Careers in Indigent Defense: A Guide to Public Defender Programs

I have been a staff attorney in the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan since 2007. At Legal Aid, new attorneys start out representing clients charged with misdemeanors, but within a year or two, start picking up felonies. Our caseloads generally range from 120-160 cases at any given time, although New York State legislation mandating case caps should lower those levels in the near future.

I am not one of those people who always knew I wanted to be a public defender. I went into law school interested in criminal defense but also interested in migrant labor issues. Although those are two very different areas of law, I think I was attracted to each because both involve representing the most disenfranchised members of our society. Since I lacked practical experience in either area, I decided to spend my 1L summer working at the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project in Florida and my 2L summer at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Although I really enjoyed the work I did at MFJP, the time I spent at PDS really clinched it for me. The stakes are so high in their cases, that I don’t think there is any higher calling than to serve as a defender and advocate. Plus the stories in criminal law are so much more interesting than in most other areas of the law, because they are fundamentally human dramas, whether writ small or large. I was also attracted to the diversity of tasks that fill your days as a public defender – time in court, talking with clients, doing legal research and writing motions, doing investigations, making phone calls, preparing for trial, and being on trial. Compared to my classmates who spend all day sitting in front of computers and boxes of documents at large law firms, I can’t believe how lucky I am.

One notable aspect of our practice in Manhattan is that we spend the majority of our time in court taking pleas or adjourning cases, which often feels like a lot of bureaucratic processing of cases. Then every once in a while, you are on trial and you live on an adrenaline high for a week or two. There are certainly jurisdictions where public defenders are more regularly on trial than in New York, but I think it is a common experience that public defenders have to shift between the rush of being on trial and the less enthralling (and less frightening) day-to-day of simply managing one’s caseload.

In law school, I did not do Criminal Justice Institute although I did do the Trial Advocacy Workshop. The reason I didn’t do CJI is that at the beginning of my 2L year, I joined the student-run Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, which requires a two-year commitment. Knowing my interest in criminal law, I agonized over whether to commit to two years of a civil legal clinic, but in the end I decided that it was important to me to have the extended clinical experience with sustained client relationships that only HLAB offered. I hoped that the experience would sufficiently cross over to criminal practice if that was where I ended up, and that is indeed what I found. The experience of having been the primary counsel on multiple cases, working with clients, appearing in court, negotiating with opposing counsel, developing case strategy, and drafting pleadings was invaluable when I began my career at Legal Aid. I was far more comfortable appearing in court and managing my own cases than I would have been had I not had that clinical experience.

As a public defender I am honored to be able to defend the rights of [our clients], whose advocates are few and far between, and at the same time, to do my part in combating the overreach of law enforcement. I love working with individuals, hearing their stories, getting the best results I can for them, and convincing them that I represent them because I want to, not because of financial or other incentives.

The hardest parts of the job are managing such a large caseload and facing the unrelenting hostility that one encounters from prosecutors, judges, court clerks, corrections officers, court officers, and frequently even our clients. On the other hand, that hostility generates a lot of camaraderie and solidarity among my colleagues. And there are individual prosecutors, clerks and officers with whom I have developed productive and friendly relationships. In general, I have found that criminal court is the kind of place where you have to prove yourself. But once you have been there for a while, you are able to generate goodwill by acting professionally and treating others respectfully, which proves invaluable to getting things done.

As someone interested in systemic change, I sometimes find it frustrating to be involved in work that often amounts to triage – minimizing the damage to a person’s life, rather than dramatically improving it in most cases. That is probably why I will not end up a lifer, though there are times when I cannot imagine doing anything else. But regardless of whether I remain a public defender or not, I know I will be forever grateful for having had this experience at the beginning of my career.

I have worked for the Federal Public Defender in Oregon for twelve years now and still love my job. Not all lawyers – and not all public defenders – can say that. For me, being a defender in the federal courts offers the perfect combination of intellectually exciting legal work, defense of liberty, and personal assistance for people who desperately need help. It’s professor/civil libertarian/social worker all rolled up into one incredible roller-coaster of a job.

It did not occur to me in law school that I would be a public defender. I wanted to do some kind of vaguely undefined “public interest work,” but my interests leaned toward women and politics and civil rights issues, not criminal law. When I clerked in the federal district court in Boston a few years after graduating, however, I saw firsthand how exciting and important federal criminal defense could be. I tried to sit in on every criminal trial my judge had, and I learned federal criminal procedure by watching it. After working in a law firm for several years doing civil litigation, a little white collar criminal work, and a pro bono habeas corpus case, I decided to apply for assistant federal defender positions.

