Thomas White

Review of Kirsch & Satawa

I found myself in a situation I thought I would ne...

I found myself in a situation I thought I would never be in; I was charged with criminal sexual conduct in the 3rd degree. I was a college student, studying full-time and playing football at this university, with no criminal history what so ever. During summer break, I went back home to see my high school friends, and we decided to head up to a friend s lake house for the weekend. After a day on the lake of drinking and partying, I ended up getting close and intimate that night with this girl that I ve known since middle school, and we ended up hooking up. After the weekend was over, the next thing I know my world got completely derailed. I received a call from a state detective wanting me to come in for questioning. This girl I ve known half my life, what was consensual sex that night; she was charging me with rape. I was scared and in shock. So I started searching online for the best lawyers in my area and I came across the name Mark Satawa. I called him in the morning and he met with me that same afternoon, free of charge, to talk about my situation. Before I even laid down some money to secure him as my lawyer he offered to take care of things with the detective to get him off my back. I knew that day that I needed him as my lawyer; it wasn t until after I hired him that I learned about his experience and successful history as being a criminal sexual conduct defense lawyer. After hiring Mark, he went straight to work on my case. I ended up losing all of my friends, being suspended from the football team, being kicked out of school, and feeling like I just wanted to give up on everything. This case became my life and ultimately would decide my future whether I won or lost. My family and Mark were the only people who believed in me and believed my side of the story. Mark not only was my lawyer but my counselor and he truly excels at both. The amount of stress and pain I felt and the tears I cried during those seven months were hell. Mark was there through it all and truly kept my mind and heart in the right place. I worked closely with Mark over those next seven months. We had a lot of meetings and phone calls to discuss things that needed to be done. I had a lot of homework to do for the case and Mark always kept me informed and up to date. Mark at all times knew what was going on, he always acted professionally, and at the end of the day even though he was my lawyer, he let me make a lot of the decisions because it was my life that was going to be affected, not his. Mark surrounds himself with great people too; his staff was very knowledgeable and always friendly and supportive of me. My case went through almost every step of the criminal process before going to trial. I wasn t sure what I wanted to do. Take a plea and play it safe or go to trial and risk it all. In my heart, I knew I wanted to go to trial because I knew that I could not submit myself guilty for something that I did not do. The trial lasted five days, which seemed like an eternity. I simply do not have the words to describe how masterful Mark is when speaking in the court room. He is truly an intelligent man, who knows every aspect of criminal sexual law, he has phenomenal people skills and was incredibly smooth when making his statements, cross-examining, or on direct examination. Mark barely looked at his notes because he knew the case like the back of his hand, his preparation and the amount of time and effort he put into the case was apparent. He was even able to make the jury laugh on occasion, which when you re in this type of stressful situation for everyone, was truly remarkable that showed his human side. I trusted Mark with my life and he pulled through, literally saving my life. I am now a free man, able to do whatever I want. We still stay in touch and we re still friends today. After everything that I went through, he gave me the best advice after my trial that I will use forever, the best revenge is living life right. Mark Satawa will get the job done for you and make your life whole again.