Defense Attorney Clint Broden

2018 Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year by Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer Association

Legal Education

Clint Broden obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated magna cum laude with honors in Political Science. He received his law degree in 1990 from the University of Virginia. He graduated in the top ten percent of his law school class and was a member of the Order of the Coif.

The Founding of Broden & Mickelsen

Clint Broden joined a prestigious civil litigation firm in Washington, D.C following graduation from law school. However, he quickly turned away from civil litigation to follow his passion of practicing criminal defense law.

In 1992, Mr. Broden arrived in Dallas, TX where he became an Assistant Federal Public Defender of the Northern District of Texas. As an Assistant Federal Public Defender, Clint Broden practiced exclusively in federal court at both the trial level and the appellate level representing indigent defendants.

In 1998 Mr. Broden and Mr. Mickelsen, another Assistant Federal Public Defender, founded the law firm Broden & Mickelsen in Dallas, TX where they practiced criminal defense at both the state and federal level. This included pre-trial representation, trial representation, appellate representation and post-conviction representation.

A Career Criminal Defense Attorney

Clint Broden is board certified in the areas of criminal law and criminal appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is licensed to practice in Texas, California and the District of Columbia and has represented clients in federal courts throughout the United States.

In addition, Mr. Broden has been recognized by Martindale Hubbel, receiving an “AV”rating, the highest available. He has also been designated Texas Super Lawyer by Thomson Reuters every year since 2004 and he has been named to the Best Lawyers in America every year since 2016 . D Magazine also named him a “best white collar attorney” in the field of criminal defense for 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017.

Mr. Broden was one of only two attorneys in the State who was awarded the Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year in 2018 by the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

A Federal Criminal Defense Attorney

Mr. Broden specializes in four areas of criminal law: Federal criminal defense, Texas criminal defense, criminal appeals and post-conviction proceedings. Unusual for a criminal defense attorney, Mr. Broden has extensive experience in complex cases and areas of law involving the death penalty, white collar offenses, drug trafficking offenses, child pornography charges, federal criminal appeals, habeas corpus proceedings and the federal sentencing guidelines.

Mr. Broden has handled federal cases throughout the United States from Honolulu, Hawaii to Fort Lauderdale Florida to Buffalo, New York. At the trial level in federal court, Mr. Broden can match his success against almost any attorney in the nation. Even though approximately 90%-95% of defendants who go to trial in federal court are convicted, only approximately 35% of Mr. Broden’s federal trials have resulted in final convictions for the client.

A Texas Criminal Defense Attorney

Despite Mr. Broden’s experience in complex federal cases, he also represents defendants in courts in Dallas, Texas and throughout Texas for state crimes. When you want to fight your case, it is important to hire an attorney who is not afraid to take on the local establishment. To increase the odds of a favorable outcome, it is imperative to hire an experienced veteran with a track record of cases and experience who is not afraid to fight.

A Criminal Appeals Attorney

In criminal appeals alone, alone, Mr. Broden has handled almost 100 federal appeals throughout the nation and has conducted oral arguments in close to fifty federal cases. Mr. Broden has handled cases in the Third Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the Sixth Circuit, the Eighth Circuit, the Tenth Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit. Although defendants on average, only prevail in approximately five percent of federal appellate cases, Mr. Broden has obtained some type of relief for his clients in approximately twenty five percent of his federal appellate cases. In other words, Mr. Broden has prevailed in his federal appellate cases at about five times the average.

A Post-Conviction (Habeas) Attorney

Mr. Broden also investigates and files post-convictions in federal court under 28 U.S.C. 2254 and 28 USC 2255 and in state court under Article 11.07 of the Texas Rules of Criminal Procedure. These motions are filed after losing at trial and after all avenues of direct appeal have been exhausted. They are usually the last remedy a convicted defendant has, and they are difficult motions to win. Nevertheless, Clint Broden has won several of these motions in federal and state courts. In addition to winning such motions in cases where clients were convicted of such offenses as Aggravated Kidnapping, Aggravated Robbery, federal drug distribution and Possession of Child Pornography, Mr. Broden also prevailed in a case where the client had been sentenced to death.

Professional Expertise

Mr. Broden has, in the past, been an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law where he taught trial advocacy. Mr. Broden also lectures to other criminal defense attorneys on various criminal law topics including federal detention hearings, suppression motions, obscenity trials and federal sentencing guidelines. Mr. Broden has also served as an Associate Municipal Court Judge in the City of Dallas.

Mr. Broden is a lifetime member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. Mr. Broden is also a member of the Dallas County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Dallas County Bar Association and the Mac Taylor American Inn of Court.

Defense Attorney Mick Mickelsen

Mick Mickelsen graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 1990. He began his career as an associate for Michael Fawer who at the time represented Danny Faulkner in the I-30 condominium fraud trial. From 1992—1998, Mr. Mickelsen worked as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Dallas. During that time, he defended people charged in Federal court with crimes ranging from a bank robbery, drug conspiracies, and white-collar fraud. He also handled numerous Federal criminal appeals.

In 1998, Mickelsen formed the law firm of Broden & Mickelsen with Clint Broden. Although much of their practice continued to be focused in Federal court, the two partners began to represent defendants in Texas courts around the state. These cases involved charges ranging from DWIs to murder.

Mr. Mickelsen also became involved in numerous capital cases on the trial level and on the appellate level. He had the good fortune of having several of his clients’ death sentences overturned in post-conviction litigation. On each of the death penalty cases on which he represented the defendant at trial he was able to negotiate a non-death sentence for his client.

In Federal court some of Mr. Mickelsen’s notable wins was an eight-week trial in which his client was charged with environmental laboratory fraud, winning a two-week computer-hacking trial, and winning a two-week theft of trade secret trial.

In criminal appeals, he has had murder cases and sexual assault cases reversed for new trials, among others, and argued a case before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that established important precedent pertaining to the insanity defense.

While in private practice with Clint Broden, Mr. Mickelsen has been designated Texas Super Lawyer by Thomas Reuters every year since 2004; has been an Adjunct Professor of Trial Advocacy at SMU Law School; and has been a speaker at several continuing legal education events.

Mick Mickelsen has lived in Dallas, Texas for most of his life and is married to Dr. Jolie Bailey.