Hon. John Gleeson will be presented with the Nassau County Bar Association's 81st Distinguished Service Medallion (DSM) at the Dinner Gala on May10. The DSM, the highest honor bestowed by the NCBA, is given annually to a person of high moral character and integrity, celebrating their efforts to enhance the reputation and dignity of the legal profession.​

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Judge Gleeson earned his B.A. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1980. In 1985 he became an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. During his decade in Brooklyn, he served as Chief of the Criminal Division, Chief of Special Prosecutions, Chief of Organized Crime, and Chief of Appeals. Among his many high-profile cases, Judge Gleeson was the lead prosecutor in the murder and racketeering trial of Gambino family crime boss, John Gotti. His decade-long efforts to convict Gotti was depicted in his 2022 book, The Gotti Wars: Taking Down America’s Most Notorious Mobster. 

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​Judge Gleeson was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1994 to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, filling the seat vacated by Hon. Jack B. Weinstein—the 1995 recipient of the DSM. He presided over more than 200 civil and criminal jury trials and authored more than 1,500 published opinions while serving on the bench for 22 years.

Judge Gleeson is a Partner with Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in its White Collar & Regulatory Defense and Commercial Litigation Groups. He was nominated by President Joe Biden on May 11, 2022, to serve on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where he served until January 3, 2025. 

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Past DSM recipients include U.S. Presidents, Supreme Court Justices and Senators, New York State Governors, Chief Justices and elected officials, and leaders of the legal profession and local community, including: