Federal Sentencing, Prison, and Post-Conviction Law Firm

The Law Offices of Alan Ellis is a full-service criminal defense law firm representing federal criminal defendants and inmates throughout the United States and abroad. My clients face charges and indictment, conviction, sentencing and often prison. Nearly 94% of all federal criminal defendants will plead guilty. Of the remaining 6% who go to trial, as many as 75% will be convicted; thus 97% of all federal criminal defendants will be sentenced. 80% of defendants will receive jail or prison time.

Alan Ellis is a nationally recognized attorney who has been described by Federal Lawyer Magazine as "one of this country's pre-eminent criminal defense lawyers." He has been practicing federal criminal law for over 40 years, is a Past President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and a former Fulbright Scholar. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has called Mr. Ellis a "nationally-recognized expert in federal criminal sentencing." The San Francisco affiliate of ABC-TV has stated that he is "the best in the business." Verdict magazine quotes other legal commentators as saying that he is "the go-to guy in America if you're in deep trouble with the feds."

Approximately one-third of Mr. Ellis' work comes to him from defense attorneys requesting his assistance on cases. Another one-third comes to him from clients, their family or friends who are currently represented by counsel. Many of these individuals are pleased with their attorneys and simply want him to consult with them to ensure a better result. Some, however, are concerned with the performance, ability or skills of their current attorney and want Mr. Ellis either to consult with them or to actually take over their representation. The final third of his clientele comes to him directly.

With increasing frequency, Mr. Ellis is being called upon to consult and assist earlier in the criminal defense process. This is due in no small part to the importance of plea bargaining and the significant recognition that planning and preparation for sentencing, prison placement, and post-conviction remedies must not be relegated to the post-verdict or part-plea stage of the proceedings.

Practice Areas

During their incarceration, inmates often want to be transferred to another prison facility, halfway house or home confinement. With the help of its federal prison consultants, the firm also attempt to help inmates achieve this goal.

Also while incarcerated, inmates may find themselves in trouble with Bureau of Prisons authorities prior to incarceration. The firm counsels these individuals on how to avoid these problems [see article on "How to Do Time"] and when this is unavoidable, how to respond to charges that are brought against them.

From time to time inmates experience other problems such as medical issues which have not been adequately treated, sentence computation errors, etc. The firm helps inmates with these problems.

The firm includes highly-trained and experienced lawyers and criminal justice experts including two mitigation specialists, one of whom is a former United States probation officer and the other a forensic psychiatric social worker. We also work with two federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) prison consultants, one of whom is a former Regional Designator and the other a former Director of Health Services.

Contact the firm's San Francisco, California, office at 415 380 2550 or fill out the firm's online intake form.