MARGULIS GELFAND OPENS FLORIDA OFFICE
PARTNER AND CPA JOSEPH DIRUZZO ADDS TAX CONTROVERSY FIREPOWER
St. Louis, MO—Margulis, Gelfand, DiRuzzo & Lambson, a litigation boutique, is proud to announce the opening of a new office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the corresponding addition of Florida-based partner Joseph A. DiRuzzo, III and Florida-based associate Daniel Lader.
“We are beyond excited to expand the firm’s footprint with offices in St. Louis, Missouri, Washington, D.C. and now Florida,” said Justin Gelfand. “But we are even more excited to add DiRuzzo (a CPA with Big Four Accounting experience and trial attorney with substantial litigation experience) and Lader (an attorney with an LL.M in taxation) to our ranks.”
“We have intentionally built a financial litigation powerhouse,” said DiRuzzo. “Our team has worked together for years. Formally joining forces in this way will benefit our clients throughout the country.”
The team at Margulis Gelfand includes former federal tax prosecutors with extensive experience in financial fraud cases on both sides of the courtroom, a tax lawyer/CPA who regularly brings tax cases to trial and has been recognized as an expert witness in federal criminal tax cases, former law enforcement, and former federal judicial law clerks. The seasoned litigators at Margulis Gelfand have more than 100 years of collective experience.
The firm’s attorneys are battle-tested in the courtroom, having handled high-profile and low-profile jury trials in more than 10 federal districts throughout the country (including the U.S. Virgin Islands) and in state courts; argued appeals in 10 federal courts of appeal and submitted written briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court; handled bench trials in the U.S. Tax Court; and argued in every Missouri appellate court including the Missouri Supreme Court.
Joseph A. DiRuzzo, III is an attorney and a CPA with graduate law degrees in both taxation and healthcare law. For the last 20+ years, he has worked in Fort Lauderdale (obtaining favorable verdicts in the majority of jury trials he litigated) as a public defender, a tax associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, a tax, criminal defense and civil litigator in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a partner at a midsize Miami law firm, and most recently as the founder of DiRuzzo & Company, a Fort Lauderdale boutique. In addition to his extensive litigation background, DiRuzzo has been qualified to offer expert testimony in numerous federal courts throughout the country on issues related to taxation and tax law. DiRuzzo has extensive trial and appellate experience, having tried more than 50 civil and criminal cases at the federal, state, and territorial levels, including jury trials before the United States District Courts, and bench trials before the U.S. Tax Court; and he has litigated more than 75 appeals before the United States Circuit Courts.
DiRuzzo earned his undergraduate degree from Mary Washington College in Virginia; a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Florida International University; a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Connecticut; a law degree from the University of Miami; and a graduate law degree in healthcare law from Loyola University School of Law in Chicago. He is licensed to practice law in Florida, New York, New Jersey, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and is licensed as a Solicitor in England and Wales (inactive). Additionally, he is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant in Florida.
Daniel M. Lader, who has worked as an associate attorney at DiRuzzo & Company prior to joining Margulis Gelfand, focuses his practice on representing businesses and individuals in high-stakes tax litigation against the government, long-term and transactional tax planning, and strategic business planning.He has been licensed to practice law in Florida since 2017 and earned a graduate law degree in taxation from the University of Miami School of Law in 2018.
The Florida Office is located at 401 East Las Olas Blvd., Suite 1400, in Fort Lauderdale.
The firm handles criminal, civil, tax, appellate, and domestic relations litigation.