Joseph W. Martini

Overview

Joseph W. Martini joined the Firm in 2018 after more than thirty years of practice, including eleven years at Wiggin and Dana LLP, where he chaired the firm’s white collar defense, investigations and corporate compliance group and served on its executive and compensation committees. Joe also spent nine years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Connecticut. Joe is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a veteran trial lawyer, having tried more than 20 criminal and commercial cases in federal and state courts and before arbitration panels. Joe began his litigation career in the New York office of White & Case LLP.

Joe has a diverse white-collar criminal and civil litigation practice. Joe represents corporate executives, government officials, major national and international public companies, prominent privately held entities, and individuals in criminal investigations conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice (and U.S. Attorney’s Offices throughout the United States), and the Connecticut State’s Attorney’s Office, and enforcement matters brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, CFTC, FINRA, FAA, and OSHA, the Connecticut Attorney General and Connecticut Department of Banking. In addition, Joe has represented victims of federal and state crimes seeking restitution as part of the criminal process.

Joe’s cases have involved allegations of health care and financial fraud, federal and state false claims act violations, political corruption, insider trading and securities fraud, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, RICO, tax fraud, mortgage fraud, bankruptcy fraud, mail and wire fraud, money laundering, currency transaction and Bank Secrecy Act matters, environmental crimes, trade secret theft, municipal corruption, fraud in the defense contracting industry and occupational safety and health (OSHA) matters.

Entities facing crisis situations often retain Joe to conduct internal investigations, and he has regularly done so in the financial, health care, manufacturing, construction and defense industries. Joe also has experience representing clients in matters involving the United Nations, and before hospital boards of directors and hearing panels in connection with disciplinary and other administrative proceedings. He also has experience conducting sexual assault and abuse investigations, including Title IX investigations, and defending matters brought by the U.S. Department of Education.

Joe’s civil litigation practice has grown over the years to include a broad range of areas, including complex commercial disputes, trusts and estates matters in Connecticut’s Probate Court and New York Surrogate’s Court, real estate disputes, and defamation and patent cases.

As a federal prosecutor, Joe received the Department of Justice’s prestigious Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for his team’s pioneering use of the federal RICO statute in prosecutions of violent street gangs in Connecticut. He was also a trial instructor at the FBI Sensitive Operations and Undercover School at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.

Joe is listed in Chambers USA in the category of Litigation: White Collar Crime and Government Investigations. Joe also has been chosen by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the category of White Collar Criminal Defense. He received an AV® Preeminent™ peer rating from Martindale-Hubbell, Benchmark Litigation has recognized him as a “Litigation Star” in the area of White Collar Crime, and he has also been recognized by Super Lawyers as a top rated attorney in the area of White Collar Crime.

Joe is also an accomplished appellate lawyer, having briefed and argued over 20 cases before the United States Court of Appeals and New York and Connecticut state appellate courts.

Joe was recently appointed to serve on the Criminal Justice Act Standing Committee for the District of Connecticut, where he is an active member of the CJA Panel, and he previously served two terms as a member of the CJA Panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He also serves as a Member of the Local Grievance Panel for the Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District. Joe is an active member of the Connecticut Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Federal Bar Council and is a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Association. He previously served as the Editor-in-Chief of the American Bar Association, Section on Litigation, Committee on Criminal Litigation Newsletter.

Joe frequently lectures on white collar matters before groups in the health care, manufacturing and defense industries.