James W. Kraus
JAMES W. KRAUS is a partner with Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP, and Vice-chair of the White Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group. Mr. Kraus concentrates his practice in the areas of white collar criminal defense and investigations, financial services litigation and healthcare litigation.
Mr. Kraus previously served as a JAG criminal prosecutor with the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division. He later served as that Unit’s Operational and International Law Officer. After leaving active duty, he continued service in the Army Reserve until 2000, reaching the rank of Major.
He has extensive trial experience in a broad range of substantive legal areas. Over the past five years alone, Mr. Kraus has taken cases to trial on more than 20 occasions in a wide variety of complex matters, including health care litigation, securities matters, preliminary injunction proceedings and criminal trials in both state and federal court. During this same period of time, Mr. Kraus has handled numerous appeals in both state and federal court, including the United States Supreme Court. In addition to his work in the courtroom, Mr. Kraus has conducted numerous internal investigations for corporate clients.
Examples of results recently achieved in such matters by Mr. Kraus include acquittals in two federal criminal trials, defense verdicts in four healthcare liability trials, a reversal of a criminal conviction in the DC Court of Appeals (vacating a ten year prison sentence), and defense awards in several FINRA securities arbitration matters. He has also recently obtained substantial downward departures under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines in several federal criminal matters.
Mr. Kraus serves as co-chair of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Criminal Justice Section White Collar Crime Committee Mid-Atlantic Region Subcommittee. He also serves as Chair of the Directors and Officers Coverage Subcommittee of the Defense Research Institute’s (DRI) Government Enforcement and Corporate Compliance Committee (GECC). Mr. Kraus is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (PACDL) and the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA). He also serves on the Criminal Law Sections for the Pennsylvania and Allegheny County Bar Associations, and is a member of the Civil Litigation and Individual Rights Sections of the District of Columbia Bar Association.
Mr. Kraus also serves as a guest lecturer and subject matter expert for Carlow University’s Masters of Fraud and Forensics program. This includes consultation in curriculum development and lectures on various subjects relating to criminal and civil fraud litigation.
Mr. Kraus is also active in the community. He previously served as an elected city council member for the City of Butler where he was the Director of Public Safety. In 2008, Mr. Kraus was appointed by Governor Edward G. Rendell to serve as Butler’s Emergency Management Coordinator. He also serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Non-Profit Resources.
Mr. Kraus received his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law and his B.A. from Washington and Jefferson College.
He is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Ohio and West Virginia, as well as all of the federal courts in those respective jurisdictions. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.Representative Cases, Publications and Speaking Engagements