Douglas B. Appel, a native New Yorker, founded the Law Offices of Douglas Appel in 2010. His legal career has spanned almost twenty-five years in the New York region primarily in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. Mr. Appel spent several years solely focused on litigating murder cases in the exclusive Homicide Bureau of the Kings County (Brooklyn) District Attorney’s Office. There, he successfully led numerous highly publicized cases including the successful Death Penalty prosecution of a career criminal in a triple homicide. His experience there also involved single and double homicides, gang related murders and other brutal murders involving the innocent. Mr. Appel was awarded the Certificate of Appreciation from the NYPD Police Commissioner for lecturing new recruits on basic criminal law principles and effective trial testimony.
Previous, Mr. Appel worked as a Senior Assistant District Attorney trying high-profile cases in the Sex Crimes Bureau of the Kings County District Attorney’s Office. There, Mr. Appel effectively led cases involving domestic violence, sex crimes and DNA rape among others. Prior to that, Mr. Appel spent several years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Plattsburgh DA’s office where he first began to craft his art of litigation.
After Mr. Appel’s time in the District Attorney’s office, he wanted to learn a new facet of litigation in the world of securities. He worked at Citigroup – Smith Barney as Senior Vice President/Counsel from 2006 -2009. There he represented Smith Barney and individual brokers in live arbitrations before the New York Stock Exchange and National Association of Securities Dealers (now FINRA) when Smith Barney retail clients brought claims. Mr. Appel was responsible for significant cases from inception through resolution. Mr. Appel was the lead counsel in numerous FINRA arbitrations and state court trials that went to decision in which millions of dollars in damages were sought; over half of these cases resulted in outright dismissal, virtually every other case resulted in minimal award.
Mr. Appel chose to bring his talents to the criminal defense bar. As a Defense Attorney, Mr. Appel handles all high profile matters including murder cases, white collar crimes, securities, felonies and DWI. To date, Mr. Appel has tried over a hundred cases, a significant number of homicides (as a defense attorney and prosecutor). He has extensive litigation experience with successes in numerous very high profile cases. Mr. Appel is a member Kings County Criminal Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association.
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