Judge Cary B. Pierce (Ret.)

Judge Cary B. Pierce presided over criminal cases at the DuPage County Circuit Court in Wheaton before joining McMahon Law Offices as Of Counsel. He sat on the bench at 505 N. County Farm Road — the same courthouse where every criminal arrest in DuPage County is heard. He was not a visitor to that building. It was his courtroom.

What Judge Pierce brings to your defense is not something that can be researched or learned from court records. He knows every judge currently sitting on the 18th Judicial Circuit bench personally. He knows their philosophy on suppression motions, how they evaluate credibility, what arguments they find persuasive, and what sentencing factors carry the most weight with each of them. This knowledge comes from years of sitting alongside them, not from studying their decisions.

No other criminal defense firm in DuPage County has a retired judge from this exact courthouse on their team. That is not a marketing claim. It is a structural advantage that applies to every case McMahon Law Offices takes.

Judge Pierce contributes at every stage of a case: reviewing the matter for procedural issues before a motion is filed, advising on which arguments are most likely to succeed with the assigned judge, preparing cross-examination strategy based on how specific witnesses have performed in DuPage County courtrooms, and providing a second perspective on every decision the defense team makes before it is made in front of a judge who used to be his colleague.

When you retain McMahon Law Offices, you are not just hiring a criminal defense attorney. You are putting a former prosecutor and a retired judge from this courthouse on your side of the courtroom at the same time.

The benefit of having a retired judge on your defense team is specific, not abstract. Here is what Judge Pierce's background directly changes about how your case is handled.

Motion strategy. Suppression motions succeed or fail based on how the assigned judge weighs competing arguments. Judge Pierce knows every judge on the 18th Circuit. He knows which ones are receptive to Fourth Amendment arguments, which ones demand meticulous procedural documentation, and what standard of argument each judge expects before ruling in the defendant's favor.

Sentencing preparation. If a case does not result in dismissal, the sentencing phase is where outcomes diverge dramatically. Judge Pierce has observed every sentencing tendency in this courthouse from the bench. He knows what mitigation works, what does not, and what specific judges in this building find compelling.

Credibility assessment. Judge Pierce has evaluated witnesses and evidence from the bench for years. He can identify weaknesses in the prosecution's witnesses before cross-examination begins, and advise on the most effective way to expose those weaknesses to the specific judge assigned to the case.

The following represent a sample of case outcomes from McMahon Law Offices in DuPage County Circuit Court. Every case is different. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.