A Former Federal Prosecutor in Your CornerA Former Federal Prosecutor in Your Corner. Aggressive in the Courtroom and Effective at the Negotiation Table.A Former Federal Prosecutor in Your Corner. Aggressive in the Courtroom and Effective at the Negotiation Table.A Former Federal Prosecutor in Your Corner. Aggressive in the Courtroom and Effective at the Negotiation Table.A Former Federal Tax Prosecutor with the Experience to Take on the IRS and Resolve Tax ProblemsA Former Federal Prosecutor in Your Corner. Aggressive in the Courtroom and Effective at the Negotiation Table.
Justin is a former federal prosecutor with extensive experience in high stakes litigation.
A seasoned trial attorney, Justin focuses his practice on criminal defense, white collar matters, internal investigations, tax controversy, and sophisticated civil litigation. Justin’s clients have included elected officials, attorneys, current and former law enforcement officers, former prosecutors, doctors, large and small businesses, a university, religious leaders, and hardworking individuals from all walks of life.
Justin is at home in the courtroom and routinely tries cases to verdict. But when it’s in his client’s best interest, Justin resolves cases outside of the courtroom—often with no publicity.
Justin joined the U.S. Department of Justice in 2009 through the Attorney General’s Honors Program and was assigned to the Tax Division’s Southern Criminal Enforcement Section. Based in Washington, D.C. for more than four years, Justin prosecuted a wide range of federal criminal cases throughout the country, including criminal tax, financial fraud, identity theft, offshore banking, immigration fraud, passport fraud, money laundering, international tax evasion and domestic terrorism matters. As a prosecutor, Justin first-chaired 13 federal fraud jury trials and numerous federal bench trials—winning all of them. Justin spearheaded more than 50 financial fraud grand jury investigations and represented the United States before federal courts of appeal with a 100% success rate.
Justin routinely presents continuing education to attorneys and accountants throughout the country on cutting-edge legal issues. Justin was a Faculty Member at the National Advocacy Center, the U.S. Department of Justice’s acclaimed legal academy in South Carolina, where he taught hundreds of federal prosecutors the ins and outs of criminal tax cases. He played a large role in crafting the innovative way stolen identity tax refund fraud cases are now investigated and prosecuted, and trained more than 1,000 federal agents in 15 states on investigative techniques utilized by law enforcement today. For this work, Justin received the 2013 Attorney General’s Award for Fraud Prevention, an award widely recognized as one of the Justice Department’s highest honors in the field of white collar and public corruption litigation. Justin is routinely invited to present to private practitioners at national conferences from coast to coast and in Missouri.
Justin graduated in the top 5% of his class at Washington University School of Law and was inducted into the Order of the Coif. During law school, Justin was Senior Editor of the Washington University Law Review.
Justin has also served as an adjunct professor of law at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
Cases Justin has litigated have been covered by CNN, FOX News, ABC, NBC, CBS, the New York Times, Forbes magazine and hundreds of other television, radio, print and online publications. Justin is regularly quoted as an expert by the national and local media.
Languages spoken
English
Margulis Gelfand, LLC
8000 Maryland Avenue
Suite 420
St. Louis (Clayton), MO, 63105
State | Status | Acquired | Updated |
---|---|---|---|
MO | Good Standing, Active | 2009 | 05/22/2022 |
Legal answers | 73 |
Legal guides | 0 |
Award name | Grantor | Date Granted |
---|---|---|
2015 Up & Coming Lawyer | Missouri Lawyers Weekly | 2015 |
Rising Star | Missouri and Kansas Super Lawyers | 2015 |
Attorney General's Award for Fraud Prevention | United States Department of Justice | 2013 |
Outstanding Attorney Award | United States Department of Justice | 2013 |
Outstanding Attorney Award | United States Department of Justice | 2012 |
Outstanding Attorney Award | United States Department of Justice | 2011 |
Title | Company name | Duration |
---|---|---|
Partner | Margulis Gelfand | 2018 - Present |
Shareholder | Capes, Sokol, Goodman & Sarachan | 2014 - 2018 |
Federal Prosecutor | United States Department of Justice | 2009 - 2014 |
Association name | Position name | Duration |
---|---|---|
American Bar Association | 2014 - Present | |
Federal Bar Association | 2014 - Present | |
Federalist Society | 2006 - Present | |
•Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis (BAMSL) | N/A |
Publication name | Title | Date |
---|---|---|
St. Louis Lawyer Magazine | From Switzerland to Israel: A Milestone Development in Offshore Tax Evasion | 2015 |
Wall Street Journal | Licensing Tax Preparers Won’t Help Taxpayers–Even IRS Employees Tasked With Answering a Single Tax Question Have High Error Rates | 2015 |
The Asset | Help Clients with Undisclosed Foreign Accounts and Assets Mitigate Criminal and Financial Exposure | 2014 |
Wall Street Journal | Tax Day! Now Comes the Great Refund Rip-Off | 2014 |
United States Attorneys' Bulletin | Investigating and Prosecuting Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud | 2013 |
School name | Degree | Graduated |
---|---|---|
Washington University School of Law | JD - Juris Doctor (Order of the Coif, Top 5%, Law Review) | 2009 |
Brandeis University | B.A. (High Honors; Debate National Championship -- 5th Place) | 2005 |
Conference name | Title | Date |
---|---|---|
Missouri Society of Enrolled Agents Annual Conference | How Not to Become a Target of Your Client’s Criminal Tax Investigation: A Former Federal Tax Prosecutor’s Perspective | 2015 |
Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis | “‘My Ex Did What?!?’: When Family, Tax, and Criminal Law Intersect,” | 2015 |
American Bar Association Section of Taxation's May Meeting | Recent Developments in Tax-Related Identity Theft | 2015 |
Missouri Bar’s Solo and Small Firm Conference | Cooked Books: A recipe for Representing a Client with a Potential Criminal Tax Problem | 2014 |
Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis | Representing Clients with Foreign Accounts & Assets: U.S. Federal Income Tax Issues and Exposures | 2014 |
American Bar Association's National Institute on Criminal Tax Fraud | Criminal Tax Workshop | 2014 |
National Advocacy Center | •“Prosecuting the ‘President’: Domestic Terrorism Case Study of United States v. Turner” | N/A |
National Advocacy Center | •“From Al Capone to Wesley Snipes: Prosecuting Federal Tax Crimes” | N/A |
National Advocacy Center | •“Using the Grand Jury to Build a Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud Case” | N/A |
National Advocacy Center | •“A Guy Walks Into the Treasury and Out With a Bag of Cash” | N/A |
Posted by Donna
May 11, 2019
Posted by Reza davachi
August 15, 2018
Posted by Chandler
August 10, 2018
Lindsay Gray, Criminal defense Attorney on Oct 1, 2016
Relationship: Worked together on matter
Justin is a great lawyer who takes the time to make sure that his clients are fully advised of the facts of their case, as well as the consequences of each possible outcome. He make sure he has explored every aspect of a case so that he can achieve the best possible outcome. I highly recommend Justin!
Kevin Sweeney, White collar crime Attorney on Sep 2, 2016
Relationship: Co-worker
I endorse this lawyer.
John Kershman, Tax fraud and tax evasion Attorney on Feb 4, 2015
Relationship: Fellow lawyer in community
I endorse this lawyer.
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