Sunhee Kwan
Founding partner
Sunhee tries cases. She spent her first years as a public defender carrying a felony caseload, and opened the firm with Renard to take fewer cases and give each one more time.
Sunhee leads the firm's assault and serious drug cases, and most of its jury trials. She reads every police report twice: once for what it says, once for what it leaves out. Clients say she's blunt about their odds. She'd rather you hear a hard answer from her in week one than from a judge in month nine.
Leads
- Assault and aggravated assault
- Felony drug charges
- Jury trials
On the record
Admissions and training
Bar admissions
Tennessee
2009
Courts
Shelby County Criminal Court
Shelby County General Sessions Court
U.S. District Court, Western District of Tennessee
2010
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
2014
Education
J.D., University of Memphis School of Law
2009
B.A., Rhodes College
2005
Languages
English
Korean
Memberships
Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
How Sunhee runs a case
Sunhee meets every new client within a few days of the call, at the office, the jail or by video. The first meeting is mostly her asking questions and writing the answers down.
She visits the scene. For a fight outside a club, that means standing where the witnesses stood, at the same hour, to see what they could have seen.
Before any plea offer is accepted or turned down, she writes the client a one-page letter: the offer, what a trial would risk, and what she would do in their place. The choice stays with the client.
Talk to Sunhee
Call the main line and ask for Sunhee by name.