Matthew J. Galluzzo

Matthew Galluzzo is an aggressive and accomplished litigator who cares deeply about his clients. He has experience representing high-profile clients in high-stakes matters and gets outstanding results under pressure. His clients often rave about him and routinely refer their friends and loved ones to him. He concentrates his practice primarily in the areas of criminal defense, appeals, and qui tam/whistleblower lawsuits. Call him or email him to set up a consultation, and you’ll get an honest assessment of your case and a fair quote for his services.

Mr. Galluzzo has represented clients in high-profile civil rights lawsuits, homicide investigations, complex conspiracies involving financial fraud, high-stakes violent crime cases, rape and sexual assault investigations, and a wide variety of other civil and criminal matters. He is a rare attorney in that he possesses the academic legal ability to write sophisticated and winning briefs for New York state's highest appellate court as well as the tenacity and courtroom skill to win jury trials when the stakes are highest. Moreover, judges and prosecutors throughout the city respect him for his professionalism and his zealous advocacy on behalf of his clients. In 2014, the National Trial Lawyers Association named him to its list of the Top 100 trial lawyers in the United States. In 2023, France honored his extraordinary work defending French citizens by making him a knight (Chevalier) in its National Order of Merit. 

Mr. Galluzzo began his career at one of the most esteemed prosecutor’s offices in the nation: the New York County District Attorney’s Office. He started in the Appeals Bureau, where he researched complex issues of criminal law, drafted briefs in response to criminal appeals, and argued several times before panels of judges at the Appellate Division, First Department. Mr. Galluzzo later transferred to the office’s Trial Division, where he oversaw the prosecution of hundreds of criminal cases and investigations and tried a dozen felony cases to verdict with an outstanding success rate. As a member of the office’s Sex Crimes Unit, he successfully prosecuted many rapes and sexual assaults. Mr. Galluzzo also developed a reputation as an outstanding domestic violence prosecutor and was promoted to a supervisory position whereby he trained the junior prosecutors in his bureau and supervised the prosecution of their misdemeanor domestic violence cases. Finally, he regularly supervised the office’s Early Case Assessment Bureau and assisted in the investigation of homicides.

As a former member of the renowned Sex Crimes Unit of the Manhattan D.A.'s Office, Mr. Galluzzo has particular expertise pertaining to rape and sexual assault investigations. He has obtained outstanding results for clients charged with rape and sexual assault charges, both at trial and during the pre-trial investigation phases. He has been recognized as a leading expert in rape investigations by the U.S. government, which recently recruited, hired and sent him to go on assignment in South Africa to help improve the training of their prosecutors in the investigation of rapes and sex crimes. He also regularly represents and advises victims of rapes and sexual assaults and students facing disciplinary proceedings at universities. He is also frequently asked to write columns in New York newspapers about pending sexual assault investigations in the news.

Mr. Galluzzo has been interviewed by journalists countless times (in English and in French) for his expert opinion on notable criminal cases, and has appeared in dozens of American and foreign TV, radio, and print news publications including, among others: CNN, Good Day New York (Fox 5 TV), ABC News New York, ABC News US, CBS News New York, CBS News US, Channel 11 News New York,the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post,the New York Daily News, Channel 12 News Brooklyn, the Village Voice, the Associated Press, Yahoo! News, The Washington Times, the BBC (UK), Reuters, The Regional News Network (RNN TV), DNAinfo, Yahoo! France, NPR, Slate, the London Sunday Times, the Globe and Mail (Canada), Radio Canada TV (French); TV-A (Montréal), 98.5 FM (Montréal), Die Spiegel (Germany), France 3 TV, Radio France Info, Atlantico (France), Telefrance 5, BFM-TV (France), Eurovision, France 24, Le Figaro (France), Metro France, LePoint (France), France Inter, Elle Magazine (France), Sudouest (France), Le Parisien, 20 Minutes (France), the New York Financial Press (French edition), Europe 1 (France), The Australian (newspaper), La Libre (Belgium), RadioLive in New Zealand, amNY, ARD (German TV), The Arab Times Online (English), radio in Martinique, African television (Benin), the Angola Press (French), and the Times of Pakistan. He is a co-author of a blog about current issues in criminal law, and he and his innovative use of social media (including Twitter and Facebook) have been profiled by the Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Galluzzo is a French speaking New York Criminal Defense and Civil Rights Attorney. The French Consulate in New York (Consulat Général de France à New York) bestowed upon Mr. Galluzzo the prestigious title of Avocat-Conseil en Droit Pénal in recognition of his zealous representation of French nationals living and working in New York, as well as for his ability to communicate effectively in French. In 2023 he was knighted by France for his work in representing French citiznes. In 2012, the French American Foundation selected him and nine other Americans to participate in its prestigious Young Leaders Program. Past American recipients of this honor include Bill and Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bill Bradley, Gen. Wesley Clark, and Citigroup chairman John Thain. Mr. Galluzzo also maintains regular relationships with the Belgian, Swiss, Australian, and Saudi Arabian consulates, who regularly entrust him to represent their citizens in criminal matters. In 2022, the nation of France knighted him by naming him a Chevalier in the Ordre National du Merite (National Order of Merit), in recognition of his extraordinary service as a criminal defense attorney for French citizens. 

Mr. Galluzzo earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Duke University and later attended the prestigious Northwestern University School of Law, where he was a regular on the Dean’s List, served as the co-chair of the Moot Court Board, and worked in the Juvenile Criminal Defense Clinic. He also worked as the teaching assistant for a negotiations course taught to both graduate law and business students.

Mr. Galluzzo is admitted to practice law in New York as well as in the Southern and the Eastern District of New York federal courts. He is a member of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the New York State Bar Association, the New York City Bar Association, the National Italian American Bar Association, the French-American Bar Association, and the Columbian Lawyers’ Association of New York City. Mr. Galluzzo has also previously served as a panelist on the New York City Democratic Party Judicial Screening Committee.

In his spare time, Mr. Galluzzo enjoys piano, guitar, bicycling, basketball, cooking, and travel.