Practice areas

Different crimes, different legal issues.

B rian Kinstler represents people charged with all types of crimes in state and federal court. State and federal crimes cover a wide range of conduct – they can involve drugs, guns, money, sex, violence, and everything in between.

Every client's case is different, but for each type of charge, certain issues tend to come up again and again. Understanding these issues -- how they affect investigations, legal arguments, trial strategy, negotiations, even sentencing -- is crucial to a successful defense. Click on the areas below to find out more.

White Collar Crimes

White Collar Crimes

  • Fraud

  • Embezzlement

  • Money Laundering

  • Misappropriation of Funds

  • Securities Law Violations

  • Theft of Trade Secrets

  • Copyright Infringement

  • Trademark Infringement

White col­lar” crime is usu­al­ly used to describe finan­cial crimes com­mit­ted by busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als, man­agers, or oth­er peo­ple who use their posi­tions or to improp­er­ly obtain mon­ey or prop­er­ty. Read more

Drug Crimes

Drug Crimes

  • Possession of a Controlled Substance

  • Delivering, Distributing, or Manufacturing a Controlled Substance

  • Fraudulently Obtaining Prescription Drugs

  • Drug Conspiracies

Drug cas­es gen­er­al­ly to fall into a two cat­e­gories. “Sim­ple” pos­ses­sion cas­es can involve mar­i­jua­na, cocaine, hero­in, pre­scrip­tion pills, or any num­ber of oth­er drugs. “Dis­tri­b­u­tion” cas­es may involve alle­ga­tions of any­thing from a sin­gle deliv­ery all the way up to par­tic­i­pa­tion in a large-scale drug con­spir­a­cy. Read more

Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

  • Disorderly Conduct

  • Battery

  • Stalking

Emo­tions run high in Domes­tic Vio­lence cas­es. Accusers may be angry about a dif­fi­cult rela­tion­ship or infi­deli­ty; there may be an ongo­ing (or planned) divorce or legal bat­tle over child cus­tody, or finan­cial pres­sures. Clients can have the dou­ble bur­den of a bro­ken rela­tion­ship and crim­i­nal charge. Under­stand­ing how clients and wit­ness­es react to crim­i­nal charges requires expe­ri­ence, strat­e­gy, and some­times coun­sel­ing to reach a good result. Read more

Homicide

Homicide

  • Intentional Homicide

  • Reckless Homicide

  • Negligent Homicide

  • Homicide by Intoxicated Use of a Vehicle

There is a rea­son why there are so many books, movies, and tele­vi­sion shows about homi­cide — defend­ing a homi­cide case is the ulti­mate chal­lenge for a defense lawyer. Defense of a homi­cide takes the full range of legal skills and tal­ents, an excep­tion­al amount of dri­ve, and care­ful judg­ment. Expe­ri­ence — and a track record of suc­cess — can make the dif­fer­ence between a bad out­come and a pos­i­tive one.  Read more

Sex Offenses

Sex Offenses

  • Sexual Assault

  • Internet Sex Crimes

  • Child Pornography

Sex­u­al assault alle­ga­tions can take almost any form – they can involve strangers, cowork­ers, friends, or even fam­i­ly mem­bers. Alle­ga­tions do not just include forcible assault – they might involve any form of will­ing sex­u­al con­tact – between ther­a­pists and clients, doc­tors and patients, teach­ers and stu­dents, and even between a 17-year-old and their 16- or 15-year-old boyfriend or girl­friend. Some cas­es leade to crim­i­nal charges when one per­son claims that he or she was too intox­i­cat­ed to give con­sent. Read more

Gun Crimes

Gun Crimes

Even though Wisconsin’s gun laws are con­tin­u­ing to change, state and fed­er­al author­i­ties still pros­e­cute a large num­ber of cas­es of ille­gal firearm pos­ses­sion. Most peo­ple know that fed­er­al law pro­hibits pos­ses­sion of a firearm by any­one with a felony con­vic­tion. But did you know that it is ille­gal to pos­sess a firearm if you have been con­vict­ed of a domes­tic vio­lence mis­de­meanor – even if it was dis­or­der­ly con­duct con­vic­tion from a shout­ing match between hus­band and wife. Fed­er­al law also pro­hibits pos­ses­sion of a firearm by ille­gal aliens, or by those who have been dis­hon­or­ably dis­charged from mil­i­tary ser­vice, or by ille­gal drug users. Know­ing­ly pro­vid­ing a firearm to a “pro­hib­it­ed per­son” is also a fed­er­al crime – so don’t even think about invit­ing your old bud­dies on a hunt­ing trip if you think they may have been con­vict­ed of a crime in the past. Read more

Property Crimes

Property Crimes

  • Theft

  • Burglary

  • Criminal Trespass

  • Forgery

  • Identity Theft

  • Arson

 

Don't wait until you are charged with a crime to consult a lawyer! Talk to a lawyer before you speak with police! Speaking with a criminal lawyer can help prepare you to make informed choices, and to know what to expect from law enforcement and the criminal justice system.