Gordon Mehler

Gordon Mehler concentrates his practice in the areas of federal white-collar criminal defense and civil litigation. He has over 30 years of experience as a lawyer. This includes more than a decade as a federal prosecutor and more than two decades in private practice, mostly running his own boutique practice. He also has expertise accumulated as a Justice Department official in Washington, as an adjunct professor of law, and as author (with others) of a widely-used practitioner’s treatise on federal criminal procedure now in its 21st edition.

As a defense lawyer, Mr. Mehler represented one of five defendants in a nearly six-month trial stemming from the Bernard Madoff securities fraud, as well as one of the original seven international soccer-related defendants extradited from Switzerland in the FIFA racketeering case. More recently, he secured one of the first acquittals in a pandemic-challenged trial, with nearly all trial participants masked. Working pro bono for nearly two years, he also helped secure the release of one of two men wrongfully imprisoned for 13 years in the Palladium Murder case, later the subject of a two-hour Dateline NBC documentary.

Mr. Mehler started the firm in 2000 after serving as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in Washington toward the end of the Clinton administration. Prior to his Justice Department assignment, he served as Chief of Special Prosecutions (now Public Integrity), one of the two white-collar crime sections in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. He tried more than two dozen cases to verdict, handled many appeals, and was recognized for superior performance by the Attorney General of the United States. He also served as Eastern District Domestic Terrorism Coordinator, and worked overseas as the first Resident American Criminal Justice Advisor the Romanian government.

Mr. Mehler initially wrote Federal Criminal Practice: A Second Circuit Handbook (Lexis Nexis 21st ed. 2021, 1646 pages)  with two colleagues: John Gleeson, a former federal district judge, and David James, a longtime federal prosecutor and chief appellate lawyer. Alicyn Cooley joined them in 2016. United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg called the work “tremendously valuable” in her foreword to the book. Based on the book, Mr. Mehler recently served as an expert witness on American criminal procedure in the High Court of Hong Kong.

After receiving his law degree from New York University, Mr. Mehler was a law clerk to Judge Robert H. McWilliams of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He also worked as a litigation associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. He was born and raised in Denver, and graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in journalism. He has published articles on law, politics, and business, but also medicine, religion and architecture. His writing has appeared in over two dozen periodicals, including The Atlantic and Newsweek, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, American Lawyer and Annals of Internal Medicine.

Mr. Mehler, who is married with two adult daughters, has served on the boards of several non-profits, including the New York Council of Defense Lawyers. He has also served as board chair of Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement, one of New York’s oldest settlement houses.

Peer Review: Mr. Mehler is included in the current edition of Best Lawyers in America^©, has been selected as a Thomson Reuters Super Lawyer^© every year since 2007, and has also received the highest peer review rating (AV-Preeminent) from Martindale Hubbell^©. Mehler Law is also recognized as a top level (Tier 1) New York City law firm by U.S. News and World Report.

Professional Affiliations: American Bar Association (service on International White Collar Committee and Parallel Proceedings Task Force); New York City Bar Association (service on Federal Courts Committee and Committee to Encourage Judicial Service); Federal Bar Council (service on Committee on Second Circuit Courts); New York Council of Defense Lawyers (service on board of directors and former chair of Eastern District Liaison Committee).