Best Criminal Defense Attorney in Chicago Michael Leonard obtains outstanding sentencing result in visa immigration fraud case.

One of the most critical stages in federal court criminal litigation is sentencing. This is the case because many federal criminal cases, unfortunately, result in pleas of guilty. However, the attorneys at Leonard Trial Lawyers take cases to trial in federal court perhaps more often than any other law firm in Chicago.

Nonetheless, sometimes our best advice to a client is to plead guilty to the federal criminal charges he or she is facing. That advice may arise out of the fact that the government’s evidence is particularly strong; or that the client has no legitimate defense; or because of a favorable plea deal that we were able to obtain from federal prosecutors.

When a case results in a plea of guilty, of course the next step from the standpoint of the defendant appearing in court, is the federal sentencing hearing. That hearing comes about only after the parties have submitted substantial sentencing memos to the court, and an in-depth pre-sentence report has been prepared for the court by US Probation.

The sentencing hearing itself is a critical hearing. A federal criminal defense attorney is able to verbally argue to the court all of the facts, circumstances, and mitigation in favor of an appropriate sentence – which, by the way, is typically much lower than the sentence that federal prosecutors are seeking.

Michael Leonard and Leonard Trial Lawyers recently obtained an outstanding result for their client. The client/defendant pled guilty to only one of three counts of the Indictment. That count charged the defendant with conspiracy to commit immigration-visa fraud. The Governments sought, and argued for, a sentence of up to 4 years in federal prison. However, after Michael Leonard and Leonard Trial Lawyer submitted robust written arguments based upon the Section 3553 factors, as well as a strong oral presentation at the sentencing hearing, the District Court sentenced to roughly one-half of the sentence sought by the federal prosecutors.

This outcome once again underscores the importance of having aggressive and passionate federal criminal defense counsel at all stages of the proceedings. We at Leonard Trial Lawyers consistently provide that type of defense.

Michael Leonard

Leonard Trial Lawyers

October 7, 2025