About the Office

Founded in 1917, Shelby County's Office of the Public Defender is the oldest public defender office in Tennessee and the third oldest in the United States.

The purpose of this office is to provide high quality legal representation to indigent clients in all criminal matters in the General Sessions Court, Criminal Court, and Circuit Court of Shelby County. This office also works with the city courts of Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett, and Millington.

The office follows the philosophy that actual legal representation alone cannot satisfactorily address the conditions and problems that bring many of its clients into the criminal justice system. For this reason, the office plays a pivotal role in developing programs designed to reduce and prevent recidivism.

Organization

There are currently more than 70 attorneys working at the Office of the Public Defender. Together they handle over 30,000 cases each year. Indigent clients must be appointed a public defender by a judge. The attorneys in the office are divided into the following five teams with legal professionals supporting each team:

• Capital defense 
• Criminal court 
• General sessions 
• Special litigation
• Appellate