225 Broadway Ste 900
San Diego, CA 92101
TEL: 619·234-8467
FAX: 619·687-2666
1122 State St. Suite E
El Centro, CA 92243
TEL: 760-335-3510
FAX: 760-335-3610
Jason Ser
Supervisory Attorney - Trial Team Leader
Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, J.D.
Tufts University, B.A.
Jason
Ser started at Federal Defenders in 1998, upon graduating from law school in
New York City. While at law school, where he was accepted into Cardozo's
criminal defense clinic run by Barry Scheck, Jason represented clients charged
with criminal offenses in Manhattan's Criminal Court under the state's third
year practice rule. Jason chose Federal Defenders to continue working with
clients who needed an advocate in the face of government prosecution and
overwhelming government resources. He also sought to hone his litigation skills
by learning from both Federal Defender's excellent training program and
dedicated peers.
Jason has tried more than two dozen felony cases in federal district court for
clients charged with a variety of offenses, including importation, distribution
and transportation of drugs, alien smuggling, fraud and illegal re-entry. He
secured acquittals for clients in many cases, including one client who was
re-tried on cocaine importation and distribution charges, after his first trial
ended with a deadlocked jury and mistrial. Jason's trial strategies have
successfully employed a variety of creative defenses ranging from official
authority for a client abandoned by his DEA handlers to diminished capacity.
Jason also has the distinction of a rare acquittal for a client charged with
illegal re-entry after falling asleep on a Mexican bus bound for a port of
entry into the United States. Jason also regularly appears and argues before
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and has earned remands in multiple cases. In
addition to his criminal practice, Jason has also litigated hundreds of habeas
cases on behalf of immigrant detainees known as "lifers", who
languished in immigration custody because their native countries would not
accept their returns, and several others for state inmates.
Jason became a Supervisory Attorney and Trial Team Leader in 2008. He now
oversees a team of trial attorneys, assisting and mentoring them in all aspects
of their representation of clients charged in district court. In addition to
working with his team's lawyers, Jason also serves as the chair for the CJA
training/seminar committee, which qualifies private defense attorneys to serve
on the local CJA panel by keeping them up to date on legal developments in
federal criminal law and teaching them trial advocacy skills. Jason also has
lectured at the annual National Seminar for Federal Defenders and taught at the
Law & Technology Workshop for federal defenders nation-wide.
Return to Main Management Page