Neil M. Schuster is a federal criminal defense attorney with over 40 years’ experience.
Based in Miami, Mr. Schuster serves clients throughout the United States, Central and South America, and Europe in all types of federal proceedings, including trial, asset-forfeiture, grand jury investigations, extraditions, plea negotiations, sentencings, direct appeals, collateral attacks on conviction, habeas corpus, compassionate release, and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) matters.
Martindale-Hubbell, an organization which asks lawyers and judges to rate the expertise of their fellow practitioners, for many decades, has consistently awarded Mr. Schuster its highest ranking. That recognition is based on a long term recognition of his successful results for his clients.
Over the course of his career, Mr. Schuster fights hard in every case and has obtained very lenient punishment or freedom for his clients in some of the most significant prosecutions in the United States. Mr. Schuster has often eliminated decades from a client’s presumptive sentence.
Specializing in serving foreign-nationals charged with international drug trafficking, money laundering, and OFAC-related matters, Mr. Schuster has represented many significant clients. These clients have included those alleged to have spied for Venezuela in the United States, those related to the Cali Cartel, the North Valle Cartel, Los Urabenos, (Clan del Golfo), members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (the AUC), and those of other foreign political persuasion. Mr. Schuster also recently represented one of the main conspirators of and cooperating witnesses against Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in matters before the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the Southern District of Florida. Where vindication is impossible or very improbable, a far lesser punishment is an achievable goal.
While Mr. Schuster primarily works with foreign nationals, he has also represented some of the most notorious drug traffickers in Miami, Colorado, New York, and elsewhere. Beyond his victories before the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on prison, forfeiture, and constitutional issues for this client, with a sequestered jury for months, Mr. Schuster served as trial counsel for noted “Cocaine Cowboy” Salvador “Sal” Magluta in one of the most complicated and longest trials before a sequestered jury in the history of the Southern District of Florida.
While previously maintaining an additional office in Colorado earlier in his career, Mr. Schuster successfully represented a number of clients targeted by the Organized Crime Mountain States’ Drug Task Force, a law enforcement agency that initiated large scale prosecutions in the Western United States.