Aidan P. O’Connor Ranked by Chambers and Partners in its 2026 USA Guide
Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C. is proud to announce that Aidan P. O’Connor, co-chair of the firm’s Criminal Defense and Investigations practice groups, has been ranked in Band 2 in Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations in New Jersey by Chambers and Partners 2026 USA Guide. This ranking marks 14 years that O’Connor has been ranked by Chambers and Partners.
A former president of the ACDL-NJ, O’Connor’s practice focuses on criminal defense, internal investigations, and both commercial and complex civil litigation, including securities fraud matters. Prior to entering private practice, he was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of New Jersey for 18 years, serving in the Criminal Division, the Organized Crime Strike Force, and as the chief of the Violent Crimes Unit, conducting and leading RICO, fraud and other investigations and prosecutions.
A seasoned trial lawyer, O’Connor has extensive courtroom experience as well as negotiation skills that bring resolutions to difficult cases in both civil and criminal contexts. His clients appreciate his creative problem solving, direct approach, and history of many successful settlements and decisions. He appears frequently in federal and state courts in New Jersey and New York.
O’Connor has conducted internal investigations for corporate and public entities involving fraud, misuse of private and public assets, embezzlement, and compliance issues, and has represented corporations, public entities, nonprofit businesses and individuals in federal and state governmental investigations. He has also managed subpoena compliance issues for numerous entities. In addition, he has represented clients on matters involving civil RICO, the False Claims Act, securities fraud, regulatory issues, real estate, contract disputes, civil forfeiture and insurance issues.
His experience with criminal matters includes defending individuals against allegations of securities fraud, insurance fraud, health care fraud, tax evasion, financial institution and wire fraud, money laundering, public and union corruption, kickback and commercial bribery schemes, computer intrusions, hacking and other cybercrimes, embezzlement, trade secrets, antitrust matters, and federal grand jury investigations. He has also represented clients accused of assault, kidnapping, Ponzi schemes, extortion, murder, theft, sexual offenses, drug and controlled dangerous substance offenses, and state parole violations in both state and federal courts, as well as municipal court matters. He has also argued cases before the Second and Third Circuit Courts of Appeals, as well as the Supreme Court of New Jersey.
During his tenure with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, O’Connor conducted hundreds of federal prosecutions involving long and short-term investigations, grand jury presentations, witness interviews, wiretapping, and search warrants for offenses including organized crime, RICO, tax fraud and evasion, money laundering, theft of trade secrets, union corruption, embezzlement, commercial and insurance fraud, large stolen property rings, health care fraud, computer crimes, extortion, murder, robbery, and kidnapping.
O’Connor has tried more than 20 federal jury trials, argued hundreds of motions and conducted scores of hearings involving organized crime, tax fraud, money laundering, government program fraud, racketeering, kidnapping, alien smuggling, homicide, bank robbery, narcotics trafficking, civil rights violations and other offenses.
He was a recipient of the Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for his successful prosecution of a RICO case involving hundreds of millions of dollars in excise tax fraud and organized crime through the use of numerous shell corporations and related entities and the fraudulent transfer of money and assets. Additional awards include being named 2021 “Lawyer of the Year” in the Hackensack region by Best Lawyers in Criminal Defense: White Collar.
Previously, he was a litigation associate with Thacher Proffitt & Wood in New York City, where he conducted or assisted in civil trials involving banking and international maritime insurance in state and federal courts.
Pashman Stein is a full-service law firm of over 90 attorneys with offices in New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. With many attorneys hailing from large, international law firms, clients turn to Pashman Stein for its top-notch legal services at a more cost-effective rate structure than AmLaw firms.
O’Connor is proud of the results he has achieved for clients, some of which are noted here and under the “Experience” section of this biography. Of course, each legal matter is unique on many levels, and past successes are not a guarantee of results in any other pending or future matters.
Learn more about O’Connor here.
The Chambers USA guide is published by Chambers & Partners. A description of the selection methodology can be found here.
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