Best Military Defense Lawyer? Beware of “Of Counsel” and Subcontracted Court-Martial Cases

So if you’re hiring someone, I recommend you hire someone who actually works for the firm, who’s a member of the firm. In my opinion, the most elite firms are very small, and this is true for all criminal defense lawyers. They’re small. They work together on a daily basis. My wife and I are law partners. It’s just us. We work on all of our cases together. We talk every day about our cases. We intimately know our clients and our cases. We’re not farming your case out to some random person at Fort Hood and another at Fort Lewis, and then taking a kickback for your case when we actually don’t do anything and haven’t earned that fee.

So I would be very cautious when looking at “of counsel” lawyers on a website. That literally means they are not a member of that law firm. So let the buyer beware.

And here’s another reason why you don’t want to go with someone who happens to be of counsel: you want to know who’s doing the cross-examination. That’s the key to most of these cases. A sexual assault case is often about cross-examination. That is our most important skill as lawyers. Who’s going to be doing the cross-examination of their expert, of the alleged victim? Who’s going to be doing my closing argument? Some subcontractor, or the lawyer whose face is on the website, who lists all their credentials? So be very careful.