White Collar Support Group™ Blog: How Jeff Grant Turned My Case (and My Life) Around
By A Silicon Valley Startup Founder
A normal morning turned into a nightmare. A sudden thundering boom shattered the front door and my world. One moment I was a respected businessman; the next, I was facing white-collar charges and the terrifying prospect of a long sentence and crippling financial penalties. Shame, fear, and uncertainty overwhelmed me and clouded my judgment.
I hired highly respected and reputable white collar attorneys, but my concerns soon arose. Their recommendations felt like they wanted me to fold even before we started. They wanted me to immediately agree to give the government millions of dollars, virtually every penny my wife and I had in the bank. Questions swirled around my head, I couldn’t sleep. Were we conceding too much? Did I have a choice? My primary goal was to minimize the financial penalties as I assumed I would have little chance to ever again earn a living even close to the one I had lost. And, I wanted to prioritize this goal while still reducing my potential incarceration time. This appeared to be a strange and foreign concept to my lawyers as they hammered at me to just throw in the towel.
My wife found an article in The New Yorker about the White Collar Support Group and its co-founder, lawyer Jeff Grant. The group provided much- needed emotional support and understanding, and its members shared their practical experience of navigating the white collar justice system.
But it was Jeff who truly turned things around for me. Jeff’s deep understanding of the legal system and unwavering compassion were a godsend. I added him to my defense team as co-counsel, and hired him as my Private General Counsel, to provide strategy, business experience and fill in all the gaps my criminal defense attorneys knew little or nothing about.
He expertly knew how to make my defense lawyers comfortable that he was not there to replace them, but to collaborate, and add valuable experience and guidance to achieve a better outcome.
Jeff meticulously analyzed the case, particularly the financial aspects. His experience and insight gained from helping hundreds of white collar defendants, and decades serving as General Counsel to successful businesses, quickly made all the difference.
Jeff was able to look at my case in a client-centered way. He understood that I needed a lawyer, and a friend, who would put my me and my family first. He delivered in a big way. He offered us valuable alternatives on reducing sentencing points, restitution, taxation, and avoiding forfeiture, and became the go-to guy for all of our business and real estate interests.The impact was immediate. Jeff developed a creative strategy that combined restitution and forfeiture in a way that reduced my overall sentencing points.
My plea agreement was far better than I ever imagined achievable — a significantly reduced sentence, a manageable restitution payment, and no forfeiture.
Beyond his legal expertise, Jeff prepared me mentally and emotionally for the challenges ahead. He was always there providing encouragement and empathy. His unwavering support throughout this ordeal will never be forgotten.
If you find yourself facing similar legal, business and family turmoil and need someone who can fight for the best possible outcome, don’t hesitate to contact Jeff Grant.
— Anonymous, California
GrantLaw, PLLC, Jeffrey D. Grant, Esq.
Private General Counsel/White Collar Attorney
43 West 43rd Street, Suite 108
New York, New York 10036–7424
(212) 859–3512
We practice in New York, on authorized Federal law matters, and with co-counsel and criminal defense counsel throughout the United States.
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“Jeff Grant is the real deal… I can’t imagine there is a lawyer in this country more qualified to consider the complex issues facing people prosecuted for white collar crimes and their families.” — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker
Media Relations: press@grantlaw.com
Jeffrey D. Grant, Esq. Interviewed on the JustPod, the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Podcast
Jeff Grant’s Remarkable Recovery from Addiction and His Return from Federal Prison, to the Life of the Law
“It takes about 3 hours to drive from Greenwich, Connecticut to the Federal Correctional Institution, Allenwood Low in Pennsylvania. Jeffery D. Grant knows this because he took that drive on an Easter Sunday in 2006. A lawyer whose life has taken a wrong turn on the road to addiction, Jeff Grant left the upscale life he had cultivated in Connecticut to enter what would be his new home for the duration of his 18-month Federal criminal sentence. The story of his rise, fall, and redemption is recounted in an article by Evan Osnos in The New Yorker. Jeff Grant has also been featured in Forbes, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Greenwich Magazine, and Business Insider. Jeff was released from custody in 2007 and was able to recover from addiction, obtain a divinity degree, co-found the world’s first White Collar Support Group and found GrantLaw, PLLC, a law firm providing general counsel services to people navigating the white collar criminal justice system and their families and businesses…”
The New Yorker: Life After White Collar Crime, by Evan Osnos
“‘In 2016, Jeff Grant established what he called the White Collar Support Group, an online meeting inspired by twelve step programs for drug and alcohol addiction. He described the program as a step toward an “ethics rehab” and, on his website, explained that it was for people who wanted to ‘take responsibility for our actions and the wreckage we caused.’
In blunter terms, he told me that it was for ‘guys detoxing from power and influence.’”
Read Evan Osno’s article in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/30/life-after-white-collar-crime
Entrepreneur: 9 Things to Know When Hiring a White Collar Criminal Defense Lawyer, by Jeff Grant, Esq.
Hiring a white-collar defense lawyer is a monumental task — and one that most entrepreneurs and businesspeople, even those who are sophisticated legal consumers, are monumentally unprepared to do.
I should know.
I’m a lawyer who became addicted to prescription opioids and served almost 14 months in federal prison for a white-collar crime.
I was disbarred, and then step-by-step, lesson-by-lesson, I worked my way through the ordeal.
On May 5, 2021, my law license was reinstated by the Supreme Court of the State of New York. In August 2023, I celebrated 21 years of continuous sobriety.
Here are some takeaways I learned from over three decades of experience on both sides of the legal system…
Read Jeff’s article in Entrepreneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/im-a-lawyer-and-entrepreneur-who-went-to-prison-for-14/380464
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