I did not get far. My enthusiasm and academic credentials just could not overcome my lack of any real criminal defense or trial experience. No matter how passionately I argued that I could learn this stuff – I could do it – few federal defender offices have space for attorneys who cannot walk in and immediately pick up a caseload. Luck turned my way, however, when we moved to Oregon for my husband’s work. I had applied, unsuccessfully, for an assistant defender position in Portland, and I contacted the head defender just to let him know that I would be living in his city and, if anything changed, I was still interested in working with him. Months later he called to let me know there was a research and writing position available: Was I interested?

I agonized over the decision to take the R&W job. By this time, I was a mid-level associate at a large law firm, handling some of my own civil cases, writing my own briefs and feeling like a real lawyer. Could I be happy doing grunt work for other people’s cases? The answer was yes. I took the job, and for four years got to work on every conceivable curlicue of criminal law. The more cutting-edge the issue, the more they needed an enthusiastic researcher to help. Yes, I felt underpaid and occasionally undervalued, and wondered some days why after three years of law school, two federal clerkships, and four years as a civil litigator, I was standing at the copy machine at midnight producing someone else’s appellate brief. But, I got the experience I once lacked, and I worked every day with incredibly talented and committed people. I moved up into an assistant defender position eight years ago and have never looked back. Taking what felt like a step down in my career in order to get through the FPD door was one of the best career decisions I ever made.

My advice to current students is to seek out summer clerkships at defender offices to see what the work is like. Our office in Portland accepts volunteer clerks each summer, and many of these students have gone on to a career in criminal law. Take trial advocacy and criminal procedure courses, and hone your research and writing skills through work on journals or with professors. Go to federal court and watch trials. Demonstrate your commitment to justice – in any arena – by your choice of extra-curricular activities and employment. Be prepared to accept employment in an office at a lower level than you would like, and work your way up. Finally, make connections with people who are doing the work you want to do. One way to meet people who are doing interesting federal criminal work is to help on an amicus brief to the Supreme Court or a Circuit Court of Appeals. Check the Supreme Court docket to see which organizations submitted briefs last year, then contact them and offer your help for their next project. Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and other good organizations can always use free talent. Local law firms that take pro bono habeas corpus cases might also value your help, and you would get the experience of meeting a client in prison, reading a trial transcript and dissecting the errors in a criminal case.

Planning a career on a straight path is not always possible or desirable. I ended up as a public defender after three bar exams, two clerkships, three civil law firms, two children, and a year of travel. Taking risks, being flexible, and learning from my experiences helped me develop my own voice and find what motivates me. Not everyone will thrive under the stress, workload, threat of defeat, endless tragedy, and sense of powerlessness that accompanies being a defender, but the rewards of the work will appeal to some.

I am always happy to hear from students considering a career in indigent defense, and I encourage you to explore widely as you imagine your future.

I am a staff attorney with the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), which is the Massachusetts statewide public defender office. I am in the felony trial unit in Cambridge, where I have been since July 2002. I came to CPCS after completing a two-year Prettyman clinical teaching fellowship at Georgetown University Law Center. I went directly from law school to the fellowship, after taking the Massachusetts and D.C. bar exams. I was admitted to practice law in D.C. and Massachusetts in the fall 2000, and planned to return to Massachusetts after completing the fellowship. By the time I started working at CPCS, I was already a member of the Massachusetts bar.

I knew from the moment I started law school that I wanted to be a public defender, and have remained passionate in my commitment to indigent criminal defense since that time. I first became interested in public defense while working as a paralegal for a small Boston criminal defense firm, which I did for one year between college and law school. I chose CPCS over other public defender agencies primarily because of location, but also because of its reputation for excellent quality of representation.

Being a public defender is immensely rewarding, but also very challenging and at times draining. I take my job very personally, and often find it difficult to leave my job at work — that is, to not take it home with me and into my personal life. That said, I feel very lucky to have found a real calling — a job that challenges me in many diverse ways, and one that consistently demands and inspires new growth as an advocate. I see working as a public defender as a long-term career choice, although I continue to be interested in the clinical teaching component of the fellowship that I did in D.C. after law school. But I cannot imagine practicing any other type of law, and truly see myself as a defense lawyer for indigent clients.

