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Getting Started / Writing Process / Stories

Philip Becnel was interviewed on a second episode of Employee to Lawyer, a podcast about law in the workplace presented by NELA-Illinois, which is the Illinois Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, a non-profit collection of attorneys who champion workplace rights. The podcast’s hosts asked Philip how he got ...

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Criminal Defense and Advocacy Clinic

Philip Becnel gave a lecture about the fundamentals of investigating to students of the Criminal Defense and Advocacy Clinic at The University of Baltimore School of Law. ...

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Private Investigators Association of Idaho

Philip Becnel gave a talk to the Private Investigators Association of Idaho titled, “Why we document and how.” The talk focused on Philip and Alexandra Becnel’s book, Principles of Investigative Documentation. He talked about how documentation is a demonstration of caring about clients and introduced some legal principles that are ...

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Private Investigations in Law

Philip Becnel was interviewed on an episode of Employee to Lawyer, a podcast about law in the workplace presented by NELA-Illinois, which is the Illinois Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, a non-profit collection of attorneys who champion workplace rights. The podcast’s hosts, Max Barack and Amit Bindra, asked ...

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Justice 4 All

Philip Becnel taught a class about documenting investigations to lawyers and investigators at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender “Justice 4 All” 2024 Annual Conference. ...

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Our firm celebrates 20 years!

Dinolt Becnel & Wells Investigative Group LLC hosted a party at Screwtop Wine Bar in Arlington, Virginia, to celebrate our firm’s 20th year anniversary! In April 2004, we were formed by namesake partners Ben Dinolt, Philip Becnel, and Brendan Wells. Ben has since moved onto other projects in London, and ...

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Seeking investigator candidates

Dinolt Becnel & Wells Investigative Group LLC currently has an opening for an Investigator. Our office is committed to improving cultural diversity and inclusion among our colleagues and throughout the community of private investigators. We seek candidates who share our commitment to providing the best representation to our clients. In recruiting ...

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Criminal Defense and Advocacy Clinic

Philip Becnel gave a lecture to the students of the Criminal Defense and Advocacy Clinic at The University of Baltimore School of Law. Philip’s lecture focused on documenting real-world investigations, as detailed in his and Alexandra Becnel’s latest book, Principles of Investigative Documentation. ...

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A Memo to the File

Philip Becnel published an excerpt of Principles of Investigative Documentation in Pursuit Magazine. The article, called “A Memo to the File,” relates an experience when a client rudely chastised one of our investigators because he did not like the content of a report she wrote. The attorney’s behavior spurred Philip ...

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Global Ethics and Compliance

Philip Becnel gave a presentation to the investigators and other members of the Global Ethics and Compliance Division of RTX, a multinational aerospace and defense conglomerate. Philip’s presentation touched on the benefits of theory-directed investigation, methods to distinguish between facts and factual inferences, as well as some of the fundamentals ...

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Principles of Investigative Documentation, Second Edition, Out Now!

Principles of Investigative Documentation, Second Edition, came out yesterday. A collaboration between Philip Becnel, Alexandra Becnel, and former-Dinolt-investigator-turned-attorney Scott Krischke, the book details how to document an investigation using what Philip originally coined as the “Five Principles of Investigative Documentation.” The authors reworked the Second Edition into a pseudo-memoir in Philip’s ...

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Sound of Pursuit

Philip Becnel was interviewed on the Sound of Pursuit podcast about his latest book, co-authored with partner Alexandra Becnel, Principles of Investigative Documentation. Philip and host Hal Humphries discussed what we call the “Five Principles of Investigative Documentation” and how the act of writing reports makes one a more conscientious ...

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ABC 20/20 Interview

Philip Becnel, our managing partner, was interviewed for an episode of ABC 20/20 titled, “The Confession?” The story documented the case of Christopher “Chris” Johnson, who in 1998 found his fiancée, Andrea “Andi” Cincotta, dead in their closet and decades later was charged with her murder. Dinolt Becnel & Wells Investigative ...

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Alexandra Becnel featured in The Baltimore Banner

The legal field remains male-dominated, but that has been changing rapidly. Dinolt Becnel & Wells partner and part-time law student, Alexandra Becnel, was quoted in The Baltimore Banner. The article explores the surge in women in law and the reason for the increase, particularly in the context of the last ...

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Investigator Openings

Dinolt Becnel & Wells Investigative Group LLC currently has two openings for Investigator positions. See details and ask to apply on our Careers page. ...

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