Binder proves a good defense starts with hard work

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From the start, Kuchler & Cotton Associate Attorney John Binder has garnered exceptional results.

He won his first case — one involving a drug offense in which he won a motion to suppress the evidence. The case was dismissed for a client faced with 15 years in prison.

He has a love for practicing in federal court, especially to help those in the system who are faced with mandatory minimums for drug offenses.

“I feel like those defendants are the ones who are most in need,” Binder said. “

Binder graduated from Marquette University Law School in 2018. In his two years of practice, his track record of success includes winning jury trials, appeals, motions to suppress evidence and obtaining reduced sentences for his clients.

“Judges respect him; prosecutors fear him,” said Anthony Cotton, a partner at Kuchler & Cotton.

This year Binder argued for and received a directed verdict during a trial involving the felony possession of a firearm. In the same month, he also tried before a Milwaukee County jury a case involving the battery of a police officer and received a not guilty verdict.

This summer, the court granted his post-conviction motion for new sentencing in a case in Waukesha County, which led to a reduction in a client’s prison sentence.

“He’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever seen. Just the sheer volume of hours he puts into every project is astounding,” Cotton said.

Binder is now waiting for a decision on a brief he wrote to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and is working with a client charged with a minimum of 10 years and maximum life sentence in prison. Binder recently negotiated a plea agreement in which he and the prosecution recommend three days of jail time served.