Joseph Marutollo

Education

Joseph Marutollo is the Chief of the Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, a district that encompasses approximately eight million people.  As Chief, Joseph manages the federal civil litigation activities of over 40 Assistant U.S. Attorneys who effectively represent the interests of the United States in several hundred affirmative and defensive cases and matters each year.

Joseph joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York in March 2015.  From May 2017 through June 2020, Joseph served as Chief of the Immigration Litigation Unit.  From September 2019 through June 2020, Joseph also served as Deputy Chief of the Civil Division.  From June 2020 to January 2021, he served as Principal Deputy Chief of the Civil Division.  Joseph served as Acting Chief of the Civil Division from January 2021 to January 2022.  During his tenure as Acting Chief of the Civil Division, Joseph worked with senior management in the Office to help create the Civil Rights Team and the Environmental Justice Team.  These teams of experienced Civil Division AUSAs are assigned to investigate discrimination in the City of New York and on Long Island.  Additionally, he is the Civil Division’s Ethics Advisor and Professional Responsibility Officer.  Joseph is a member of the Office's Diversity Committee, where he serves as Chair of the Internal Operations Subcommittee and Chair of the Events Subcommittee.

Joseph served as the lead attorney on behalf of the United States in over 150 federal cases, including numerous trials in the Eastern District of New York and appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  In 2019, Joseph received a Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys for his exemplary performance in leading the district’s demanding civil immigration practice.  Also in 2019, Pace University School of Law awarded Joseph its Rising Star Award.

Prior to working at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Joseph worked for five years as an Assistant Corporation Counsel at the New York City Law Department, where he was the lead attorney on behalf of the City of New York in over 100 federal civil rights cases, including 6 trials.  Joseph was honored with the Corporation Counsel’s Division Chief Award for exceptional performance in 2012 and the Legal Rookie of the Year Award in 2011, in recognition of outstanding performance, promise, and dedication to the Law Department. 

Joseph serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace University School of Law and as Coordinator of the EDNY Civil Division’s Cardozo Law School externship program. He previously served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Fordham Law School and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. Joseph is a member of the Board of Editors of the Federal Bar Council Quarterly and a member of the Board of Advisors at Fordham University’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies.  Joseph is a graduate of Fordham University and Pace University School of Law, where he was Executive Articles Editor of the Pace Law Review.