Beat The Prosecution- Fairfax, Virginia, Criminal Defense / DUI Lawyer

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz one day Googled for other lawyers practicing martial arts, and came upon David Kaufman of KarateLaw.com . Now, several years later, Jon Katz speaks to David (now retired from law practice and serving as an expert witness and business security consultant) about applying martial arts experience and knowledge to criminal defense and to the practice of law generally, benefitting from the regular practice of martial arts, and keeping our wits and summoning our calmness during our legal battles. 

David has devoted years to learning and practicing judo and karate. Jon Katz daily practices the internal martial art of taijiquan Yang style short form, approaching every challenge in courthouse battle and beyond as one more opportunity to engage and improve in proverbial push hands / sensing hands sparring. 

For good reason this is Jon Katz's fourth martial arts-focused Beat the Prosecution episode. Great criminal defense is a fighting art, and the great martial arts already has paved the way for fighting in court and beyond. Jon Katz's zeal for fighting dates back for decades and continues to this day. 

This episode's links are on YouTube, on our URL and on Apple podcasts. 

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz daily practices the martial art of taijiquan / t'ai chi ch'uan Yang style short form, also known as Cheng Man Ch'ing (CMC) taijiquan form. This episode introduces our third taijiquan teacher, after previously introducing you to Jon Katz's vitally important teacher Julian Chu (a student of CMC senior student Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo, several of whose weekend training classes Jon has attended), and Len Kennedy, who is one of two lawyers who has inspired Jon on the taijiquan path. 

Taijiquan is vitally important to Jon. Courtroom defense is war, and Jon's regular taijiquan form and sparring (push hands / sensing hands) practice is just the thing to enable him to find calm in the eye of the courtroom storm, so as to keep his eye on the prize of pursuing his clients' best defense. 

Sifu William C. Phillips is one of CMC's junior students, and among the youngest to receive permission from CMC to teach taijiquan. Bill is among the small number of CMC's student who have written about him and his taijiquan. Bill's first book is In the Presence of Cheng Man-Ch'ing- My Life and Lessons With the Master of Five Excellences. Bill's second book is due out this year. This Beat the Prosecution episode explores the essence of CMC beyond what has already been written about him, and the further essence of Bill -- who also has advanced in several other martial arts -- beyond what is already available. Bill grew up with street fights, stumbled into a love of judo in college, and from the judo studio director learned about CMC, and the rest is history. 

Bill declines an invitation to speak much about how criminal defense lawyers can come closer to beating the prosecution, but he actually says it all for himself in this interview: Learn and apply taijiquan. Be patient. Be compassionate (I add to be compassionate without sacrificing the interests of the defendant, nor the fighter's firepower). Fight for justice. Practice daily. Stay true to your practice. 

Deeply thanking and bowing to Sifu Bill Phillips for joining this podcast episode.

This podcast episode is also on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnAD5GGZi90 and Apple podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winning-with-full-martial-firepower-sifu-bill-phillips/id1721413675?i=1000713682983

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz knows that acquittals are great and often exhilarating, but trials can also bring risks. On this Beat the Prosecution episode, Jon Katz talks on his own about the art of obtaining favorable plea or settlement deals, which need to be backed up by the threat and strength of trial readiness. 

Settlements can only be earned, but are never owed to a criminal defendant.  Many Virginia criminal and DUI defendants expect to be offered a plea deal, and want it to be a desirable plea deal. However, nothing in the law requires a Virginia assistant commonwealth’s attorney (prosecutor) to make a plea offer, nor for the accused to do anything other than proceed to trial. Jon Katz's parallel blog entry on this subject illustrates one of his successful plea negotiations that can be of help to you as a criminal defendant and your Virginia criminal defense attorney. With this settlement, we started out with a Virginia DUI / driving under the influence of alcohol prosecution alleging a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over 0.20, which carries a mandatory ten days in jail. Jon reached an impasse with the prosecutor about going lower than the mandatory minimum five days in jail for a reduced BAC in the 0.15-0.20 range.

