Gráinne O'Neill & Abraham Hassen
Gráinne O'Neill has spent her entire legal career fighting for people facing the weight of the federal criminal justice system. Her practice focuses on client-centered representation of individuals accused of federal felonies — including death-eligible clients and those charged in large-scale racketeering conspiracies. She is a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel in both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and a mentor in the EDNY CJA Panel.
What distinguishes Gráinne's record is rare: she has won two jury trials in the Southern District of New York as lead counsel — the only two SDNY trials she has personally taken to verdict. In a court where the government wins the overwhelming majority of trials, these outcomes speak for themselves. They are not statistics. They are families kept whole, futures restored, lives changed.
Before founding the firm, Gráinne served as Staff Attorney and Legal Systems & Technology Director at the Orleans Public Defenders, managing a caseload of 300 felony cases annually while overseeing all information systems for the office. She then joined the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, where she directed My Gideon — a national knowledge-management system for public defenders — and coordinated advocacy work on death penalty abolition across the country.
Gráinne is faculty at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Intensive Trial Advocacy Program and at Gideon's Promise, where she teaches trial skills to public defenders. She is a Super Lawyer and a proud member of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Her background in mathematics and computer science (Cornell University, B.A.) uniquely positions her as a consultant on discovery management and legal technology for other attorneys navigating complex federal matters.
Above all, Gráinne believes this: helping people through the hardest time in their lives is not just a job — it is a calling.
Abi has experience representing clients in federal criminal matters, including complex, multi-defendant cases, and has worked extensively on digital discovery and trial support. He is currently focused on consulting and advisory work with the firm.
Abi serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State Dickinson Law, where he teaches Professional Responsibility, Legal Writing, Trial Advocacy, Law in Emergency, and Race, Law, and Technology. His academic work examines the relationship between law, power, and social movements, and informs his approach to practice.
He previously served as Mass Defense Coordinator with the National Lawyers Guild and co-founded the Black Movement-Law Project, which developed legal support infrastructure for grassroots movements across multiple cities. He consults with nonprofit organizations, community groups, and advocacy networks on issues related to protest, surveillance, and digital security.
Abi holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law, an M.A. in Political Philosophy from Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), and a B.S. from The Evergreen State College. He is admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey.