Ehsan F Chowdhry

Ehsan F Chowdhry, ESQ is the owner of E F CHOWDHRY LAW PRACTICE, LLC, a law firm exclusively dedicated to statewide criminal defense, family-matrimonial law, juvenile law, municipal-traffic law and white collar defense. He is licensed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He has court admissions for the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey.

He is honored to have been named to New Jersey Governor Philip (Phil) D. Murphy’s Transition Team as a Co-Chair for the Law & Justice Committee, Social Justice Subcommittee and previously as a member of his select Law & Public Safety Working Group.

He attended Rutgers College of Rutgers the State University of New Jersey, graduated from Monmouth University with his B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) while attaining Dean’s List, earned his J.D. (Juris Doctor) from Widener University School of Law while attaining Dean's List, served as a member of the Trial Advocacy Honor Society and as the President of the Minority Law Students Association (MLSA). He also was the co-recipient of the Most Promising Civil Litigator Award, The Center for Forensic Economic Studies Excellence in Litigation Award and a semi-finalist in the Hugh B. Pearce Trial Advocacy Competition. He was a Certified Legal Intern for the Pennsylvania Civil Law Clinic and a Legal Research Assistant to Professor John L. Gedid summarizing the Administrative Procedure Act to be utilized by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL).

Thereafter, he earned his LL.M. (Master of Laws) degree in Trial Advocacy from the nationally ranked program at Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law. Both law degrees included relevant coursework to his field in criminal law, including Advanced Criminal Procedure, Advanced Evidence, Advanced Trial Methods, Criminal Law, the Federal Rules of Evidence, the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP), Juvenile Law and Pennsylvania Criminal Practice.

After graduating from law school and during his LL.M. degree pursuit, he commenced a state judicial clerkship with the Honorable Vincent J. Grasso, A.J.S.C. (retired) that initially began in the New Jersey Superior Court, Law Division, Criminal Part. Subsequently, he became sworn in as an Assistant Prosecutor in the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office in the Litigation Section of the Grand Jury Unit. From there he transferred to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office where he served in the Megan’s Law Unit, Trial Team, Grand Jury Unit and the Juvenile Investigations Unit. He has investigated and prosecuted thousands of cases. He was temporarily sworn in as a Special Deputy Attorney General and has completed Class #48 of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute Top Gun School Investigating and Prosecuting Gang, Gun and Drug cases. He has rounded out a decade of state, county and municipal criminal law experience for the government in pursuit of victims and their rights and more recently for the defense, entering his thirteenth year and has handled everything from murder to speeding violations. A quote Ehsan used to adhere to as an Assistant Prosecutor and that he applies as a defense attorney today was from Associate Justice George A. Sutherland of the United States Supreme Court. He was born in England and during his years on the court, India was property of the British and Pakistan was not formed until 1947. In Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88 (1935) Justice Sutherland eloquently wrote: “The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all, and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the two-fold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocence suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor – indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.”

As a result of his jury and bench trial experience, requisite contested matters, continuing legal education credits, judicial | peer review and passage of the state’s written exam, Ehsan has been certified by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Criminal Trial Attorney and his recertification is currently pending. Moreover, as of June 1, 2018, he is only 1 of 4 attorneys in the state of New Jersey who is nationally certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) as a Criminal Trial Advocate. He has also been designated by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) as a “Master Advocate” and "Advocate."

Ehsan's awards and honors include, but are not limited to, receiving from Assemblyman Raj Mukherji and the General Assembly a Legislative Proclamation in 2018 for his outstanding character, exceptional determination and meritorious record of service, the New Jersey Law Journal's New Leader of the Bar Award for 2017 and being the only known solo attorney on the list (previously 40 under 40), the Professional Lawyer of the Year Award for 2015 from the New Jersey State Bar Association (NJSBA) in conjunction with the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law and under his presidency of the New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association (NJMLA) co-accepting for the organization the Social Justice Award from the Muslim American Council (MAC). To further honor NJMLA and his presidency he is purchasing a commemorative brick from the New Jersey State Bar Foundation to be placed at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick.

