Anton Ditchev

Anton Ditchev is a New York criminal defense attorney whose career began in the hearing rooms of Rikers Island. Over fifteen years at The Legal Aid Society, he represented clients in parole hearings, administrative proceedings, and criminal cases ranging from misdemeanors to attempted murder. In September 2026, he began opening his own firm, Ditchev Law PLLC.

In 2011, Anton Ditchev joined the Parole Revocation Defense Unit of The Legal Aid Society. His clients were people on community supervision facing re-incarceration, and their hearings took place at the Rikers Island judicial center. As a young lawyer, he drove into a locked-down detention center to handle those hearings, some of which involved serious criminal charges. He has said the experience is hard to put into words, and he credits it with teaching him to think on his feet.

The job required work at every stage of the revocation process, from investigations, witness interviews, and case conferences to plea negotiations, writs of habeas corpus, motions, and administrative appeals. He also worked alongside social workers to identify clients with special needs and develop alternatives to incarceration.

In 2014, Ditchev moved to the Trial Practice in New York County. Managing a full caseload in Manhattan, he handled trial strategy, pre-trial and post-trial motions, discovery, investigations, and witness preparation, and he tried multiple cases to verdict. He also helped clients address the collateral consequences of criminal cases, including employment, housing, and immigration matters.

Three years later, he joined the Queens County Trial Practice as a Senior Trial Attorney. There, he represented clients from arrest through plea or verdict in felony and misdemeanor cases, including attempted murder and felony assault cases tried to jury verdict. His motion practice included omnibus motions, motions to dismiss, and motions to controvert search warrants. He litigated suppression hearings and DNA evidence and prepared witnesses for the grand jury. Outside criminal court, he handled civil forfeiture proceedings and OATH, Krimstock, and DMV refusal hearings. He also helped train and mentor junior attorneys and taught Continuing Legal Education (CLE) classes.

In the past year, Ditchev took three felony weapons charges to trial. Two ended in acquittals. The third ended in a mistrial, after which the client was offered a favorable plea.

Many of the people Anton Ditchev has represented were dealing with mental health or substance use issues in addition to their legal cases. He has provided dedicated representation regardless of their circumstances. He has had no disciplinary complaints in his career, a record he attributes to treating clients with dignity and respect.

Ditchev's path to the courtroom began far from New York. He was born in Bulgaria in 1983, when the country was under communist rule. His parents, Dimo and Dora, both came from villages and were well educated and ambitious. In 1991, after communism fell, his father received a NATO grant to conduct research at Cornell University. The family, including Ditchev's three-year-old sister, moved to Ithaca, New York, when he was seven. He spoke little English, and the move was a major culture shock. He has said that being a young immigrant shaped his view of the world.

The family later moved to Reno, Nevada. There, he spent time in the Sierra Nevada and around Lake Tahoe, worked as a snowboard instructor at Mount Rose Ski Resort, and sometimes spent summers with relatives in Bulgaria. He graduated with honors from McQueen High School in 2001 and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, in 2005, writing his thesis on Wittgenstein and his early works. He played upright and electric bass and, after college, performed with the band Monroe in Northern California, Reno, and Las Vegas.

He moved to New York in 2007 to attend Brooklyn Law School. While there, he worked for the Law Office of David Fainkich and, through the Capital Defender Federal Habeas Clinic, helped draft and file a federal habeas petition in a capital case from Alabama. He represented claimants through the Unemployment Action Center and mentored high school students in a moot court program. He also studied for a summer in Bologna, Italy, hiking and backpacking through the Cinque Terre and visiting Lake Como. After earning his Juris Doctor in 2010, he worked briefly as an investigator-lawyer for Casale Associates, a boutique private investigation firm.

Anton Ditchev met his wife, Celena Rodriguez, in 2014 while he was working at Rikers Island. They married in May 2015 and are raising four children on Long Island. He coaches with his local soccer club, where he has coached many intramural teams and the U9 travel team and now coaches the U13 team. He has volunteered with other local organizations, and his family has been active in Scouting.