General Info

The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia provides and promotes legal representation to indigent adults and children facing a loss of liberty in the District of Columbia. The organization is intent on providing its services in order to protect society s interest in the fair administration of justice. Beginning in 1960 as the Legal Aid Agency, the agency was expanded and the name was changed to the Public Defender Service in 1970. PDS is a federally funded, independent agency of the District of Columbia that is governed by an 11-member Board of Trustees. One asset of the Public Defender Service is its diverse group of more than 300 alumni who practice law, teach in law schools, serve as judges and work in a wide variety of jobs in the District of Columbia and across the country.