Vincent de Moro-Giafferi (born 1878, died 1956), French criminal attorney of Corsican descent. Moro-Giafferi was the youngest person ever appointed to the Paris bar at the age of 24. Also active in politics, he was made a Deputy to the French National Assembly from Corsica at the age of 31 in 1919. As a member of the Radical Socialist Party, he was a strong supporter of French Premier Pierre Mendès-France.

Moro-Giafferi served in the French army in World War I, and was an officer of the Legion of Honor. He held the Croix de Guerre.

Moro-Giafferi was one of the most famous criminal lawyers of his era with a reputation that was global in scope. He was known as a brilliant orator, and his courtrooms were packed with other lawyers, and the general public, who would come to see his skills on display. According to his obituary in the New York Times, his rhetorical skills were so prodigious that once in 1913, after he had won an acquittal for a highly questionable client, a debate arose among the members of the French bar as to the value of the jury system in general.

Vincent Moro-Giafferi is best known for a case that never went to trial. He was asked to defend the Polish-German assassin Herschel Grynszpan who was accused of murdering minor German diplomat Ernst vom Rath. The assassination had geo-political consequences as the Nazis used the incident to intiate an act of state terrorism against the Jews in Germany in the events of Kristallnacht. Moro-Giafferi was preparing his defense when the Germans invaded France.

He was also involved in the defense of other highly controversial figures, including Henri Désiré Landru (note: this is the only case Moro-Giafferi ever lost), a modern day Bluebeard, former Premier Joseph Caillaux, who was accused of World War I dealings with the enemy, and Lucien Sampaix, former news editor of the Communist newspaper, L'Humanite, who was charged with espionage.

Another French lawyer once wrote of Moro-Giafferi:

''He is a born lawyer. His language is remarkably pure and rich in color and images. He is persuasive, convincing, captivating. His wit and sallies are celebrated in the Palais de Justice, for he has as much espirit as he has emotion.

During the preparation of Grynzspan's defense, Moro-Giafferi is said to have received many threats. The American journalist Dorothy Thompson who helped arrange the defense fund for Grynszpan wrote the following:

''Moro has received innumerable threatening letters since he promised to take the case. He is a Corsican, and has officially warned the German Embassy that, unfortunately, his people, not being as civilized as the Jews, believe in the blood feud, and that if anything happens to him he fears there will not be one person dead in the German Embassy but they will be lucky if there is one alive.

1878 births | 1956 deaths | French lawyers | Légion d'honneur recipients | French World War I people | Croix de guerre recipients