Attorney

I was initially motivated to become a lawyer because of the variety of subject matter and the intellectual challenges posed by litigation, which is the competition of ideas. As a history major, I was inspired by the life of Abraham Lincoln, both as a lawyer and a political figure. In this profession it is hard to find a better role model.
Howard Alan

My goal is to have a positive impact on the lives of my New York clients. For more than 50 years, I have offered straightforward, honest and vigorous legal guidance. I am determined to set realistic expectations and provide my clients with the knowledge that they need in order to make choices that serve their best interests.


I began my legal career, literally, in the Arraignment Courtroom at 100 Centre Street in Manhattan in September of 1972 as an attorney employed by the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society of the City of New York. I was then assigned to the Brooklyn, New York office of that public defense organization where I spent about a year conducting preliminary hearings in felony cases that required me to cross examine witnesses, usually police officers, just about every day, and sometimes multiple times each day. Learning how to cross examine a witness is the greatest skill that any trial lawyer can acquire and that early experience was the best education in the law that I could ever have imagined. Thereafter, after conducting my first jury trial in a misdemeanor case, (to a verdict of "not guilty") I was promoted to the Supreme Court branch as a Senior Trial Attorney where, over the next four years I tried several felony cases for the defense, obtaining acquittals in the vast majority of those.

In 1977 I left the Legal Aid Society to accept an appointment by the Attorney General of the State of New York, the noted Louis Lefkowitz, as Special Assistant Attorney General as part of a newly created division of the Department of Law dealing with Medicaid Fraud, in nursing homes, initially, but later with regard to all providers of medical care who accepted Medicaid patients and, with them, government money, a good deal of which in that era was being stolen. Over the next three years I supervised a team of investigators and auditors and indicted the operator of a nursing home in Brooklyn who was later tried and convicted of stealing from the taxpayers. That assignment in both the New York and Albany offices of the Special Prosecutor also involved NYS income tax fraud and its prosecution, and the investigation and prosecution of the abuse of elderly, often incompetent patients residents in nursing homes in several upstate counties.

I have been in private practice since, establishing my own practice in 1981 in New Windsor. While criminal law continues to be my favorite field of law, it is no longer my "bread and butter" because, as I soon learned, the world is not filled with criminals. Rather, and somewhat reluctantly, I have become largely involved with Family Law, dealing both with the divorces of married people and the child custody and support disputes of unmarried parents. About 60% of my practice now involves those issues and has for the past 45 years.

I learned some years ago how to both obtain and collect, when possible, money judgments and as a result have an active collection of debt (and defense of same) practice as well, to go along with other common general practice skills such as real estate, involving the sale and purchase of homes, will preparation and contract litigation of all types.

In addition to my work as an attorney, I am an instrument-rated pilot with over 2000 hours of flying experience, an Angel Flight volunteer pilot, a Young Eagles volunteer pilot, the co-founder of the Orange County Pilots Association, a member of Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 1280 at Stewart Airport and was, for 16 years, the volunteer representative of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (the largest pilot organization on earth) for Orange County Airport and served on its national Board of Advisors for six years.

After becoming a private pilot, in 1994, and purchasing an aircraft in 1996, I realized how much my legal background was an asset in that highly regulated industry and therefore have developed experience representing local aviators in their relations with the FAA as well as those seeking to buy or sell an aircraft or operate an aviation related business

Practice Areas

Criminal Defense • DWI • Drug Crimes • What Exactly Are Your Miranda Rights
Divorce • Child Custody • Collection of Receivables

Contact Howard Alan Kave, Attorney At Law, For 
More Information

I am available for free initial consultations over the phone. To meet with me in person, please call 845-562-1234 
to schedule an appointment.
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