Michael P. "Mike" McDermott, Criminal Defense Attorney in Latham, New York

Mike is the President at O’Connell and Aronowitz. He handles plaintiff’s personal injury cases and criminal defense at our firm. He has handled or supervised over three dozen homicide prosecutions, trying many of those cases to verdict, and he is a court-appointed special prosecutor in homicide cases in Albany and Rensselaer counties.

While in law school, Mike was an Associate Editor of the Albany Law Review. Upon graduation, he entered the Albany County District Attorney’s Office as an assistant district attorney under the Hon. Sol Greenberg. In 1991 he was hired by the Hon. Mary Donohue as Chief Assistant District Attorney of Rensselaer County.

After leaving the Rensselaer County DA’s Office, Mike was a partner in the former Albany law firm of Bouck, Holloway, Kiernan and Casey where he specialized in defending insurance carriers in arson cases. In 2002, he returned to the Albany County District Attorney’s Office as Chief Assistant District Attorney under the Hon. Paul A. Clyne. In 2004, Mike was named New York State Arson Prosecutor of the Year by the New York State Fire Investigators Association.

Mike continued to serve in the Albany County District Attorney’s Office as Chief Assistant under the Hon. P. David Soares until January of 2007, when he became Of Counsel to our firm. Also in 2007, he was appointed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer to the New York State Commission on Sentencing Reform. He previously served as a member of the City of Albany Gun Violence Task Force.

For the 12th consecutive year, Mike was named to the Upstate New York Super Lawyers list, a distinction earned by less than 5% of the attorneys in the state. He previously served on the board of directors of TASC, Inc., a local not-for-profit corporation providing residential drug treatment as an alternative to incarceration for eligible offenders in the Capital District. Mike served on the board of directors of the Albany County Bar Association from 2010 to 2022, and was President of the Association from 2020 through 2021. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

In addition to the practice of law, Mike has been an adjunct professor at Siena College and Southern Vermont College. He has lectured on legal issues for the New York State Bar Association, the Albany County Bar Association, the Schenectady County Bar Association, the New York State Prosecutors Training Institute, Albany Law School, and the National Business Institute.