Seminar Featured In-Depth Analysis of the Latest in DWI Legal and Legislative Developments; NYT Reporter Stacy Crowley Presented Keynote Speech, Discussing Recent In-Depth Article on Breathalyzer Tests
New York—February 12, 2020 – Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP, a boutique criminal defense and civil rights firm with offices in New York City and on Long Island, is proud to announce that a founding partner and renown national expert on DWI litigation, Steven B. Epstein, will be opening the Steven Epstein Institute for DWI Defense.
The news was announced at the Seventh Annual Man Vs. Machine DWI Seminar, a day-long program conceived and produced annually by Epstein, held this year at Brooklyn Law School. This year there were more than 250 attorneys in attendance, a very large crowd for a CLE.
“I have spent my career investigating and understanding the idiosyncrasies of effective defense for DWI cases here in New York, and across the country,” Epstein said. “The annual Man Vs. Machine Seminar is one outgrowth of that. This DWI Institute will give me an opportunity to share even deeper insights and knowledge with a new generation of lawyers, while also keeping my own practice busy and vital.”
The first academic year of the Steven Epstein Institute for DWI Defense will begin in September 2020. This unique program will be held over the course of 10 months and will teach lawyers every aspect of DWI defense from the arrest to trial. The end of the class culminates in a mock trial. It will also include a three-day National Highway Traffic Safety Administration SFST training course.
More on the Man vs. Machine Seminar
More than 250 lawyers attended the 7th Annual Man vs. Machine seminar at Brooklyn Law School. This year’s program included lectures by Yung-Mi Lee and Steven Epstein on the new discovery laws in New York State; Anthony Palacios and Steven Epstein on the NHTSA three phases of a DUI investigation; Dan McGuiness on winning motions to keep the breath test out of evidence; Lisa Saltzman on handling refusal hearings at the DMV; and Eric Sills’ yearly review of DWI case law.
For the keynote, The New York Times reporter Stacy Cowley presented “Uncovering the Truth – The Story Behind the Article: ‘These Machines Can Put You in Jail.’” The Times interviewed more than 100 lawyers, scientists, executives, and police officers and reviewed tens of thousands of pages of court records, corporate filings, confidential emails and contracts over the past year. Their investigation exposed that breath tests, a linchpin of the criminal justice system, are often unreliable. Cowley, one of the investigative journalists who conducted this investigation, shared the evolution of this story.
More on Steven B. Epstein
Steven Epstein is a founding partner at Barket Epstein Kearon Aldea & LoTurco, LLP, and head of the firm’s DWI and Vehicular Crimes group. Mr. Epstein has more than 27 years of experience in the field of criminal defense and has tried well over 100 DWI cases to verdict.
Mr. Epstein is widely recognized as one of the foremost DWI attorneys in the country, specializing in representing clients accused of DWI, vehicular homicides, and other criminal offenses. He is a nationally recognized and much sought after lecturer at continuing legal education seminars for other attorneys and is relied upon as the principal instructor for the Legal Aid Society of New York City in the area of DWI defense. In addition, he also does the training programs for most of the New York City area public defender offices, as well as CLEs throughout New York State on the topic of DWI. In total, he has trained well over three thousand attorneys in the area of DWI defense. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at the Pace University School of Law since 1998 and the author of numerous published articles relating to trial techniques, legal challenges to scientific evidence, legal updates, and other criminal and DWI defense-related issues.
Mr. Epstein proudly serves as a Faculty Member, New York State Delegate, and Northeast Regional Delegate of the National College for DUI Defense. Mr. Epstein is a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and serves as the chair for their CLE committee. Mr. Epstein is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the New York State Bar Association. In 2019, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers named him as of their top 20 CLE lecturers. He has been named a New York metro area Super Lawyer every year since 2014.
Mr. Epstein successfully challenged New York’s discovery statute and obtained and enforced an order directing the State to turn over to every defendant in New York State the full records of gas chromatography that relate to the certification of the simulator solution used for every person charged with a DWI who submitted to a breath test. This ruling subsequently resulted in a change to New York’s legislation. The resulting new discovery statute now entitles every defendant to the full records of gas chromatography that relate to the certification of the simulator solution.
Mr. Epstein was appointed by the United States Department of Justice as a peer reviewer for National Institute of Justice Grant applications to conduct research that examines criminal justice tools, protocols, and policies concerning drug trafficking, markets and use, and the effects of drug legalization and decriminalization on law enforcement, applicable to State, tribal and local jurisdictions. Mr. Epstein successfully completed the NHTSA DWI/SFST practitioner course; a 24-hour course recognized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and has successfully completed coursework on the use and maintenance of breath testing devices. Click here to see a list of Mr. Epstein’s seminars and publications.
