Experience

There is no substitute for experience. The founder of this firm has more than twenty-five years experience, from federal prosecutor (Assistant United States Attorney and Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section in Main Justice) and federal law clerk to private attorney.  He served as the “line” prosecutor in a range of significant investigations, trials, and appeals that received national and international media attention.    

Today, Searby draws upon experience in successfully defending clients in criminal investigations and prosecutions.  We pride ourselves on being legal professionals who can effectively negotiate resolutions with the government but who can also effectively oppose the government when it goes too far or seeks too much.  We count as some of our greatest successes the cases we quietly ended for our clients that you have never heard about.      

We have also experience in complex civil litigation.  Even if most cases settle before trial, the ability and will to try cases works to the client’s benefit.

For more specific information as to our experience, please see the representative matters listed in the Practice Areas Section.

insight

From experience comes insight.  We pride ourselves on seeing through complexity to what matters.  The best solution to a legal challenge is not always the most obvious solution.  We are known for our often innovative approaches to defending cases.

Searby relies on a deep understanding of trial practice and procedure to teach in law school, government programs, and at national bar conferences.  Through Searby’s work clients benefit from a thorough understanding of the substantive law in such areas as public corruption, foreign and commercial bribery, RICO, securities fraud, healthcare fraud, money laundering, and asset forfeiture.

A substantial percentage of Searby’s representations involve concurrent criminal and civil proceedings.  To these matters, we bring not only a real understanding of how the criminal system and the civil litigation system each work, but how the two systems impact each other.   

commitment to our clients

It’s not hard to claim commitment to clients.  Many attorney websites do.  But we back up our claim with a track record of standing by clients under challenging circumstances and in difficult trials.  We strive to uphold the highest level of professionalism and loyalty to our clients, even when our clients are unpopular, the going gets tough, or something better comes in the door.  

Through this boutique firm’s low-overhead platform, we offer representation that is not only highly effective but cost-effective.  We appreciate that attorneys’ fees can themselves amount to an unfortunate penalty upon a client.   In addition, our experience and insight allows us to focus on what matters in a case and to avoid work that is unnecessary or wasteful. In criminal matters, we offer “flat” or “fixed” fee representations post-indictment. In civil matters, we also offer alternative fee and contingent fee arrangements.  In the appropriate matter, these arrangements can better serve the interests of the client than paying attorneys based on how many hours they bill.