John Nicholas Aquilina Jr

Following graduating from Brooklyn Law School, I was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1978, and assisted in opening and operating, and expanding from two, to a five-county, legal services office in Upstate New York. In January 1981, I relocated to Riverside County, California, where I began as a deputy public defender. For the next six years, I represented juveniles and adults charged with every type of criminal offenses, from minor driving offenses to multiple murder cases. I opened my own office in 1987, handling similar criminal trial and (added) appellate court cases, including several death penalty cases, in Riverside, San Bernardino, and Orange Counties. In 1993, I earned a Certification as a Specialist in Criminal Law, by the California State Bar, Board of Legal Specialization. My practice expanded in 1996, to the representation of individuals federally indicted in the United States District Court, Central District of California. By 2011, I also undertook the representation of several defendants who had been convicted of capital offenses, are housed on death row in San Quentin State Prison, and have habeas corpus petitions pending in Los Angeles. Since a majority of my more recent focus is on federal court matters, in 2018, I relocated to Orange County, California, but continue to represent individuals charged with state and federal offenses throughout Southern California.