Recently, Ehsan established the Amjad F. Chowdhry Memorial Award (named after his late father) financial scholarship for a deserving minority student as selected by the faculty of Rutgers Camden Law School. The areas of practice that the eligible student must plan on pursuing or has done significant work in includes plaintiff’s employment discrimination, criminal justice reform, hate crimes, immigration and other topics as designated by Ehsan.

He is active in his legal community and was active in his law enforcement community. Amongst other non-law related organizations, he is currently appointed to the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Minority Concerns after serving his two terms | four years on the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Criminal Practice Committee, during which time said committee helped promulgate the state’s landmark bail reform. He is a member of the NJSBA’s Diversity Committee and solo-small practice section, serves as NJMLA’s President for a third elected term (past 1St Vice President, Director), a member of the Muslim Bar Association of New York (MUBANY), was previously the New Jersey regional director for the National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML), is a Lifetime Member, former Vice President of Membership and former Board of Director for the Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association of New Jersey (APALA NJ), is an affiliate member of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), serves as a Trustee and member of the Judicial & Prosecutorial Appointments Committee (JPAC), previously as the Law Student Executive Liaison and Co-Secretary for the South Asian Bar Association of New Jersey (SABA-NJ), is an affiliate member of the South Asian Bar Association of North America (SABANA), TR United (Township of Toms River Community & Interfaith Leaders) and is a member of the Muslim Jewish Advisory Council of New Jersey (MJAC-NJ).

Ehsan has been a regular volunteer and speaker at various events, including mosques, schools and those televised. In March of 2018 he served on a Gun Violence Panel that was broadcast by TV Asia with notable attorneys, a physician | serviceman and a Senator – all from the South Asian community. Many of his topics have included hate crimes, the state criminal justice system and New Jersey’s Criminal Code (Title 2C). He has worked in conjunction with other bar leaders to improve the plight of the profession and minorities in the law – an utmost priority for Ehsan and something that he has been working tirelessly on. He envisions unity and peace amongst all and has relentlessly worked with, and, formed ties amongst, various bar organizations and members of other faiths in an effort to open the channels of communication and understanding.

Ehsan is a member of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL-NJ) and the Ocean County Bar Association (OCBA) serving on the Criminal Practice and Mock Trial Committee. He briefly served as the county liaison to the state for Fingerprinting and DNA, as a certified instructor at the Ocean County Police Academy, volunteered for the Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) at Sea Girt, taught writing police reports at the Borough of Lakehurst Police Department, the L.E.A.P. Head Start program, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee South Asian American Caucus, as a panelist for The Lesniak (Retired New Jersey State Senator Raymond J Lesniak) Institute for American Leadership, the Old Bridge Citizens Academy and was a co-liaison for the New Jersey Human Trafficking Task Force in Ocean County.

Ehsan is listed as an adjunct faculty member at Rutgers Law School (pending assigned course(s)) and prior served as an adjunct faculty member Ocean County College's Business Law Department and their Paralegal Studies Committee. He is on the faculty as a volunteer for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), served as faculty for Widener University School of Law's ITAP, volunteered for Wills for Heroes, a mock judge for Temple University James E. Beasley School of Law's LL.M. program, served as a mock judge for the American Mock Trial Association (AMTA), Monmouth Bar Association (MBA) and the Vincent J. Apruzzese Mock Trial Competition. He is has done an audio trial advocacy CLE for Esquire LLC and is listed as a volunteer faculty personnel. He was previously a member and involved with the American Bar Association (ABA), the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA), the Haydn Proctor Inn of Court, the Middlesex County Bar Association (MCBA), the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) and the New Jersey Association for Justice (NJAJ). He has, conservatively, in his legal career done in excess of five-hundred (500) hours of attending, speaking, teaching or volunteering for various law related courses, including those for credit.

By way of personal background, Ehsan is a New Yorker by birth, Sunni Muslim and of South Asian descent (Indian and Pakistani). He has been a resident of the Garden State for over 34 years. In his free time, he loves playing basketball, chess, comedy, is interested in numismatics, poker, politics, pool, religious discussions, softball, table tennis, taekwondo and tennis. Ehsan is well traveled and multilingual, speaking Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and is semi-conversational in Spanish. He is a previous assistant coach to his son’s little league team and past Captain of his intramural basketball team. He is married to his wife, a matrimonial attorney at his firm and they have two children together. [Current as of 07/31/18]