Dallas criminal defense lawyers Barry Sorrels and Stephanie Luce Ola have launched a new law firm in Dallas called Sorrels Ola.
The two lawyers depart from SorrelsHagood, where the pair used to practice with Dan Hagood and Alexandra Hunt, who have also formed their own firm.
Sorrels and Ola divide about half of their time between federal white collar criminal cases, including health care and corporate fraud, and felony and misdemeanor charges in state court.
The two have been practicing law together for 13 years. Their working relationship began when Ola clerked for Sorrels while in law school. Now it’s time for her to become a name partner, Sorrels says.
“I trust her and her judgment completely … we would not get the results we do without her,” Sorrels said. “She’s indispensable to my success of this practice and she deserves to be a name partner. I feel like she deserves equal billing because she’s a fantastic lawyer.”
A graduate of SMU Dedman School of Law, Sorrels began his career as a prosecutor in the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. He spent most of his three years there working on felony cases and regularly prosecuted murder, aggravated rape and aggravated-robbery cases.
By the late 1980s, he had switched to criminal defense and represented defendants in a couple of federal trials connected to the savings-and-loan crisis.
In 2014, Sorrels got an acquittal for sports-agency worker Sidney White, who faced felony trade secrets theft charges. After his acquittal, White filed a civil lawsuit against his old bosses at Genesco Sports Enterprises, alleging they made knowingly false statements about White to Dallas County prosecutors in an effort to win a separate civil lawsuit against him.
A law graduate of Texas Tech University, Ola has worked on the Innocence Project of Texas and represents clients in felonies and misdemeanor charges in state and federal courts, including everything from DUI and criminal mischief to wire fraud and securities fraud.
“I am honored to continue practicing criminal defense alongside Barry,” Ola said. “Over the last several years working together, we have actively pursued and analyzed every single preparation strategy for our clients, and I am excited to continue that path.”
Sorrels and Ola declined to identify any clients by name, but court records show the lawyers currently represent Christopher Rydberg of Fort Worth, a pharmaceutical financial executive who will stand trial in October with several others who face charges of carrying out a $158 million healthcare-fraud scheme and also face money-laundering charges. The trial will be before U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay in the Northern District of Texas.
Other matters Sorrels and Ola are currently engaged in include representing a CEO of a company under investigation for securities fraud in the Southern District of New York, a large corporation on a federal investigation that involves grand jury subpoenas and a major law firm that has also received a grand jury subpoena. They’ve previously represented a Major League Baseball player who faced an investigation related to performance-enhancing drugs, the son of a successful business owner in a state court case and a congressman who was a witness in a federal investigation in Florida (and was not charged).