
Jay V. Surgent is an Executive Director and Partner at Weiner Law Group LLP, with six offices in the N.Y./N.J. Metro area. He has extensive experience in federal, state and administrative courts defending individual and corporate clients who have been investigated or charged with criminal, civil, or administrative and regulatory offenses. Mr. Surgent has successfully defended clients against such allegations as securities fraud, kick-back schemes, political corruption, bribery, organized crime, illegal gambling, consumer fraud, fraudulent healthcare claims, theft, kidnapping, murder, manslaughter, sex offenses, and other crimes of violence as well as possessory and distribution drug charges on the federal and state defense levels. In addition, Mr. Surgent has extensively argued appeals in various appellate courts, and has also appeared in federal courts defending clients throughout the country on a whole variety of criminal cases, including clients in the entertainment industry.
Mr. Surgent is known for his work in the area of white-collar criminal defense, and often handles high-profile matters which receive local, state, and national media attention. Over the span of his career, Mr. Surgent has defended individual and corporate clients against criminal investigations and prosecutions by a variety of federal agencies, including the United States Attorney’s Office, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the United States Secret Service, the United States Treasury Department, the United States Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the United States Internal Revenue Service, and various White Collar and Organized Crime units. On the state and local level, Mr. Surgent has successfully defended individual and corporate clients against investigations and prosecutions by various County Prosecutor’s Offices, the New Jersey Attorney general’s office, the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, the Bureau of Securities, White Collar and Organized Crime Units, Attorney Disciplinary Review Boards, New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners and the New Jersey Board of Dentistry, in matters involving licensing issues and criminal complaints against physicians and dentists.
Prior to commencing the practice of law, Mr. Surgent served as a legislative liaison for the United States House of Representatives and as a member of the United States Senate Staff Committee, in Washington, D.C. He was chosen to serve on behalf of Governor James E. McGreevey’s Law and Public Safety and Criminal Justice Transition Team for the State of New Jersey. He was also selected for Inclusion in the National Registry of Who’s Who of outstanding professionals in their respective fields and was designated a New Jersey Super Lawyer in the area of Criminal Defense. He is one of the Top Ten Criminal Defense Attorneys in the New York/New Jersey Regional Area.   Mr. Surgent has appeared as a commentator on TruTV, formerly known as Court TV, and has appeared on Fox News concerning his work as a criminal defense attorney. He is widely known as an attorney who defends his clients to the fullest extent of the law, who is noted for caring about the well-being of his clients and attentive to his clients’ needs, while seeking satisfactory, and just results under the law.
AREAS OF PRACTICE
White-Collar Criminal Defense – National Federal White Collar Criminal Defense Attorney, Civil Litigation : Federal and State
BAR ADMISSIONS
·      New Jersey
COURT ADMISSIONS
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·      U.S. District Court District of New Jersey
·      U.S. District Court Southern District of New York
·      U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York
·      U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit
·      U.S. Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit
·      Supreme Court of the United States of America
EDUCATION
·      South Texas College of Law Houston, Houston, Texas J.D.
·      Honors: Order of the Lytae for Highest Academic Achievement
·      Law Review: South Texas College of Law Review, Editor
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·      The American University, Bachelor of Arts
·      Honors: School of Government and School of International Service Academic Honors
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·      Valley Forge Military Academy
·      Honors: Cum Laude
·      Honors: Academic Honors
HONORS AND AWARDS
·      National Trial Lawyer’s Top 100 Member
·      The National Association of Distinguished Counsel Nation’s Top One Percent
·      Global Who’s Who Best Attorney, 2008-Present
·      National Registry of Who’s Who of Outstanding Professionals
·      New Jersey Super Lawyer, Criminal Defense, 2006-2008
·      Top Ten Criminal Attorneys
·      Selected to Top 10 Criminal Defense Attorney’s New York/New Jersey Metropolitan Area 2025
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS
·      The National Trial Lawyers
·      American Association Criminal Defense Attorneys
·      Selected as a Member of the National Academy Criminal Defense Attorneys
·      New Jersey Association Criminal Defense Attorneys
·      New Jersey Bar Association
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
·      United States House of Representatives, Legislative Liaison
·      United States Senate Staff Committee, Washington, D.C., Member
·      Former Governor James E. McGreevey’s Law & Public Safety & Criminal Justice Transition Team, New Jersey.
·      Appointed Special Counsel to the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders, New JerseyÂ
