About Ethan P
Ethan P Meaney has spent more than two decades practicing criminal defense in Minnesota. He arrived in the region after completing law school and has built a practice that centers on courtroom work and case preparation. Colleagues describe a lawyer who relies on steady preparation and practical courtroom experience rather than on rhetoric.
He earned his J.D. from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 1996, where his studies emphasized law and criminal justice. Before that he completed a B.S. at Northern State University in 1993, double-majoring in sociology–criminal justice and political science. Those academic choices steered him toward litigation and the public law system early in his career.
Meaney began his legal career in the Minnesota State Judicial Branch, serving as a law clerk in 1999. He moved into private practice soon after. In 2001 he joined Hoff, Barry & Kuderer, P.A. as an associate. The following year he took an associate position at Gerald Miller & Associates. Those early roles gave him regular courtroom exposure and hands-on work with criminal matters.
In 2005 he became a partner at Meaney & Patrin, P.A. Since then he has handled a steady caseload that includes criminal defense and matters arising from impaired driving prosecutions. He accepts trial work and pretrial motions, and he has represented clients at every stage of criminal proceedings from arraignment through appeal planning. The office profile shows a practice rooted in litigation rather than transactional work.
Outside the office he maintains memberships in several professional groups. He joined the Minnesota State Bar Association and the American Bar Association in 1999. He has been a member of the Hennepin County Bar Association since 2001. On the criminal defense side he has been an attorney member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Minnesota Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers since 2010. He joined the National College of DUI Defense in 2012. He also remains active in his law school alumni association.
Meaney’s career tracks a typical path from judicial clerkship to associate roles and then to partnership. He practices from Meaney & Patrin, P.A., in Minnesota, where his work centers on criminal defense and DUI-related matters.
