Top defense attorney Joel Daniels shuns accolades
Former Niagara Falls Mayor Vince Anello found out that FBI agents were poking into his business dealings, including a $40,000 no-interest loan from a prominent developer.
Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown was worried when his sport utility vehicle was taken from his home, crashed into parked cars in his neighborhood, and his teenage son was looking like the prime suspect.
State Supreme Court Justice Amy Jo Fricano found herself facing charges of driving under the influence of drugs after crashing her SUV into a utility pole in Lockport.
They all called the same person for help— attorney Joel L. Daniels.
Daniels, who turns 70 Monday, has been one of the region’s top criminal defense attorneys for more 40 years. At an age when many people contemplate retirement or are already well into it, Daniels is still a very busy man, handling some of the most sensitive cases in the area.
Why do prominent people — and so many others — in touchy situations call Daniels?
According to many of his colleagues, it is because Daniels is one of the smartest and shrewdest attorneys ever to set foot in a Buffalo courtroom.
“I’ve been his friend, and many times his adversary, over the past 35 years, and I will tell you Joel Daniels is one of the five best lawyers I’ve ever seen in action,” said Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark. “He’s turning 70 but still very much at the top of his game.”
“Joel is an intellectual who reads three or four newspapers a day and loves opera and art. At the same time, he can tell you the latest news about the Buffalo Bills,” said defense attorney Michael S. Taheri, who also teaches at University at Buffalo Law School. “He connects with people at all levels — from street criminals to doctors, lawyer and judges.”
Attorneys Terrence M. Connors and Timothy W. Hoover described Daniels as a lawyer who has mentored many younger attorneys in the city and then cheered on their successes.
Daniels hates hearing such accolades. A slender, well-dressed man who is soft-spoken and polite most of the time, he does not seek out media attention. He works long hours in modest surroundings, a nondescript downtown office suite where a secretary is his only employee.
Daniels said he still works six days a week, sometimes seven, and he credits his late father — Solomon Daniels, also a defense attorney — for his work ethic.
His father, a Jewish Russian immigrant who practiced in Buffalo’s City Court for 60 years, died in 1989. He, too, worked six or seven days a week, and he was still practicing at age 84.
“My dad didn’t golf. No Florida condos, no country clubs for him. He liked to work,” Daniels said. “From him, I learned the importance of serving your clients and always trying to do your best.”
Raised on Villa Avenue in North Buffalo, Joel Daniels graduated from Bennett High School, Penn State and the University at Buffalo Law School. He began practicing as a Buffalo lawyer in 1964.
After a couple of years representing insurance companies in accident cases, Daniels got his first big criminal case in 1966. He defended Willie Fontaine, who was accused of helping to arrange a credit union robbery where someone was shot and killed.
A man who took a plea deal in the case was the top prosecution witness in the case. During the trial, Daniels attacked the witness’ accuracy and credibility. The jury acquitted Fontaine.
Attacking government witnesses is a strategy that Daniels has used many times since, and he isn’t always gentle about it. Last year, while defending a Niagara County businessman accused of arson, extortion and other crimes, Daniels referred to government witnesses as “drunks,” “bums,” “thieves” and “jailhouse connivers.”
In that hard-fought federal case, Daniels did not win. His client, David Cain Jr., was convicted of 17 felony crimes and is awaiting sentencing.
“You go with your experience, your intuition and your instinct. Every case is different, but I work hard for every client. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you are able to work out what I would call a ‘livable result,’ ” Daniels said.
In more than four decades in the courts, Daniels has represented people accused of being crooked cops and politicians, thieving lawyers, bad doctors, rapists, child killers, murderers and bandits of every description.
Has he ever represented a client who committed a vicious crime but was acquitted because of his legal footwork?
There was a long, painful pause before he gave his carefully worded answer.
“On rare occasions, it happens,” he said. “I could count those occasions on one hand.” How did it make him feel?
“You have to accept that it goes with the territory. You did your best for a client, and that was the result,” Daniels said. “That’s how it played out in the court.”
“I think Joel would deal with a situation like that by putting his personal feelings aside and concentrating on the job he was hired to do,” Clark said. “In the big picture, the criminal-justice system works best when you have qualified lawyers on both sides.”
Anello, the Brown family and Fricano are a few of Daniels’ recent high-profile clients.
Federal agents have investigated Anello for well over three years. So far, no charges have been filed.
In the case involving Brown’s SUV, the mayor’s 16- year-old son, Byron Jr., paid a $270 fine after pleading guilty to traffic violations.
And Fricano was acquitted of driving while impaired after a 2007 Lockport accident. The judge then retired due to health problems.
Cases involving high-profile clients present unusual challenges, Daniels said.
“In every case, the client wants to know, ‘What is going to happen to me? What am I going to get?’ ” he said. “But when you’re dealing with a high-profile person, especially an officeholder, there is another consideration — ‘How is this going to look in the public eye?’ That’s something you have to think about every step of the way.”
Married, with two adult daughters and an adult son, Daniels had a serious health scare in 1999 when he was hospitalized with chest pains, and a stent was placed in one of his arteries.
That prompted him to quit smoking, start watching his cholesterol level and begin a regular walking routine, but he only scaled back on his work schedule for about a month. He is not considering retirement.
Daniels shrugged when he was asked if people ever berate him for representing criminals.
“I don’t pay any attention to that,” he said. “Our business is problem-solving. People come to you worried about their life, their liberty, their job or their professional license. You do your best to help them. That’s my job.”
