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Public Defender history
Public Defender company history timeline
After introducing the idea to the nation in a speech at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, she lobbied long and hard for state governments to adopt her “defender bill.” But it was in her adopted home state of California that the public defender movement finally took root.
The nation’s first public defender agency was founded in Los Angeles County in 1913.
More and more urban counties began establishing public defender agencies of their own based on what was happening in New York and L.A. In Memphis, the Shelby County Office of the Public Defender was established in 1917.
San Francisco County followed with a public defender office of its own in 1921.
And, after Alameda County, California, founded its public defender office in 1926, more and more offices began sprouting up all over the state.
And in Chicago, the Cook County Public Defender began serving clients in 1930.
A well-organized opposition movement of the local private bar used these exact arguments in 1931 to derail efforts to establish a public defender office in Cleveland, Ohio.
The system was established in 1972.
By 1973, there were 14 public defender offices in the state of Missouri.
In 1976, the Public Defender Commission was created to appoint full-time public defenders to four-year terms and to oversee the system, which provided for the assistance of counsel to indigent persons accused of crimes.
By 1977, the total number of public defender offices had reached 18.
In 1982, a house bill amended the system with the creation of the Office of State Public Defender (OSPD) as an independent department of the judicial branch of state government.
By 1987, 23 public defender offices existed and employed 233 people.
In 1989, the State Public Defender System received funding for a reorganization that created three specialized legal services divisions:
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Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of Public Defender, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about Public Defender. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at Public Defender. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by Public Defender. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of Public Defender and its employees or that of Zippia.
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