Tim has dedicated his professional life to The Legal Aid Society. After more than three decades working within our Criminal Defense Practice, Tim now oversees all of our Criminal Defense Practice staff within our Queens office, managing a large professional staff of attorneys, social workers, paralegals, and support staff. However, even for someone who has been around our city’s criminal justice system for years, Tim is still finding new ways to better serve his community.

Criminal justice issues are social justice issues.

For Tim and all the staff he manages, the next few months mark an exciting time for public defenders. With the roll-out of a variety of new criminal justice reforms slated to take effect, Tim and his staff are getting themselves ready to take their advocacy “to the next level of client services.” Reforms to cash bail and discovery laws even the playing field for our clients. As Tim sees it, these are just the latest trends in a long-running push by The Legal Aid Society: “we’ve been at the forefront of every major reform effort.”

We’ve been at the forefront of every major reform effort.

Tim would know something about big legal changes. In 1995, while Tim was still a staff attorney, New York State reinstated capital punishment. Tim quickly joined our Capital Defense Unit, which tried the first ever capital case in New York following capital punishment’s reinstatement. Since then, Tim has seen our staff tackle a number of systemic issues, from Stop and Frisk policing to illegal warrant sweeps of NYCHA housing. As Tim notes, part of our ability to fight these big issues is the depth and breadth of the work we do every day. As he says “we see these issues on the ground, then we can identify a systemic problem.” Tim is making a difference for our clients, our communities, and the staff members that make our work possible.

We see these issues on the ground, then we can identify a systemic problem.