Attorney profile

Brian Kinstler

photoB rian Kin­stler is a Mil­wau­kee-based crim­i­nal defense lawyer rep­re­sent­ing peo­ple charged with crimes in state and fed­er­al courts. He won his first crim­i­nal tri­al while still in law school, and quick­ly earned a rep­u­ta­tion as a pas­sion­ate advo­cate and a for­mi­da­ble oppo­nent in the court­room.

Bri­an has worked on many of Milwaukee’s high­est pro­file cas­es. He has has won dra­mat­ic vic­to­ries at tri­al, over­turned con­vic­tions at the state and fed­er­al lev­el, and obtained acquit­tals and dis­missals in a wide vari­ety of cas­es includ­ing homi­cides, arsons, sex­u­al assaults, drug traf­fick­ing, and ille­gal firearm pos­ses­sion. He is also high­ly regard­ed for his work in white-col­lar cas­es, includ­ing some of the largest fraud cas­es in state his­to­ry. In addi­tion to his tri­al work, Bri­an has won appeals in the Wis­con­sin Supreme Court, the Wis­con­sin Court of Appeals, and the Sev­enth Cir­cuit Court of Appeals.

In 2010, Bri­an received the Wis­con­sin Asso­ci­a­tion of Crim­i­nal Defense Lawyers’ Mar­tin Han­son Advo­cate Prize for his vic­to­ry in a close­ly watched homi­cide case. In 2010 and again in 2011, he was rec­og­nized as a Ris­ing Star in Wis­con­sin Super Lawyers Mag­a­zine. Bri­an is reg­u­lar­ly invit­ed to speak to lawyers and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als on crim­i­nal defense issues, and his work in high-pro­file cas­es is well known in the legal com­mu­ni­ty. He has been fea­tured in the Wis­con­sin Law Jour­nal, inter­viewed on CourtTV and CNN, and his cas­es have been cov­ered by the press through­out Wis­con­sin. He is also an occa­sion­al con­trib­u­tor to Inside Track, the online newslet­ter of the Wis­con­sin State Bar.