Joseph F. DeFelice - Kew Gardens, NY

Overview

Prior to opening his own practice, Mr. DeFelice worked as a Law Secretary to Supreme Court Justices, an Assistant District Attorney in Queens County and an Attorney with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He is admitted to the New York and Florida Bar, United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal for the 2nd, 3rd, and 11th Districts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr DeFelice is a graduate of St John’s University – B.A. in Political Science 1970 and St. John’s Law School – J.D. 1973. He has handled an extensive amount of appeals and trials including numerous murder cases and was qualified as an Associate Counsel to handle Capital trials. Mr. DeFelice is active with the local bar association in Queens County where he is co-chairman of the Appellate Practice Committee and the Immigration and Naturalization Committee. He has served as President of the Confederation of Columbian Lawyers and President of the Columbian Lawyers, Queens County, has lectured at various CLE programs in Criminal and Immigration Law and Appeals for St John’s Law School and the Queens County Bar Assn. and participated in Mock Trial tournaments as a Judge in nationwide competition of college students. He also assisted in the formation of the Bridge the Gap program offered by the Educational Programs Committee of the Alumni Assn at St. John’s School of Law. Mr. DeFelice currently serves as a member of the Grievance Committee for the 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts in Brooklyn, New York and on the Members Benefit Committee for the Florida Bar.

Mr. DeFelice co-authored a discussion which appeared in the Journal of Forensic Science that relates to issues concerning the shaking baby syndrome. He has written a chapter entitled Immigration Remedies for the Battered Spouse which appears in a Domestic Violence book recently published by the New York State Bar Assn. He also wrote an article on the Freedom of Information Law relating to one of his appeals which appeared in the Criminal Law News and wrote an article concerning the jury system which appeared in the New York Law Journal in May, 2005.

Some of his appeals include- People v Parks, 95 NY2d 811; People v Alfonso, 63 NY2d 419; DeFelice ex rel. Barbera v NY City Police Dept., 89 NY2d 267; People v LaPene, 40 NY2d 210; People v Haupt, 71 NY2d 929; People v Brown, 30 AD3d 561; Francis v INS - 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals; Perez v INS, - 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals; Aziz v Dept. of Homeland Security, USDC, EDNY; Josan v Josan, 134 AD2d 486 and Kromer v Kromer, 177 AD2d 472.