After graduating from Boston University Law School in 1976, Mr. Kaufman began his career with the prestigious Boston law firm Gaston, Snow & Ely Bartlett, assisting in large-scale civil litigations. As trial counsel for the Massachusetts Defenders Committee and as a prosecutor with the Office of the District Attorney of Suffolk County, New York, he tried major felonies for seven years before receiving an appointment as the Confidential Law Secretary to State Supreme Court Justice Melvyn Tanenbaum, where he participated in the reported landmark decision of Baby Jane Doe v Stonybrook University Hospital.

In 1988, Mr. Kaufman established his general practice, the Law Office of Richard J. Kaufman on Main Street in Port Jefferson, New York. As an experienced Suffolk County criminal law attorney, Mr. Kaufman has provided defense in criminal matters ranging from complicated forensic murder cases to traffic offenses.

On the civil law side, Mr. Kaufman is an experienced litigator having handled large personal injury trials and settlements in the six- and seven-figure range and complex commercial litigations involving numerous major Long Island companies, as well as handling probate, landlord/tenant and securities arbitration (FINRA) matters and appeals.

Mr. Kaufman has extensive experience in transactional real estate, commercial and corporate matters and has represented major Long Island companies, including several of the Island’s largest private waste disposal firms and technology firms and several prominent national figures. The firm also practices extensively in the Surrogate’s Court having handled estate administration, kinship proceedings and probates in Suffolk, Nassau, Queens and Kings Counties. The practice is proud of the substantial volume of residential and commercial real estate matters, which it handles.

Mr. Kaufman is a member of the New York State and Suffolk County Bar Associations, and a former President of the Suffolk County Criminal Bar Association (2003-2004). Mr. Kaufman is admitted to practice law in the state courts of New York and Massachusetts and in the Federal Court, Eastern District of New York.