Elkan Abramowitz is a leading white collar criminal defense lawyer experienced in handling civil and criminal matters in state and federal court for individual and corporate clients. He has built his career as a trial lawyer representing prestigious clients fallen into high stakes personal and professional crises both in and outside the courtroom. Elkan is the recipient of the 1999 Milton S. Gould Award for Outstanding Oral Advocacy presented by the Office of the Appellate Defender. Named a leading lawyer by Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers in the area of Litigation: White Collar Crime & Government Investigations every year since Chambers’ 2003 launch in the United States, he has been described as “an unquestioned dean of the field … with a potent combination of experience, intelligence and composure.” He is also listed as a Leading Lawyer in White Collar Criminal Defense by The Legal 500 United States, and as a Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys. In 2008, Elkan was honored with the New York Council of Defense Lawyers’ Norman S. Ostrow award for the defense of liberty and the preservation of individual rights.
Elkan became a principal at a predecessor firm to Morvillo Abramowitz in 1979. He was appointed Special Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Investigation for the City of New York in 1990 to investigate a stock transfer by Mayor David Dinkins to his son. He served as counsel to the Special Master in the garment center antitrust case in 1992. Elkan has also served as Assistant Deputy Mayor for the City of New York, as a Special Counsel to the Select Committee on Crime for the U.S. House of Representatives, and as the Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Elkan is a co-author of the “White Collar Crime” column in the New York Law Journal.
Specialties: Litigation and White Collar Criminal Defense
