A 24/7 phone line answered by a Rhode Island criminal defense lawyer is the first thing the site puts in front of you, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. The number connects to Marin and Murphy Law Firm, the practice Matthew Marin founded in 2008 and now runs with partner Stefanie A. Murphy. Sixteen years on, it is still the name Matthew Marin built the work around. The work is narrow on purpose: criminal defense, from a first-offense DUI stop in Providence to federal indictments. Someone arrested at two in the morning wants to reach a defense attorney, not a voicemail, and the site treats that urgency as the starting point.

The practice areas read like the inside of a state criminal courthouse. DUI defense gets real attention here, with the site walking through breath and blood test challenges and the consequences of refusing a chemical test, which in Rhode Island is its own separate proceeding. Drug charges run from simple possession up to trafficking and intent to deliver. There is coverage of violent crimes including assault, robbery and homicide, plus domestic violence matters such as disorderly conduct and strangulation charges, which carry their own enhanced exposure. Probation violations, sex crimes, and expungement round out the state-level work.

What I found genuinely useful is that the federal side is treated as a distinct discipline and not bolted on as an afterthought. White-collar fraud, drug conspiracies, firearms cases and federal sex offenses sit under their own heading, and the separation is there for a reason: federal practice runs on different rules, different sentencing math and a different courthouse culture than state court. The site says Matthew Marin and his partner appear in all four Rhode Island county Superior Courts (Providence, Kent, Newport and Washington) as well as federal court. For a small firm, that is a wide geographic and procedural reach, and the four office locations in East Greenwich, Cranston, Providence and South Kingstown back it up. A defendant does not have to drive across the state to sit down with a lawyer, which for a criminal matter is more than a convenience.

The credentials behind the pitch

Defense firms tend to lean hard on awards, so the specifics here are worth checking rather than nodding along to. Matthew Marin has been picked for Super Lawyers eleven years running, listed as a Rising Star from 2014 through 2018 and then as a Super Lawyers selection from 2019 through 2024. That is a peer-and-research selection, not something a lawyer can simply buy, and eleven consecutive years is a long streak for any attorney to hold. Matthew Marin also carries an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, which reflects how other lawyers and judges score competence and ethics, and a spot on ThreeBestRated.com among three Providence criminal defense lawyers. None of these markers comes from advertising spend; each one is awarded by people who watch how an attorney actually performs.

The numbers cited are large but specific enough to feel grounded: more than 40 combined years of criminal defense experience and over 2,500 cases defended. Two of those have produced Rhode Island Supreme Court precedents established by Matthew Marin, which is a meaningful marker. Precedent means an appellate court adopted his argument as binding law for future cases, and most defense lawyers go a whole career without one. Having two attached to Matthew Marin says something about the kind of cases he takes to the wall. Stefanie Murphy adds another layer of authority as editor and co-author of a practical guide to trying DUI cases in Rhode Island, published through MCLE New England. When a lawyer teaches the subject to other lawyers, the DUI focus stops being a marketing line and starts looking like the firm's actual center of gravity, and it lends weight to the DUI claims Matthew Marin makes elsewhere on the site.

The case results section is where a reader can test whether the awards translate into outcomes, and the site gives it dedicated space. Paired with an FAQ that explains Rhode Island criminal procedure and who qualifies for expungement, it does more than list services. It tries to answer the questions a frightened defendant actually types into a search bar at midnight, which is a smarter use of a homepage than another row of badges.

On reputation, the picture is unusually strong. Matthew Marin holds around 444 to 445 reviews across the firm's locations on Google with a flat 5.0 rating, a volume that is hard to accumulate without consistent client satisfaction over many years. The firm is also listed on Avvo with an aggregated score, alongside the Super Lawyers and Martindale recognition already noted. A perfect average across that many reviews always deserves a raised eyebrow, yet the sheer count makes it more credible than a handful of glowing entries would.

Contact details are easy to track down. The phone number sits at the top advertised as available around the clock, an email address is published openly, and all four office addresses are displayed plainly. For a category where some lawyers hide behind a single contact form, that openness reads as confidence.

If there is a caveat, it is the one that applies to any single-state firm: the focus that makes Matthew Marin sharp on Rhode Island law is also a boundary, and someone facing charges in Massachusetts or Connecticut would need different counsel. Within Rhode Island, the depth of coverage is hard to dispute. A defendant weighing this against a large multi-state outfit like Brafman and Associates, the kind of national defense brand that handles headline federal cases, gets a different proposition entirely. That sort of firm brings marquee reach and marquee fees; what Matthew Marin offers instead is local court familiarity, a teaching-level command of Rhode Island DUI law, and a phone that someone picks up at any hour. The published evidence on this site (credentials, case results, court reach and review volume) puts Matthew Marin at or near the top of any reasonable shortlist for Rhode Island criminal defense.

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