Firm: Doran Justice, PLLC
Practice Areas: Criminal Defense
“True success can only be accomplished by succeeding at something you are passionate about.”. Chris Doran’s passion is in the courtroom and speaking up for those who need a voice. To date, every one of his jury trials have resulted in directed verdict dismissals, full acquittals, hung juries, or guilty verdicts with the same or lesser sentence than the plea that was offered. The one case that resulted in a guilty conviction for his client was later overturned and completely dismissed for egregious discovery violations by the police and the prosecution. In addition to success at trial, Mr. Doran has also achieved many victories in the pre-trial phase of cases, including: negotiating hundreds of deviated plea offers, helping to significantly reduce people’s bonds to allow them to be out of custody while they fight their case, receiving numerous case dismissals, obtaining significantly mitigated sentences from judges, handling various kinds of evidentiary hearings that have resulted in the suppression of crucial evidence, fighting injunctions harassment and orders of protections on both sides, reuniting parents with their children in contentious child custody matters, and assisting injured clients with receiving large monetary settlements. While Mr. Doran is still early in his career, he has already represented professional athletes, lawyers, doctors, police officers, and various high-profile cases that have gained national media attention. He has appeared on local news stations multiple times, and he was featured on CNBC’s show “American Greed”. In just two short years, he rose from an associate attorney at DuMond Law to a named partnering attorney of the DuMond & Doran Law Firm. Before he was 30-years-old, Mr. Doran started his own law firm in 2019: Doran Justice.. Mr. Doran’s primary experience is with criminal defense (over 800 cases) and personal injury civil litigation. He has also represented clients on contract disputes, landlord tenant issues, bond forfeiture hearings, juvenile delinquency matters, and family law cases. He represents people all over the State of Arizona in city courts, justice courts, municipal courts, superior courts, federal courts, and at the Court of Appeals. He has defended clients on small traffic offenses, DUIs, drug offenses, domestic violence offenses, violent offenses, sex offenses, white collar crimes, and even on charges of manslaughter and first degree murder.. Mr. Doran traces the groundwork of his many successes back to his participation in collegiate undergraduate mock trial with Sun Devil Mock Trial at his alma mater, Arizona State University. Mr. Doran was a captain and a leader in the program, earning individual lawyer awards, witness awards, team awards, and awards for professionalism and integrity (SPAMTA). More importantly, undergraduate mock trial taught him effective trial advocacy techniques; it took his public speaking to new levels; and it gave him a strong grasp of the Rules of Evidence used at trial. These skills serve as some of his greatest advantages over his opponents in the courtroom. Anyone that faces Mr. Doran in the courtroom can attest to his trial advocacy skills and his public speaking abilities.. After he graduated with two bachelor’s degrees and a 4.0 grade point average from ASU, he continued straight to law school with the Sun Devils at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. During his time in law school, Mr. Doran continued to compete in internal and external moot court, mediation, and mock trial competitions. Mr. Doran graduated from law school in 2015 with various 1st place victories, as a member of the exclusive Order of the Barristers, as a top moot court / mock trial law student of his graduating class by receiving the Janet S. Mueller Oral Advocacy Award, and with many other accolades. He was also President of the Executive Moot Court Board during his final year.Despite his busy schedule and his successes, Chris has always found time to improve the community and the world. During his undergraduate years, he jointly started the first collegiate chapter of New Global Citizens, a non-profit, grassroots organization that helped indigenous, third-world countries to meet Millennium Development Goals. In law school, he was a homeless shelter director for the Homeless Legal Assistance Project (HLAP) at the East Valley Men’s Center, and he served as President of the Pro Bono Board for two consecutive years. Chris set, and still holds, the record for the most pro bono hours ever recorded by an ASU law student during law school with more than 2,000 logged pro bono volunteer hours. Chris still regularly attends the East Valley Men’s Center to provide free legal advice to the homeless. Additionally, Chris currently serves as co-head coach for ASU’s undergraduate mock trial team. This is his 12th year coaching the Sun Devils. During these twelve years, he has been coaching undergraduate students to guide and train future lawyers, and to give back to them what he was given in college. In these twelve years, the program has advanced beyond Regionals all but once, has consistently sent two teams to the Opening Round Championship Series (ORCS), has competed at Nationals, and in 2023 advanced all 5 of ASU’s teams out of Regionals – making it only the second time in history that a program has done that.. As previously mentioned, Mr. Doran’s success is rooted in his participation in undergraduate mock trial, but what he, his clients, his friends, his family, and his colleagues attribute most of his success to is his passion for his clients. Mr. Doran is hard-working, dedicated, and passionate about each and every one of his clients. He does not stop in his pursuit for fairness, rehabilitation, second chances, and justice. By all accounts, Chris Doran truly cares about all clients that he represents in a unique and individual capacity. To him, this is more than just a career, it is his purpose.
Contact: Not Available
Firm: DM Cantor
Practice Areas: Criminal Defense
Knowledge of the law and confidence in Court is what you need in a criminal defense attorney. This knowledge and confidence is what Christine Whalin projects during every client meeting, settlement negotiation, pretrial hearing, and jury trial. Christine became an attorney in 2006 and joined DM Cantor in 2010, becoming partner in 2018. She is one of only 12 female criminal defense attorneys in the state of Arizona who are Board Certified Specialists in Criminal Law per the State Bar of Arizona, Board of Legal Specialization.. Christine is a trial lawyer practicing for over 15 years in the area of criminal defense. She focuses on representing individuals in all types of criminal cases ranging from state and federal felony and misdemeanor matters, along with school discipline and Title IX litigation. Throughout her career, Christine has represented countless clients on their criminal cases, achieving successful results in the form of dismissals, reduced sentences and complete acquittals after jury trial. Christine represents people in any type of criminal matter, and is particularly skilled in handling major felony cases involving sexual misconduct, sexual assault and other serious “life-in-prison” allegations. In addition, she is extremely successful in handling pre-charge matters and having those investigations closed and not filed.Christine has been listed in the Top 50 Most Influential Women in Arizona Business for 2023.. Representative Cases
Contact: Not Available
