Roland G. Riopelle

Mr. Riopelle is a partner in the firm of Sercarz & Riopelle, LLP, where he litigates primarily criminal cases and the occasional complex civil case. He is a graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law. After law school, Mr. Riopelle clerked for a Federal District Judge and later served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1992 to 1998. He is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He has been elected one of the Best Lawyers in America and a New York Superlawyer for each of the past ten years. He has served as the President of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, and he is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He is an active member of the New York State Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he has chaired the Criminal Advocacy Committee, and served on the Criminal Courts and Judiciary Committees. Mr. Riopelle has chaired or participated in various Continuing Legal Education programs, primarily related to evidentiary rules and criminal law. In November 2015, Mr. Riopelle was thrilled to participate in the College’s CLE program in Palau. Mr. Riopelle has also served as a member of the Disciplinary Committee for the First Judicial Department in New York State, where he chaired a panel that heard professional disciplinary matters relating to attorneys admitted to practice in the First Judicial Department of New York State.

Mr. Riopelle routinely tries criminal cases and regulatory enforcement cases. Some of his best known criminal and regulatory enforcement trials have been:

1.United States v. Millan, et al. In this case, Mr. Riopelle was one of two prosecutors of a narcotics organization that dealt more than $300 million in heroin in a four year period.
2.United States v. Volpe. In this case, Mr. Riopelle and his partner defended a floor broker on the New York Stock Exchange against criminal charges of front running, and obtained an acquittal for the defendant.
3.United States v. Malin. In this case, Mr. Riopelle defended the leader of the Squawk Box Seven in two multi-defendant trials, obtaining an acquittal of his client on 39 of 40 counts in the first trial, and obtaining a complete dismissal of the charges against his client after a successful appeal of the jurys guilty verdict in the second trial.
4.United States v. Hatfield. In this case, Mr. Riopelle and his partner tried the longest criminal trial in the history of the Eastern District of New York. The case was a complex accounting fraud and insider trading case, and Mr. Riopelle and his partner obtained a split verdict for their client.
5.United States v.Bongiorno. In this case, Mr. Riopelle represented Bernard Madoffs administrative assistant/secretary in a six month trial of complex charges relating to the Madoff Ponzi scheme. Although his client was convicted of all charges against her in this notorious case, Mr. Riopelle obtained a sentence of only 6 years for his client, although the sentencing guidelines called for a life sentence, and the prosecution argued for a sentence of more than 20 years.
6.SEC v. Obus. In this case, Mr. Riopelle represented the alleged tipper in an insider trading conspiracy, and obtained a defense verdict for his client.
7. United States v. Cane. In this pump and dump securities fraud case, Mr. Riopelle obtained an acquittal for his clients on all counts in the indictment, in federal district court.
8. United States v. Khwaja. In this money laundering case, Mr. Riopelle obtained an acquittal of his client on all counts in federal district court, and then litigated forfeiture issues, forcing the return of approximately $2 million seized from his client and related persons.