Richmond, Virginia Federal Appeals Attorney

Virginia meeting location – by appointment only: We do NOT accept mail or service at this location.
2800 Eisenhower Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-952-0247

**Attorney Linda Julin McNamara**
Federal Appeals Team Lead
Former Deputy Chief, Appellate Division

Elizabeth Stepp — **Attorney Elizabeth K. Stepp**
Federal Appeals Team Lead
Partner & Yale Graduate

**Attorney Nick Oberheiden**
Federal Appeals Team Lead
Contact Nick

envelope icon — **Attorney Nick Oberheiden**
Federal Appeals Team Lead
Contact Nick

Why consider our Richmond Virginia Federal Appeals Attorney for your case?

Our team has been involved in over 500 federal appeals cases.
Over 50 years of combined frontline experience.
You will work directly with a senior Richmond, Virginia federal appeals attorney from day one — no junior attorneys or assistants.

Criminal convictions for federal crimes carry huge penalties, particularly when they are pursued in federal court in Richmond, Virginia. That means that law enforcement agencies at the federal level considered the offense worth exercising their jurisdiction over, rather than passing the case to state or local officials. You could be facing decades behind bars in a federal penitentiary and hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even over a million dollars, in fines and other monetary sanctions.

You have the right to appeal your conviction or your sentence, and the federal appellate attorneys at the national defense law firm of Oberheiden P.C. are ready to advocate on your behalf at this crucial juncture in your case.

Oberheiden P.C. Can Help You Appeal Your Conviction in Richmond

The Richmond, Virginia federal appeals lawyers at Oberheiden P.C. have represented numerous criminal defendants who have been convicted on their charges across the country, including in and around Richmond, Virginia. With our help, defendants have continued to fight against their charges within the federal appellate process. Just a sampling of the cases that we have handled on appeal have included:

Dr. Nick Oberheiden

Founder

Attorney-at-Law

Lynette S. Byrd

Former DOJ Trial Attorney

Partner

Brian J. Kuester

Former U.S. Attorney

Hon. Kevin McCarthy

55th Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives (ret.)

Government Consultant

Mike Pompeo

Of Counsel

Former U.S. Secretary of State

John W. Sellers

Former Senior DOJ Trial Attorney

Linda Julin McNamara

Federal Appeals Attorney

Nicholas B. Johnson

Former Prosecutor

Roger Bach

Former Special Agent (DOJ)

Chris J. Quick

Former Special Agent (FBI & IRS-CI)

Michael S. Koslow

Former Supervisory Special Agent (DOD-OIG)

Ray Yuen

Former Supervisory Special Agent (FBI)

Our Firm Can Advocate for You from Start to Finish in the Federal Criminal Justice System

Oberheiden P.C. has dedicated appellate lawyers and trial teams on its staff that can help protect you, your future, and your interests throughout the criminal justice process.

That process often begins before you are even aware of it. When law enforcement agents learn of a potential violation of federal law, they will initiate an investigation. In many cases, a substantial amount of evidence will have been gathered before you know about it. Many defendants first learn of an investigation when they are subpoenaed by a Virginia grand jury or indicted.

After your arrest, you will be arraigned in a U.S. District Court and told of the charges against you. For charges filed in Richmond, this will happen in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at the Spottswood W. Robinson III and Robert R. Merhige, Jr.,Federal Courthouse. This courthouse is located in downtown Richmond near the Virginia State Capitol, at 701 East Broad Street.

This is where your trial will be held, as well.

If you do not accept a plea bargain, but get convicted at your trial, the judge will schedule a sentencing hearing where your sentence will be imposed. This initiates your right to appeal. However, you have to invoke that right if you want to keep fighting your case. To invoke your right to appeal, you have to act quickly. Your Notice of Appeal must be filed in the district court within 14 days.

If you were not already represented by Oberheiden P.C. for the trial stage of your case, it is essential to reach out to us as soon as you can so our appeals team can meet this deadline and keep your case alive.

What to Expect in an Appeal

Appealing such a case does not mean that it will be retried in another court. Rather, it will be considered for appellate review. It is up to you and your Richmond, Virginia federal appeals attorney to identify a legal or factual error that was made during the trial by the district court. This is often an incorrect decision by the judge, like allowing the prosecutor to present evidence that should have been excluded from your trial. It can also be a misapplication of the law – something that can happen frequently when the law is novel, unsettled, or ambiguous.

This will be the grounds for your appeal.