Jon asked the prosecutor if he had read Roger Fisher’s and William Ury’s Getting to Yes on negotiated settlements, which emphasizes negotiating on goals versus positions. The impasse continued. Jon transcended the impasse by standing up, calling out the names of the two lead police officers in the case, telling them the great self improvement his client had pursued,  explained why the defendant's livelihood was at stake from the prosecutor’s plea offer, and asked them for ideas on how this case could be settled without active jail. Without missing a beat, the arresting officer suggested three years of the ignition interlock device. The prosecutor went along with that, adding to complete forty-five community service hours...

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jon Katz pursues your best defense against Virginia criminal & DUI prosecutions. Call us at 703-383-1100 or [email protected] to obtain your free in-person confidential consultation with Jon about your court-pending prosecution.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz knows that it is not radical to protest, but instead is among our rights under the Bill of Rights. As an undergraduate alum of Tufts University, Jon Katz opened his eyes and ears all the more to the plight of Rümeysa Öztürk, who is not known to have written or said anything more radical than the decidedly non-radical op-ed she co-authored with three others in the Tufts  Daily. 

Ms. Öztürk has a great team of lawyers -- including our interviewee Mahsa Khanbabai -- and she recently won a federal court order to release her from detention while she fights deportation proceedings. The question arises about which lesser known people facing the same plight will be able to pull together the right legal team. 

Attorney Khanbabai suggests these relevant links: 

- Senate Judiciary Committee report on immigration detention https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SENATE%20JUDICIARY%20COMMITTEE%20RANKING%20MEMBER%20REVEALS%20DEVASTATING%20INSIGHTS%20INTO%20ICE%20DETENTION%20IN%20EXCLUSIVE%20SITE%20VISIT.pdf

- Justice for Rümeysa Öztürk financial campaign page

- Abuse of migrants at detention centers https://www.laaclu.org/en/news/abuse-migrants-rampant-louisiana-ice-centers-report-finds

- Deaths in adult detention https://www.aila.org/library/deaths-at-adult-detention-centers. 

This podcast episode also is available at YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH2sNLkhKH0

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz knows the importance of reducing not only conviction and sentencing risks in Virginia criminal court, but also to minimize adverse collateral consequences from court outcomes. Jon Katz has interviewed some immigration lawyers on our Beat the Prosecution podcast to address immigration risks from criminal case outcomes. This episode is the first one to have a lawyer tell about risks about traveling outside the United States with a criminal conviction or the equivalent, with Canada being the topic of this episode. 

Enter Canadian crimmigration attorney Marisa Feil, who tells the harsh realities of being barred from Canada for life for a Virginia DUI conviction, driving under the influence conviction anywhere, even a reckless driving conviction (which does not even need to be wet reckless) and many othe convictions. The bar can be overcome, but why get the bar in the first place if your Fairfax criminal lawyer / Virginia DUI attorney can avoid it? If you as a criminal defendant know or expect you will have a need to travel to Canada, talk with your criminal defense lawyer about how informing the prosecutor and/or judge about your risks for traveling to Canada from your case might be used to your advantage in negotiating for the most favorable possible outcome in your case (ideally not inviolving a conviction) and most favorable possible sentence if you are convicted. 

Before you make your travel arrangements, you may wish to obtain your FBI criminal record, which is the same database the Canadian immigration authorities use when you arrive at their border or at their airports. 

This episode is also available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhCcmAnQOBg , at Apple podcasts at https://podcast.beattheprosecution.com/2293867/episodes/17220159 , and Apple podcasts at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/winning-by-erasing-borders-marissa-feil-on-entering/id1721413675?i=1000709713616
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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jon Katz believes in defending without borders of the physical, mental or thought process kind. For your free in-person confidential consultation with Jon about your court-pending Virginia prosecution, call 703-383-1100, [email protected] and (text) 571-406-7268. 

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz strongly dissents from the Trump administration's revoking of the Biden administration's policy of rarely making immigration arrests at courthouses other than for essentially exigent circumstances, lest undocumented people stay away from courthouses when criminal defendants, civil litigants, and witnesses. Separation of powers and federalism also favor no courthouse immigration arrests. "Nobody is above the law" oversimplifies this entire matter, as covered by this podcast episode, with Milwaukee lawyer Stephen Kravit as our guest, to explain the realities over the below-detailed incident involving Judge Hannah Dugan, and how to make systemic courthouse changes to avoid repeats of such incidents. Steve has written here (and continued here) on this matter. 

