Robert J. Aiello is a principal and founding member of the law firm and a trial attorney. His practice is devoted primarily to criminal defense in State and Federal Courts as well as real estate matters. Mr. Aiello has been involved in many high-profile cases throughout his career. Some of his clients have included Peter Guagenti, the driver in the Amy Fisher case in Nassau County, Patrick Bannon who shot and killed three people including an off-duty police officer outside a nightclub on Bell Boulevard in Bayside and Vincent DiFrancisco who was one of the persons charged in the assault of Shane Daniels outside Club Marakash in Westhampton Beach in 1996.
In 2003, he represented Dennis Salvador Alvarez Hernandez who was charged with First Degree Capital Murder in Westchester County. It was the first case in Westchester County where at the time, the then District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, sought the death penalty. After a nine month trial the jury spared Mr. Alvarez’s life. The verdict was hailed as a major victory for the defense as reported at the time in the New York Times, USA Today and the Journal News. The trial received extensive pretrial and trial publicity on Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11 and Westchester 12 as well as daily newspaper coverage in the Journal News.
Mr. Aiello was formerly with the Office of the District Attorney, Queens County where, for several years, he managed a full range of criminal matters from misdemeanor to major felonies. Mr. Aiello supervised a group of Supreme Court trial attorneys and at 29 years old became one of the youngest trial Assistants in the Homicide Trial Bureau where he served for over two years.
While in private practice, Mr. Aiello also served as Counsel to New York State Assemblyman Joseph R. Lentol, Chairman of the Codes Committee, where he was responsible for research, analysis, preparation and drafting of legislative bills for the New York State Assembly.
Mr. Aiello recently was involved representing one of the defendants charged in one of the largest commodities fraud cases brought in the Southern District of New York and also represented the former president of the Production Workers Union Local 148 who was charged with embezzlement and receiving kickbacks in a major union corruption case in Newark, New Jersey.
Mr. Aiello regularly attends seminars to keep abreast of the latest developments in State and Federal criminal defense and has been invited to speak at some of these seminars. He has been qualified as an expert criminal attorney and one of only a handful selected to represent criminal defendants in capital murder cases. He appears regularly as a guest commentator on Court TV.