For Law Firms
Your Client Is Going Into a System You Do Not Practise In
You can run the case. What you cannot do from London, Sydney, Tel Aviv or Singapore is tell your client what the American federal system is like from the inside, because almost nobody outside it can. Sam Mangel served a federal sentence at FCI Miami and has since guided hundreds of federal clients through sentencing, surrender and release.
Not a law firm. Sam does not practise law, does not give legal advice, and does not act for anyone in any proceeding. He works alongside your team and your client's US counsel, on the part of the case that sits outside all of your remits. US federal cases only.
Sam takes his own calls. Tell him the time zone and he will work to it.
Where Sam Mangel Picks Up
None of this is legal work and none of it competes with yours. It is the operational reality of a US federal sentence, which is a specialism of its own.
Prepares the client for the system itself
What custody actually looks like, what the first days after surrender involve, how the Bureau of Prisons operates day to day. The part of a case no advocate can research their way into.
Designation and placement groundwork
How the Bureau of Prisons scores and places people, what a client with no US address is facing, and what is worth raising and when.
Programme eligibility, assessed early
RDAP, First Step Act earned time credits and the exclusions that catch non-citizens. Knowing this before sentencing is materially more useful than learning it afterwards.
The family side
Visiting lists, travel from abroad, call schedules across time zones, and how a household continues while someone is inside. Firms rarely have the bandwidth for this and clients rarely raise it until late.
A realistic account, not a reassuring one
Clients frequently arrive with expectations formed by television. Sam corrects them early, which tends to make the rest of your job easier.
Continuity through to release
The engagement does not end at sentencing. Designation, transfers, programme access and release planning all sit after the point most of your work concludes.
When to Bring Sam Mangel In
Earlier is materially better, and the reason is structural rather than commercial: most of what preparation can change is decided before sentencing.
Stage 1
While extradition is contested
The most useful window and the one most often spent entirely on the extradition fight. Preparation started here has months to be worth something.
Stage 2
Charge or indictment, client still abroad
Before any decision about surrender, plea or cooperation is taken, the client should understand what the custodial reality of each path actually is.
Stage 3
Between plea and sentencing
Presentence interview preparation, character letters, and the designation groundwork that has to be laid before the sentence is handed down.
Stage 4
After sentencing, before surrender
Still workable, and this is where most clients arrive. Narrower, but a great deal can still be done.
How a Sam Mangel Engagement Works
The client engages Sam Mangel directly
Sam is engaged by the client under his own written agreement, quoted on a per-case basis and settled before any work starts. Your retainer and your relationship with your client are untouched.
He stays in his lane, visibly
Sam does not give legal advice, does not comment on the merits of a case, and will route anything that belongs with counsel straight back to you. If what your client needs is a lawyer rather than a consultant, he will say so.
He works to your confidentiality, not around it
Sam is a consultant, not counsel, and nothing said to him carries privilege on its own. Where privilege matters, that is a structure for you and the client's US counsel to set. Sam will work within whatever you put in place.
Discretion is the default
Sam has worked on federal matters that attracted significant press attention. No client is named, referenced or used as a reference without their explicit agreement.
What Sam Mangel Needs From You on a First Call
- • Which US district the matter sits in, and the stage it has reached.
- • Whether extradition is in play, and where that process currently stands.
- • Your client’s citizenship and immigration position, which drives programme eligibility and what happens at the end of a sentence.
- • Whether US counsel is instructed, and who.
- • The client’s family situation and where they are located.
No consultant controls what a court decides or where the Bureau of Prisons sends anyone, and nothing here is a prediction about any case. What preparation changes is how much your client understands about what is coming, and how ready they are for it.
Speak to Sam Mangel Directly
An initial conversation about whether he is the right fit for your client costs you a phone call. Sam answers it himself.
US federal cases only · Not a law firm · Paid consultation