Welcome to Northwest Defenders Association

"[The assistance of counsel] is one of the safeguards of the Sixth Amendment deemed necessary to insure fundamental human rights of life and liberty...The Sixth Amendment stands as a constant admonition that if the constitutional safeguards it provides be lost, justice will not 'still be done.'"

Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 462 (1938) as quoted in Gideon v. Wainwright

Northwest Defenders Association is a nonprofit Seattle, Washington public defense law firm operating with an independent board of directors. The agency's twenty-five attorneys defend clients against adult and juvenile criminal charges in King County Superior Court and King County District Court. Northwest Defenders Association attorneys also defend clients responding to Contempt of Court petitions and represent children and parents in Dependency proceedings filed in King County Superior Court.

Periodic rotations through Northwest Defenders Association four units: Felony, Juvenile, Misdemeanor and Contempt of Court allow concentration in different areas of the law as well as breadth of legal knowledge. A well-trained staff, including Social Workers, Investigators and Paralegals support the attorneys in each unit.

Northwest Defenders Association is committed to the belief that each client is entitled to a skilled and vigorous defense.