MANAGING PARTNER MICHAEL WILDES ENJOYS DINNER WITH BARRY AND STUART SLOTNICK AT THE FRIARS CLUB IN NEW YORK CITY, JUNE 2017.
Barry Slotnick is a New York City defense attorney, best known for defending Bernhard Goetz. Stuart Slotnick is also a New York City defense attorney. Together, this father and son duo are shareholders at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney.
Originally an appellate attorney, Slotnick eventually began doing high-profile criminal cases that garnered national media attention. In his early 30’s, Slotnick defended Mafia boss Joe Colombo in front of the United States Supreme Court and won. Ultimately, the New York Court of Appeals declared New York’s contempt statute unconstitutional He would later be the major lawyer of the first John Gotti case, by which Gotti and his associates were all acquitted.
Slotnick has also represented former Democratic Congressman Mario Biaggi, as well as Vyacheslav Kirillovich Ivankov, who was accused by the United States Department of Justice of being a major boss of the Russian mafia He then represented casino magnate Steve Wynn, Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, and Rabbi Meir Kahane. He also handled the divorce proceedings on behalf of actor Anthony Quinn and June Gumbel—wife of television personality Bryant Gumbel. In 2004, Slotnick defended retired Army Captain Jay Ferriola pro-bono with his son Stuart Slotnick. Ferriola was ordered to redeploy to Iraq after completing eight years of service, and sued the Army on the grounds that they violated his due process rights. The Department of Defense later allowed Ferriola to retire from the Army. The case was the first to challenge the Army’s stop-loss policy, which had affected tens of thousands of soldiers since the start of the Iraq War.
With his son, Stuart, Slotnick also obtained a settlement for publicly traded company Sportingbet with the U.S. Government’s Department of Justice for $30 million and a non-prosecution agreement. This amount was a quarter of what competing site PartyGaming paid in a similar lawsuit.
Michael is no stranger to working with family as his father, Leon Wildes, whose best-known accomplishment was his successful representation of John Lennon in his widely publicized deportation proceedings, the circumstances of which have inspired several films, books, and documentaries, founded Wildes & Weinberg in 1960 as a boutique law firm specializing exclusively in the practice of U.S. immigration and nationality law.
Today the firm, which has offices in New York City, Englewood, New Jersey, Miami, Florida, and Los Angeles, California, services a distinguished domestic and international clientele and covers all areas of U.S. immigration law, including employment and investment-based immigration, work permits, permanent residence for qualified individuals, family-based immigration, asylum applications and all temporary and permanent type visas.
In addition to running a highly successful immigration law practice, Michael is also of counsel to Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and two international/corporate law firms. A former Federal Prosecutor with the United States Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn (1989-1993), Michael has testified on Capitol Hill in connection with anti-terrorism legislation, and is a frequent participant on professional panels and commentator on network television and radio with regard to US immigration law, employer sanction work and compliance.
Michael also served two terms as the Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey, was appointed to the District Appeals Board of the Selective Service System for the State of New Jersey, was a member of the New Jersey Governor’s Blue Panel on Immigration, and has been a guest lecturer at many distinguished forums and institutions including Yale University, New York University, Brooklyn Law School, and The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where Michael is an Adjunct Professor of Business Immigration Law.
Despite difficulties currently being encountered in dealing with U.S. immigration authorities, Wildes & Weinberg has maintained an extraordinary track record for success for its cases. Moreover, the firm’s multilingual staff is known for its experience and special expertise in processing each foreign national’s case with nothing less than the highest level of professionalism.
To learn more about Wildes & Weinberg, please contact Managing Partner Michael Wildes at michael@wildeslaw.com to schedule a consultation.