An assistant district attorney living and working in Philadelphia, Joseph “Joe” Torda has close to a decade’s experience working as a public prosecutor and has litigated over 40 criminal jury trials and hundreds of bench trials for cases involving attempted murder, aggravated assault, burglary, false imprisonment, and armed robbery. In the course of his work, Joseph Torda has handled all aspects of criminal cases, from pre-charging investigations to conducting depositions, drafting and litigating pretrial motions, jury selections, and jury trials. Joe Torda serves as an assistant district attorney with the Philadelphia Office of the District Attorney. He works in the Gun Violence Task Force, conducting up to 40 preliminary hearings a week on felony cases. He was previously in the Insurance Fraud Unit, and before that, the Charging Unit and Major Trials Unit. Earlier in his career, Joseph Torda worked at the Miami-Dade Office of the State Attorney as an assistant state attorney, managing a caseload of up to 70 first degree felonies. Joseph Torda is an alumnus of the University of Vermont (political science/English, Dean’s List) and St. John’s University School of Law (JD). Joseph Torda comes from a family that has been impacted by the opioid pandemic and mental illness, shaping his life dramatically. He has taken part in several legal clinics, offers legal support to law enforcement, and served as development coordinator for Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the oldest HIV/AIDS organization in the United States.