Noam Biale

Experience

Convincing prosecutors they got it wrong: Noam has a track record of pushing back against federal charges and convincing prosecutors they’ve made a mistake. Notably, he represented a real estate executive in the Eastern District of New York who was charged with money laundering conspiracy based on her brokering real estate transactions for an individual engaged in credit card fraud. Noam presented evidence that his client had no knowledge of the source of her customer’s funds, and the government agreed to drop the charges. Similarly, Noam persuaded the U.S. Attorney’s Office to grant a rare, deferred prosecution to a client who was the lead defendant in an indicted securities fraud case alleging a pump-and-dump scheme. Convincing the government that his client’s company had a real product and that no pump-and-dump was ever contemplated, Noam was able to secure an agreement to drop the charges after a probationary period. Finally, with Justine Harris, Noam represented a senior U.N. employee charged with visa fraud and forced labor violations in the Southern District of New York. In a series of meetings with the prosecutors, Justine and Noam presented evidence showing the government’s main witness was lying, and the government dismissed the case.

Changing the narrative at trial: In a narcotics trial in the Eastern District of New York, Noam argued that drugs purportedly found in his client’s possession were planted by the police. The jury deadlocked on whether Noam’s client possessed cocaine base and acquitted him of possessing marijuana. Noam then persuaded the district judge that the police officers testified falsely about finding a gun on Noam’s client, leading the court to conclude that the government had not met their burden to prove gun possession at sentencing. In the same case, Noam won a reversal of the district court’s denial of his motion to reopen the suppression hearing. On remand, the court suppressed all the evidence, and the government dismissed the indictment against Noam’s client. In a Southern District of New York case, Noam persuaded the jury that two witnesses the government presented as robbery victims were not credible, and the jury acquitted on a charge that depended on their testimony, which carried a mandatory minimum sentence. In the same case, Noam persuaded the judge to grant a new trial on another charge based on changes in the law that occurred after the jury’s verdict. The government dropped that count rather than retry Noam’s client on it.

Mitigating conduct and achieving results at sentencing: Noam frequently persuades prosecutors to reduce – and in some cases drop – charges based on circumstances that mitigate his client’s culpability. In the Eastern District of New York, Noam persuaded prosecutors – on the eve of trial – that the combination of his client’s health issues, the persuasive innocent explanation for the charged conduct, and the track record of perjury by the government’s cooperator all in favor of a deferred prosecution, which will ultimately lead to a full dismissal of the charges. In a narcotics case in the Southern District of New York, Noam was able to get his young client into a diversion program, where the client was successful in obtaining his GED and full-time employment. Based on his success, Noam convinced the government to dismiss the case. Noam has also convinced the government to reduce his clients’ charges to misdemeanors in a variety of cases, including a computer programmer charged with theft of trade secrets, a client charged in a wide-ranging wire fraud scheme, and a client charged with gun possession in which Noam undermined the arresting officers’ allegations in a suppression hearing. In all these cases, Noam’s clients initially faced a felony conviction carrying significant jail time but were ultimately sentenced to short terms of probation. Finally, Noam’s advocacy at sentencing in felony cases regularly results in below-Guidelines and non-custodial sentences in both white collar and CJA matters, including obtaining probationary sentences in cases involving theft of government funds, healthcare fraud, wire fraud, interstate transport of stolen vehicles, and money laundering. Most recently, he obtained a sentence of time served for a client in a drug case who faced a ten-year mandatory minimum but ultimately served only six days in custody.

Winning on appeal: Noam often argues before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and has achieved numerous successes there. Most recently, he won a reversal of his client’s sentence in a high-profile white-collar case in which he persuasively argued that the district judge should been recused from the case. His other victories at the Circuit have included winning a landmark ruling establishing the First Amendment right of prisoners not to provide information to prison guards; winning affirmance of summary judgment on behalf of a New York state public benefit corporation sued for retaliation and denial of public access to board meetings; winning the reversal of a district court ruling dismissing the client’s civil rights suit for failure to prosecute; winning reversal of a district court’s refusal to reopen a suppression hearing in a criminal case; and winning an ultra-rare petition for a writ of mandamus, in which the circuit court intervened and ordered a district judge to withdraw his ruling requiring Noam’s client to disclose sensitive financial data.