Zachary Newland: The Colorado Federal Criminal Defense Attorney Who Just Won at the U.S. Supreme Court

Zachary Newland is the founding partner of Evergreen Attorneys, a federal criminal defense boutique based in Denver, Colorado, that represents clients across the country. On June 18, 2026, he served as counsel of record in a unanimous United States Supreme Court victory, United States v. Hemani, in which the Court held 9-0 that prosecuting his client under a federal firearms statute violated the Second Amendment. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Newland has appeared as counsel of record in more than 120 federal cases since 2016 and is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, nine federal circuit courts of appeals, and more than a dozen federal district courts nationwide.

How Zachary Newland Won a Unanimous Supreme Court Victory in United States v. Hemani

On Thursday, June 18, 2026, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in United States v. Hemani (No. 24-1234), and the result was as decisive as it was rare: a 9-0 ruling in favor of the defense. Writing for the Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch held that the federal government's prosecution of Ali Danial Hemani under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) — the provision barring "unlawful users" of controlled substances from possessing firearms — was inconsistent with the Second Amendment. Zachary Newland served as counsel of record for Hemani before the Supreme Court, having already served as lead counsel for the same client in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

The stakes were substantial. Hemani, a Texas man, faced up to 15 years in federal prison after the government charged him based largely on his admission that he used marijuana while keeping a lawfully owned firearm secured at home. The government's theory would have automatically stripped Second Amendment rights from anyone who regularly uses a controlled substance, with no individualized showing of dangerousness. Every justice rejected it, with separate concurrences from Justices Thomas, Jackson, and Alito. The decision, which affirmed a dismissal Newland's team had already secured in the Fifth Circuit, is a narrow, as-applied ruling rather than a wholesale invalidation of the statute — a distinction that reflects the precision federal appellate work demands.

For a boutique federal criminal defense practice operating out of the Colorado mountains, a unanimous win at the nation's highest court is the kind of result that defines a career — and it is consistent with the practice Newland has built: meeting the government's most aggressive theories at every level of the system, up to the Supreme Court itself.

A Georgetown-Trained Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer Who Practices Nationwide

Zachary Newland earned his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center after an undergraduate degree in Political Science at Oklahoma City University. He has practiced since 2013, when he was admitted to the State Bar of Texas, and he has been admitted to the Colorado bar since 2018.

What distinguishes Newland is the breadth of his federal admissions. Beyond his state licenses, he is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, nine federal circuit courts of appeals — the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, and District of Columbia Circuits — and more than a dozen federal district courts across the country. That national footprint is the practical infrastructure of a federal criminal defense practice that takes matters wherever they arise, then sends a founding partner to the courthouse rather than a junior associate. From the Evergreen Attorneys office in Denver, Colorado, Newland has built a federal criminal defense practice that is genuinely nationwide in reach while remaining boutique in scale.

The High-Profile Federal Cases That Define Zachary Newland's Practice

Federal criminal defense is measured by the company a lawyer keeps in the case caption, and Zachary Newland's docket reads like a survey of the era's most closely watched prosecutions. Working as part of national defense teams, he has contributed to matters involving Bernard Madoff — the financier whose Ponzi scheme drew worldwide coverage, whose case in the Southern District of New York (No. 1:09-cr-00213-DC) involved a compassionate-release effort — as well as Ross Ulbricht, the alleged founder of the Silk Road marketplace, whose case (No. 1:14-cr-0068) sat at the pioneering intersection of cryptocurrency, the dark web, and criminal law. He has also worked on the defense of Joseph Maldonado-Passage, the figure known to millions as "Tiger King."

His own counsel-of-record work is equally striking. Beyond the Supreme Court victory in Hemani, Newland spent four and a half years litigating United States v. Russell Taylor — a post-conviction matter involving a co-defendant of Jared Fogle — before overturning his client's conviction for ineffective assistance of counsel. He has appeared as counsel of record in more than 120 federal cases since 2016, with appellate reversals on issues of first impression in the Seventh and Tenth Circuits, the latter producing a published opinion.

What Does a Federal Criminal Defense Attorney Like Zachary Newland Do?

Zachary Newland's practice focuses exclusively on federal criminal defense, which encompasses six core areas: trial advocacy, federal sentencing, appellate representation before the United States courts of appeals, post-conviction relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, compassionate release, and executive clemency. In practical terms, he defends clients at every stage — from a target letter or grand jury subpoena, through trial, and into the appeals and post-conviction remedies that follow a conviction.

The results span the full arc of that work. Newland has secured presidential commutations of sentence for multiple clients, winning early release for individuals serving lengthy federal prison terms. He has obtained a complete acquittal in a two-week murder trial argued on self-defense, won probationary, no-jail outcomes in serious federal health-care matters, and reversed sentencing denials on appeal, including a ruling of first impression involving Section 404 of the First Step Act of 2018. For clients facing the loss of homes and assets, he has defeated restitution orders worth millions and blocked an attempted forfeiture of a personal residence.

Recognition: Why Evergreen Attorneys' Zachary Newland Earns National Honors

Recognition has followed the record. Zachary Newland has been named to the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers and recognized as a National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 honoree, and he is a Life Member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. That standing is more than honorary: he was selected as counsel of record to lead amicus briefing for the association in a separate matter before the United States Supreme Court (Pharms v. United States, No. 25-1086) — speaking for an entire profession on a question of national consequence.

Where Zachary Newland and Evergreen Attorneys Practice

Based in Denver, Colorado, and serving clients in federal courts nationwide, Zachary Newland and Evergreen Attorneys take cases where the stakes are highest and the consequences are permanent — as the firm's unanimous Supreme Court win in United States v. Hemani makes plain. Clients work directly with a founding partner from the first call, and the practice will travel anywhere in the country a federal case demands. For anyone facing a federal investigation, indictment, sentencing, appeal, or post-conviction matter, Evergreen Attorneys offers a consultation with Zachary Newland — a conversation that begins, as every strong federal criminal defense does, with a plan.