Michael R. Cardinale

About Michael

Michael has practiced law in Central New York since 1997 and opened this practice in September 2000. John DelVecchio joined him as a partner in 2009. He is the firm’s managing attorney, works from both the Cicero and Cortland offices, and still takes his own cases.

He began in the federal courthouse rather than in private practice. Straight out of Albany Law School he spent two years as law clerk to United States Magistrate Judge David N. Hurd in the Northern District of New York, drafting opinions and recommendations on motions, prisoner civil rights actions and habeas petitions. Two years of watching litigation from the other side of the bench, before ever arguing a case, is an unusual way to learn what actually persuades a court.

A large part of his career since has been public defense work, which is the part of it he is least likely to mention. He was an Assistant Public Defender in Cortland County from 2000 until 2017, and since 2018 he has been Plan Administrator of the county’s Assigned Counsel Office, the system that provides lawyers to people who cannot pay for one. Between them that is roughly twenty-five years spent inside the machinery that makes the right to counsel mean something in practice rather than on paper.

The practical effect for a client is a lawyer who has appeared in these courts for a quarter of a century and knows how they run: which town courts sit twice a month, what a Cortland County matter looks like against an Onondaga one, and where the delays actually come from. That is knowledge you cannot get from a form.

He grew up in Utica, went to Whitesboro Senior High School and played varsity football and baseball there, then took an associate degree at Mohawk Valley Community College before Binghamton University and Albany Law, where he was an associate editor of the Albany Law Journal of Science and Technology. He volunteered at the Utica Boilermaker for twenty-five years and has served on the boards of a local pre-school and of GiGi’s Playhouse. He and his wife are raising four children in Cortland County.

Practice focus

Personal Injury Criminal Defense Traffic Tickets Uncontested Divorce Bankruptcy

Credentials

Admitted to the New York bar: 1997
Law school: Albany Law School, 1996
Undergraduate: Binghamton University, 1992
Judicial clerkship: Law clerk to United States Magistrate Judge David N. Hurd, Northern District of New York, 1996 to 1998
NY attorney registration: 2819092

Every New York attorney's registration is a matter of public record. You can look this up yourself in the state court system's attorney directory.

Public service

Plan Administrator, Cortland County Assigned Counsel Office, since 2018
Assistant Public Defender, Cortland County, 2000 to 2017

Written by Michael

Articles on this site published under his name.

Community

Utica Boilermaker Road Race volunteer, 1993 to 2018
Little Lamb Pre-School, board of directors, 2010 to 2014
GiGi's Playhouse, board of directors, 2017 to 2018

Talk to Michael

The first conversation is free and there is no obligation afterwards. Call either office, text a photo of whatever paperwork you are holding, or send a message and we will get back to you.

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