A few weeks ago, federal authorities arrested Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan at her own courthouse, leaving her unable to even handle her day's docket, after being charged federally for concealment and obstruction of justice involving an immigration administrative arrest warrant (meaning not issued by a judge) for a defendant in her courtroom, and arranging for him and his lawyer to exit her courtroom from a side door, which went into the same public hallway as her courtroom's main entrance. This episode is also available on YouTube.

For more reading on efforts to protect separation of powers and federalism in courthouses, beneficial reading includes a Colorado judge's recent order for no civil immigration enforcement at the courthouse, the New York City Bar's dissent from the prosecution of Judge Dugan, this legal analysis of judges dealing with immigration enforcement at courthouses, this 2018 letter from dozens of former judges against courthouse immigration enforcement, this article (and here) on states that have pushed back against courthouse immigration enforcement, the NYC Legal Aid Society's suggestions on dealing with such enforcement.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz derives tremendous inspiration in his courtroom work from teacher Robert Thurman, for his humor, caring realness, great storytelling ability, and certainly his genius in conveying Buddhist, mindfulness and spiritual ideas in a way that draws in the audience. 

In this episode of Beat the Prosecution, Jon Katz goes beyond what has already been written about Bob, to find out what energizes and inspires him to be the great person and teacher that he is. 

Bob's story is fascinating, to say the least. In his early twenties or so, he went to Asia, and ultimately became a monastic. He was not even aware of the Beatles when they took America by storm. Then, Bob returned to layperson life, and became a Buddhist scholar and is a major translator of Buddhist texts. He was a professor at Amherst College and then Columbia University. He co-founded Tibet House in New York, along with Richard Gere and Philip Glass. With his wife Nena Thurman, he spearheaded the Menla reatreat center in the Catskills, which is a project of Tibet House. The greatness of the Thurman name expands further with their daughter Uma Thurman. 

Jon Katz first started reading Bob Thurman's writings and listening to him around fifteen years ago, and met him twelve years ago. Bob is able to tackle even the most challenging and troubling issues, and permeate them with his infectious, compassionate and riveting humor. Bob would be a great trial lawyer; fully, persuasively, and entertainingly engaging the audience, clearing the air of unnecessarily heavy energy, vibrating highly, and distilling the message without needing to rehash unnecessary factoids. 

Experience Bob's essence, persona and brilliance with his podcast, videos and books at BobThurman.com . Jon recommends visiting and donating to Tibet House, and visiting the Menla Retreat Center. Bob recommends reading his Wisdom is Bliss book Jon also very much likes Bob's Infinite LIfe book. Among the opportunities to meet Robert Thurman is the is the mid-August 2025 Ram Dass Legacy Summer Mountain Retreat in North Carolina. 

This Beat the Prosecution episode is also playable on YouTube and Apple podcasts.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Bethesda lawyer Carolyn Elefant is a trailblazing lawyer. Not being cut out to conform to law firm life, she decided thirty years ago to strike out on her own. For decades and counting, she has shared her pearls of wisdom and encouragement -- including in her book Solo By Choice -- for lawyers to consider becoming their own bosses, and to thrive as solo and small firm practitioners. At first, Carolyn's focus on energy law might sound establishmentarian, until you hear here about her repeated representation of the underdog threatened with eminent domain and other actions when they simply want to be left alone. 

Carolyn lives the motto of helping others to rise as she rises. Fairfax criminal and DUI defense lawyer Jonathan Katz first met Carolyn over twenty years ago, at a few SoloSez small and solo law firm gatherings. Her persona seems lowkey as she pursues winning results for her clients as while balancing that with her personal life, as exemplified by her making the best out of solo law practice by teaming with her husband by sharing to be fully present with their young children, and then seeing Carolyn returning to work after their daughters' bedtime and working until 1:00 a.m. 

