What do the best criminal defense attorneys actually do, mechanically speaking?

Imagine you’re a criminal defense attorney. One of your clients is a semi-popular musical artist. They’ve been charged with driving under the influence and reckless endangerment (or whatever people get charged with) because they were smoking a joint while driving their car and crashed into another car.

The client has wired you $100,000 with instructions to get them the lowest sentence possible.

I assume the above happens all the time with various well connected people and minor celebrities. They send their lawyers boatloads of money. And they get off with the proverbial “slap on the wrist.” We all know it happens. They can afford better lawyers than the rest of us can, after all.

What exactly happens next? I know generally what the $5,000 defense attorney does. But what does the $100,000 defense attorney do? Like what motions get filed? What witnesses are called? What kind of pressure is put on the prosecutors that gets these people the low sentences that no one else gets? Like outside of outright bribery, is their defense something that a normal attorney could put on given the same amount of time?