Jason Ser is an experienced trial and appellate lawyer with more than twenty years of experience in the areas of criminal defense, appellate advocacy, and habeas litigation. He has spent his career representing trial level clients in a wide range of criminal cases, including complex white-collar matters involving charges of wire fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, securities fraud, health care fraud, mortgage fraud, theft and embezzlement of government funds or property, bribery of public officials, intellectual property theft, and money laundering. He has served as lead trial counsel in dozens of criminal trials before federal courts in California and New York. Employing creative defenses, Mr. Ser has secured acquittals for clients facing a variety of federal criminal charges, including offenses carrying decades-long mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment. Understanding that clients sometimes view trial as a last resort, Mr. Ser’s practice involves aggressive pre-trial investigation, mitigation, and motions practices all of which have helped clients avoid trial entirely by securing dismissals of cases or prompting significant reductions in the severity of pending charges.

Mr. Ser has also represented clients on appeal and has argued before the federal Courts of Appeal for the Second and Ninth Circuits. As appellate counsel, he successfully obtained post-trial and post-sentencing relief for his clients, including cases where he persuaded unanimous panels of Ninth Circuit judges to vacate his clients’ felony convictions or the sentences they received based upon the trial court committing legal error.

In addition to his criminal practice, Mr. Ser has litigated hundreds of federal habeas corpus petitions for clients, including those who are confined unlawfully in federal custody or are serving lengthy state prison terms.

Mr. Ser regularly lectures at national seminars for federal public defenders and criminal defense lawyers. He also serves as faculty at various trial advocacy programs organized by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Defender Services Office Training Division, which furthers the right to effective assistance of counsel by providing training and other resources to attorneys appointed under the Criminal Justice Act.