Ryan M. Prescott

is an appellate litigator and criminal defense attorney working in the southeastern United States. Ryan primarily practices before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits, including multiple appeals from extensive criminal trial proceedings and multiple successful oral arguments. Ryan also advises tax-exempt organizations and businesses in the music and esports industries.

Ryan has been involved in arts advocacy for over ten years. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Winston-Salem Symphony, where he has chaired the Inclusion Taskforce and served on the Music Director Search Committee, the Executive Committee, the Human Resources & Governance Committee, and the Patron & Community Engagement Taskforce.

Ryan was born and raised in North Carolina. He graduated from Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School, then clerked on the Fourth Circuit before returning to the Southeast in 2020. In his free time, Ryan is enthusiastic about music performance, composition, and production — from Romantic Period piano to Arabic and Korean hip-hop — as well as basketball, strategy games, and competitive powerlifting.

Federal Appellate Litigation

Ryan has practiced in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on a daily basis since the beginning of his career. He has served as lead attorney for federal criminal and civil appeals at all stages of litigation, including:

appellate strategy guidance on trial court matters,
analysis of trial court records and issues to be raised on appeal,
dispositive motions,
merits briefs (including supplemental and Anders briefs),
oral argument,
certification of questions to state Supreme Courts, and
petitions for writs of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ryan regularly consults and/or works on criminal and civil matters in the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Federal Criminal Defense

Ryan has extensive firsthand experience with federal criminal procedural rules and substantive caselaw, including:

drug trafficking & firearms offenses,
child pornography offenses,
securities fraud & white-collar crime,
Fourth Amendment search and seizure,
validity of guilty pleas/appellate waivers,
procedural & substantive reasonableness of criminal sentences,
conditions & alleged violations of supervised release,
application of Rules of Evidence,
expert testimony,
appellate jurisdiction & standards of review, and
14th Amendment equal protection.

Ryan has represented defendants on post-conviction and sentence-reduction proceedings in U.S. District Courts. He has particular expertise with application of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, both in U.S. District Courts and in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.

Citations to representative cases, résumé, and writing samples available upon request.

Get in Touch

- Limited working proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic & Egyptian dialect
- Conversational proficiency in Moroccan dialect
- Elementary proficiency in Korean (Hanguk)
- Academic interest in classical Latin
- North Carolina
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. District Courts for the Western, Middle,
  and Eastern Districts of North Carolina
- U.S. Supreme Court
- Adobe Illustrator / Photoshop / Premiere
- Pro Tools / Logic
- Musescore / Sibelius
- MS Office / GSuite / etc.
- Advanced proficiency in piano
- Intermediate proficiency in guitar & trumpet
- Intermediate proficiency in percussion (mallets)
- Elementary proficiency in woodwinds (clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone)