Matt Kaiser

Matt Kaiser is a federal criminal defense attorney. He will teach a course entitled “Federal Criminal Practice” at Solo Practice University™.

Matt has defended people accused of almost every kind of federal crime including tax evasion, bribery, fraud, securities offenses, commodities offenses, campaign finance violations, and violating United States State Department export controls. He has helped people with government investigations and criminal charges.

Matt Kaiser is a magna cum laude graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, where he was the Senior Articles Editor of The Georgetown Law Journal. Immediately following graduation, he clerked for The Honorable Catherine C. Blake on the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. He was an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland. He has been an attorney at two major law firms in the District of Columbia – Williams & Connolly LLP and Zuckerman Spaeder LLP. Matt graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with departmental honors from The College of Wooster, and holds a Masters Degree in Philosophy from Tulane University.

Matt has written on a number of topics in criminal law and procedure. His publications have appeared in the Legal Times, The National Law Journal, and The Georgetown Law Journal. He is a member of the Edward Bennett Williams American Inn of Court, an invitation-only professional organization devoted to white collar criminal practice.

Matt is admitted to practice law in Maryland, Washington, D.C., the United States District Courts in Maryland and Washington, D.C., and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

To learn more, visit Matt’s website.

Syllabus – Federal Criminal Practice

  1. An Overview of the Core Differences (in general; of course there are exceptions)
    • Massive sentences/higher stakes
    • Cases move more slowly
    • Congress is active creating more law; courts are creating more law in response
    • Larger prosecutorial organization; the U.S. Attorney’s Manual
    • More prosecutorial investment in a case up front
    • A heavier emphasis on written work
  2. Federal Sentencing (this drives the train; we’ll start here)
    • The guidelines
      • Basic structure – the chart and the range
      • Offense level
        • The general approach
        • Loss amount
        • Grouping of separate offenses
      • Criminal History
        • The general approach
        • Misdemeanors
        • Timing issues from prior convictions
        • Career Offender and other problems for repeat players
      • Other things about your client
        • Cooperation – 5K1.1
        • Acceptance of Responsibility – 3E1.1
        • Almost everything else is “not normally relevant” – a tour of the rest of 5K
    • It gets more complicated – sentencing statutes
      • General issues with statutory provisions in sentencing
        • Interaction with the guidelines
        • Interaction with cooperation – 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e)
      • Mandatory minimums for Drug Offenses
        • The general approach
        • Safety Valve
      • 924(c)’s – Congress continues to frown on using guns to commit crimes
      • ACCA – Three strikes and a gun and you’re out for 15 years
      • 1028A – identity theft’s two year mandatory minimum
      • Child pornography sentencing provisions
    • It gets even more complicated – sentencing case law
      • The constitutional problem – Apprendi through Gall
      • Section 3553(a) and the guidelines – Booker in a nutshell
      • Why 3553(a) is your client’s best friend
  3. Federal Jurisdiction – Why are we hear anyway?
    • The interstate commerce power
      • Arson
      • VAWA and Morrison challenges
    • Enforcement provisions of the 13th and 14th Amendments
    • Extraterritorial jurisdiction
      • Antitrust
      • Traveling to do something bad
    • Intent based crimes after 9/11 – criminalizing photography with bad thoughts
  4. Federal Venue
    • Constitutional issues – same state and district – is there a perfect crime out West?
    • Transfer of Venue motions – there’s no place like home
  5. Procedure
    • Detention and the Bail Reform Act – Money can’t buy love, or, in federal court, freedom
    • The Grand Jury
      • Grant Jury secrecy
      • Quorum rules
      • Motions challenging grand jury practice, and why, generally, not to file them
    • Motions Practice – what to file and when
      • General considerations – clients like paper and it’s better to preserve the issue
      • Motions to dismiss the indictment
        • Constitutional challenges; especially void for vagueness
        • Failure to allege an offense
          • General approach
          • An example – double inchoate crimes
      • Multiplicity/duplicity
      • Motions for a bill of particulars
      • Motions to sever
      • Motions to suppress – hey, it’s just like state court!
      • Bruton
    • Considerations with motions hearings
      • Will you get one? (Franks issues; legal issues, etc.)
      • Should your client testify?
        • obstruction
        • client management
        • tipping off the United States
  6. The Federal Criminal Trial
    • You don’t get to voir dire the jurors.
    • Federal Rules of Evidence 403 and 404(b)
    • The Jencks Act
      • Timing issues with Jencks and Brady
      • What counts as Jencks
  7. Federal Sentencing
    • The PSR process
      • What’s in the report
      • How to manage the interview
      • Reviewing the PSR
      • Reigning in rogue probation officers
    • The sentencing memorandum
    • Client statements at sentencing
    • Watching the Assistant United States Attorney
  8. The Criminal Justice Act
    • How to get on the panel
    • Thoughts on how to get cases once you’re on the panel
    • How to get paid for the panel work you do
      • The forms
      • Your billing practices