Omar Abdelghany, the lawyer behind OA Law Firm, cut his teeth as a trial attorney at the Palm Beach Public Defender's Office before hanging his own shingle in Tampa. That detail matters for anyone facing a criminal charge, because public defenders try cases constantly, often against long odds and always under pressure. It is trial mileage that a lot of solo defense lawyers cannot claim, and OA Law Firm leads with it.

OA Law Firm handles criminal defense in Florida state courts and in the federal Middle and Northern Districts, so the work is not confined to one courthouse or one type of charge. The geographic reach is wide for a single-attorney shop: Tampa itself plus Brandon, Clearwater, St. Petersburg, Wesley Chapel and Lutz, spanning Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Manatee and Sarasota Counties. A defendant arrested in one county and living in another can stay with a single lawyer for the whole case.

The list of practice areas is long and, more usefully, specific. DUI cases sit alongside drug matters that run from simple possession up through trafficking and conspiracy. There is violent-crime work covering assault, robbery and murder, plus domestic violence, theft and burglary, and sex crimes. The white-collar side names fraud, identity theft and racketeering, charges that not every small firm is set up to defend. Federal charges, juvenile cases, and record sealing and expungements round it out. That last category is worth flagging: someone who was acquitted or had charges dropped years ago and wants a clean background check is a very different client from someone sitting in a holding cell, and OA Law Firm serves both.

Two operational promises stand out. One is direct attorney-client communication, meaning the person you hire is the person who answers your questions, not a rotating cast of paralegals. For a solo practice that claim is at least plausible in a way it would not be at a large firm. The other is a free initial consultation, which lowers the cost of simply finding out where a person stands. Neither promise is unusual in criminal defense, but OA Law Firm states both plainly instead of burying them in fine print.

Checking the outside record

The outside record backs up the pitch, though it is scattered across several sites rather than concentrated in one place. TrustAnalytica shows a 4.8-star rating, which is high, and OA Law Firm turns up on Yelp under its own name at the Reo Street address with reviews attached, even if no headline average appears in the listing snippet. Justia's directory and Lawyer.com both carry the firm along with client testimonials, and AttorneyAtLaw.com adds more positive client comments.

One claim deserves a caveat. Abdelghany's own bio page advertises a "100% rating on AVVO." That figure is self-reported, and it did not turn up as independently confirmed on the sites checked here, so a prospective client should read it as the firm's own statement rather than verified fact. Nothing about that is alarming; lawyers routinely quote their AVVO numbers. It just counts for less than the third-party ratings sitting on platforms OA Law Firm does not control. Add it all up and the outside opinion of the firm leans positive, even if precise review counts are hard to pin down for most of these listings beyond the TrustAnalytica figure.

Getting through to the firm is easy, which is how it should be for a defense lawyer whose clients often need help at odd hours. The phone number is posted with a 24/7 promise, there is a street address at 550 N Reo St in Tampa, and a Contact Us page ties it together. Someone who has just been arrested, or is calling on behalf of a family member who has, needs counsel fast, and the firm puts its contact details right up front.

The question worth weighing is fit. OA Law Firm is built around one experienced attorney who defends a broad slate of charges across a five-county stretch of Tampa Bay. That setup suits a client who wants a named lawyer personally on the case and values courtroom experience over the size of a firm's letterhead. It may suit someone less well who wants a big team with dozens of specialists on staff, though the practice areas listed here already cover most of what a Tampa criminal case would throw at a defendant.

What the page cannot resolve is how any given case will turn out, since that depends on facts, prosecutors and judges no website controls. What it does show is a lawyer with real trial background, a defense practice that covers the charges people in the Tampa area actually get arrested for, and outside reviews that mostly back up what OA Law Firm says about itself. The one soft spot is the unverified AVVO figure, and it is a minor one set against everything else that does check out.

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