It is no wonder that Carolyn led the path for 777 (including Jon Katz, here signed in at page 25) and 334 small and solo practicing lawyers, respectively to join as amicus parties in the Susman Godfrey and Perkins Coie brave injunctive actions -- when some previously highly-sought-after large corporate law firms to work for have instead buckled down -- pursuing a stop to the Trump Administration's onslaught against those two law firms and other targeted law firms, for starters, to revoke access to federal personnel and to strip their lawyers of security clearances. True to her nature, in this podcast episode, Carolyn gives full credit to the lawyer and assistant team who worked with her on this great effort. 

This Beat the Prosecution podcast episode also is available visually at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyXS609LUFU&list=PLH1070JxGHYma6D5XevcUS_96cfmLm71A

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz knows that we are at the moment of truth for standing up to Donald Trump's onslaught against non-United States citizens, lawyers and law firms, and higher education. If not, we will face the discomfort of younger generations in the future asking what we did to raise our voices to all this injustice flying from all directions in this period in American government. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is among the groups at the forefront of challenging such a state of affairs, with FIRE having a wide range of the political spectrum among its staff and supporters. Do not let people marginalize your voice by endeavoring to paint you as a lunatic leftie, when such opposition is much more broadbased than that (and our guest Bachir Atallah voted for Donald Trump). 

Jon Katz deeply thanks lawyer and naturalized United States citizen Bachir Atallah -- who with his wife Jessica Fakhri suffered around a five hours-long detention including being held in cold cells, by Customs and Border Protection officials on their April 13, 2025 drive back from a weekend in Quebec, as Bachir reports -- and his attorney and sister Celine Atallah for addressing the ordeal of Bachir and Jessica, and their current pursuit of justice to put a stop to such mistreatment. 

Bachir's (nicknamed Basho) story has been covered widely in the news media, and here we go in full depth devoting this entire one hour Beat the Prosecution episode to the story of Bachir and Jessica. Nothing beats hearing Bachir's story through his own words, including his recounting repeatedly being subjected to secondary screening while traveling internationally. 

If United States citizens are not safe from the mistreatment that Bachir describes, who is? In Beirut at the time of this April 22, 2025 interview, Bachir expresses his real concern about how he will be treated upon his return to the Logan Airport in Boston.  

Newsweek reports that "CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham told Newsweek [Bachir Atallah's] accusations are blatantly false and sensationalized..." That conclusory denial comes from someone who was not present while the events unfolded, and an exhaustive Google search and search of the CBP and DHS websites does not reveal any further government statements nor explanations on the matter. 

The name of this podcast is Beat the Prosecution. A vital part of doing so is to maintain checks and balances among the branches of government, and certainly not to accept the Trump administration's running roughshod over the rights of non-United States citizens (and, here, the rights of U.S. citizen Bachir Atallah), lawyers and law firms, and higher education. 

This episode is also available in full here on YouTube.

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675

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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz learned early in his trial career about the critical role of persuasive storytelling, executed throughout the trial, and not only in opening and closing. Jon Katz in this first Beat the Prosecution episode in a year without a guest, illustrates how he won an assault trial by supporting his client's alibi by illustrating the alleged assault's happening in Club Blah, where the defendant at the time was in Club Ah, and could not bring himself to stepping foot in Club Blah any more than he could bring himself to drinking a cask of prune juice mixed with vinegar. 

The persuasive story at trial usually is not found overnight, but is discovered with close attention and listening, visiting the incident scene, and bringing the listeners to the scene and the circle and center of the story, often incorporating all five of the human senses. 

Read more about persuasive storytelling in court, with Jon's article published in the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers newsletter, entitled "Story power – DID YOU DO IT? Transporting the jury to the persuasive circle of the story, and applying psychodrama."

Persuasive storytelling is a central approach of the National Criminal Defense College's Trial Practice Institute that Jon attended for two weeks in 1994, and the Trial Lawyers College, which Jon attended for an entire month in 1995, with psychodrama and scene re-enactment also being major focuses of the Trial Lawyers College. 

The parallel video of this podcast is at Fairfax Criminal Lawyer on Winning from the Center of Persuasive Storytelling

This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text). 

If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675