Dmitriy Shakhnevich represents clients in criminal cases and matters in civil litigation. He is the founder of The Law Firm of Dmitriy Shakhnevich, based in downtown Manhattan.

Background and experience

In the realm of criminal defense, Mr. Shakhnevich has represented individual and corporate defendants charged with or investigated for crimes involving mail fraud and wire fraud, fraud involving health care agencies, financial institutions, securities, benefits and corporations, various computer crimes, crimes involving public corruption, invasion of privacy, weapons possession, narcotics distribution and various other white-collar and violent crimes. His experience in representing clients under investigation extends to complex criminal, governmental, regulatory and internal investigations.

On the civil side, Mr. Shakhnevich has represented clients in personal injury matters, in which clients had suffered enormous physical harm, domestic relations matters involving divorce, child support, custody and abuse/neglect, complex commercial litigation involving contract disputes, breach of fiduciary duties, restrictive covenants and fraud, employment matters and matters in the entertainment sector.

Prior to opening his own law practice, Mr. Shakhnevich’s law school and post-law school careers had taken him from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office to the offices of numerous high-profile criminal defense attorneys, including those of now-Judge Adam Perlmutter, and Chuck Ross (formerly of Brafman & Ross). He also maintained an of counsel relationship with Bruce Cutler, the legendary trial lawyer whose former clients include John Gotti and Phil Spector.

Mr. Shakhnevich has worked on matters across the United States, but is a full-time member of the Bars of New York State and the State of New Jersey, where he is admitted to practice in state and federal courts. He is a graduate of New York Law School and Brooklyn College of The City University of New York.

Outside of the courtroom

Mr. Shakhnevich co-authored “The Nickel or Not: The Fifth Amendment Privilege for Individuals in FCPA Investigations,” published in Ethisphere Magazine. He has also been published in Law360, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York. He has been consistently selected to Super Lawyers for the New York City area.

Over the years, Mr. Shakhnevich and his high-profile legal work have been sought out by some of the most well-recognized publications and media outlets in the world, including Bleacher Report, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Daily News, New York Post, The New York Times, Newsday, Newsweek, NY1, Rolling Stone, SB Nation, Thomson Reuters, USA Today, Variety and The Wall Street Journal. He has served as a legal analyst for numerous major news outlets, including on matters involving the 2017 Times Square car attack, the 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash in which Kobe Bryant was killed, the 2020 United States census, the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, the 2022 Buffalo shooting, Amazon, Antonio Brown, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, the Astroworld Festival crowd crush, Bill Cosby, the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccine, Andrew Cuomo, Robert Durst, the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the murder of George Floyd, Alex Jones, R. Kelly, the Kenosha unrest shooting, Paul Manafort, Ghislaine Maxwell, Conor McGregor, the prison conditions at MDC Brooklyn, Joe Mixon, Sarah Palin, the killing of Shanquella Robinson, Anna Sorokin, Bruce Springsteen, the murder of Mollie Tibbetts, Tory Lanez and Megan Thee Stallion, Donald Trump and The Trump Organization, the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal, the disappearance of Ana Walshe, the Waukesha Christmas parade attack and Harvey Weinstein.

Formerly, Mr. Shakhnevich hosted The Fight Lawyer Podcast, featured on iTunes, SoundCloud and Spotify. FLP involved discussions on combat sports and the law, featuring such guests as F. Lee Bailey, Bruce Buffer, Cung Le, Kelly Pavlik, Bas Rutten and Ken Shamrock.

Personal

Mr. Shakhnevich was born in Ukraine, and immigrated with his family to the United States as a refugee, when he was an infant. He resides with his wife Elina, also a lawyer, in Brooklyn, New York. The couple has a daughter.