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Michael S. Discioarro spent roughly five years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx prosecuting thousands of cases, DWI among them, before crossing over to build one of the more visibly DWI-committed defense practices in New York City — a firm that runs separate dedicated websites for Brooklyn DWI defense and citywide DWI defense, and whose founder has taught criminal law to future cops and prosecutors at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Hunter College.
At a Glance
| Firm | The Law Offices of Michael S. Discioarro, LLC |
| Principal Attorney | Michael S. Discioarro |
| Office | New York, NY — current Avvo listing places the office in Manhattan (ZIP 10018); no street address is published in the sources consulted, a gap we disclose rather than fill by guesswork |
| Focus | DWI/DUI defense across all five boroughs, Long Island, and Westchester; broader criminal defense; ACS child-neglect defense for parents |
| Languages | Italian and Spanish, in addition to English |
| Admissions | New York State; U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York |
| Fee Structure | Consultation by phone; no published fee schedule located |
Career History
Discioarro is a graduate of Rutgers Law School and began his career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office, where over approximately five years he prosecuted a high-volume caseload the firm describes as thousands of cases, ranging from DWI to drug sales. He then founded his own defense practice. Alongside it, he has served as an associate professor of criminal law at Hunter College and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and teaches continuing legal education classes to other attorneys. His firm’s current materials describe 25 years of experience defending DWI cases; earlier firm copy described more than 10 years — both are the firm’s own characterizations at different points in time, noted here for completeness.
Practice Concentration
The DWI commitment here is structural, not rhetorical: the firm maintains multiple dedicated DWI websites covering Brooklyn specifically and New York City generally, addressing felony DWI, DMV license hearings, and refusal cases, and it represents DWI clients in all five boroughs plus Long Island and Westchester. Discioarro’s Brooklyn materials emphasize familiarity with how the Kings County District Attorney’s Criminal Court Bureau handles DWI prosecutions. The firm is otherwise a full-service criminal defense practice — state and federal — with an additional niche defending parents in ACS child-neglect proceedings. The firm reports membership in the National DWI College and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and in the New York City Bar Association.
Track Record
The firm’s published client accounts include a DWI charge resolved as “reduced to community service – no probation, no suspension” and a professional whose case was dismissed at the second court appearance. These outcomes appear in the firm’s own testimonial materials and are attributed as such; this research did not independently verify individual dispositions. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.
Client Voice
Discioarro’s Avvo profile carries 242 client reviews — one of the largest review bases in this category — and an Avvo Client’s Choice Award. A DWI client described him as “always on time, prepared and professional,” crediting him with proactive case updates down to court-date reminders. The record is not uniformly positive, and per our editorial policy we say so: one Avvo reviewer alleged that witnesses they offered were never interviewed and that they lost a case they maintain was built on a falsehood. A single adverse review among 242 is a favorable ratio by any standard, but it exists, and readers deserve to know it does. This research did not surface any public disciplinary findings.
Beyond the Courtroom
Discioarro’s most substantive extra-practice commitment is teaching: years of classroom instruction in criminal law at two CUNY institutions — including John Jay, the city’s flagship criminal-justice college — and continuing legal education for practicing attorneys. His fluency in Italian and Spanish is a practical access point in a city where a DWI arrest often lands on a defendant navigating the system in a second language.
Recognition
The Avvo Client’s Choice Award is a client-review-driven recognition, and his academic appointments at Hunter and John Jay are institutional roles rather than awards — we note both for what they are. The firm’s reported membership in the National DWI College is a professional-association membership, not a certification. 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 Discioarro.
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. Each borough’s DWI cases are prosecuted by that borough’s District Attorney — in Brooklyn, the Kings County DA’s Criminal Court Bureau — so a defense practice’s familiarity with a specific borough’s charging and plea patterns has real practical value. None of this is legal advice; consult a licensed New York attorney about your situation.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
The strengths are volume and access: prosecutorial grounding in the city’s own courts, a review base of 242 clients that is difficult to manufacture, genuine multi-borough DWI infrastructure, bilingual capacity, and a teaching résumé that independently corroborates subject-matter command.
The honest trade-offs, stated plainly: the firm’s experience claims have shifted across its own materials over time (10-plus years in older copy, 25 in current), and its physical street address is not published on the sources we consulted — a prospective client should confirm the office location directly. The practice is heavily marketed through a network of keyword-oriented websites, which is common in this field but means the branding (“Brooklyn DWI Lawyer”) describes the market served rather than necessarily where the office sits. And the review record, while overwhelmingly positive, includes at least one client who felt their defense was not fully investigated.
Methodology & Sourcing
This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys in August 2026 without the participation, sponsorship, or payment of The Law Offices of Michael S. Discioarro, LLC. Primary sources: the firm’s websites (dwibrooklyn.com, dwiattorneybrooklyn.com, brooklyncriminaldefenselawfirm.com, and dwinewyorkcity.com), including attorney biography, practice, and testimonial pages. Independent verification: Avvo attorney profile (Bronx County DA career history, 242 client reviews including the adverse review disclosed above, Client’s Choice Award, Manhattan ZIP 10018 office listing). The absence of a published street address and the shift in the firm’s stated years of experience across its own materials are disclosed rather than smoothed over. 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 Offices of Michael S. Discioarro, LLC, and inclusion in our editorial coverage cannot be purchased. Our methodology and editorial standards are applied consistently across all firms we cover.
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