Your appeals lawyer will conduct extensive and in-depth research to write a legal brief explaining why this issue violated your rights or made your conviction wrongful. Meanwhile, the prosecution team will be writing their own legal brief to explain why the district court’s decisions were correct and did not unduly affect the outcome of your trial.

For appellate cases in Richmond, these briefs will form the core component of your appeals case, which will be heard by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. This Circuit Court is also in Richmond, just a couple of blocks away from the District Court at 1100 East Main Street. Occasionally, and particularly for complex cases, the judges of the Fourth Circuit will schedule an oral argument so they can hear each attorney explain the details of their case and so the judges can grill the lawyers with questions.

Virtually none of this requires your physical presence, and much of it happens behind closed doors. This makes the appeals part of a criminal case fairly boring when compared to the trial. There are no witnesses giving testimony and much of the time is spent in a legal library as your Richmond, Virginia federal appeals lawyer writes the legal brief that argues your case for you.

Some Frequently Asked Questions that Oberheiden P.C. Gets About the Firm’s Legal Services and the Appeals Process

What Happens If I Do Not Appeal?

If you do not appeal your federal criminal conviction, then the penalties imposed by the district court judge at your sentencing hearing will go into effect.

Depending on the charges against you, your criminal background, and other relevant factors in your case, those penalties can include:

Decades in prison
Multiple thousands of dollars in criminal fines
Victim restitution
Disgorgement of illegally-obtained money or property

Additionally, after you have been released from your prison sentence, you will likely continue to be confined for probation. The conditions of your probation will depend on the offense and your circumstances, but frequently include regular check-ins with a probation officer, counseling, community service, and refraining from further criminal activity – no matter how minor or unrelated it might be.

Finally, there are the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction. These are the many forms of discrimination that other members of the public can legally subject you to because of your criminal history. For example, landlords can refuse to let you rent from them, and you can face a more difficult time getting a new job when you are required to confess to having a criminal conviction in your past.

By appealing your case, you are taking your next step in fighting to avoid these penalties.

Can I Appeal My Case to the Supreme Court?

Potentially, yes. If the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the district court’s decisions and upholds your conviction and sentence, you still have two options.

First, you can request a rehearing at the Fourth Circuit. If granted, your case would be heard again by a larger panel of judges on the Fourth Circuit. While it is rare for the Fourth Circuit to grant a rehearing, and rarer still for them to agree that they made a mistake in their first ruling, it can still be a good motion to pursue.

Second, you can ask the Supreme Court of the United States to review the Fourth Circuit’s ruling by filing what is called a petition for writ of certiorari. While the Supreme Court only accepts around four percent of these petitions that it receives, if your case involves a novel or unsettled area of the law – particularly one that has been resolved in conflicting or contradicting ways by other Circuit Courts – your odds may be significantly higher.

You can also ask the Fourth Circuit to rehear your case and then seek the Supreme Court’s review if you want to.

What Makes Oberheiden P.C. Different?

Lots of things set Oberheiden P.C. apart from other firms in Richmond. Chief among them, though, are the experience that all of our Richmond, Virginia federal appeals attorneys have and the fact that we focus our practice in federal court, rather than in Virginia state court.

All of our lawyer are senior-level attorneys. This means that you can count on your lawyer having extensive experience handling federal criminal appeals cases like your own. It also means that you can count on all of the legal work being performed by that experienced lawyer rather than by a junior associate or even by a paralegal.

Nearly all of the experience that these senior-level attorneys have is in federal court, where we go up against massive federal law enforcement agencies with far more resources at their disposal than the Virginia Attorney General’s Office or your local district attorney’s office. This familiarity for what it takes to win in a federal appeals case also sets us apart from other firms in the region.

Why Don’t You Call Yourselves the Best Appeals Attorneys in Richmond?

We know that is something that means more when it comes from our prior clients. Read their testimonials here.

Oberheiden P.C.: Appeals Lawyers for Recently Convicted Defendants in Richmond, Virginia

If you have been convicted for a federal offense in Richmond, invoking your right to appeal can be the only way to continue to fight for your rights and your future. While prolonging a criminal case may not sound like something that you want to do, the costs of not appealing are significant, as the penalties of your sentence will go into effect.

Hiring an experienced appellae attorney who focuses practice on appellate work is essential if you want to maximize your odds of success in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Appellate work is very different than handling a case through trial and requires a very different set of skills.

A Richmond, Virginia federal appeals lawyer at Oberheiden P.C. is standing by to represent you during your appeal. Contact us online or call our law office at (888) 680-1745 immediately so we can file your Notice of Appeal before the deadline passes. We want to achieve the best possible outcome for your situation.