Bill Tunkey

Perhaps best known for his role in one of the most famous U.S. Supreme Court decisions of all time, Bill Tunkey is a recognized trial attorney who offers clients in Miami and throughout Southern Florida more than 30 years and hundreds of cases of experience.

Practice Focus. Bill’s practice focus are white-collar defense and trial cases, in particular federal conspiracy charges. Throughout his career, Bill has handled scores of federal investigations and he has served as lead criminal defense counsel in a plethora of criminal prosecutions alleging healthcare fraud, mortgage fraud, bank fraud, tax fraud, securities fraud, as well as federal violent and computer crimes. Bill started his career as a prosecutor in Miami, Florida.

Trial Record. Bill has tried hundreds of state and federal cases throughout Florida, Texas, New York, Maryland, and Virginia and Bill has built a trial success record second to none. Bill obtained acquittals or hung jury results for clients accused of money laundering, numerous federal fraud types (e.g. tax fraud), a variety of federal drug offenses, continuing criminal enterprise, racketeering, grand theft, murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, manslaughter, robbery — demonstrating his exceptional ability to connect with (and convince) judges and juries alike.

U.S. Supreme Court. To this day, no student will become a lawyer without knowing the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984). In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court unified conflicting state and federal approaches regarding a defendant’s fair trial protection under the Sixth Amendment. Under the authorship of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the Court formulated a still valid standard to determine a trial lawyer’s discretion to introduce mitigating circumstances and ruled that Mr. Tunkey, the lead defense counsel of Mr. Washington, satisfied the test and provided effective assistance of counsel to his client.

Accolades & Admission. Bill has been recognized as one of Miami’s and Florida’s finest and most respected criminal defense attorney. He has obtained preeminent “AV” ratings with major professional peer reviews such as Martindale-Hubbell and Super Lawyers (2006-2018) (SuperLawyers is a Thomson Reuters service). Bill is licensed to practice in Florida and he is admitted to the United States’ District Courts for the Southern District and the Middle District of Florida and he has appeared in state and federal courts across the United States.

Bill and his family live in the Miami area of Florida.