Our team

Jocelyne S. Kristal graduated from the City University of New  York School of Law.  She is also a graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial  Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming and a member of the New York State  Trial Lawyers Academy.  She is admitted to practice in New York and  Connecticut, as well as in the United States District Courts for the  Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and in the Second Circuit  Court of Appeals. 

Ms. Kristal has been practicing law  since 1989, the year she was appointed by Justice Mollen of the  Appellate Division Second Department as a Mental Hygiene Legal Services  ("MHLS") attorney.  During her five-year tenure at MHLS, she represented  hundreds of clients in a variety of capacities, including hearings  related to medication over objection, retention, competency issues, and  applications by physicians to perform medical procedures. 

From  September 1995 to July 1996, Ms. Kristal was “of-counsel” to a law firm  that successfully represented one of three defendants being tried  together in a civil action involving 16 plaintiffs.  She assisted in all  facets of pre-trial preparation and was second chair during the entire  trial that lasted more than ten months.  

Since the  opening of her practice in 1996, Ms. Kristal has represented clients  whose civil rights had been violated, and prosecuted a number of cases  in federal court ranging from excessive force claims to seeking  injunctive relief for her clients against the State of Oregon.  She has  also assisted parents in locating appropriate placements for their  disabled children once they "aged out" of the education system, and  today continues to advocate on behalf of persons with disabilities. 

Ms.  Kristal was a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on  Mental and Physical Disabilities during the early 1990’s when  legislation was being drafted for Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law.   In 1993, she lectured on the role of the newly-created position of  court evaluator at the first New York State Bar Association training  program offered for Article 81. 

In 1996, Ms. Kristal was  appointed to the New York State Surrogate Decision Making Committee and  continues to serve as a panel member.  

Some of Ms.  Kristal’s other professional involvements include: lecturing at the  Nassau County Bar Association on the subject of Sexual Harassment in the  Workplace; serving as Vice-Chair of the Federal Courts Committee of the  Nassau County Bar Association; serving as Co-President of the Great  Neck Lawyers Association; and conducting several workshops at the  American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama [ASGPP]'s annual  meetings in San Francisco and New York.  She is fluent in French.