About Michael DeBlis
Michael DeBlis III completed a liberal arts undergraduate degree in French literature at Rutgers University in 1996. He earned his J.D. from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School in 2003 and returned to study international tax, taking an LL.M. in International Tax & Financial Services from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2008. Those steps map a clear movement from language and humanities into law, and then into a narrow technical field.
His early career included time at the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, where he served as an Assistant Deputy Public Defender in 2007. That role placed him in the courtroom on criminal matters and gave him frontline experience representing clients who could not afford private counsel. He later spent time in international tax practice, listed as an International Tax Lawyer in 2012 at NZ US Tax. In 2013 he volunteered for the Low Income Tax Clinic run by Legal Services of New Jersey, taking on pro bono work that combined his tax training and public interest experience.
DeBlis’s professional memberships reflect the dual threads of his work: criminal defense and taxation. He has been a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers since 2011 and participates in its White Collar Crime Committee. He also belongs to the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association, a membership he began in 2012. On the tax side, he joined the ABA Section on Taxation in 2011 and is listed with the Committee on Civil and Criminal Tax Penalties.
He maintains a connection to his law school roots as well. Since 2007 he has served on the Alumni Board of Editors for the Thomas M. Cooley Journal of Practical and Clinical Law. That role links him to legal education and to practical writing and editing projects produced by the journal and its contributors.
DeBlis is admitted to practice in the U.S. Tax Court and in both federal and state courts in New Jersey. That combination of admissions allows him to file and defend cases across tax litigation and criminal matters that arise in New Jersey and before the Tax Court. His background includes courtroom work as a public defender, pro bono tax representation, and private-sector international tax practice.
He combines litigation experience in criminal defense with formal graduate study in international tax. He currently concentrates his practice on tax controversies and criminal defense matters.
