Percival Tsao
Partner
Handles criminal appeals and post-conviction petitions, for people in custody and their families.
Percival spent most of his career in a public defender's appellate division, where the work was reading transcripts that ran to thousands of pages and finding the one ruling that changed the trial. He joined the firm to keep doing that work with fewer files at once. He writes to clients in custody every month, whether or not anything has happened, because he knows the silence is the hardest part. Families can reach him through the office, and he will explain what he can share and what has to stay between him and his client.
Takes on
- Direct criminal appeals
- Sentencing appeals
- Post-conviction petitions
- Habeas corpus
Percival’s admissions, courts and schools
Bar admissions
District of Columbia
1991
Virginia
1993
Courts
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
District of Columbia Court of Appeals
Education
J.D., The George Washington University Law School
B.A., University of Virginia
Languages
English
Cantonese
Memberships
The District of Columbia Bar
National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Percival on reading a transcript
I read the whole transcript before I form a view, including the jury selection most lawyers skip. Some of the errors that matter most sit in the first afternoon of trial, in a question the judge would not let the defense ask.
Then I read it a second time with the law beside it. An error only helps on appeal if it was preserved, or was plain enough that it needn't have been, so the second reading is about the objections as much as the rulings.