Goldberger & Dubin, P.C.

Focus and practice areas

Criminal defense is the core of the work here, handled out of an office in New York City. The firm represents people who have been charged with crimes, and it names a wide set of matters it takes on. Most of that work runs through the state criminal courts.

On the criminal side, the firm handles drug crimes, DWI, assault, robbery, homicide, and sexual assault. It also takes domestic violence cases, larceny, shoplifting, arson, firearm offenses, computer crimes, and hazing. White collar files cover fraud, embezzlement, RICO, and Paycheck Protection Program charges.

Beyond trial defense, Goldberger & Dubin handles appeals, civil litigation, and criminal and civil asset forfeiture. It also takes immigration matters. That mix lets one office stay with a case after a verdict, whether the next step is an appeal or a fight over seized property.

How the team is built

The site names three attorneys: Paul A. Goldberger, Lawrence Dubin, and Renee Wong. Each is a former Assistant District Attorney. That shared background means the lawyers spent part of their careers prosecuting cases before they moved to the defense side.

The firm describes itself as smaller and boutique, with the attorneys working together on each case. In my opinion, that structure matters most in criminal work, where a client wants direct contact with the lawyer arguing the case. A compact roster tends to keep that contact close, and it lets a second lawyer review strategy or cover part of a hearing.

The site states that its attorneys hold more than 100 years of combined criminal law experience. That number adds up the years across the whole group. Paired with the former prosecutor background, it describes a team that has spent long stretches inside criminal courts.

The criminal caseload

The named charges cover both low-level offenses and the most serious felonies. A shoplifting or larceny case and a homicide case move through very different parts of the system, and the firm lists both. That spread is common for a general criminal defense firm in a large city, where the same office may see a first-time misdemeanor one week and a violent felony the next.

How a case tends to move

In general, a criminal case follows a set path. A charge leads to an arraignment, where a judge sets the terms of release. Then comes discovery, the period when each side exchanges evidence. Pretrial motions can shape what a jury hears, and can challenge how the police gathered proof. Many cases resolve through negotiation before trial. When a case does reach a jury, the defense puts forward its own account of the facts.

Some of the listed areas carry their own procedures. A DWI charge often brings both a criminal case and a separate action against the driver's license. Firearm offenses in New York turn on specific statutes and strict rules about possession. Domestic violence matters can run alongside orders of protection that limit contact while the case is open. A firm that names these areas has to track both the charge and the side effects that come with it.

White collar files

White collar work runs on a different rhythm. Fraud, embezzlement, RICO, and Paycheck Protection Program cases often turn on documents and financial records more than eyewitnesses. They can involve federal agencies and investigations that start well before any charge is filed. A firm that names this work shows familiarity with that document-heavy kind of case.

Appeals, forfeiture, and other matters

Appeals ask a higher court to review what happened at trial. They center on the record and on legal error, and they carry their own deadlines. Because the firm handles appeals in-house, a client who loses at trial can keep the same lawyers for that stage.

Asset forfeiture runs on its own track. Here the government moves to take property tied to alleged criminal activity, sometimes through a civil action separate from the criminal charge. The firm handles both criminal and civil forfeiture, so it can answer the charge and the property claim at the same time.

Immigration and civil litigation

Immigration sits close to criminal defense for many clients, because a conviction can change a person's status in the country. As a reviewer, I read the firm's choice to keep immigration work under the same roof as a practical one: it lets the defense weigh the immigration cost of a plea while the criminal case is still open.

The firm also handles civil litigation, which sits outside the criminal courts. Civil cases center on disputes between parties over money or rights, and they follow their own timelines for pleadings, discovery, and trial. For a client whose situation has both a criminal and a civil side, one firm across both can keep the approach consistent.

What the record shows

By its own account, the firm has handled hundreds of cases, including jury trials and appeals, in courts across the state. That points to steady courtroom volume. The number covers both trials and the appellate work that can follow them.

Making first contact

The firm offers a free, confidential consultation. For someone facing a criminal charge, that first meeting is where a lawyer reviews the allegations, explains the stages ahead, and lays out the options. It is also where a client can ask how the firm's former prosecutors read the strengths and weak points of a case.

Some of the site's content also appears in Chinese, which points to work with Chinese-speaking clients in the city.

The lawyers and their training

Paul A. Goldberger is the firm's senior partner. He holds a bachelor's degree from Tufts University and a law degree from St. John's University, which he completed in 1966. His work centers on criminal law, business crimes, constitutional law, appellate practice, and white collar matters, and it reaches into drug and narcotics cases. That range fits a lawyer who argues at trial and then carries the same file up on appeal.

Lawrence Dubin took a bachelor of science from the University of Pennsylvania and a law degree from St. John's University School of Law. His practice runs wider than criminal defense. He handles business law, insurance defense, litigation, insurance fraud, and insurance bad faith. For a client whose trouble crosses from a criminal charge into an insurance dispute, that second track sits under the same roof.

Two matters on the record

Goldberger's listed cases give a sense of the courtrooms this work reaches. United States v. Sampol is a federal prosecution, tried under federal rules. People v. Leslie Wolff is a New York State case, brought by the state and heard in its own courts. One lawyer with both captions on his record has worked the two systems that a serious charge in the city can land in, and each carries its own procedure and its own bench. His stated focus on constitutional law and appellate practice points to the legal questions that sit above the day-to-day facts of a case.

The Broadway office

The firm works out of 401 Broadway, Suite 306, in New York. It is a single suite rather than a network of branches. A client meets the same lawyers at the same address from the first consultation through the close of the case, and that continuity is easier to hold from one office than across several. The office phone is (646) 681-5997, the number the firm gives for its free consultation.