I certainly think that any law student who is considering work as a public defender should participate in the Criminal Justice Institute during third year, as well as other clinical opportunities during first and second year. While I was at HLS, I was a student attorney for the Prison Legal Assistance Project (PLAP) for all three years of law school, and then also completed TAW in the fall of my third year and went on to participate in CJI. Both PLAP and CJI were invaluable experiences for me, in terms of giving me a realistic picture of the type of work that public defender offices do, as well as giving me the opportunity to get to know the client population I would later work with as an attorney. I certainly think that all of the best public defender offices look for evidence of a real commitment during law school to hands-on work with clients, as well as an engagement with criminal law and indigent defense. I would also encourage law students to pursue summer internships with public defender offices, including CPCS and PDS in D.C. Course work is frankly less important, although I thoroughly enjoyed taking Advanced Criminal Procedure and the seminar on Capitol Punishment. In general, the more that students can do to evidence their interest in criminal law, indigent defense, and hands on clinical work, the stronger their applications for public defender offices will be. I do not think that grades matter very much for public defender applications, although perhaps specific grades – like evidence, criminal law, criminal procedure – might make more of a difference than others – like corporations, tax, etc. (neither of which I even took, by the way). I am always happy to answer questions from law students considering a career in public defense. I cannot emphasize how rewarding this type of work is, or how sustaining it can be as life’s demands change and grow.

I don’t mean to brag, but I have the best job in the legal profession. It’s just a fact. I don’t know anyone as happy with their job as a public defender. First and foremost, I’m a trial attorney. I’m in trial an average of once a month on cases as varied as violation of a gang injunction and sexual battery by fraudulent representation… and I’m still only handling misdemeanors!

I also have a job where I am able to see the immediate impact my work has on people’s lives. Most of my clients are products of a broken system and have problems far beyond their misdemeanor cases, and unfortunately there’s so much I can’t fix. However, there are no quick fixes for the big problems, and sometimes it’s easier to wake up in the morning and go to work when you can clearly see the small differences you do make. I may not be able to fix the terrible things in someone’s life that have brought that person to me, but I can make a little difference by saving someone from going to jail, protecting their record or immigration status, winning a case, or just showing that there is somebody who gives a you-know-what about that person, and telling the government it can’t just walk all over people.

Before law school, I don’t think “public defender” was anywhere on my radar. I suppose if you had asked me about it, I would have conjured up some Law-and-Order stereotype, but it was never anything I actually thought of as a job option. I did know I wanted to be a public interest lawyer, and my first summer I worked for a civil rights solo practitioner, since that was an area I cared about. I soon realized that while the issues were ones I found interesting and important, the job consisted primarily of sitting in front of a computer all day, which I wasn’t cut out for. I wanted something more hands-on than just research and writing. My 2L year I joined the Legal Aid Bureau, which turned out to be my favorite aspect of law school. I loved having clients, going to court, and arguing motions. I learned important lessons about client communication and handling opposing counsel. In the meantime, through involvement with the Harvard Defenders and the Prison Legal Assistance Project, and taking Criminal Procedure and related courses, I discovered that criminal law was – for me – the most interesting aspect of the law, and the area about which I felt most passionate. Eventually (and after a trip or two to OPIA), the light bulb went off: the perfect combination of my passions, legal interests, and ideal work environment just might be a public defender office.

I am from Los Angeles and planned to be there at least for my 2L summer, so Lisa Williams (former Associate Director of OPIA) put me in touch with the hiring deputies at the Federal and LA County PD (the two public defender options in LA). After interviewing with both, and struggling over the decision, I decided to take the county job. It was the best decision I could have made. Coming from Harvard I think we’re sometimes led to believe that the Federal Courts are the only real courts. However, I knew from my interview that the federal office rarely (if ever) hires straight out of law school, while the county hires primarily from its summer class. I owe a lot to good advice at OPIA (from both Lisa and Alexa), who convinced me that if I wanted to be a public defender, the most important thing was to put myself in the best possible position to actually be a public defender. If my likelihood of getting hired was the greatest with the county, then the county it should be.

