About Defender Association Defender Association has 80 attorneys representing more than 11, 000 cases per year in felony, misdemeanor, juvenile, family advocacy, and civil commitment cases, as well as a number of appeals at all levels of the state courts. The Defender is a non-profit corporation founded with Model Cities funding in 1969 and has an independent Board of Directors. Defender attorneys come from law schools throughout the United States, with 31 law schools represented. We have 14 graduates from both the University of Washington and Seattle University. Approximately one-third of our staff attorneys worked with us as interns. 54% of staff are women and 16% are minorities. Approximately 20% of staff has been with the office from 6-10 years and 34% of staff has been with the office for over ten years. The Defender is recognized regionally and nationally as a leader in public defense, and its staff members are active in the statewide Defender organization, local and state bar association work, as well as the National Lawyers Guild and other alternative bar groups. The Director received the 1987 Reginald Heber Smith Award of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the 1993 William O. Douglas Award from the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the 2000 Friend of the Legal Profession Award from the Seattle-King County Bar Association. In "Tuning Up Gideon's Trumpet" [ 1 ], New York University Law Professor Kim Taylor-Thompson recognized Defender Association and the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia as having "earned reputations within the defense community for innovative and client-centered representation." The Defender has a professional investigation and social work staff to assist the attorneys, as well as a modern word processing system and brief bank. We also have a clinical program with the Seattle University School of Law. The Defender also has a Volunteer Investigation Intern Program that complements the professional staff. Intensive training and supervision are provided. New interns are accepted quarterly. A twenty hour a week commitment for a minimum of three months is required. Please call (206) 447-3900 692 for an Information and Application packet, and application deadlines. Students interested in working in the Defender's summer legal intern program or as externs should send a letter, resume, and list of references to Theresa Allman, Legal Intern Supervisor. The summer program begins with a one-week seminar on trial advocacy and substantive criminal law and procedures. The Defender office was founded in 1969 as a Model Cities program and now is the largest criminal law firm in the state. We helped to form the state-wide Washington Defender Association, a defender backup and training organization, which has its office in our building. With Columbia Legal Services, we helped to found TeamChild, a nationally recognized program assisting youth charged with crime to resolve educational, health, and housing issues. The Defender office is located about two blocks from the City Courts, three blocks from the County Courts, and about five blocks from the jail. We have a basic library in the office; the County Courthouse has a library, as does the University of Washington Law School, which is about four miles from the office. We conduct an in-house 35-hour trial advocacy workshop for new attorneys. Our office is within a ten minute walk of the waterfront, historic Pioneer Square, and the International District, and about a fifteen minute walk from the Pike Place Market. Attorney "alumni" of Defender Association have enjoyed successful careers in a number of areas after they have left the office. A representative sample includes: Ten current Superior Court Judges, five current Municipal judges, one Court of Appeals judge, and one District Court Judge Several administrative law judges, including the former Chief Review Judge of the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals The for
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