Firm Overview

AIELLO & CANNICK was founded in 1991 by three partners who attended Fordham University School of Law together and after eight year respective stints in the Bronx, Manhattan and Queens County District Attorney Offices, they entered private practice by opening an office in Maspeth, Queens and two years later at 233 Broadway in the Woolworth Building in downtown Manhattan.  From its inception, our firm has been involved in all aspects of Federal and State criminal defense.

We pride ourselves on having a reputation as a small but prestigious law firm offering unparalleled personal service and experience.   We specialize in helping people who have never had contact with the criminal justice system and are completely intimidated by it.  Right from the start our firm handled several high-profile criminal cases including representation of:

• Peter Guagenti, the driver in the Amy Fisher case in Nassau County in 1992.
• Patrick Bannon who shot and killed three people including an off-duty housing police officer outside a nightclub on Bell Boulevard in Bayside, Queens in 1993.

• Julio Rivera who was charged with other in the abduction of Harvey Weinstein, the Tuxedo King of Queens County in 1995.

• William Tager who was charged with shooting a stage hand outside the NBC Today show studio in 1995.

Our firm also represented one of the defendants charged in the assault of Shane Daniels outside Club Marakash in Westhampton Beach.  Several years ago one of the partners represented a Honduran immigrant Dennis Salvador Alvarez Hernandez in Westchester County’s first death penalty prosecution.  After a nine month trial the jury spared Mr. Alvarez his life.

In 1997 our firm was selected as General Counsel to represent the Mount Vernon City School District.  During this period of growth, the firm also established Of-Counsel relationships with expert lawyers in the fields of personal injury, matrimonial and family law and immigration law.

Under the leadership of Deveraux L. Cannick, we expanded our litigation practice to include civil rights and 1983 constitutional claims involving “police brutality”.  In one of his first civil court jury trials, Mr. Cannick won a $3.25 million dollar verdict for his client who claimed a police officer beat him up.  The case was reported in the Daily News on April, 14^th, 2000 and covered on the local television stations.  It was one of the largest jury verdicts of its kind.  This significant jury verdict was obtained despite an investigation by the Civilian Complaint Review Board which found our client’s claim unsubstantiated.

A short time later, Mr. Cannick was retained to represent Saikou Diallo, the father of Amadou Diallo who was shot 41 times by police officers on February 4^th, 1999.  Although the four police officers were ultimately acquitted of all charges, Mr. Cannick successfully sued the City of New York and received the largest wrongful death settlement of its kind against the City of New York at that time.  He also had the distinction of working with Johnny Cochran who represented Amadou Diallo’s mother.

More recently with the advent of new technologies and the proliferation of government regulations at the City, State and Federal levels, many individuals and businesses never involved in the criminal justice system now find themselves under investigation by the District Attorney’s Office, New York Attorney General’s Office or the United States Attorney’s Office.  These investigations run the gamut from evasion of sales tax, prevailing wage violations, stock fraud, tax fraud, money laundering, labor law violations, environmental law violations and cyber-crimes, etc.

Our clients range from sophisticated business leaders to small business owners.  These so called white collar cases which typically begin with the issuance of a subpoena or search warrant pose special challenges because the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction to a successful business can result in the loss of a client’s livelihood.  Our firm takes a multi-faceted approach to representing clients in these cases and often seeks a global resolution with respect to the criminal and civil cases so there is finality for the client.  Our goal is always in order of priority to protect our client from going to jail, avoid a felony conviction and preservation of our client’s business.

Aiello & Cannick attorneys possess extensive business as well as legal experience.  The firm’s education, business and legal backgrounds enable it to quickly adapt to new situations and to view a problem from multiple perspectives.  The attorney’s business background causes them to be solution-oriented and their financial experience fosters sensitivity to the client’s cost constraints and objectives.  Aiello & Cannick is a diverse and talented team dedicated to the delivery of high quality, personalized and cost effective legal services to individual as well as institutional clients.

Today, the firm maintains an excellent reputation for providing legal services in a number of areas and prides itself on having a first-rate legal support system where clients received the highest level of personal service.