C. Leonard ("Len") O'Brien has practiced law since 1977. For the past 28 years he has specialized in defending individuals and businesses accused of criminal offenses in both the federal and state courts. He has extensive experience in virtually every aspect of criminal defense, from advising clients during the first stages of government investigations through representation at trial. He has tried more than 100 cases to verdict, successfully defending charges of wire fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, political corruption, bribery, racketeering, computer crime, robbery, sexual assault, extortion, drug trafficking, arson and murder.

Mr. O'Brien started his career in the Office of the Rhode Island Public Defender where, for nearly five years, he represented indigent defendants in a wide range of criminal cases in the Rhode Island courts. He gained extensive trial experience with some of the most difficult cases that came through the office, including thirteen murder trials to verdict. In 1985, he left the Public Defender's Office to build a private practice focused on criminal defense. He soon became involved in many high profile state and federal cases, including international marijuana trafficking, political corruption, bank fraud and murder conspiracy.

In 1990, Len O'Brien associated with Lise Gescheidt, a former colleague from the Office of the Public Defender. In 2003, after years of working together informally, Len and Lise associated formally with John A. MacFadyen to form the firm of MacFadyen, Gescheidt & O'Brien.

In recent years, Attorney O'Brien has represented clients involved in some of the most significant criminal cases brought before the Rhode Island courts, including politicians accused of corruption, business executives charged with wire and mail fraud, and internet marketers accused of money laundering. He has won acquittals for members of law enforcement accused of civil rights violations, nurses charged with patient abuse and lawyers facing ethics violations.

Beyond his trial work, Attorney O'Brien takes great satisfaction in defending people and businesses drawn into the criminal justice system during the investigatory stage of a prosecution. He considers this work to be extremely important because often his clients avoid the undeserved notoriety that follows a public accusation. His work in this area has involved not just prosecutors but also a wide variety of regulatory agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, Securities and Exchange Commission, United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Health Education and Welfare, and Department of Homeland Security.

In 2004 C Leonard O'Brien was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is past president of the Roger Williams American Inn of Courts, and a recently-appointed member of the Board of Bar Examiners. He served on the First Circuit Court of Appeals' Criminal Justice Act Advisory Panel from 2003 to 2007, and is a member of both the National and Rhode Island Associations of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Mr. O'Brien was named by Rhode Island Monthly in 2007 as one of Rhode Island's best criminal defense attorneys, a distinction repeated in the 2008 edition of New England Super Lawyers. Since 1995, Leonard O'Brien has been annually voted by his peers to be one of the Best Lawyers in America.