Joseph Pace is a seasoned appellate attorney who has briefed and argued cases in federal and state courts around the country. He has represented both individual and corporate clients in a wide variety of trial and appellate matters involving the Anti-Terrorism Act, RICO, commercial disputes, employment and housing discrimination, police brutality, Federal Credit Reporting Act claims, defamation, FOIA, and the First Amendment. He has also represented criminal defendants facing New York and federal charges.

In addition to his litigation practice, Joseph advises several nonprofits on compliance with U.S. sanctions regimes and anti-terrorism financing laws.

Before co-founding Pace Freeman, Joe founded J. Pace Law, where he litigated federal and state appeals and provided trial support to local criminal defense attorneys. Prior to that, he was senior legal counsel for Reprieve US, where he directed litigation efforts challenging the use of indefinite detention and drone strikes in the War on Terror and devised a First Amendment challenge to state secrecy laws enacted to conceal the source of lethal injection drugs. Prior to that, Joseph was the John J. Gibbons Fellow in Public Interest & Constitutional Law at Gibbons P.C., where he specialized in civil rights impact litigation. Before his fellowship, Joseph was a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Joseph graduated from Yale Law School where he was an Editor on the Yale Law Journal, recipient of the Israel H. Peres Prize for best student publication in the Yale Law Journal, and awarded the Potter Stewart Prize for best written brief and oral argument in the Moot Court competition.

Joseph’s representative matters include:

 Federal Appeals:

• Soybel v. City of New York (2d. Cir.): Joseph representing a class who brought a RICO action against the New York City for inflating the value of taxi medallions.

• United States v. Yu (2d. Cir.): Joseph brought a novel due process challenge to a murder-for-hire conviction where the prosecutors shifted their theory of the case mid-trial. 

• United States v. Munoz (11th Cir.): Joseph secured the reversal of an order denaturalizing a U.S. citizen.

• Manansingh v. United States (9th Cir.): Joseph secured the reversal of an order dismissing malicious prosecution and intentional infliction of emotional dismiss claims brought under the Federal Claims Act against US Probation officers.

• Lloyd v. FedLoan Servicing LLC (8th Cir.): Joseph represented a Federal Credit Reporting Act plaintiff appealing the denial of a motion for summary judgment.  

• Center for Constitutional Rights v. CIA (2d Cir.): Joseph appealed the denial of a FOIA order denying the release of the memos of Guantanamo detainees who were tortured in custody

• New York Times v. DOJ (2d Cir.): Joseph filed an amicus brief on behalf of group of U.S. Senators in support of an appeal challenging the Executive’s failure to release the Drone Memos.

State Appeals:

• State v. Gjurashaj (NY, 3d Dep’t): Joseph represented the defendant in a direct appeal of an arson conviction.

• Lopez v. Trahan (NY, 1st Dep’t): Joseph secured the affirmance of a trial court order denying summary judgment on a sexual harassment claim.

• State v. Perry (NJ Supreme Court): Joseph represented Association of Criminal Defendant Lawyers of New Jersey as amicus in case challenging the admissibility of DNA evidence.

• State v. Wright (NJ Supreme Court): Joseph represented ACLU-NJ as amicus in case that clarified the scope of the third-party intervention or private search doctrine.  

Trial Court Matters:

• Lavi v. UNRWA USA (D. Del.): Joseph secured the dismissal of an Anti-Terrorism Act lawsuit against the largest private funder of the UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian relief to Palestinians.

• US v. Bond (S.D.N.Y.): Joseph represented a defendant charged with violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.  

• Best Payphones v. City of New York (S.D.N.Y.): Joseph successfully defended against several rounds of summary judgment motions filed by New York City to dismiss First Amendment retaliation and unconstitutional conditions claims, and secured a multi-million dollar settlement.