Jobs and internships - Public Defense

We recruit for open positions throughout the year. Applications for any position at the Department of Public Defense (DPD) must be submitted through the King County employment website.

Why Work at King County DPD?

DPD is one of the top public defense offices in the country. We attract law students and experienced practitioners who have a demonstrated commitment to DPD’s mission of providing high-quality legal representation to the most vulnerable children and adults facing a loss of liberty in King County. We offer recent graduates and experienced attorneys the opportunity to build meaningful careers serving their community. Public defenders at all experience levels choose to work at DPD because of our unwavering commitment to client-centered advocacy and our shared determination to push back against an oppressive criminal legal system that disproportionately harms people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups in our community.

For years, DPD has been at the forefront of advocating for reduced caseloads. In March 2024, DPD advocated for and adopted the WSBA’s Revised Standards for Indigent Defense Services, which were informed by the 2023 ABA/RAND Public Defense Workload Study. The new standards set maximum caseloads much lower than those found in many large public defense offices nationwide. While the full implementation of these standards is still underway, we are already in the process of rolling out phase one. Attorneys at DPD are benefiting from the improved caseload conditions now, allowing them to dedicate more time and resources to each client. You can review the revised caseloads here.

In addition to our groundbreaking caseload standards, DPD offers: 

• Nationally competitive salaries and benefits
• Dedicated supervision and training of new attorneys
• Competitive compensation, include pay parity with prosecutors
• A well-funded pension
• A proudly unionized workplace
• Robust funding for expert witnesses
• Nationally recognized training opportunities

At DPD, our client-centered representation is supported by dedicated defense teams that include experienced mitigation specialists, investigators, paralegals, and legal assistants. We believe in the importance of zealous advocacy through every phase of a case. Our attorneys engage in comprehensive negotiations, regularly take cases to jury trial, draft and argue well-reasoned motions, prepare compelling mitigation for sentencing, and identify issues for appeal. In short, we believe that even in defeat, there is always an opportunity to continue fighting for our clients.

Practice areas

We provide high-quality legal representation to indigent clients in a variety of areas, including: 

• Adult Felonies and Misdemeanors
• Youth Felonies and Misdemeanors
• Family Defense (dependencies, terminations, guardianships)
• Involuntary Civil Commitments
• Therapeutic Courts (drug court, veteran’s court, mental health court)
• Special Commitments
• Contempt of Court 

Our commitment to systemic advocacy

DPD is committed to dismantling systems that harm our clients. For example, at the state level, DPD played a leading role in advocating for legislative changes that reformed Washington’s youth criminal legal system. In 2021, DPD played a key role in advocating for legislation that ensures every youth in police custody has the right to legal counsel during interrogation. This law safeguards the rights of youth across Washington State and requires that police officers connect a youth to an attorney before the police officer can ask a youth to waive their constitutional rights.  

In 2023, DPD worked to pass a law significantly restricting when and for how long youth are required to register as a sex offender if convicted of an offense in juvenile court. This law change had far-reaching impacts throughout the State and led to more than 2,600 people no longer having to register due to their juvenile adjudication. The reform also had key impacts on the King County Prosecutor’s Office filing practices. That same year, DPD also worked to pass a bill that substantially limited when a youth’s juvenile adjudications would be automatically used in adult court to increase their standard range sentence.  

In 2021, DPD helped push through landmark legislation (E2SHB 1227, also known as the Keeping Families Together Act) that overhauled the standards for removing children from their families, leading to greater protections for families of color and keeping more children with their extended families or in guardianships rather than terminating parental rights.

For more information about the exciting work happening at DPD, please review our latest annual report.

Our structure

Four divisions provide client representation at DPD. This ensures the department can keep as many cases in-house as possible. Each division is overseen by a managing attorney and employs attorneys, investigators, mitigation specialists, paralegals, and legal assistants. When feasible, those professionals work in teams, providing vertical representation to clients. The four divisions, reflecting their history as nonprofits before becoming a part of the county in 2013, are called:

• Associated Counsel for the Accused Division (ACAD)
• Northwest Defenders Division (NDD)
• Society of Counsel Representing Accused Persons Division (SCRAPD)
• The Defender Association Division (TDAD)

The Director's Office

The Director’s Office provides strategic and policy direction for the department including its training program, finance unit, human resources, and other administrative support. Staff in the Director’s Office interview clients to determine eligibility, assign cases to the divisions, and manage case assignments to ensure attorneys are not exceeding their caseload limits.