The county wasn’t just the right decision because I got a job out of law school, however. It was the right decision because this is the perfect job for me. The federal office is much more focused on research and writing, and that’s what the new attorneys primarily do. I can’t speak for other counties, but in Los Angeles, the county office is first and foremost a trial office. The theory is that the more experienced you become as a trial attorney, the better for your clients both in trial and as far as getting dispositions pre-trial. From the moment I joined I was thrown into the courtroom, starting with preliminary hearings for felonies, moving on to misdemeanor arraignments, and then – five months after I was hired – having my own misdemeanor caseload. I’ve been in the office a little over two and a half years now, and I’ve done almost 30 trials. I’ve worked in a number of courts around the county, including Downtown LA and Compton.

I care deeply about the work I do, and I also have a lot of fun. Every case presents a new set of issues to think about, not only from a legal but from a practical and strategic standpoint. Aside from the excitement of the cases themselves, I have terrific colleagues whom I respect, share ideas with, and just love hanging out with. I won’t pretend the job doesn’t make me cry sometimes out of sadness at what my clients go through and frustration at an unfair system. But that’s why I’m so passionate about what I do, and having other passionate people fighting alongside me helps keep me going. And heck, I’m not sure I’d want a job that didn’t make me cry sometimes.

I have been a criminal staff attorney at the Bronx Defenders in New York City for three years. I represent indigent defendants in both felony and misdemeanor cases in state court. I came to the Bronx Defenders after one year of clerking on the Second Circuit in Manhattan. I chose to begin my defense career at the Bronx Defenders because of its client-centered and interdisciplinary model of holistic defense, as well as its intensive training program for each year’s class of new lawyers. While my appellate clerkship was a valuable and rewarding experience that I would highly recommend to anyone, it was quite a change to come to the Bronx, where I am constantly on my feet – I am in court every day, often appearing on multiple cases in multiple courtrooms. I have over 120 active cases at any given time, and have represented more than 3,000 clients during my three years so far in the Bronx. The work is fast-paced and exciting, and I am lucky to work in an office with a holistic model of public defense – with the help of social workers and civil and family lawyers, we try to address not just the direct criminal case that flows from an arrest, but the collateral issues as well.

I became a public defender because of a desire to combat the systemic injustices I had learned about in my studies and experienced first-hand in my law school clinics and internships: the racism, classism, and xenophobia of criminal court systems, the over-criminalization of youth of color in urban communities, and the punitive sentencing structures and collateral consequences of convictions that exacerbate racial and economic inequalities. I remain a public defender not because of those systemic issues, but because of the inspiration that my clients give me as they struggle through the obstacles that the criminal justice system places before them. My clients help me maintain my energy and commitment to my work.

I came to law school knowing that I was interested in indigent defense. As a result, I tried to search out a variety of relevant clinical and intern/externship experiences – I spent my first summer at the Capital Appeals Project in New Orleans, LA, my second at the Federal Defenders of New York, and did an independent winter clinical at the Equal Justice Initiative in Alabama during my 2L year. If you’re interested in becoming a public defender, I can’t stress enough the importance of seeking out as many internship and clinical experiences as possible. Definitely do the Criminal Justice Institute – I did CJI both my 2L and 3L years. CJI is an invaluable opportunity to build relationships with your own clients after having assisted your internship supervisors with theirs.

I also believe it is important, both as a student and once you are working full-time, to remain reflective and open to critique when it comes to the difficult job of being a public defender. For me, one of the most difficult things about my job is the knowledge that by entering the courthouse every day and participating in its routines, I am legitimizing the very criminal justice system that I am trying to fight against. Recognizing and discussing the inherent contractions of my work is another way in which I sustain excitement about what I do every day, as the challenge of constant self-critique becomes a source of reinvigoration. So, my final piece of advice would be to remember to give yourself the time and space to be a thoughtful and self-critical public defender.

I work as a deputy public defender at the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office. I started as a trial attorney handling general misdemeanor charges like resisting arrest and driving under the influence. I am currently assigned to the misdemeanor domestic violence calendar. Most of cases on this rotation involve allegations of battery. Unlike a general misdemeanor assignment, people convicted of domestic violence charges are placed on three years of formal probation and required, as a condition of probation, to complete a 52-week domestic violence course.

In general, I meet clients for the first time at a pre-trial conference. At the conference, I interview the client in court, determine what investigation is necessary, request discovery, and negotiate with a deputy district attorney. I typically have between 10 and 20 clients at each pre-trial conference. I meet with clients that are in custody and out of custody. I help them understand what is happening by explaining the charges and the police report. We discuss what the case is about and begin the process of sorting out a client’s goals.

