Criminal Defense

With fifteen lawyers, our Criminal Defense Group is the largest of any firm in Michigan and is composed of litigators and former prosecutors possessing a wealth of trial and appellate experience.  The combination of talents, size of the group, and total resources of Michigan's largest corporate law firm offer clients unmatched breadth and depth of experience in criminal matters.

We advise organizations–in the United States or Canada–on how to prevent and detect criminal activity, recommend steps to take if criminal activity is suspected, and advise and defend those under investigation or indictment.

Led by Tom Cranmer, past president of the State Bar of Michigan, and Matt Leitman, co-chair of the Eastern District of Michigan Federal Bar Association Criminal Practice Committee, the group consists of attorneys with extensive criminal litigation experience. The group works with, complements, and supports other practice and industry groups at Miller Canfield to serve both public and private companies and their executives.

The Criminal Defense Group concentrates on:

Criminal Activity by Employees The group counsels organizations, directors, or officers that have discovered, or have reason to believe, that their employees or executives have been involved in criminal activity. This includes conducting an internal investigation, working with in-house counsel or human resources personnel, and providing advice on self-reporting and dealing with the consequences of employee criminality.

Government Investigation If an organization is under investigation, the group recommends appropriate actions, including advising on how to properly comply when presented with a government search warrant, the steps to take when presented with a grand jury or administrative subpoena, and how to work with government agents during the course of an investigation while protecting the interests of the corporation, its officers, directors, and employees.

Criminal Defense The group defends, in both federal and state courts, those individuals and organizations or officers or directors of organizations that have been charged with criminal acts in such areas as securities offenses, anti-trust violations, fraud, occupational health and safety offenses, environmental crimes, embezzlement and bribery charges, bankruptcy offenses, RICO violations, health care offenses including medicare/medicaid fraud etc., tax evasion, and/or any other offenses contrary to United States, Michigan or Canadian criminal law.       

Compliance Programs The group helps organizations set up a structure to detect and prevent incidences of criminal activity, including researching and designing a compliance program to minimize liability to the corporation, its officers, directors, and board members if a program doesn’t exist.  If an organization has an existing compliance program, the group reviews, audits, monitors, and suggests improvements.  The group also acts as an advisor to in-house compliance officers.