Education
St. John’s University School of Law
University of Delaware
Admissions
State Bar of New York
U.S. District Courts:
Southern District of New York
Eastern District of New York
Biography
Wayne Gosnell represents individuals and businesses in high-stakes criminal, regulatory, and civil matters in federal and New York state courts. His practice includes white-collar investigations, serious felony prosecutions, sensitive sexual-misconduct matters, high-stakes civil investigations, and parallel civil and criminal matters.
Wayne’s criminal practice spans a broad range of serious charges, including securities fraud, tax fraud, wire and mail fraud, health care fraud, money laundering, illegal kickbacks and bid-rigging, narcotics trafficking, RICO, kidnapping, sexual assaults, and domestic violence. He also represents individuals and businesses in commercial disputes and in investigations by regulators and enforcement agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the New York Attorney General’s Office.
A substantial part of Wayne’s practice involves matters moving on more than one track at once: criminal investigations, civil litigation, regulatory inquiries, employment consequences, licensing issues, and reputational risk. He has represented executives, professionals, business owners, financial-industry employees, physicians, and other individuals whose matters require both careful factual development and disciplined judgment about when and how to litigate.
Wayne also handles sensitive sexual-misconduct and gender-based-violence matters in criminal, civil, and institutional settings. He represents both survivors and individuals accused of misconduct in matters involving New York’s Child Victims Act and Adult Survivors Act, New York City’s gender-motivated violence law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and similar causes of action, in both public and confidential forums. These cases often require careful handling of trauma allegations, memory issues, confidentiality, collateral professional consequences, and intense personal and reputational stakes.
Wayne has argued before the New York Court of Appeals and other appellate courts and litigates constitutional, evidentiary, discovery, sentencing, and post-conviction issues in trial and appellate courts.
Before joining Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder LLP, Wayne served as a prosecutor in the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, where he tried numerous jury cases and prosecuted hundreds of serious felonies, and as a law clerk to the Honorable William H. Pauley III of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Wayne has been recognized by New York Metro Super Lawyers for White Collar Criminal Defense every year since 2020. He is active in the legal profession and his community, serving as Treasurer and a board member of the Child Care Council of Westchester, as a member of the American Inns of Court at the Federal Bar Council, and as a member of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers.
Representative Matters
Representative Matters
- Represented the former Chief Financial Officer of a multi-billion-dollar real estate development company in parallel fraud investigations conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
- Represents an individual in a high-profile digital-currency matter requiring a coordinated, multi-jurisdictional defense strategy.
- Argued before the New York Court of Appeals in a constitutional right-to-counsel challenge involving trial counsel’s federal suspension and related disciplinary history.
- Secured a favorable sentencing outcome in a high-profile Manhattan unlawful-surveillance case, including avoidance of sex-offender registration after the client completed court-ordered treatment.
- Obtained dismissal of all claims in federal civil court alleging that a major international law firm committed civil RICO and fraud.
- Represented employees of an international financial institution in multinational criminal investigations into anti-money laundering compliance.
- Represented business owners and individuals in criminal tax investigations conducted by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, the Internal Revenue Service, District Attorney’s Offices, and United States Attorney’s Offices.
- Represented at trial in the Southern District of New York a pain management physician charged with operating what the government claimed was a “pill mill.”
Highlights
- Recognized by New York Metro Super Lawyers for White Collar Criminal Defense each year since 2020.
- Selected as faculty for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ annual training seminar on defending sexual-misconduct cases.
- Member of the American Inns of Court at the Federal Bar Council.
- Member of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers.
- Treasurer and board member of the Child Care Council of Westchester