Michael W. Sanft, Esq.
Criminal Defense

Michael W. Sanft, Esq. is a Las Vegas criminal defense and trial lawyer. Born in 1971 and raised in Haveluloto, Tonga, he grew up without electricity in a home that shared a water faucet with neighboring houses. At age 12 his family moved to San Diego. After an LDS mission in Arizona, he attended Brigham Young University–Hawaii, performed at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and graduated in 1998. He earned his J.D. from BYU’s J. Reuben Clark Law School in 2001 and was admitted to the Nevada and Utah bars in 2002.

For more than two decades he has practiced in Las Vegas, first with Christiansen Law Offices and later at Sanft Law and Mayfield, Gruber & Sanft. His work has focused on criminal defense, including DUI and traffic cases, civil rights matters, and serious felonies such as murder. He is known for taking cases to trial rather than treating defense work as a path to a quick plea.

Sanft has tried more than 150 cases to jury verdict and has argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A Lawyers of Distinction profile credited him with numerous acquittals during years of solo practice. Super Lawyers named him a top-rated Las Vegas criminal defense attorney in 2025. He has been listed as an Elite Lawyer since 2024.

In 2026 he served as defense counsel for Duane Keith “Keffe D” Davis in the Clark County trial arising from the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur. Sanft argued that the prosecution relied on uncorroborated statements and an incomplete investigation. The case made him one of the most visible criminal defense lawyers in recent Las Vegas history.