Law Office of Rochelle S. Berliner: The Radio Newscaster Turned Manhattan Prosecutor Defending Queens DWI Cases

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Rochelle Berliner’s first career was asking questions on the record: an NYU broadcast journalism degree, then years as a radio newscaster and political correspondent covering the Connecticut legislature before anchoring morning news as a station news director. Her second career was built on the same instincts — she spent roughly fourteen years as a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, then crossed over in 2005 to found a Queens defense practice on the same Forest Hills courthouse corridor where the borough’s DWI cases are fought.

At a Glance

Firm	Law Office of Rochelle S. Berliner (established 2005)
Principal Attorney	Rochelle S. Berliner
Office	118-21 Queens Boulevard, Suite 504, Forest Hills, NY 11375 — the Queens Boulevard courthouse corridor
Focus	Criminal defense including DWI across Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and greater New York City; civil rights and police-misconduct litigation
Background	Assistant District Attorney, New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney’s Office — approximately 14 years as a state prosecutor before founding her firm
Education	B.A. Broadcast Journalism, New York University (1981); J.D., New York Law School
Memberships	National Police Accountability Project (since 2008); National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (since 2008)
Fee Structure	Free consultation; callers can speak directly with Berliner

Career History

Berliner is Queens-born, and her professional arc is one of the more unusual in this category. After NYU she worked in radio — newscaster in Bridgeport, political correspondent stationed in Hartford covering senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns, then news director and morning anchor from 1984 — before law school and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which she joined in 1991. Her materials describe more than fourteen years as a state prosecutor there, handling high-profile prosecutions from initial investigation through trial, before she founded her own practice in 2005 — a timeline consistent across her firm’s accounts, though one directory listing shows a truncated date range for the DA tenure, a variance we note in Methodology. Since 2008 she has been a member of both the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National Police Accountability Project, the latter reflecting the police-misconduct side of her practice.

Practice Concentration

The practice runs the pairing this category has now seen produce genuine DWI depth twice before: criminal and DWI defense on one track, civil rights and police-misconduct litigation — brutality, wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution — on the other. A DWI case is won or lost at the stop, the arrest, and the test, and a lawyer who litigates unlawful police conduct for a living scrutinizes all three differently. Berliner’s DWI engagement is documented rather than nominal: DWI is a named line across her practice materials, DWI-specific client outcomes appear in her review record, and her published writing includes a practitioner’s guide to the types of DWI charges under New York law. The practice serves Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the surrounding counties, with over 26 years in the criminal justice field across both sides of the courtroom.

Track Record

The verifiable record is structural: fourteen years of Manhattan trial prosecution, two decades of defense practice since, and a review record specific about outcomes — a dismissed case one client credited to her professionalism and detail, and a DWI client who believed his life was ruined until the firm’s work proved otherwise. The firm does not publish an itemized DWI dispositions ledger, and this research did not independently verify individual outcomes; we disclose that rather than paper over it. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.

Client Voice

Berliner’s Avvo record runs to 14 reviews with DWI matters among them. The DWI client wrote that the firm “really went above and beyond to save me.” Recurring themes across the record: professionalism, empathy that reduced clients’ anxiety, and thoroughness — one client recalled another attorney at the courthouse remarking that her team looked like a dream team. The peer endorsements are notably borough-specific: a civil rights practitioner called her the best he knows for matters in the Queens criminal courts. This research did not surface any public disciplinary findings; the review base is smaller than the category’s high-volume shops, which we note plainly.

Beyond the Courtroom

Berliner’s National Police Accountability Project membership places her in the national network of lawyers who litigate police misconduct — accountability work whose beneficiaries extend beyond her client list. Her NYU ties continue through the university’s Office of Career Services mentor program, and her practitioner writing on DWI charges and juvenile custody procedures functions as public legal education for Queens families navigating the system.

Recognition

The recognitions here are memberships, peer endorsements, and review-based standing rather than formal awards, and we characterize them as such: NACDL and NPAP memberships since 2008, mentor-program service, and specific peer praise for Queens criminal-court work. A disclosure we apply to every New York profile: New York State does not operate a board certification program for legal specialties comparable to the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, so no New York attorney profile on this site will describe its subject as a state-certified specialist, and this profile attributes no certification to Berliner.

New York Legal Backdrop

New York’s impaired-driving offenses are tiered under Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192: Driving While Ability Impaired by alcohol (§ 1192(1)) is a traffic infraction typically charged between .05 and .07 BAC; per se DWI (§ 1192(2)) begins at .08; Aggravated DWI (§ 1192(2-a)(a)) begins at .18. Leandra’s Law makes DWI with a child aged 15 or younger in the vehicle (§ 1192(2-a)(b)) a class E felony on a first offense, and VTL § 1198 mandates ignition interlock devices for misdemeanor and felony DWI convictions. A second DWI within ten years is a felony under § 1193, and a chemical-test refusal triggers a separate DMV hearing under § 1194 that can revoke a license for at least a year regardless of the criminal outcome. The legality of the underlying stop and arrest — the terrain where police-misconduct litigators live — is often the decisive battleground in a Queens DWI courtroom. None of this is legal advice; consult a licensed New York attorney about your situation.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

The strengths are seniority and the accountability pairing: a fourteen-year Manhattan prosecutorial foundation, twenty years of Queens defense practice from a courthouse-corridor office, direct attorney access, police-misconduct litigation experience that sharpens exactly the suppression issues DWI cases turn on, and borough-specific peer standing.

The honest trade-offs, stated plainly: this is a solo practice and a criminal-defense generalist with a documented DWI line, not a DWI-only boutique; the consumer review base is modest at 14 Avvo reviews; no NCDD affiliation appears in the record; and her prosecutorial tenure, while consistently described as fourteen-plus years in her materials, carries one truncated directory date range that we disclose rather than silently discard.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys in August 2026 without the participation, sponsorship, or payment of the Law Office of Rochelle S. Berliner. Primary sources: the firm’s practice materials and biography as syndicated across directory profiles. Independent verification: Yelp business listing (firm established 2005; 26 years in the criminal justice field; 14 years as a state prosecutor; Forest Hills office); Justia directory (14-plus years at the New York County DA’s Office; five-borough and suburban practice scope); Legal Reach and business listings (office at 118-21 Queens Boulevard, Suite 504); Avvo profile and its 14 client reviews including DWI matters and peer endorsements; detailed biographical listing (NYU 1981, Connecticut radio career, 1991 DA start date, NPAP and NACDL memberships since 2008). Timeline note, disclosed per policy: one directory’s work-history entry shows the DA tenure as 1991–1993, while the weight of sources — including the 2005 firm founding and the consistent 14-year characterization — supports a 1991–2005 tenure; we present the fourteen-year figure as the firm’s consistent claim and flag the variance here. Statutes cited in the New York Legal Backdrop were verified against New York Vehicle and Traffic Law §§ 1192, 1193, 1194, and 1198.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal-directory publisher. This profile was not paid for by the Law Office of Rochelle S. Berliner, and inclusion in our editorial coverage cannot be purchased. Our methodology and editorial standards are applied consistently across all firms we cover.