Send a quick message
Attorney Advertising. The information on this profile does not constitute legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is formed by reading it. Past results described do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Lance Fletcher spent four years inside the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office learning how New York City builds DWI prosecutions — the stop, the breath test, the paperwork, the plea calculus. He has spent the years since 2008 on the other side of the same courtrooms, running a downtown Manhattan defense practice with a dedicated DWI arm that handles everything from first-arrest misdemeanors to felony cases involving accidents and serious injuries.
At a Glance
| Firm | The Law Office of Lance Fletcher, PLLC (DWI practice also operates as The Fletcher Law Firm PLLC) |
| Principal Attorney | Lance Fletcher |
| Manhattan Office | 52 Duane Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10007 (downtown Manhattan; earlier directory listings show 225 Broadway — see Methodology) |
| Focus | DWI/DWAI defense and criminal defense across all five boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island |
| Background | Assistant District Attorney, Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, 2004–2008 |
| Fee Structure | Consultation required; free case evaluation offered |
Career History
Fletcher was appointed an Assistant District Attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office upon graduating from law school in 2004, and served there until 2008. During that time he handled DWI prosecutions among a broader criminal caseload — experience the firm treats as the foundation of its defense strategy, on the theory that a lawyer who has assembled these cases knows where they come apart. Since founding his own practice, Fletcher has represented clients in criminal matters in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Westchester, Long Island, and federal court, including a complete acquittal for a client accused of a Manhattan home burglary and a run of misdemeanor and felony dismissals the firm documents from 2012 through 2014 onward.
Practice Concentration
The practice runs two connected tracks: general criminal defense (theft, assault, drug charges, domestic violence, desk appearance tickets, white-collar matters) and a dedicated DWI/DUI practice substantial enough that the firm maintains a separate website for it. The firm states Fletcher has over 15 years of experience concentrated on DWI and criminal law in New York City, and has defended over a hundred DWI cases since leaving the DA’s Office — from first-arrest misdemeanor DWIs through complex felony DWIs and accident cases with serious injuries. The DWI work spans the full VTL § 1192 spectrum: per se and common-law DWI, aggravated DWI, DWAI by alcohol or drugs, refusal cases and the DMV hearings they trigger.
Track Record
The firm publishes case examples on its DWI site rather than a dollar-figure results table — appropriate to criminal defense, where outcomes are dismissals, reductions, and acquittals rather than settlements. Representative firm-reported results include a client stopped leaving a Manhattan nightclub who registered nearly twice the legal limit and admitted drinking, whose criminal charges were dropped entirely with the case resolving as a non-criminal traffic infraction. These are the firm’s own reported outcomes; this research could not independently verify individual case dispositions, which are attributed here as the firm’s claims. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.
Client Voice
Fletcher’s Google review profile stands at 4.8 stars across 63 reviews. Attributed client reviews describe him as “highly professional, kind, and knowledgeable,” and reviewers repeatedly credit him with securing dismissals — including a felony dismissal one client attributed to his dual experience as prosecutor and defense attorney. A separate reviewer noted he took on a case less than a week before the court date and still delivered results. Peer endorsements on Avvo point to his Manhattan DA training as the source of his command of the process. This research did not surface a pattern of negative reviews or any public disciplinary findings.
Beyond the Courtroom
The firm is a Benefactor of New York Cares, New York City’s largest volunteer management organization, which coordinates volunteer programs for roughly 1,300 nonprofits, city agencies, and public schools — a civic commitment the firm frames as part of effective local advocacy.
Recognition
Fletcher received the Avvo Client’s Choice Award in 2021, a recognition granted to attorneys accumulating a significant number of four-plus-star client reviews in a given year — a client-review-driven credential, not a peer-reviewed or state-certified one, and this profile labels it as such. A disclosure we apply to every New York profile: New York State does not operate a board certification program for legal specialties comparable to the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, so no New York attorney profile on this site will describe its subject as a state-certified specialist, and none should be read as implying it. Fletcher does not claim specialist certification, and this profile does not attribute one to him.
New York Legal Backdrop
New York’s impaired-driving offenses live in Vehicle and Traffic Law § 1192, and the tiers matter. Driving While Ability Impaired by alcohol (§ 1192(1)) is a traffic infraction, not a crime, typically charged at blood alcohol levels between .05 and .07. Driving While Intoxicated per se (§ 1192(2)) begins at .08 BAC; Aggravated DWI (§ 1192(2-a)(a)) begins at .18. Under Leandra’s Law, driving while intoxicated with a child aged 15 or younger in the vehicle (§ 1192(2-a)(b)) is a class E felony even for a first offense, and New York separately requires ignition interlock devices for misdemeanor and felony DWI convictions under VTL § 1198. A second DWI within ten years is charged as a felony under § 1193. Refusing a chemical test triggers its own parallel process under § 1194 — a Department of Motor Vehicles refusal hearing, separate from the criminal case, that can result in license revocation of at least one year plus a civil penalty regardless of how the criminal charge resolves. Many first-time defendants don’t realize they are fighting on two fronts, in criminal court and at the DMV, simultaneously. None of this is legal advice and does not account for the specific facts of any individual case; consult a licensed New York attorney about your situation.
Awesome Attorneys Assessment
The prosecutorial pedigree here is verifiable and genuinely relevant: four years inside the Manhattan DA’s Office is direct experience with the exact office that prosecutes Manhattan DWI cases, and the dedicated DWI website reflects a real concentration rather than a practice-area checkbox. The 4.8-star review record across 63 reviews is consistent and unusually specific about outcomes.
The honest trade-offs, stated plainly: this is a solo practice, which means the attorney who takes your call is the attorney who appears in court — a genuine advantage the firm itself advertises — but also means capacity is finite in a way it isn’t at multi-attorney DWI firms. Fletcher is a criminal-defense practitioner with a deep DWI concentration, not a DWI-only boutique; clients seeking a lawyer who accepts nothing but DWI and vehicular cases will find that model elsewhere in this directory. And the firm’s case results are self-reported examples rather than independently verifiable dispositions — standard for criminal defense, but worth naming.
Methodology & Sourcing
This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys in August 2026 without the participation, sponsorship, or payment of The Law Office of Lance Fletcher, PLLC. Primary sources: the firm’s websites (lawfletcher.com and its dedicated DWI site, dwi-attorney-nyc.com), including attorney biography, practice-area, and case-results pages. Independent verification: Avvo attorney profile (career history, 2004 law school graduation and 2004–2008 Manhattan ADA tenure, Client’s Choice Award, peer endorsements); Google Business Profile review data (4.8 stars, 63 reviews); Yelp and Martindale-Avvo network listings. Office address: current listing data shows 52 Duane Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10007; an earlier Yelp listing shows 225 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 — both downtown Manhattan, and the discrepancy is disclosed here rather than silently resolved. Statutes cited in the New York Legal Backdrop were verified against New York Vehicle and Traffic Law §§ 1192, 1193, 1194, and 1198.
Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice
Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal-directory publisher. This profile was not paid for by The Law Office of Lance Fletcher, PLLC, and inclusion in our editorial coverage cannot be purchased. Our methodology and editorial standards are applied consistently across all firms we cover.