Jason Goldman: The Lifeline of Criminal Defense
Practically overnight, Jason Goldman has become one of the most in-demand defense attorneys in New York City. How did it happen so fast for the 34-year-old, who now has his own eponymously named practice, The Law Offices of Jason Goldman, that lives on the 35th floor at 237 Madison Avenue in New York City. He’s currently appealing the guilty verdict of Hannah Guttierrez-Reed, the armorer, convicted in the Alec Baldwin movie shooting case.
The Hustle Behind Goldman
Jason Goldman was lured into the world of criminal defense when he began skipping class at Cardozo Law School to go down to Centre Street, where we are currently having coffee – to watch the likes of Gerald Shargel and others. He says that he became enthralled with the criminal underworld and the fascination of convincing “12 strangers” to believe his narrative as opposed to the government’s. Upon graduating, Jason was recruited to become a Brooklyn prosecutor, an office known for breeding scrappy trial lawyers. Here, he hustled, going desk to desk “in search of the biggest casefile that nobody wanted” and taking it to trial, honing his fundamentals and building his courtroom reputation.
A Practice on Passion
After a few years, Goldman jumped from the DA’s office to work for Jeffrey Lichtman and then ultimately opened up his own shop. Swiftly, he has become the go-to defense lawyer for society figures and those in the tabloids for all the wrong reasons. He built his name by taking on clients “from all walks of life and doing right by them.” Given his trajectory, it’s clear he did right by them. The attorney likes to say he represents “all collars” – a single day can include defending an accused murderer and a C-suite executive charged with bank fraud. Goldman says trial lawyering, regardless of the charges, is about “telling a persuasive, emotional and compelling story about an individual.”
After representing former New York Ranger Sean Avery, his first true breakthrough case came in the matter of Jordan Williams, an individual catapulted into the national limelight following a subway homicide. Referred by an old client, Goldman aggressively took over the case, keeping the media on his side while working to secure a complete dismissal of all charges in a matter of weeks. Asked about his career making case, Goldman says that he considers “the first time someone needed me” to be his first big case, but concedes that Williams’ matter “touched upon a bigger conversation around race, homelessness, and politics in the city – I gravitate towards cases which have a bigger meaning for society outside the four corners of an Indictment.”
Regarding courtroom victories, Goldman points to what many don’t see – the late, lonely hours committing a three-hour summation to memory. Still, Goldman exudes a certain level of instinctual confidence “once the trial bell rings,” relaying that the jury “looks at how you carry yourself, your persona and your credibility, and in turn they naturally start to find your client credible too, which can make unwinnable cases winnable.”
Empathy is Key
Goldman stresses that he is always humanizing his clients – “a lot of my success is taking a supposed villain of society and implying to a jury, ‘look, you don’t need to have dinner with the guy to find him not guilty.” At the end of the day, Goldman says, “even those accused of the worst crimes, you go down to their core and they have the same blood running through them, the same emotion and empathy, the same fears and vulnerabilities that we all have.”
Goldman points to another case in his career, that of Rashaun Weaver, a young black kid who stabbed and killed a white college girl in Morningside Park. “Probably my most unpopular client ever.” Goldman recalls originally reading about the case, naturally thinking that only a cold-blooded individual could commit such a senseless crime. But he did an about face as he learned about Weaver’s impoverished upbringing with a father who kept firearms and drugs in his house. Goldman recalls seeing pictures of a playful 11-year-old Weaver only a year before the crime, in a more nuclear household through a social services program. Weaver’s smiling face, “learning how to swim and eating an ice cream cone like any normal kid” moved Goldman emotionally. Goldman realized that “had Weaver grown up 20 blocks south, on the Upper East Side, as opposed to his lawless reality in East Harlem,” he simply wouldn’t have committed this crime. “People aren’t predisposed to be criminals,” Goldman says. “Usually, it’s where and how they grew up, who they were surrounded by. This kid never stood a chance. Despite the death threats, I’d defend him all over again.” Weaver pled guilty and was sentenced 14 years to life.
The Lifeline
When asked why he thinks his career has taken off recently, he reverts right back to his passion. “When I quote a client, they know that it doesn’t just mean they get me 9-5. What kind of retainer would that be? They get me at midnight, on the weekends. I defend them as if it’s a family member.”
Goldman typically carries around twenty cases and another ten or so “situations – people who have problems that need to go away, which the public will never hear about.” His network and his clients have started to tap him for more general legal work, which he has agreed to take on so long as he always “stays in the action” and satisfies his burning desire to defend those being prosecuted by the government. “It’s simply the loneliest chair in the world,” Goldman says. He continues on, “to hear the words ‘not guilty’ while sitting next to someone who is facing a life behind bars is like walking on water.” jasongoldmanlaw.com
