Goldstein Mehta LLC

Focus and jurisdiction

The firm works in criminal defense and keeps its office in Center City Philadelphia. It represents people who face criminal charges in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Its attorneys appear in both state and federal courts.

That two-court reach matters for anyone comparing options. A case charged in state court moves through county judges and juries under Pennsylvania or New Jersey rules. A federal case runs through a separate system with its own procedure and sentencing rules. A firm that handles both can meet a client wherever the charge lands. Representing clients in two states asks a firm to track two sets of statutes and two sets of local practices.

A Center City base keeps the firm close to Philadelphia's courthouses. Cases in New Jersey pull the attorneys across the river into a second state system. Federal matters can bring them into the district courts that cover the region. For a defendant, the firm's location can ease the logistics of meeting counsel and getting to court.

The charges the firm takes on

DUI and drug cases sit alongside the firm's homicide and sex crime work. Its listed case types include DUI, drug charges, gun charges, theft crimes, violent crimes, sex crimes, white collar charges, juvenile cases, and homicide. Both misdemeanor and felony matters fall inside that scope. Every case on that list starts with the same early questions about the stop and the search that followed.

The stakes differ sharply across this list. A DUI can put someone's license and record at risk. Gun and drug charges in Pennsylvania can carry mandatory terms. Homicide and serious sex offenses bring the heaviest exposure a defendant can face. Juvenile cases run through a separate court built around younger clients.

Some of these categories turn on how the evidence was gathered. Early motions about that evidence can shape how a case ends. A defense office that keeps this breadth on one roster can match a case to a lawyer who works that charge type often.

Appellate and post-conviction work

The firm's work reaches past the trial stage. It handles criminal appeals and Post-Conviction Relief Act litigation. It also files federal habeas corpus petitions.

Appellate work asks a higher court to review what happened below for legal error. A Post-Conviction Relief Act case gives a Pennsylvania defendant a route to challenge a conviction after the direct appeal. A federal habeas petition carries a claim into federal court once state options run out. Each of these calls for close reading of the trial record, and each runs on strict deadlines.

Post-conviction and appellate matters differ from a first trial in one plain way: the facts are mostly fixed, and the fight moves to the law and the written record. That work rewards patience and careful drafting. It also gives a convicted client a further chance to be heard.

How the team is built

Four attorneys are listed with the firm: Zak T. Goldstein, Demetra Mehta, Thomas C. Clemens, and Charles Foltz. Zak T. Goldstein and Demetra Mehta started the firm together.

Backgrounds the site names

Before founding the firm, Goldstein worked as an Assistant Defender with the Defender Association of Philadelphia. He then joined an AmLaw 200 firm as an associate. He studied at Moravian College and earned his law degree at Villanova University School of Law.

Thomas C. Clemens is Of Counsel at the firm. He spent more than six years as a major crimes prosecutor with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, where he tried criminal jury cases. He holds a B.A. (2000) and an M.A. (2004) from St. Joseph's University, plus a J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law earned in 2010. Of Counsel usually marks a lawyer tied to a firm without being a partner or a full-time associate.

Read together, the listed backgrounds cover more than one vantage point. Goldstein came up through the public defender system before private practice. Clemens spent years on the prosecution side before joining as Of Counsel. As a reviewer, I find that pairing worth noting, because a client's case can draw on lawyers who have seen how charges get built and how they get answered.

What the courtroom record shows

Goldstein has tried hundreds of cases before judges and juries. He has argued before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He has also litigated writs of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court.

Trial numbers on their own do not decide a case. What they show is time spent in front of judges and juries, and comfort with the way a courtroom runs. Certiorari work sits at the far end of that experience, since few cases ever reach a petition to the nation's highest court. In my opinion, that appellate reach also says something about how carefully the trial record gets built in the first place.

An initial conversation with counsel lets someone understand the charge and the likely steps ahead. The firm offers a 15-minute strategy session to people who have been arrested or charged.