Federal criminal defense
Federal court is a different system, with different rules, different sentencing, and almost no discretion left by the time of sentencing.
A federal case begins long before anyone is charged. Investigators build the record with subpoenas, grand jury testimony, cooperating witnesses, and wiretaps. By the time a target learns they are a target, the government has usually been working the matter for a year or more. What happens in that early window, before an indictment, often determines the shape of everything that follows.
Federal outcomes are driven by the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Because federal sentences are the product of a calculation rather than a range set by a judge alone, the work that matters most is done at the level of offense conduct, relevant conduct, role enhancements, and loss or drug quantity. Those are factual questions, and they are answerable with evidence. The difference between one guideline calculation and another is frequently measured in years.
Most federal cases do not go to trial. That makes the decisions made before trial the ones that decide the case: what to preserve, what to suppress, what to negotiate, and what to refuse. A case that is going to resolve should resolve on the best terms available, and a case that should be tried should be tried well. The two are not the same strategy, and choosing between them is the central judgment in federal defense.
The firm handles cases in the Northern District of Georgia, the Middle and Southern Districts, and in federal courts in other states, and has tried cases through verdict in front of federal juries.