Joel Cohen

July 15, 2021 | New York Law Journal

Secretly recording conversations or interviews is a dirty business, and it is almost never conducted by the government with the recording individual, whoever it is, having the best interests of the witness in mind.

By Joel Cohen

7 minute read

July 07, 2021 | New York Law Journal

So what about Giuliani? Why was he suspended from practice even before an evidentiary hearing, for doing what we want a lawyer to do? That is, being a zealous advocate willing to go to the wall and beyond for a client, impervious to the personal consequences—a lawyer willing to endanger his own reputation precisely because he believes in the client.

By Joel Cohen

7 minute read

June 16, 2021 | New York Law Journal

It's not, though, that the judge might be looking hither and thither for a case—or a way—to help repair a perceived injustice. Instead, it's typically about what a judge can and should do when faced with a case that affords her the opportunity to create that goodness, if you will, for the "wronged" litigant, and for those (similarly-situated) who might benefit from the judge's "idealistic" decision.

By Joel Cohen

6 minute read

June 07, 2021 | New York Law Journal

Ethics and Criminal Practice columnist Joel Cohen discusses the duty of a lawyer who believes that a juror has lied and who strategizes to sit on the lie that demonstrates that the juror is biased against the criminal defendant—the lawyer intending to disclose it only if the verdict goes against his client.

By Joel Cohen

9 minute read

June 01, 2021 | New York Law Journal

When the general public refers to conduct that is fair, respectful and polite, we call it "sportsmanlike." Not "lawyerlike." Shouldn't we at the bar do what's necessary to change that?

By Joel Cohen

6 minute read

April 28, 2021 | New York Law Journal

"A defense lawyer at trial even mentioning the Fifth Amendment in open court seems bizarre."

By Joel Cohen

6 minute read

April 20, 2021 | New York Law Journal

How do changes in social values manifest today?

By Joel Cohen

8 minute read

April 13, 2021 | New York Law Journal

No statute or case law legally compels a balanced presentation—as if the prosecutor had a dual personality or had mixed emotions over whether she really wants the grand jury to indict. He virtually always, if not always, wants to indict. The recent Rochester grand jury investigation by New York's Attorney General that resulted in a no true bill against seven police officers regarding the death of Daniel Prude raises the issue squarely, which Joel Cohen explores in this edition of his Ethics and Criminal Practice column.

By Joel Cohen

9 minute read

April 06, 2021 | New York Law Journal

A jury empaneled will decide the case—ostensibly on the merits alone. Or will it really?

By Joel Cohen

11 minute read

March 30, 2021 | New York Law Journal

Can the organized bar (that essentially speaks for us), in whatever venue applicable to Powell's status as an attorney, afford to let this particular one go?

By Joel Cohen

7 minute read