After court, I work with a team of investigators, paralegals, clerks, and attorneys to prepare the case for trial. Our office is a very supportive place. All of the attorneys spend time together working through problems and strategizing. An attorney in our office who only works on homicide cases spent hours and hours helping me get ready for a prostitution misdemeanor.

Some clients settle. Other clients go to trial. I started at the office on December 7. I started my first trial on December 14. We picked a jury on the first day and moved into evidence and argument over the next two days. Since starting at the office, I have tried six cases to juries. The cases include driving under the influence, battery on an office, setting fire to property, and domestic battery.

The practice is client-centered. Most people feel like they have no control when they are accused of a crime. I don’t know whether anything is more disruptive. Part of my work is about giving people some control and dignity in this situation.

People come to, and stay in, this work for all sorts of reasons–making good on constitutional principles like due process and confrontation, defending innocent people, challenging the government, advancing civil rights. These values motivate the practice in different ways at different times. I love this work because it gives me an opportunity to help people.

I came to law school with some interest in indigent defense. I developed that interest with an organization that represents clients in criminal show cause hearings in Boston. I wanted to use my legal training to help people. Clinical programs were a great way to learn about practicing law. Over my first summer, I worked at the California Appellate Project in San Francisco. It was a great way to meet people working in indigent defense in the Bay Area. I worked on a clemency petition, a direct appeal, and a regulatory issue. I worked on consumer law at a legal services center during my second year. I also worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston. I spent my 2L summer at a commercial law firm. I spent my third year with the Criminal Justice Institute (CJI). I worked as a public defender in Roxbury. We investigated cases and prepared for trial. I had six clients. More than anything else, working on cases from start to finish at CJI made me want to be a public defender.

The hiring process and opportunities are different at each public defender’s office. Some offices hire law students for research positions that start after the bar exam. People who take these positions get to argue suppression motions in serious cases. Some offices commit to applicants for a year. Others hire students for 6 months. I don’t know much about differences in compensation or available hours. I suggest contacting attorneys at each office for current information. After bar results, people can apply to attorney positions. Again, I think different offices develop their attorneys differently. I started on a general misdemeanor trial rotation.

I applied to law firms in the fall of my third year. A law firm offered me a job. I used the public interest hiring rules to postpone making a decision about the firm while I searched for a public interest job. I applied everywhere. My experience was mixed. Everyone was candid about the job market. There was no guarantee of full-time employment. In the end, I decided that I would not be able to obtain a job as a public defender. The time did not seem right. I decided to be risk-averse and take a job at a law firm.

Two weeks before the bar exam, the firm deferred me. I contacted a few attorneys at the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office to ask about volunteer opportunities. The timing worked out well. I volunteered on a habeas corpus project addressing Brady violations in sexual assault cases. After working in the office as a volunteer for a few months, I had an opportunity to come into the office as an employee. I jumped at it. The decision involved a few difficult conversations with the law firm, but I have not looked back.

I feel so lucky to do what I do for a living. I love my work. I hope this narrative is helpful. If you have any questions or want to talk, please feel free to contact me.

When I entered law school, I knew I wanted to practice criminal law. What I thought I wanted to do, however, was become a prosecutor. In college, I had interned with my state prosecutor’s office (the Department of Attorney General in Providence, RI), and I had enjoyed the subject matter and the entire concept of promoting justice. I felt that by working for the state, I was ensuring that victims were compensated and each wrongdoer received his or her proper punishment. So, while all my friends were being wined and dined by big firms in New York City (this was the summer of 2005!), I decided to return to Providence and take a Rule 9 position with the AG’s office. In Rhode Island, Rule 9 interns are allowed, under the supervision of a licensed attorney, to represent the state in misdemeanor and violation cases in court.

