate in New York. Mr. Sapone is a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy at Hofstra Law School, and the Marino Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Manhattan, through which he has taught at New York Law School, Fordham Law School, and Rutgers Law School.
Mr. Sapone is routinely retained and admitted pro hac vice in various foreign jurisdictions, including New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Florida, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Colorado.
Following a rigorous selection process focused on trial experience and reputation among judges, prosecutors, and peers, Mr. Sapone was invited onto the federal Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Southern District of New York (2016-Present) and N.Y. State Homicide Panel for the Appellate Division, First Department (2012 - Present).
Having successfully defended hundreds of criminal defendants, Mr. Sapone received Citations of Honor by the Queens Borough President (2009) and by a N.Y. State Assemblyman (2011), and a Proclamation of Honor by a N.Y. State Senator (2010 and 2014). Mr. Sapone has also been recognized by VerdictSearch's Top New York Verdicts of 2010 and by Super Lawyers every year from 2014-Present.
Having represented corporate CEOs and Wall Street broker-dealers, Mr. Sapone also has been invited to lecture for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.He is often sought to share his extensive knowledge of criminal law with the public. He has appeared as a legal analyst on CNN, Headline News, Court TV, MSNBC, Fox 5, and TRUTV.
Mr. Sapone is fluent in Spanish. He has represented hundreds of people from Central and South America and the Caribbean. He has appeared as a legal analyst on Telemundo and Univision, as well as on international Spanish radio.
Mr. Sapone’s high profile cases have been printed in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Business Week, Crain’s New York Business, the NACDL Champion, and numerous New York City and local newspapers.
He sits on the Board of Directors of the New York Criminal Bar Association and is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. As a courtesy to the NYCBA, Mr. Sapone publishes Ed Sapone’s Decisions of the Week, in which he analyzes and summarizes all published federal and N.Y. state appellate opinions.
Practice Area(s)
Criminal Law
Trial
Education
B.A., Fordham University
J.D., New York Law School
