Milwaukee, WI­ (July 31, 2008) -- John Wesley Hall, a Little Rock, Ark., criminal defense attorney, will be sworn in as 50th President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) August 2 at the Association’s Annual Meeting in Milwaukee. Hall previously served as NACDL's Secretary, Treasurer, Second and First Vice President and President-Elect, as well as a member of the organization’s Board of Directors from 1989-1995 and 1997-2003.

The meeting coincides with the association’s 50th Anniversary. NACDL was founded in Chicago in 1958 by a small group of defense lawyers who specialized in criminal cases and aspired to excellence and professionalism in criminal practice.

A member of the NACDL since 1983 and a life member since 1990, Hall received the organization’s prestigious Robert C. Heeney Award in 2002 for service to the criminal defense bar. In addition, he was chair of the NACDL Ethics Advisory Committee from 1990-2005.

As the author of the two-volume treatise Search and Seizure (Lexis Law Publishing), Hall is the only published Fourth Amendment scholar and author who actively handles criminal cases. Hall writes on search and seizure for Lexis Law Publishing and daily at www.fourthamendment.com and on trial practice and criminal defense ethics for Thomson-West law publishing company. He is also the author of Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice (Thomson West), Trial Handbook for Arkansas Lawyers (Thomson West) and numerous journal articles and monographs. His much-reprinted article Defensive Defense Lawyering or Defending the Criminal Defense Lawyer From the Client, 11 U. Ark Little Rock L.J. 329 won the law school’s “Best Article” award for 1989. He is a frequent contributor to NACDL’s monthly magazine, The Champion.

Hall has tried approximately 250 jury trials, handled over 200 appeals, argued twice in the U.S. Supreme Court, and defended a military officer accused of war crimes in an international tribunal in Sierra Leone. He is a frequent speaker and expert witness on criminal defense ethics.

A native of Watertown, N.Y., he received his Bachelor’s in English from Hendrix College, in Conway, Ark., and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Leflar Law Center in 1973. He also attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law.

John Wesley Hall is a past president of the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, an NACDL affiliate. Since 1979, Hall has worked in private practice at his own firm, the Law Offices of John Wesley Hall, Jr., P.A. He is a member of the bars of Arkansas, Nevada, New York, Tennessee, the District of Columbia, and the International Criminal Court where he also is the only American lawyer elected by the list of counsel to the ICC’s Disciplinary Appeals Tribunal.

Contacts

NACDL Communications Department

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.