During that summer, I was thrown into the center of the hectic Superior Court violation calendar. I was able to experience what it was like to make arguments in front of an actual judge and an entire courtroom of people. Frankly, it was terrifying and exhilarating at the same time, and I knew by the end of the summer that I was meant to be a trial attorney. However, I also began to feel unsettled with my role in the prosecutor’s office. It may have been weeks of having to point out the worst things about defendant after defendant in order to justify the higher sentence we were seeking in each case. It may have been the way I saw defendants’ Fourth Amendment rights being violated time and time again with impunity, because illegally seized evidence is not necessarily excluded in a violation hearing. I remember one case in particular that really awakened me to the injustices perpetuated, ironically, in the name of justice. It was the case of a severely mentally ill man who had allegedly made some threats about a judge. I was given a copy of the man’s mental health evaluation to read before we presented our argument about why he should be sentenced to a prison term for this crime. Now, after years of being a public defender, I’ve read and heard hundreds and hundreds of truly terrible stories, but I will never forget the first time I read about this man and the history of abuse and mental illness he suffered throughout his life. The gist of the report indicated that this man, although certainly mentally ill, was not capable of carrying through on any threats. However, as a prosecutor I was required to point out the worst parts of the report and ask for a jail sentence, and I felt uncomfortable doing so. But I also remember the public defender in that case (now a colleague of mine) and his passionate defense of his client and plea to release the man to a treatment facility instead of prison. That day, there was a particularly tough judge sitting on the calendar, and we won. The man was sentenced to three years in prison.

When I was hired at the Public Defender’s Office right after my clerkship, I started in the Juvenile Unit. I represented defendants (or respondents, as they are known in RI Family Court) on a variety of misdemeanor and felony charges. Because of the way the unit is structured, each attorney keeps a client assigned to him or her until the child ages out of the juvenile system, no matter how many times the client come back or how serious the charges. I became very close with some clients and their families, and saw the struggles that many of my clients faced on a daily basis – neglect, abuse, mental illness, learning disabilities, poverty. Currently, I am assigned to the adult misdemeanor calendar and I sometimes handle up to thirty-five cases in one day and have five trials scheduled for one week. (Many of them settle, but there is a lot of preparation work involved.) As a result, I work between twelve and fourteen hours most days, and often come in to the office at least one day on the weekend. My calendar is particularly challenging because of the volume, but the other attorneys in my office work just as hard. When an attorney is reached for a felony trial, he or she expects around-the-clock work and total and utter absorption of the case until its conclusion. Being a public defender is definitely not for someone who wants a cushy state job.

It is a job that really can deflate you if you let it. I believe it is simultaneously one of the most frustrating and rewarding jobs you could ever have in the legal field. I start each day reminding myself that my job is to advocate and serve my clients, many of whom are particularly unable to advocate for themselves. I do my best to present them to the court as people, and not just file numbers. It’s not always easy; clients will let you down, are often ungrateful, and make promises they are not able to keep. In addition, being a public defender means you get first-hand experience with the injustices and inequities of the criminal justice system, and that can become very frustrating, sometimes overwhelmingly so. But when people ask me how I sleep at night defending criminals (and they do ask that, often), I always have the same response. It is something my boss, the Public Defender of RI, once told me, ―I have the best job in the world. What other job can you go to where you constantly have to look for the best in people, where every day you get to go to court and focus on the positive in other human beings? Usually, that gives people a different perspective on my job.

I cannot over-emphasize how important it is for anyone thinking of a career in public defense to actually do a clinical or a summer internship with an office (preferably both). In my office, fancy law school degrees or a stellar GPA do not count for nearly as much as a clear passion and dedication to indigent defense. The best way to show that you are really interested in this type of work is to volunteer with student organizations as much as you can (such as the Harvard Defenders and PLAP), participate in clinicals like the Criminal Justice Institute, and spend your summers involved with this type of work. Beyond demonstrating your commitment to this work, such experience truly is important to best determine if being a public defender is your calling.

Washington, DC
(202) 452-0620
www.nlada.org

National, nonprofit association supporting providers of civil and criminal legal services for the poor, including training, legislative technical assistance, publications and national advocacy.

Washington, D.C.
(202) 872-8600
www.nacdl.org 

Professional bar association for criminal defense lawyers, dedicated to promoting the proper and fair administration of justice.

Cambridge, MA
(617) 496-8143
https://hls.harvard.edu/clinics/in-house-clinics/criminal-justice-institute/

Curriculum-based clinical program in criminal law. Offers a combination of classroom instruction and hands-on experience for Harvard Law students, valuable service to indigent criminal defendants and juveniles, and research in a variety of criminal justice areas. The Criminal Justice Institute is the clinical placement for students enrolled in courses including Introduction to Trial Advocacy: Criminal Justice, and Criminal Justice Advocacy: Clinical Seminar. In addition to legal representation, CJI provides valuable educational experiences and services for Harvard Law School, national and local communities.

Washington, D.C.
(202) 289-2275
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/

Non-profit organization serving the media and the public with analysis and information on issues concerning capital punishment. Contact for information regarding legal defense organizations that specialize in death penalty defense work.