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Barry pollack

PARTNER

Barry J. Pollack is widely recognized as one of the leading trial lawyers in the country.  He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, a Fellow in the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, and past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.  Mr. Pollack has over 30 years of experience representing individuals, including executives and high-ranking government officials, as well as corporations and other organizations, in sensitive and often high-profile trials and investigations.

Chambers USA has described Mr. Pollack as a “thorough and deep-thinking lawyer” who “lives, breathes and sleeps trials, and has such a natural way in front of juries.”   Chambers has also said: “Barry is very client-focused.  He is a terrific lawyer, he is very bright and takes on difficult cases.”  Who’s Who Legal:  Business Crime Defence lists Mr. Pollack as a premier lawyer and has described him as “incredibly gifted.” 

Career Highlights

Mr. Pollack has had several notable successes throughout his career.  He recently negotiated a plea agreement that resulted in the immediate release from prison of long-time client Julian Assange, publisher of WikiLeaks, who had been charged with violating the Espionage Act for publishing classified information leaked by Chelsea Manning. After two jury trials in Houston, Texas, he obtained the complete acquittal of a former Enron Corp. executive on criminal fraud charges, one of only two cases that resulted in acquittals in the numerous prosecutions arising out of the collapse of Enron. He also obtained the dismissal of a related Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action. Mr. Pollack represented Martin Tankleff, a Long Island, New York man, whose convictions were reversed and all charges against him dismissed after he had served seventeen years in prison, having been wrongfully convicted of murdering his parents as a teenager. The Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project honored Mr. Pollack with its Defender of Innocence Award and the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers honored him with its Gideon Champion of Justice Award.  Mr. Pollack then represented Mr. Tankleff in civil suits, obtaining $13.4 million in compensation. 

Recent Cases

Mr. Pollack’s recent accomplishments include: obtaining not guilty verdicts in a criminal jury trial in which the client, a prominent D.C. lawyer, had been charged with sexual assault; negotiating a plea agreement resulting in probation for a medical oncologist who had been charged with violating antitrust laws, following a federal jury trial in Ft. Myers, Florida ended in a mistrial; securing the dismissal of an indictment in a federal criminal antitrust case alleging collusion in the poultry industry after two lengthy trials in Denver, Colorado, each ending in a hung jury and no convictions; in a case where Mr. Pollack was retained after guilty verdicts in a federal criminal bribery trial in Sherman, Texas, winning an order overturning the convictions and ordering a new trial and successfully defending that result on appeal to the Fifth Circuit; with partner, Addy Schmitt, obtaining not guilty verdicts on charges of bribery related to defense contracting on behalf of the co-founder of a government contracting firm following a federal criminal jury trial in Alexandria, Virginia; and securing the complete reversal on appeal in the Ninth Circuit for a client who had been convicted in a federal jury trial in Tucson, Arizona of conspiracy and embezzlement from an insurance company in an alleged scheme to enrich a U.S. congressman.  Mr. Pollack also obtained a writ of actual innocence and $2.4 million in compensation for a man wrongfully convicted of a homicide in Baltimore, Maryland, which had resulted in him serving 25 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and previously achieved the reversal of the homicide conviction and the release from prison of a New York City man who was wrongfully imprisoned for eighteen years.

Practice Areas

In his criminal practice, he regularly handles matters involving allegations of wrongdoing related to financial and business crimes, public corruption, and national security, including cases involving alleged antitrust violations, fraud in government contracting, and fraud related to securities, taxes, health care or banking and financial services.  As a former certified public accountant (CPA), a substantial amount of his work involves criminal and civil litigation of complex financial matters.

His civil practice involves complex commercial disputes, False Claims Act allegations related to government contracting and health care, First Amendment issues, Civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges, professional negligence or breach of fiduciary duty, and suspension and debarment proceedings.

Education and Professional Background

Mr. Pollack is a 1986 graduate of Indiana University, High Honors, and a 1991 graduate of Georgetown University School of Law, magna cum laude, Order of the Coif. He clerked for the Honorable Thomas A. Flannery on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Early in his career Mr. Pollack served as Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland and was a partner at the renowned D.C. white collar criminal defense law firm of Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin LLP.   Mr. Pollack is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia, Maryland and New York.  

Professional Service

Mr. Pollack is a board member of the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, a board member of Rising for Justice, and a past president of the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project.  Mr. Pollack is an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where he teaches “Anatomy of a Federal Criminal Trial.”