Is it possible to have a felony evading dropped to a lesser charge if you have a previous conviction for evading prior?

I have a friend that was convicted of a misdemeanor evading in a vehicle in 2008. He also was convicted of DWI in a separate incident in 2008. He completed all provisions of his probation. In June of 2015, he was charged with felony evading in a vehicle as well and DWI after being stopped. He was not speeding or trying to evade. He was simply on a bridge and waiting to exit before pulling over and was very respectful to the police officer. What are the chances of having the felony dropped to another misdemeanor? I am not comfortable with the lawyer he has, as I just learned that he has been reprimanded by the state 3 times. He was not allowed to practice law for a period of time until he completed something (can't remember what). During this time frame is when he was reprimanded. Reason being that he had a client he was representing and he was not giving the client information on his case. So he was representing someone while he was not supposed to be practicing law. My concern is this lawyer is not doing everything he is being paid to do to represent my friend. He has also not given him any information during this whole process. He keeps telling him not to worry he is working on it and he can guarantee he will not do any jail or prison time. His discovery date is in 5 days, and they have a pretrial date set for 30 days later and a trial date set for 10 days after that. His lawyer has not told him any of this, I pulled it all from public record. I also found all the information on the attorney this was because he did not divulge this to him. I know this charge is serious and I am not in any way saying it is not. I also realize the 2nd DWI is as well, and he should not have been drinking. My friend prior to his convictions mentioned above, and up until these charges has no other criminal record. He has always held steady full-time employment as well. The convictions in 2008 were when he was 22. He stopped drinking after that.