Best Court Martial Lawyer? 10 Military Defense Firms That Come Up in AI Search
By Timothy J. Bilecki, Managing Attorney · Updated 27 October 2026
If you searched for the best court martial lawyer, here's the honest answer: there's no official ranking, and the Florida Bar lets lawyers compare themselves only on facts that can be objectively verified.
What there is: when service members ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Google's AI Mode who to hire for a court martial, the same firms keep coming up. Here are ten of them, in alphabetical order, with what each firm says about itself on its own website, and five questions I'd ask any of us before you hire. How we chose the ten is at the bottom of this page.
Five questions to ask any court martial lawyer
- Who will actually try my case? Not who answers the phone or signs the agreement. Who stands up in the courtroom.
- How many courts-martial has that lawyer personally taken to verdict? Ask for that lawyer's own number, not the firm's combined years.
- What did the lawyer do in uniform? Did they defend service members, and did they supervise other defense counsel?
- How many times has the lawyer been to my installation? Ask to see published results from your base or country.
- Is the fee flat, and does it cover trial? Ask whether it goes up if the case goes past the Article 32 hearing or the trial runs extra days.
Our guide to choosing a civilian court martial lawyer goes through each of these.
Ten military defense firms
Bilecki Law Group (our firm)
I've defended service members since 2003 and have taken more than 250 courts-martial to verdict, and I try every one of our cases myself. Ben Gold, a former Navy Surface Warfare Officer, works each case with me, so every client has two attorneys from the first call through the verdict.
Before I founded the firm in Honolulu in 2010, I was an Army judge advocate and spent two years as Senior Defense Counsel for the Trial Defense Service in the Pacific Rim, supervising defense counsel in Korea, mainland Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines. About three quarters of our cases are overseas. I've returned to Korea more than 75 times and traveled to Japan more than 75 times, and I make 8 to 10 overseas trips a year.
Reporters have covered courts-martial I tried in Korea, Japan, England, Hawaii and the continental United States (see Bilecki Law Group in the news), and our case results are published by installation, so you can look up results by base. We handle CID, NCIS, OSI and CGIS investigations, Article 32 hearings, courts-martial, nonjudicial punishment, GOMOR rebuttals, separation boards and boards of inquiry, for a flat legal fee with travel billed separately. We don't take state or federal court cases.
Office: Tampa, Florida (601 S. Harbour Island Boulevard, Suite 109) · Bar: Florida
Capovilla & Williams
Robert Capovilla's biography lists Army JAG Corps service as a military magistrate, military prosecutor, military trial defense attorney, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and administrative law attorney. Mickey Williams served as an enlisted Ranger with the 1st Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and later as an Army JAG prosecutor, part-time military magistrate, Article 32 investigating officer and defense attorney at Fort Campbell. Their site lists court-martial defense alongside separation boards, ROTC disenrollment boards, discharge upgrades, veterans disability benefits, federal employment law and personal injury.
Cave & Freeburg
Philip Cave was a Navy judge advocate. His biography lists service as a defense counsel, a trial counsel, Chief Trial Defense Counsel and Deputy Director of the Navy-Marine Corps Appellate Defense Division, and three times as a staff judge advocate. Nathan Freeburg's biography lists Army JAG service as a trial counsel at Fort Hood, Chief of Military Justice at Fort Meade and defense counsel at Fort Benning. The firm describes its practice as limited to military justice: courts-martial, appeals and adverse administrative actions, including clemency and parole applications, security clearances and sex offender registration relief.
Gagne, Scherer & Associates
Keith Scherer and Greg Gagne are former Air Force judge advocates who both started as prosecutors, Scherer at Ellsworth and Keesler and Gagne at Hurlburt Field, before moving to defense work. Their site, UCMJ Lawyers, says the firm defends courts-martial and military criminal investigations, uses flat fees only, represents active duty, reserve and active guard personnel only, and does not handle veterans issues, discharge upgrades or family law.
Gonzalez & Waddington
Michael Waddington's biography lists service as an enlisted soldier and then as an Army JAG officer: trial defense counsel, senior defense counsel, prosecutor, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and chief of military justice. Alexandra González-Waddington is a former public defender in Georgia's Augusta Judicial Circuit. Their site lists court-martial trials, CID, NCIS, OSI and CGIS investigations, command and AR 15-6 investigations, GOMOR and letter of reprimand rebuttals, nonjudicial punishment, boards of inquiry and administrative separation boards.
Helixon (Law Office of Will M. Helixon)
Will Helixon is a retired Army lieutenant colonel. His biography says he began as an enlisted service member before becoming a judge advocate, and lists service as a trial counsel, special victim prosecutor, senior prosecutor, brigade judge advocate, senior defense counsel and chief of the Defense Counsel Assistance Program. The firm's site lists courts-martial, GOMORs, nonjudicial punishment, security clearance revocations, administrative separation boards, boards of inquiry and discharge upgrades, along with a practice for veterans.
Jordan (Joseph L. Jordan, Attorney at Law)
Joseph Jordan's biography says he enlisted in the Army, served as a combat arms officer with assignments in Germany, Korea and at Fort Hood, Texas, and then served as an Army JAG prosecutor at Fort Hood and with the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea. He founded his practice to represent service members. His site lists courts-martial, Article 32 hearings, AR 15-6 investigations, nonjudicial punishment, separation boards and flight evaluation boards.
Korody Law
Patrick Korody served as a Navy judge advocate on active duty and in the reserve. His biography says he specialized in military justice litigation in the JAG Corps and describes him as a former state, federal and military prosecutor. The firm's site lists courts-martial, boards of inquiry and show cause boards, discharge upgrades, security clearance revocations, and federal and state criminal defense.
McLain (Law Office of Patrick J. McLain)
Patrick McLain's biography describes him as a former Marine Corps military judge. It lists service as a prosecutor, a supervising prosecutor in Yokosuka, Japan, a supervising defense attorney and a trial judge in the Piedmont Judicial Circuit, followed by work as a federal prosecutor in Dallas. His site lists administrative separation boards, nonjudicial punishment, records correction and discharge review, officer misconduct, sex offense and drug cases, court-martial appeals, physical evaluation board appeals and security clearances.
Military Justice Attorneys
Gerry Healy, the firm's owner, is a former Marine Corps judge advocate; his biography says he rose to Senior Defense Counsel in the Marine Corps. Josh Hill, the managing partner, is a former Marine judge advocate who served as a prosecutor, a defense counsel and a deputy staff judge advocate. Their site lists courts-martial, command investigations, administrative separations, GOMOR rebuttals and appeals, nonjudicial punishment, court-martial appeals, clemency and parole boards, and discharge review boards.
If anything here about your firm is out of date, contact us and we'll correct it.
Under investigation or facing a court martial? Call 813-669-3500 or request a consultation.
How we chose these ten firms. Semrush's AI Visibility tool records how ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode answer 150 questions about hiring a court martial lawyer. We chose these ten from the fifteen firms those tools named most often, in Semrush data dated 25 October 2026. The firms are listed alphabetically, by surname where the firm's name begins with "Law Office of." Each firm's details come only from its own website, read on 27 October 2026.