Darren Michael Gelber

Mr. Gelber, a shareholder with the law firm of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer P.A., concentrates his practice in the area of criminal law and civil rights law and serves as co-chair of the Criminal Law/Civil Rights Team.  He has consistently been selected for inclusion in New Jersey Super Lawyers® list since 2005.

Designated by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Certified Criminal Trial Attorney, Mr. Gelber represents clients in all phases of criminal proceedings, including those charged with serious offenses in state and federal courts, those under investigation by law enforcement authorities or subpoenaed to appear before a state or federal grand jury.  He also represents clients with appellate matters.  As a former prosecutor with experience in New York criminal practice, Mr. Gelber has represented many New Jersey residents who have had encounters with the New York criminal justice system.

Mr. Gelber  is a past recipient of the Middlesex County Bar Association’s Criminal Trial Attorney of the Year award.  Mr. Gelber’s practice also extends to areas related to criminal and quasi-criminal proceedings.  For example, he has represented licensed real estate agents, nurses and other professionals before administrative licensing boards.  He also has extensive experience representing clients in administrative matters before the Division of Motor Vehicles, and has represented police officers in departmental disciplinary matters.

As an experienced litigator, Mr. Gelber has represented plaintiffs and defendants in civil rights cases before state and federal courts.  Mr. Gelber recently obtained a $3.4 million dollar settlement in federal court on behalf of the family of a husband, wife and child who were shot and killed by an off-duty police officer.  He was also part of the litigation team that won a jury verdict in the amount of $17.5 million in a police misconduct/medical malpractice case tried in Federal Court in White Plains, NY.

From 1993 to 1996 Mr. Gelber was an Assistant District Attorney in Bronx, NY where he acquired extensive trial experience prosecuting various criminal matters, and where he led homicide grand jury investigations.  Mr. Gelber was associated with the offices of Linda Kenney in Red Bank from 1996 to 1997, where he practiced in the areas of workplace discrimination, civil rights litigation, and criminal defense.

Mr. Gelber is an active member of the Bar.  He is a past  member of the Supreme Court Committee on Women in the Courts.  He is a member of the Middlesex and Monmouth County Bar Associations, and the New Jersey State Bar Association, where he is a member of the Criminal Practice Committee.  Mr. Gelber is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey.

He is also a frequent guest commentator on TruTV’s In Session programming (formerly known as CourtTV), and has served as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University.