Criminal Defense

You always are at less disadvantage if you hire good lawyers before a prosecutor decides to file criminal charges. It may happen anyway. But with good, quick, and creative work, smart lawyers sometimes can convince prosecutors that there was no crime or that criminal charges are not right for some factual or legal reason. Some of our best results are achieved before any criminal case is filed. We have helped many clients successfully resolve difficult situations prior to the issuance of any criminal charges – both before and after being arrested. If you believe that you are a target of an investigation for any type of misconduct, rightly or wrongly, Strang Bradley, LLC, is here to advise you and protect your rights and your future.

More than 95% of criminal prosecutions in this country happen in state, not federal, courts. As respected as we are in federal courts in Wisconsin and elsewhere, the majority of our cases are in the courthouses of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. We handle the full range of those cases, from misdemeanors carrying a maximum sentence of 30 days in jail to the most serious felonies carrying mandatory life sentences in prison.

The norm in defense of state criminal cases is oral advocacy, with little focus on pretrial legal issues or written work. We do not respect that norm. Precisely because they are not the norm, strong pretrial motions and briefs—those that develop and press interesting, creative legal issues—stand out in state court.

At Strang Bradley, LLC, we have a team of criminal defense attorneys that are experience in litigating the most serious cases. We do our very best to keep our clients out of jail, prison, or probation for anything.

This firm was co-founded by Wisconsin’s first Federal Defender, Dean Strang, who started and ran the federal defender offices in Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Madison. We remain one of relatively few Wisconsin firms that can say honestly that they do significant federal criminal defense work. Federal cases are far fewer but, on balance, also carry far higher potential sentences. They invariably are serious. So are we. And our edge in written work and legal research—in innovative, persuasive motions and briefs, including on systemic issues broader than any single client’s case—is exceptionally important in, and matched to, federal criminal cases.

Wrongful convictions can occur because of legal errors that occurred during pretrial matters or during trial. When we take on a case after a conviction, we turn our advantage in legal research and writing to post-conviction work and appeals. This is a sophisticated, complex area of criminal law, not only but especially in so-called collateral attacks (such as federal habeas corpus) after an initial appeal has failed. All post-conviction and appellate work puts a heavy premium on written, not oral, advocacy. Again we can stand out.

Consider an admittedly unusual example. A co-founder of this firm was one of two lawyers who represented the lead defendant in the United States Supreme Court in the 2005 case, United States v. Booker, that challenged mandatory sentencing guidelines as unconstitutional. The defense won. Since then, with judicial discretion restored, federal sentences have grown notably shorter—still too long, often, but meaningfully shorter—in every federal court in the country. That is the broadest systemic change that this firm and its lawyers have helped to produce. At least so far. We think there are more successes like that ahead.